Back in early 2005, before the world of people over 25 years old woke up to the huge phenomenon that MySpace would be, the company talked a lot about content distribution.

But it wasn't just content as in promotional videos for movies and TV shows, and an MP3 or two uploaded by individual bands. It meant full-blown content, as in albums for sale by bands that had drawn a substantial following among the growing pool of MySpace users.

MySpace, in other words, dreamed of becoming a music label.

MySpace hit a crossroads that summer when News Corp. offered to buy it for $580 million. It could use its relationships with up-and-coming bands as leverage to become an overnight indie label, or it could continue to grow as a social-networking site.

Partly because its owner at the time, Intermix Media, had just settled with then New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office over a high-profile spyware investigation, MySpace chose to go with News Corp.

In so doing, MySpace shelved its dreams of promoting and selling music. In a way, it was too bad -- click-throughs on social sites like MySpace are so low that it limits ad revenue, which could have been beefed up by music sales.