I’m not exactly sure how this is much different from what Myspace was already trying to be, but Specific Media, which purchased the social network for $35 million is making music the focus of Myspace going forward.
Before the sale, Myspace had already tried to rebrand itself as an entertainment hub, largely dominated by music-related entertainment. When the company went ahead and submitted to Facebook by letting users login with their Facebook accounts, I believe I said something along the lines of, “Myspace is more like MTV.com now than Facebook.”
It appears it will continue to go in such a direction.
The media has been waiting for Advertising Week, when Specific Media would talk about Myspace, and that has come. They pitched the idea and had a special concert with performances from Far East Movement, B.o.B. and Natasha Bedingfield, according to the LA Times.
Liz Gannes got ahold of Myspace’s pitch deck:
Within, it reminds us that Myspace has just as large an audience as it did in 2005, when News Corp. acquired it. The decline in traffic is mentioned, but it says traffic has steadied and “is currently trending with the market”.
One slide in the presentation says “no single player possesses all the capabilities that Myspace offers,” and that points to the following bullets:
- The Hulu of Music: Unique content rights with Big Four labels and 20K independent labels allows for ad-supported music video and audio streaming
- Owned and operated property engaging 70M+ global consumers online each month
- Database of 325M+ active email addresses
- User registration data enables targeted content and advertising based on consumer interests
- Ranked second-most popular music site, well ahead of Vevo and Spotfiy
Myspace says its vision is to “become the #1 online community music destination,” and that its mission is to “feed the energy youth culture everywhere.” Its target audiences are fans, artists, music/brand ad partners, and “cultural influencers”.
I guess we’ll see how it goes.