There is nothing wrong with having the ambition to become a the next great media company.  This is especially the case if your online presence includes video, music and any other number of content features.  So it was not a huge surprise (more of an industry relief?) when MySpace today announced that it had formed partnerships with 3 major record labels: Universal, Sony BMG and Warner Music.

The terms of the deals are, of course, being kept tightly under wraps, but revenue sharing will come from DRM-free music downloads, an ad supported streaming music player, sales of concert tickets and merchandise, as well as mobile features such as ringtones.  As MySpace took pains to point out, they have one of the largest online communities interested in music with 30 million unique users per month for its various music sites, so that working with the labels makes complete sense.

And they are right.  Working with the labels is a natural evolution.  Already MySpace has artist profile pages from both independents and major acts.  Extending those relationships, and using their advertising technologies to help monetize this content, does make complete sense.

But in another way the partnership lacks a lot.  With this announcement MySpace has done a great job of doing exactly what the labels want them to do - to the music industry nothing is ever free, there must be a way of making money and MySpace is allowing them to do this.  So, MySpace has evolved its business to devolve its platform for artist discovery - potentially.

 The announcement is likely to benefit the independent artists more than those with the major labels, as long as independents can manage to maintain a presence and relevance on the site.  Now independent artists can benefit from not only discoverability through MySpace but greater potential profitability as well.  For the labels the MySpace deal offers them little more than another line item on their annual income statements.

For the music and the media and entertainment industry, the partnership keeps the same damn thing rolling.  This is far from unique, although offering DRM-free content is a step in the right direction.  Innovation for these industries occurs in ways only Radiohead with its “pay what you wish” offer allowed (although it was largely unsuccessful) or Beck did with the release of mashup content used in his studio album Guero.  MySpace along with its music partners could (and probably should) be fostering this sort of innovation.

For now, the storefront might of changed from Tower Records to MySpace for music, but everyone’s still selling the same bill of goods.