MySpace Music Hits Australia, NZ; iTunes For Downloads

MySpace

MySpace Music has touched down in Australia and New Zealand, the first territories to get the music and video streaming service outside the US, one year after its launch. But there’s still no word on when the service is coming to the more critical UK and mainland Europe markets, despite MySpace Music president Courtney Holt promising a UK launch in Q209.

The ad-funded platform, where users can listen to and buy tracks, went live in both Australia and New Zealand on Thursday with all the playlist-building and track-sharing features available to US users.

In Australia, as Bandt.com reports, the service launches with Toyota and KFC on board as sponsors; on the Kiwi service, Coca-Cola and KFC are both running ad campaigns. In total, MySpace Music has grown from 4.2 million users shortly after its launch to 20 million in September (according to Nielsen stats).

But whereas the US version partnered with Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) for its click-to-buy download service, the Antipodean versions have iTunes as the main download provider. Aussie prime minister Kevin Rudd has contributed his own personal playlist: he’s a Sinatra man. More from Voxy.co.nz.

Holt told the MidemNet conference in January that internationalising the service was a priority — he also said a UK version would be rolled in Q209, as soon as deals with collecting societies can be hammered out, but that’s easier said than done, as YouTube UK would tell you.

The service is a JV between MySpace parent News Corp (NYSE: NWS) and the four majors, EMI, Sony (NYSE: SNE), Universal and Warner and includes tracks from indie distributors including The Orchard.

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