14 DAY TRIAL // Not long ago, MySpace got bought for $35 million. Fire sale price, to be sure, but the site is bleeding users worse than it has had in recent years and its prospects are bleak to say the least.
But the company that bought it has some big plans for it and has now revealed the focus of the new MySpace, music. The site will become a hub for musicians to showcase their latest creation and for fans to follow what their favorite bands are up to.
It makes sense too, MySpace's only remaining strength and the only thing that kept it alive this long has been music.
Even as everyone has moved to Facebook or now to Google+, artists still use MySpace to share their latest tracks and provide updates, partly because Facebook pages, even with the latest features, still aren't on par with some of the things MySpace offers.
Al Dejewski, MySpace's new senior VP-global marketing, talking to AdAge, says that MySpace's core strength is music and that's what it needs to focus on.
The site is heading towards a 'diet' and which will see it become a hub for music and nothing else, it's competitors being the likes of iTunes, Spotify and Vevo.
MySpace will undergo, yet another, relaunch later this year, to drive this message home, the site is about music and nothing else. Perhaps the fact that Justin Timberlake had something to do with the new direction.
That said, the move sounds more like what Justin Timberlake's character in The Social Network, Sean Parker, would do. His involvement with Napster was only a first step in his quest to revolutionize the music business.
Recently, he was aiming to buy Warner Music, with some financial backing, which he didn't manage to do it. But he is involved with Spotify, which recently launched in the US.