MySpace launches music streaming service

MySpace has launched its popular music streaming service in Australia and New Zealand, enabling users to stream thousands of songs from the four major labels and independent groups.

The free MySpace Music service, launched yesterday, includes shareable playlists, artist activity feeds and other social functionality, as on the US site.

It covers music from the catalogues of EMI Music, Sony Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, along with independent groups The Orchard and IODA.

But downloads are only available through the Apple iTunes store, MySpace Music’s Australian partner.

The MySpace launch places it in good position to grab a large share of Australia’s fast-growing online music retail market.

Australia is the first country outside of the US to get the service, which is funded with advertisements. MySpace has signed Toyota and KFC as launch partners.

The launch comes in the middle of a global restructuring designed to make MySpace more competitive against rivals such as Facebook, which had which million Australian users in August, according to Nielsen Online data.

In the US, MySpace Music has 18.95 million users and has seen a number of exclusive music releases.

The move is the latest in a series of restructuring steps by the social networking group which it hopes will boost revenue, cutting costs and increase audience share.

In July, the company replaced former managing director Anthony Lukom with previous general manager for Spain and Portugal, Christopher Moser.

A month earlier, the social networking site announced it was cutting two-thirds of its international staff from a total of 450 to 150.

Australia will also be able to use MySpace Music to play the favorite songs of the country’s leading politicians, after the Sydney Morning Herald revealed Kevin Rudd, Malcolm Turnbull, Joe Hockey and Julie Bishops’ favorite songs.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudds’ picks included Frank Sinatra’s The Way You Look Tonight, John Denver’s Fire and Rain and Handel’s Messiah, as well as tunes by Paul Kelly, Midnight Oil and Powderfinger.

Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull preferred Eagle Rock’s Daddy Cool, Janis Joplin’s Me and Bobbie McGee and tunes by Blondie and The Police.

Julie Bishop selected Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley, Never Tear Us Apart by INXS, while Joe Hockey named 19 songs by artists including Nickelback, the Beach Boys and Delta Goodrem.