There are certainly a lot of ways to monetize MySpace beyond ad revenue, and using it as a music distribution channel is one of the easiest. (maybe News Corp. should buy Amie Street, and integrate it into myspace?)
But shouldn't they start by doing a better job capitalizing on the advertising potential? Theoretically, MySpace should know a massive amount of information about each user (everything they list on their profile page), including location, age, interests, media consumption patterns, etc. They could be selling very highly-targeted ads based on all of those parameters. Wouldn't it be more lucrative NOT to sell a graphical ad on the homepage at a daily rate of $250,000 (as the post reports), but instead to make the homepage ad dynamically tailored to each user?
But shouldn't they start by doing a better job capitalizing on the advertising potential? Theoretically, MySpace should know a massive amount of information about each user (everything they list on their profile page), including location, age, interests, media consumption patterns, etc. They could be selling very highly-targeted ads based on all of those parameters. Wouldn't it be more lucrative NOT to sell a graphical ad on the homepage at a daily rate of $250,000 (as the post reports), but instead to make the homepage ad dynamically tailored to each user?