MySpace (NWS-A) is going deeper with its music artist community, as its teaming up with Zazzle.com Inc., to empower musicians with MySpace profiles to build and develop an online store featuring posters, T-shirts and a number of other types of merchandise.
Zazzle will offer a widget which allows fans to go to an online store developed by a music artist or band, which includes a group of images and artwork, along with products they can put the artwork on. In other words, fans will be able to customize their orders.
Talking about what a typical customer could do, Zazzle Chief Strategy Officer James Heckman said: "A girl who wants a fitted, cropped tank shirt, but only likes one band member. She can isolate his face, put it on the exact shirt she wants, and it will be on its way to her the next morning."
Part of the deal with Musicians include a minimum price of the merchandise set by Zazzle, which then a seller can add their own markup to the item. That seems good, in that many musicians aren't trained in pricing in any way.
With most bands having any significant following at all, usually having contracts in place with merchandisers, Zazzle is seeking sublicensing deals for online sales.
There's a lot of competition in this space, but I don't see why this shouldn't be a good deal for all those around, leveraging the popular social networking sites huge audience and generating revenue for everyone involved. It's a win/win for everbody.
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