We are at a time and age where close to every person you know is “on Facebook.” The mega social network shows no signs of slowing down. Think of how often you see the famous blue and white ‘F’ on TV advertisements, billboards and everywhere else. It truly is fascinating how one company can become a global empire. Myspace thought they were on the path to becoming a global empire just ten years ago. I remember being in my high school computer labs freshman year and going on Myspace, designing my layout, even picking that one song everyone heard when they visited your page. But Myspace got old, and Facebook began to make its way up the ladder. Myspace has recently thought to become a thing of the past.
Over the past month however, Myspace gained over one million new users. Is this to say people are getting sick of Facebook? Or is Myspace really improving? “The numbers tell an amazing story of strong momentum and dramatic change for Myspace,” said Tim Vanderhook, CEO of Myspace at last month’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Credit must be given to the $35 million buyout of Myspace last June. The new owners, one of which is Justin Timberlake (who was ironically in the movie “The Social Network”), re-purposed Myspace to support its strongest component, music. The new Myspace music player has been completely re-designed and music is now the site’s central focus. Myspace now competes with websites such as Spotify (which has claimed 15 million songs compared to Myspace’s 42 million).Consumers are starting to look more in Myspace’s direction. I may even think of signing back up to promote my music hobby. “Consumers are getting excited about Myspace again — a testament to a great music product,” said Vanderhook. Instead of competing with Facebook, Myspace is now easy to integrate with Facebook. So who knows if it will ever reach the popularity of Facebook. But with 40,000 people signing up daily, they’re off to yet another start. They just need a few more to reach Facebook’s 700,000 users a day.
“Myspace is building meaningful social entertainment experience around content, where consumers can share and discover the music they love.”
-Tim Vanderhook, CEO, Myspace