The Internet is abuzz due to MySpace Music's nearing launch. It was announced yesterday that four sponsors -- McDonald's, Sony Pictures, Toyota and State Farm -- will be on board as advertisers for the new music site. Even though MySpace Music is supposed to launch this week, EMI has not yet announced its participation and word is that publishers and many indies are not yet on officially board (as mentioned in an article today at the New York Post).

BusinessWeek.com put up a MySpace Music article on Friday. Fortune has an article today that focuses on Amazon.com's role in MySpace Music.

TechCrunch said yesterday that MySpace Music has been talking with private equity firms about raising $100 million on a $2 billion valuation. GigaOm has a post titled "Why MySpace Music Is Likely to Fail." I can't agree with its arguments (except the one that labels should allow many sites to flourish rather than put many eggs into few baskets). What MySpace Music is seeking to do is to become a broad music-based portal, one that could fit well with today's greater emphasis on items such as T-shirts and concert tickets. It won't be about just ad-supported streams or just MP3 sales.

Michael Nash, Warner Music Group's head of digital, told BusinessWeek, "We will be able to return to overall growth." That won't come just from MySpace Music, though. Many factors are needed in order for recorded music revenues to bottom out in the next three or so years. And, as has been the case over the last ten years, there are many unknown factors that could push its trajectory in one direction or another.

Is all this attention and expectation too much? Almost, but it's hard to downplay its significance. At this point, MySpace Music is so important because it represents a new era in cooperation between content owners and an Internet company. It represents a new era of openness -- free streams and DRM-free downloads. It represents the acknowledgment that a la carte downloads alone cannot return labels to revenue growth.