Bebo And Apple Announce Partnership For iTunes Downloads

In a piece published yesterday here on Profy, we mentioned Apple?s curious shift toward acceptance of Web app development, if only to appease the wolves in the third-party universe eager to make themselves at home on the iPhone platform. In short, Mr Jobs told the world of Web 2.0 to get coding, because they now have a chance to get their feet in what could be a very big door before even so much as a morsel of an iPhone SDK gets passed on to those in the ADC.

Well, yesterday Apple shot a very noticeable wink at Web 2.0 once again ? this time to announce its decision to embed its iTunes music download service into one of the most popular social networks listed on the Net today: Bebo. And Bebo members won?t have to wait weeks to see what the partnership?s all about. They get to make purchases today. Wednesday. Yep, now.

One caveat, though. It seems only Bebo users located in the UK and what?s reported as the whole of Ireland can take advantage of this deal at present. Yes, it?s only logical to presume more EU participants will join in if demand proves to be great enough, but the selective start for the project is bound to disappoint many east of the Atlantic. If Bebo and iTunes were to expand the reach of the program to embrace the whole of the social network, it would mean taking the project to 33 million users (and counting) worldwide.

The Bebo-iTunes arrangement is fairly simple. As stated in a story published in the Financial Times, some 8+ million Bebo users ?in the UK and Ireland will be able to buy directly from the profile of any musician who has a Bebo profile and whose music is available on iTunes.? Straightforward. Also pretty momentous, wouldn?t you say?

Many social networking sites are establishing themselves deeper and deeper into the music market, whether it?s to promote bands or sell music ? or both. MySpace has made inroads in these areas. MOG is devoted exclusively to artists and their fans. And Facebook will likely introduce a venue for music discovery (possibly purchases as well) soon, though when exactly is still very much in question. But none are showing great success when it comes to sales of downloads. The fact that Bebo has tied itself to the most popular legal download service on the Internet may indeed give it the weight it needs to contend strongly against its larger (in the case of MySpace, much larger) competitors. That is if the Bebo-iTunes deal is exclusive.

According to Bebo, the site has already registered some 500,000 musicians/bands both undiscovered and established. Also, it claims to sign up roughly 4,000 every day. Granted that these numbers are accurate, the network is very likely to make its partnership with iTunes a good one. Even great.

If Bebo were to have gone the digital download route alone, and deal only directly with the music industry, we would tell you it?s chance of fighting for and gaining market share with the likes of MySpace would be low. But with iTunes now backing the network, it?s now extremely likely that Bebo will show sizable gains while the rest of the industry works against the tide. How quickly the table has turned.