What MySpace Could Learn From Google And How It Could Change The Music Business

(Hypebot) — We get some pretty informed comments on Hypebot, but I admit that I was surprised when one of the best comments to cross screen recently was about a multi-part series critical of MySpace that I wrote almost a year ago.

Surprisingly for a web 2.0 article, much of what was written still rings true. (You'll find links to the series here.) But in all that I wrote, I missed a key point that Hypebot reader Chris made when he commented:

"Okay lets review the absolute IDIOCY of the MySpace marketing approach… the thing that makes MySpace unique is that it collects ultra specific demographic info about each of its users to tailor every users page like a psychological profile.

And how do the geniuses at MySpace use that profile? They only run big-budget national advertising campaigns on the pages. WTF? Why did you bother collecting all that regional specific info if the only people who can afford to advertise are big generic corporations who don’t give a crap about local demographics?

Google already learned this lesson with AdWords. If you have the ability to….

…target the users specific region and lifestyle, use that to your advantage! Run ads about the brand new donut shop down the street who only has 100 bucks to spend for advertising but want to run that ad on all the users who put “Law Enforcement” as their profession in the surrounding 5 zip codes. That’s the way you make MySpace a powerful advertising engine.

The ability to place local targeted ads at any budget you can afford is what took Google's profits from 800M a year to 10.3B a year. AdWords is a brilliant example of what MySpace could and should be. They need only make advertising available to the masses."

Universal is already using Google's targeted ad platform as part of its DRM free experiment. But can you imagine the power of being able to place your artist's new release on the page of every MySpace user who considers the act a favorite?