The Return of MySpace

When MySpace’s return was hailed last year it raised quite a few eyebrows. Once the ruling force in search MySpace has fallen on hard times and had remained for the most of it a simple PR venue for bands and music industry professionals. Yet concentrated effort has been made by the MySpace team, supported by Justin Timberlake who launched an exclusive song available for streaming and download to anybody who signs up.

The return of MySpace is a curious business. A year ago there were very few people who still gave the former giant any chance to make it back into the limelight. Then Justin Timberlake promised to ‘bring sexy back’ to MySpace and the company started seeking investment funding to re-launch itself with a whole new approach and a new user base. Indeed, users of old MySpace are still segregated from new MySpace and the company’s new business model seems to still not cater to any advertising firm or search engine optimization agency, who are amongst the groups who really take advantage of opportunities in the social media sphere. The new MySpace will be music-focused just like the old one ended up being in the long run. This is most evidenced by its Discover/Connect/Share motto that refers first and foremost to artists and by the ever-present integrated music player. The main competitors for the social network will be Spotify and Pandora, apparently so it is likely that MySpace will further spin itself into a musical entity.

But how will it manage to find its niche? The first incarnation of MySpace was from 2004 to 2008 when it virtually led the market in terms of Social Networking before being overtaken by Facebook. MySpace tried to turn itself into a music and media site at that point as well but its results were mixed and, although the site became the place to be for bands big and small trying to promote their music the site attendance collapsed at staggering rates and the company was forced to lay off a large part of the staff that hadn’t moved on already. Today its business model seems no sounder than back in 2009. While MySpace was busy reinventing itself, Facebook has integrated much of the fan outreach that MySpace once had as a clear advantage and although the lumbering giant that is Facebook can’t do everything perfectly it has a firm grasp of its revenue sources and trying to expand them. Facebook isn’t all about the music yet but it will likely stay as one of the principal promotion avenues whereas the New Myspace will become a secondary source for advanced users.

Whether or not the New MySpace will be a hit remains to be seen. So far its chances look decent but it all depends on the site finding mainstream acceptance, something quite difficult in a saturated social media market.