New look and direction for MySpace
MySpace, the NewsCorp-owned social networking site that saw itself overtaken by Facebook, has unveiled a new look and direction as it seeks to reinvent itself as an entertainment platform powered by social.
The new look, which will be rolled out in Australia in mid-November, sees the site positioned as a competitor to entertainment sites, rather than to Facebook. It will see MySpace’s Australian sales team ramp up their efforts to sell ads on the site based on premium niches rather than a CPM model.
MySpace Australia’s MD Nick Love told Mumbrella: “When we were going through the process of redesigning MySpace we did a lot of research into what we were good at and what we were not good at.”
He admitted: “For the most part we did not know what we stood for. We see one of our strengths as an ability to service emerging cultural trends. Our goal is to be the leading entertainment destination, socially powered.”
What’s unclear to me is whether user’s pages will change. I’ve stopped using MySpace long ago, but when I did use it, it was never to go to myspace.com and explore their content like a portal. Just as I hardly ever go to youtube.com to see what they have featured on their landing page (if I do go to the home page, it’s to use the search). Really I’d only use MySpace by going directly to a user’s page. However these looked so tacky and garish in the face of emerging competition from the competition (Facebook) that I moved my social grid over to Facebook and didn’t look back. Until MySpace address this core issue they don’t really have a hope in hell.
Good luck guys
Yes Tom – not to mention the numerous crashes and pitifully long waits for pages to load. MySpace is A Place To Avoid.
Tom – yup… absolutely – we introduced new profiles a few months back: http://mashable.com/2010/07/15/myspace-profile-2/
Here’s a Myspace link in case you wanted to see what yours looks like in the new format: http://www.myspace.com/upgrade-profile
From what I can see Myspace seems to have got it together, if they get it right they will own the music and entertainment space and there are a huge amount of clients out there trying to engage an audience in this arena. The fact you can now share to FB and Twitter is great too and will only encouorage users to go back to Myspace to uncover content on their favourite movies, bands, artists etc. Good luck to them I say, they have made some honest statements and I think they are on the right path!
Can’t help but think, there just flogging a dead horse!
I personally think it fits a need / it’s a different proposition to the last incarnation, changed strategic objective with a better outcome, one in which I will consume. It takes balls to do a redesign of this size – so congrats to the creative team here (Australia) and in the States.
I for one, am at least going to try it, the new look sems great. Got added to 4 random groups on fb during the week, that really grinds my gears.
Looks awesome – love the new logo styles
I agree such a large scale redesign is risky but too be honest. I am tired of being another tired old beige suited template on facebook. I can’t wait to my-up the myspace myway
the most important question is
Will MEC Digital team see them before Christmas? Or will they have to email through the changes.
This definitely feels like a step in the right direction for myspace. Slick design too, good luck with it!
i smell PR on these comments from number 5 down
I heard they are making a movie about Tom from MySpace. It’s featuring Rob Schneider as Tom…
How do you go from millions of friends to a couple of trolls, viruses and losers…
How do you go from demo targeting to not being able to target people based on demo because they don’t have to login to use it.
Rob Schneider stars as Tom
Ron Jeremy as Peter MyCock
The Lonely Network…
In Cinemas Now
96 million unique users http://tiny.cc/q990l ranked #51 comscore Aug 2010
There’s no doubting News Ltd’s competence in tackling web initiatives. Little Dick will have a world beater in no time, and if he doesn’t he can always adjust the auto refresh
I stopped using MySpace when it took forever for the home page to load on a 8kbps cable connection…actually it was 15kbps back then before I moved to an unfortunately slower digital area. If the videos and content were slowing me down, I cannot imagine what it was doing to people on slower connections. That is about the time they really started going under. I just hope that if they are going to go in this direction that they re-design and program based around the user experience and not just huge, flashy looking ads.
Thinking the new positioning of myspace might be “on the money”.
If it was to become the global “star search” ranking / discovering / promoting newcomers in their artistic endeavours
– Music
– Photography
– Film
– Writing
This would make the site worth tens of billions over the next decade; best of luck with this one.
Respectfully tony clemenger.