We think that the Timberlake jokes are a little dismissive of the revamped social network, which successfully combines free music streaming and discovery with the social layer. It definitely has its kinks and problems, but the new Myspace is an undeniable improvement over the service that has been wasting away for the past couple of years.

Impressive or not, the new Myspace is already running into some problems with its free streaming music. Apparently, one large agency is accusing the company of making tracks available that they no longer have the rights to.

According to the NY Times, Merlin Network claims that Myspace is currently streaming songs from over 100 independent labels under its wing, although their permission to do so expired over a year ago.

Merlin, a global right agency representing various independent labels like Sub Pop, Merge, and Domino, says that its deals negotiated with Myspace on the labels’ behalf ended in 2011. But much of that music is still streaming to users worldwide.

“While it’s nice that Mr. Timberlake is launching his service on this platform, and acting as an advocate for the platform,” said Merlin’s Charles Caldas. “On the other hand his peers as artists are being exploited without permission and not getting remuneration for it.”

Myspace has responded, saying that any remaining Merlin-represented artsits remain due to users uploading their music, and that they would cooperate in removing the “unlicensed” tracks per Merlin’s request.

For a social network looking to rebrand itself and battle in a crowded market, the last thing they need is a rights battle.

For a look at the redesigned Myspace, check out our hands-on.

When the redesign was first teased back in September 2011, it had Justin Timberlake all over it. And why shouldn’t it? Timberlake is without question the most famous celebrity investor in the company. The preview displayed the new profile look, entirely new side-scroll browsing, and music player all within the world of Timberlake.

So we shouldn’t be surprised that the new Myspace opens up to the world right as Justin Timberlake drops a new single, right?

The new Myspace signup page features a suit and tie-clad Timberlake (looking sharp, we should add) and two buttons: “Join” and “Sign In.” The landing page also says that “Justin Timberlake’s long-awaited return to music is here…simply sign in to hear the first track from his forthcoming album.”

Indeed, when you sign in (or sign up), you’re once again met by Timberlake. There, you can play his new single “Suit & Tie” ft. Jay-Z.

Back in December I gave a first look at the redesign, which focuses heavily on music and discovery. I noted that it sports some elements from popular streaming services like Spotify or Pandora, but with a fairly robust social networking layer on top of it. It doesn’t feel like any version of Myspace that you’re familiar with – it really is a huge redesign of the UI. I thought that it looks pretty good, and functions equally as well.

The question wasn’t in the execution, but whether people would jump back on the Myspace wagon. The network has been through a lot. But with Timberlake clearly throwing all of his weight behind it and tying the release of his new single to the site’s grand re-opening, who knows?

When you first create you account, you’ll be met with the New Myspace landing page, which allows you to post a status (Myspace asks “What’s the latest?”) and navigate to your stream, your music library, and your connections. Connections come in the form of people and songs. Once you “connect” to a song, it is added to your library (and you’re allowed to comment on the particular track). Once you “connect” with a person, you’ll start to see their updates in your stream.

When adding a new post, you have 150 characters to work with. You can also add photos and songs to your updates. To add a song, just click on the music notes icon and start typing – the instant search will find what you’re looking for, considering it’s a part of the library.

On the bottom of your screen is the player, where you can interact with all the music you discover on the site. You can create mixes, add to your connections, and launch radio based on certain tracks (similar to Pandora or Spotify).

That’s where you can access the “Discover” section as well, which lets users browse trending music, mixes, videos, radio, people, and articles. Like the preview suggested, the new layout is media rich with a heavy lean toward tiles and a new side-scroll that rewards widescreen displays.

Searching inside the new Myspace is pretty cool, in that all you have to do it start typing – from anywhere. Whether you’re on the homepage or another user’s profile, just start typing and the search screen will pop up:

Here’s an album page:

User profiles also sport the same side-scroll format, and feature a profile pic and a large background image. From a user’s profile, you can check out their top-artist, mixes, connections, photos, videos, etc.

Upon first look, it appears that the New Myspace sports some of the best elements of a streaming music service like Spotify or Pandora, and also adds a vast social networking layer on top of that. We knew that the redesign would focus heavily on music, and it does just that. They just started the limited distribution of invites for those that signed up early, so the network is far from densely populated as of right now. It’s a huge redesign, that’s for sure. It truly feels nothing like any version of Myspace that you’re familiar with. It looks great and UI shouldn’t be a problem for the site moving forward. Whether people will want to jump back on the Myspace train, no matter how impressive the redesign, is the big question.

Now, it looks like Myspace is getting that overhaul. Behold, new Myspace:

“We’re hard at work building the new Myspace, entirely from scratch. But we’re staying true to our roots in one important way—empowering people to express themselves however they want. So whether you’re a musician, photographer, filmmaker, designer or just a dedicated fan, we’d love for you to be a part of our brand new community.” That’s all it says at new.myspace.com. There’s an email signup box, and Myspace says they’ll send an invite your way “very soon.”

There’s a video, however – a pretty detailed one at that. Although you may recognize elements from other popular social networks throughout the new design, Myspace is definitely putting an emphasis on music discovery that is not seen in any of its competitors. Check it out:

Ok, so here’s what we know about the New Myspace, as it stands now (obviously, this is just a preview an things could change dramatically before it actually goes live):

Sign in with Facebook or Twitter, naturally:

User profiles resemble Pinterest, with “connects,” “comments,” and “shares.” Oh, and it adopts an interesting side-scroll format.

Music, front and center, with “Mixes.” Also note the mini-player at the bottom of the screen. Clicking on one of the mixes seems to open up a page associated with the mix, complete with photos.

The homepage stream also scroll side-to-side and looks a bit Pinterest-y. The “Discover” button on the bottom opens up a music dashboard complete with tending videos, interviews, radio, events, and more mixes.

Nice drag and drop mechanism for adding music to mixes:

Music search:

Myspace investor Justin Timberlake’s all over it, including this demo of the in-profile music videos (pretty cool):

Messages have a 140 character limit and allow you to attach photos, songs, and cross-post to other networks

First impressions – really music-heavy (which should surprise nobody). New Myspace has a lot of focus on discovery and a pretty slick new UI. We’ll have to wait and see how the final product turns out, but this shows that Myspace isn’t planning on going gently into that good night.

Keep in mind this is the same kind of argument net neutrality opponents like AT&T and Verizon have made, if, for nothing else, it sounds meaningful, even if it is unquantifiable. While he never names any privacy adherence opponents outright, Smith does directly state that social media providers have indicated compliance with established privacy measures would inhibit innovation. In response to this, Smith states that no new technology should be a threat to privacy, and that if consumer privacy is taken into account when the product is being developed, aka, privacy by design, these companies would have a much easier time complying with current privacy statutes.

To further illustrate his point, Smith discusses how credit card companies used the same arguments when the FTC began regulating the industry in 1970s. In response to the FTC’s consumer privacy demands, according to Smith, these companies claimed compliance would “retard progress and cut into the bottom line. In fact, it has had the opposite effect. They’ve thrived during this regulatory period.”

Smith also indicates the same is true for social media providers, and considering Google’s considerable earnings, and Facebook’s initially-successful IPO, it’s evident he’s onto something.

The FTC’s role in relation to privacy enforcement is also discussed. Here, Smith indicates the basis for Internet privacy when it comes to FTC enforcement are the Fair Information Practice Principles, which are listed on the FTC’s website. Furthermore, the FTC is not in the practice of enforcing the existence of privacy practices, but if a company creates a privacy policy, Smith states they had better abide by it. If not, this is when the FTC gets involved.

One final piece of advice concerns transparency. Smith states that most, if not all of Facebook’s privacy issues stem from the company’s lack of transparency. This means simply being up front and open with your users about what information the service collects, as well as what happens to the collected information. All in all, Smith’s advice is not too difficult of a concept for companies to enact. Don’t allow these entities to use the “well, it’s new technology” excuse, either. As indicated, Smith is a firm believer in the idea that new technology should not be a threat to consumer privacy.

According to its site, Tumblr currently hosts 56.9 million blogs with 23.7 billion posts, all handled by 105 employees. The NYC-based company was founded in 2007, and interestingly places itself at #12 on the internet, with 16,124,006,400 average monthly hits, contrary to comScore’s April report. Same difference – Tumblr is popular.

The comScore report, based on data from its Media Metrix service, puts Google Sites on top, with roughly 189 million unique hits. Microsoft and Yahoo! are almost tied for the #2 spot, while Facebook, AOL and Amazon round out the top six.

Somehow MySpace, which presently resembles a non-functional, dadaistic collage compiled by a mandrill, was able to garner 36 million hits in April. In the fall of 2011, MySpace owner Justin Timberlake told MTV news “I don’t have anything on my plate other than think-tanking a lot of different ideas for MySpace, which doesn’t require a lot of my literally being present – I can come up with ideas on the golf course. I can come up with ideas on a mountain while I’m snowboarding.” Makes a bit of sense.

The high level of social connectivity is an obvious function of the social network, as users can be accessed by all sorts of strange people they knew in grade school they hadn’t seen in decades. It can be akin to the ultimate class reunion, for those personality types who live fro that sort of thing. Though, the platform is also good for reconnecting with long-lost family members, friends one can’t pick:

Facebook also helps with everyday productivity:

Or maybe the user meant that Facebook had kept her from doing housework.

Damodar Reddy of Kurnool calls the platform a role model for youth, and Giganto Machai half thanks Al Gore for the social network:

This user thanks Facebook for his wife, who he plans to move to his country sometime next year:

I met one of my ex-wives on Myspace, and am still kicking myself for not having met her on Facebook instead.

More of Facebook’s IPO can be found here.

Now, lend us your ear for the second chart-busting hit of the day: a detailed graph by way of comScore that depicts Facebook’s unstoppable conquest of various social sites throughout the world. No region of the world was off limits and no social network was invulnerable to Facebook’s thundering march to 1 billion users worldwide (which is well within reach for the indigo colossus).

Although the graph doesn’t include the milestone, the first sign that Facebook could become the shining blue monolith around which we all banged our drums all day and all night was in January 2009 when the site overtook MySpace to become the most visited social networking site in the United States.

comScore fills in the gaps:

Over the past 27 months, or roughly 800 days, Facebook has overtaken local competitors in 8 additional markets and is now the most popular social networking site in 39 out of the 44 countries on which comScore reports individually. Only China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and Vietnam have different market leaders in terms of audience size.

Interestingly, 3 out of these 5 countries rank among the fastest growing global markets for Facebook. In Vietnam, Facebook increased its user base by 270 percent over the past year, while it grew 84 percent in Japan and 78 percent in South Korea.

comScore also points out the continued popularity and growth of Facebook’s mobile app on both iOS and Android platforms, which is something of a sensitive issue recently in regard to Facebook’s relationship with companies that may advertise on the site.

And hey, did you heard this news that Facebook’s making an initial public offer?

Interestingly, Myspace is still a relevant social platform, and was reported to be garnering roughly 40K new users per day as of February, and was still beating out Linkedin and Google+ in regards to unique monthly users. The site saw a boost upon the launch of its new music player, in a bid to become a sort of Hulu for audio, and said player can also be linked to Facebook. Though, the Myspace player doesn’t seem to track song plays accurately, the interface is addled with rampant Flash ads that tend to bring the site to a crawl, and the whole thing at times resembles an overlapping trash heap of content designed by a toddler. But, it still pulls in over 17 million unique users a month.

The FTC had claimed that Myspace was sharing user information without being completely up front about its rules in this regard. Basically, the network “provided advertisers with the Friend ID of users who were viewing particular pages on the site – and [advertisers] could use the Friend ID to locate a user’s Myspace profile to obtain personal information publicly available on the profile and, in most instances, the user’s full name,” according to the FTC. This sort of deception is a violation of federal law. Myspace also allegedly failed to afford its users with an easy Safe Harbor opt-out regarding transfer of data between the U.S. and Europe.

Myspace wasn’t forced to pay any fines, though any new violations could result in a $16K slap on the wrist per each offense. I wonder what Tom thinks of all of this.

The graphic reports a startling eleven year average shelf life for the online empires involved and calls into question the numbered days left for Facebook in particular. It has been eight years since the social networking giant its popular site, and whether it shows signs of slowing down or not, past experience might prove to be more valid for prediction the future.

Does Facebook have what it takes to persevere where others have failed? Some think it does, but you can predict what path you believe it will take after studying this next infographic. Enjoy: