Should iTunes and MySpace be sweating?

We heard of the news last month that Microsoft had beaten of rival internet giant Google in its bid to buy a share in Facebook and we also heard recently that Facebook is going to launch its version of Myspace music, Facebook Music.

With the ever increasing popularity of facebook as a social networking site, it seem only natural that artists want a page on facebook to showcase there music and spam us all with there latest releses. Artists already use the iLike application on there facebook hompages to do so but the new version of facebook is supposedly going to make it much more user friendly for everyone. So we're more than sure that the Myspace executives are getting a little hot under the collar. Were positive Myspace wont fade into nothingness straight away but it seems with the ever increasing popularity of facebook and the ability to throw sheep at each other with the "Superpoke" application that Facebook music may take Myspace's crown as "(instert artists name here)'s fan club website", as that is basically what myspace is, one giant fan club!

So onto the next point why was Microsoft so desperate to buy that share? the BBC tells us here how much was paid, and its alot!

There is speculation in technology circles that Facebook launching the music pages and the looming launch of the Microsoft Zune mp3 player in europe is one reason the bidding war was so bitter. Is the most popular download store on the web about to be upset by the social networking phenomonon? Push Music believes it could be about to happen. If the guys at facebook are worth there salt, they would have realised what a goldmine they may be sitting on. By offering legal downloads over Facebook music and allowing only the Zune to play them, just as iTunes only allows the iPod to play its downloads.

The next few months could prove to be an interesting time for the music industry, so could we see a MySpace and Apple colaboration any time soon? who knows but it certainly would make sense for Apple to tap into the established artists pages on MySpace, and we think this may be a viable solution if Apple wants to stay ahead of the game.