Audio Wars

MySpace announced it has acquired music sharing service iLike, which allows users to share songs and playlists over social networks and via a Last.fm-like iTunes plugin. This consolidates MySpace's emphasis on music and bands in their network but interestingly it's also a move to block Facebook invading this territory.

According to the article above, iLike has a music sharing application on Facebook that boasts 10 million users. This chunk of the userbase theoretically will lose access to the application and need a replacement. Seeing as how these users potentially have accounts they've made on iLike that can be ported over to whatever iLike-based application that MySpace creates there's a chance they may take an interest in the network again.

It's a very smart move by MySpace. The few people I know who still prefer the network over Facebook primarily cite its music support. Based on what we've seen so far FB may be content to let their rival keep that userbase but this is clearly a move they need to address as it affects their own service.