How much changes in just a few short years. It was just announced that Courtney Holt is leaving his current position as president of MySpace Music. You might remember that this was preceded by a layoff of MySpace staff totaling around 50% last month. Or how about that big re-design MySpace promised? Many have found it to be even more confusing than the original layout of the site.
On the other side of the house, Edgar Bronfman and Warner Music Group are racing to beat out EMI to be the first item on the shelf for potential buyers. It wasn’t too long ago that these two titans were heralding a new partnership that would topple and beat out another company known as Facebook, as well as demonstrate to us all how to succeed with 360 deals.
Take a look at this meeting/interview of Former MySpace CEO Chris Dewolfe and current WMG CEO Edgar Bronfman from the 2008 Web 2.0 conference, announcing their new venture. It’s hard not to wince now when Dewolfe declares the MySpace dominance of Facebook or the joint confidence they had in yielding the biggest music community in the world. It’s a stark reminder of the speed at which the music industry is changing and being re-invented as tech companies grapple with how to survive in this new era.