MySpace acquired iLike for a reported $20 million dollars, and even though the terms of the acquisition deal have not been disclosed, it’s clear that MySpace is returning to its core competency: music.  Whether the acquisition of iLike was a preemptive strike against Facebook’s purported plans to launch its own music service or if the purchase was merely an in-move to the most readily used social networking application platform will be easier to determine as time goes on, but what about the larger picture?  What does MySpace’s acquisition of iLike mean for music?

It means that MySpace has the ability to move into a new form of digital music sales.  iLike recently added the ability to purchase songs through its site, so having another outlet for selling music may be an appealing factor for MySpace.  If you look at how iLike operates, it’s most widely used by artists as a promotional launch pad for new music content.  Combine this with the social aspects of MySpace, and we may be onto something.

MySpace has been moving towards a more socially integrated approach to music for some time, looking to provide a direct marketplace for artists to push their music to fans.  While this approach is still somewhat biased towards major music labels, the ongoing evolution of digital music will eventually open up even the most corporate of music platforms out there (fingers crossed).

iLike has some potential to further this along for MySpace.  When you look at the social aspects of MySpace, it’s clear that the social network is looking to leverage its own platform for the purpose of internally promoting music within users’ direct network (social graph, if you will).  This has a great deal of potential for both market research on the part of music labels, and the promotion of an artist amongst friends.

It’s part of a socially driven model we’re seeing take place even among other music platforms, including Amie St.  Sony’s RED label was the first to turn to a fan-driven model with Amie St., giving more power to consumers for things like a song or album price.  But for now, MySpace’s biggest dive into a socially-driven model with iLike’s acquisition is its existing presence on competing network Facebook.

The cross-network approach here isn’t limited to web-based social sites.  The growing presence of iLike on Apple’s iPhone platform means this acquisition was also about a cross-device approach.  A recent announcement by iLike revealed an iPhone app that would build recommendations on its site around music in your iTunes .  In all, we’ve got a plan for MySpace to infiltrate the social scene on a deeply integrated level.  The result is a more highly personalized recommendation experience spread across a minimum of three platforms at any given time.  It’s music, mad more accessible.