MySpace Music: Launch Delayed, CEO, iTunes, Amazon, Ads & Much More

• 
  The launch of MySpace Music has been delayed a few days but should be this week.
• They are getting closer to a new CEO with the LA Times reporting two top candidates:
• Andy Schuon – former head of programming at MTV and Infinity Broadcasting and longtime Universal Music executive
• Owen Van Natta – the chief revenue officer at Facebook
• As we reported more than a week ago Amazon is confirmed as the download provider guaranteeing deep catalog at launch – if all the tech works properly
• In a major challenge to the closed iTunes/iPod ecosystem, Amazon has created a custom application that to routes downloads directly into iTunes or the Windows Media player
• Users will be able to create, post and share as supported custom playlists of tracks from Universal, Sony BMG and WMG. Talks are ongoing with EMI and most indies are just now being offered contracts to participate in streaming.
• Sony Pictures, Toyota, McDonald’s and State Farm Insurance have all signed on as major advertisers
• In a new Fortune interview co-founder Chris deWolfe predicts boldly:

 "Think about MTV. Not necessarily what they are right now, but how they created pop culture in the late ’80s, early ’90s. I think that’s what MySpace Music will do now."

COMMENTARY: If the tech works smoothly – and integration into tens of thousands of custom designed sites is no easy task – then MySpace’s social music experience has at least the potential to add significantly to music sales, as well as, greatly strengthen Amazon’s claim as "the" iTunes alternative.
It’s also clear that MySpace is vastly improving its tools that lead to music discovery. But it remains to be seen if young fans will ever view MySpace as a place to actually pay for music – if they ever learn to pay music at all.