Remember MySpace? The social media platform we all had a brief fling with then abandoned for the sleeker, smarter Facebook? Well, it’s been given a facelift and is back to compete with the likes of Spotify, Pandora and Rdio.
The promo video for MySpace shows a sleek, photo-based design reminiscent of Pinterest and Facebook Timeline. Users can create playlists together with photos for a specific event, discover new artists and music festivals, and share their playlists with friends.
MySpace has long time associated itself with music in an attempt to differentiate itself with Facebook. In direct competition with Spotify, MySpace advertises that its music will be free and unlimited.
Once upon a time, MySpace was the dominant social media, with its users peaking at 73.6 million in October 2008. Thanks in part to Facebook’s astronomical success over the past four years, MySpace was completely eclipsed by other social medias and its users shrunk to 35 million. (In comparison, Facebook is understood to have 600 million users.) Rupert Murdoch himself stated on Twitter that they ‘screwed up in every possible way’.
Specific Media, along with Justin Timberlake, bought the company for $35 million (£22 million), a far cry from the $580 million paid by Murdoch in 2005. They have released in a statement that they will be building the social media ‘from scratch.’ Clearly, even MySpace knows when to cut its losses.
Justin Timberlake said, ‘We recognize that [buying MySpace] is no sure thing and not a slam dunk deal. It will be a considerable task [to grow the business and turn the brand around] but we are quietly confident that we can do so.’
This new design is certainly a step in the right direction. At the end of the promo video, you can leave your email to receive an invitation to the new site, whenever it goes live. No word on that date as of yet.
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