Myspace making a comeback
The former leading social network site Myspace announced in
Monday that it’s getting a resurgence in popularity due to their introduction
of a new online music player.
Over a million new users have registered at myspace.com in
the previous month, averaging 40,000 accounts activated daily. Its new owners
attribute this positive response mainly to Myspace’s integration with Twitter
and Facebook.
The ousted social network star has transformed into an
online community for music enthusiasts and appears to be growing into a
platform that is ready to co-exist with Twitter and Facebook.
Instead of competing with Facebook, it is now going head to
head with online music services like Rdio, Jango, Pandora and Spotify. Myspace
is now claiming they have the biggest catalog of tracks online with 42 million
songs.
MySpace was purchased by News Corp for USD 580 million in
July 2005. But according to Rupert Murdoch himself, the chief executive of News
Corp, their purchase has been a big mistake and that it was mismanaged in every
way possible.
So it was not at all surprising for them to sell it in June
2011 to Specific Media for only USD 35 million, a mere 6% of their original
valuation.
The new owners, Chris and Tim Vanderhook, along with artist
Justin Timberlake invested and reinvented Myspace. They managed to shift the
site’s focus from social networking into an entertainment portal.
Since its launch of the new music player 2 months ago, there
has been an increase in registrations and a significant rise in the amount of
site traffic.
Myspace appears to have a number of assets in its possession
including a huge song library, large traffic and brand recognition that if the
firm can sustain its new-found upward trend, the new owners may certainly have
gotten a bargain.
This new MySpace player boasts of unlimited and free music
streaming from unsigned and established artists. They also offer customized
radio mode and an easy integration with Facebook.
It’s yet to prove that this resurgence is not only an
isolated case. But with Spotify, a competitor, starting to limit the quantity
of songs that free account holders can play, it might just be possible that
MySpace can fill the void for an online music player that provides similar
service for free.
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