With the rise of Facebook, does anybody want or need Myspace?
Everyone you know has Facebook and it does what you need it to (even if its use of your private data is questionable). Well on Tuesday, fronted by Justin Timberlake, Myspace has threatened to step out from the shadows of sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Whilst also stepping into the firing line of other influential sites such as Spotify and iTunes.
The teaser video for the site features the song “Heartbeat” by JJAMZ, which features the rather poignant opening lyric “Who am I to say I want you back? When you were never mine to give away”. This lyric is very relevant as it comes after the once-powerful site, which was pulling in over 76 million U.S. visitors in October of 2008, fell off everyone’s radars. Originally bought for $580 million by News Corp in 2005, Mr Timberlake and a group of investors purchased Myspace for $35 million last year. Now with the influence of Timberlake (who some would consider a brand in his own right), along with a shiny new design and a collection of web services Myspace is looking to re-launch.
The teaser boasts a very polished and slick interface, that resembles the interface of Pinterest. With photos, posts and other media aspects laid out on the page like a pinboard. It certainly looks like a beautiful example of web design. Users can also create pages that could contain pictures from a recent event, combined with a playlist of music from the event.
It looks like Myspace isn’t going head to head with social networking sites then. Instead, it’s trying to tap into the music streaming side of social media. While not as daunting as challenging Facebook, streaming sites like Spotify are well established. So how will Myspace create a unique selling point?
They may look to do so by getting artists on board first. From the artists’ side of the site, it identifies who are your ‘top fans’. This allows you to then post media specifically to those people, allowing for a more intimate relationship with fans. It would seem like the site will become an excellent jumping point for artists to get their music/media out there. So if the site can pull in big artists, maybe fans will follow onto the site and it can grow that way.
So Myspace may not be competing directly with social networking sites or music streaming sites. Instead trying to carve out their own niche using some original ideas combined with some popular features of other sites. The video shows no indication of their plans over other devices such as phones or tablets, although this must be a focal point for their site if they want to get to the top.
Of course, this is all based on a 3-minute long video for a site with no definite release date. All my musings could be shot down with what should be an imminent press release from Myspace. And going back to the original question, does anybody want or need Myspace? At this stage it is hard to say. Although, the JJAMZ song in the video suggestively says: “Maybe I’m ashamed to want you back. Maybe I’m afraid, you’ll never stay.”
The new Myspace from Myspace on Vimeo.
Posted by: Joss Earl
Oct 01, 2012