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Even though the music player takes much longer to load than did the previous version (thus ruining the one bright spot of any band's page) and the entire product is still half-baked and clumsy, at least MySpace Music is trying. The main page has a fresh rotation of highlighted artists, videos and playlists -- a stale front page would be a problem. The Transmissions page is a nice way to offer music and video or interviews and live performances. And I really liked the McDonald's-sponsored free MP3 today. After watching a brief ad, the MP3 can be saved or opened without clicking to another screen.

Out-of-the-mainstream artists are benefiting from the main page. Deerhoof got main page placement for the exclusive on the band's upcoming album. Deerhoof's page had 10,900 streams through 10pm CT one day last week. That was 1.5% of the band's total MySpace streams to date. Not bad. Jolie Holland got similar results from her main page placement: 11,732 streams. That's 2.1% of her total streams to date in one day.

Main page placement is no guarantee. It's nice to see a variety of artists, but not all visitors are taking advantage of the music discovery offered to them. Impressions will vary according to popularity. A recognized and more mainstream artist will get even more out of the main page. Christina Milan, for example, has over 44,000 streams today. Indie rappers Yo! Majesty has only 2,000 streams today.

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