MySpace Music CEO Debuting Tomorrow?
by Peter Kafka
Posted on November 5, 2008 at 12:44 PM PT
MySpace’s very, very long search for someone to run the social network’s new music site is just about over: A person familiar with the situation says the company has just about wrapped up negotiations with Courtney Holt, who heads up digital music at Viacom’s (VIA) MTV.
As of this morning the deal, first reported by CNET last week, still wasn’t done. But at this point there doesn’t seem to be anything left beyond “i”-dotting and “t”-crossing. I’m told that Holt may be showing up at the MySpace Music party in San Francisco tomorrow (along with Lionel Richie and BoomTown’s Kara Swisher).
News Corp.’s (NWS) social network has been casting about for someone to run the site, which is a JV of sorts with MySpace and the big music labels, for most of this year. What took so long? The conventional wisdom is that the job doesn’t appeal to many would-be executives because it’s not really a CEO job–it’s a job running a unit of MySpace.
But even if you buy that, this would still seem like a step up for Holt: MTV still–amazingly–doesn’t do much with digital music. And MySpace was a major player even before it launched the new site.
