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Layoff described by one source as ":massive" are coming to MySpace although there is no official word yet from the company.  MySpace shed 5% of its staff a year ago and laid of as many as 45 more last month. But these cuts will go far deeper, according to TechCrunch and could hit several hundred. Management will inevitably blame a tough economy and plummeting ad revenue, but declining traffic is the real culprit.

Monthly unique visitors to MySpace have fallen from 64.6 million in June of 2008 to 56.8 million in May of 2009 while Facebook rose from 35.2 million to 113 million during the same period. New leadership has been brought in both at parent Fox Interactive and MySpace to turn the ship around with music as the cornerstone of the rebuilding process.

A brief personal message to the head of MySpace Music:

Good luck, Courtney.  This is going to be a tough one and you have many masters,

Now is the time to get the indie and d.i.y. music communityies more involved again They helped create MySpace, and they can help make it relevent again. It won't cost millions either.  Just equal treatment and a place at the table.

And you don't have a lot of time before Facebook finally jumps more into the music game.  They really have no choice but to.

Believe it or not, a lot of us are routing for you.

Bruce Houghton

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