MySpace: From Social Networking to Social Entertainment

Posted by Lauren Turner

‘A place for friends.’

That has been MySpace’s catch phrase ever since the social networking site was created in 2003.  For five years, MySpace was the highest viewed social media site, even passing up Google.  Then, late in 2008, Mark Zuckerberg took control when he created Facebook and completely pushed MySpace onto the back burner of the social networking world.  But, do not fret, because MySpace is back, and better than ever.

Photo by Sarah Stierch. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.

According to Business Week, when News Corp. purchased MySpace in 2005, it cost them a whopping $580 million dollars.  And when the new owners at Specific Media took control last June, it only cost $35 million.  That means that in six years, MySpace’s worth decreased by $23 million.

>>>Check out pictures of the new MySpace homepage looks like.  Plus, watch videos that show what else can be expected, in this article from Mashable.  

Not only has MySpace fallen behind in numbers, the programming and technical aspects are now behind by six years.  The new MySpace Entertainment president, Roger Mincheff addressed this in an article for The Los Angeles Times.  Mincheff was quoted saying, “The old MySpace was a great platform to stand on and say, ‘discover me.’  The new MySpace is all of that — plus the tools, resources and effort to help identify and elevate you as a creator.”  Along with newly formatted software, new owner, Justin Timberlake, will also influence the new MySpace.  In an article for The Wrap, Mincheff persistently clarified that Timberlake isn’t the new face of MySpace — but that he is ‘the creative driving force’ for many of the changes with the network.

With MySpace’s major: from social networking to posting, sharing, and listening music.  Between creating a new music player that not only can be shared with friends, but also plays unsigned artists, and gaining around 1 million new users in just one month, it seems MySpace is on a path toward success.

Giving up the fight against Facebook was a smart decision for the new owners of MySpace, but I wonder if their history as a social networking site will affect the number of users that create an account over the next year.  Can you see yourself using MySpace even though its focus isn’t on networking, but music?  On a broader scale, is there a such thing as social media overload?  Because social media sites are the ‘it’ thing right now, how much is too much?

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