My Space

So Justin Timberlake purchased it for $17m apparantly.

Dumb idea?
Good idea?

is it bought or brought .. I can't figure it out so put purchased..

Seems like a steal. I would have thought it still has its place for bands or artists of some form. Obviously useless for social networking though.

*bought*

A helpful hint - 'brought' is that past tense of 'bring', (so keep the r), and bought is the past tense of buy (so no r).



gc.

reportedly sold for $35 mil to a ad company who've somehow got JT in as a shareholder (?) and frontman for their doomed efforts to get the dog back up and running

dunno if its a dumb nor good idea... like most people on this planet I simply don't care - it was always a shitty site imo

Fuck that piece of shit. I look down and judge musicians who still use it as their primary point of contact these days.

Especially now there's Bandcamp, Soundcloud etc. MySpace for that money is a total waste of dosh, regardless of future Idol like competitions. You could set up and promote a new site for that money, without the tarnished name. fwiw Timberlake is on board to help. Specific Media own it.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

bandcamp sucks balls - release focused not artist centric, massive fail imo

soundcloud whilst grand isn't that artist friendly

35 Million! What price would you put on it?

You'd blow half of that developing something even close in scale, then ~$15m isn't going to get you much in the way of global marketing.

Never underestimate the power of an existing brand name with recognition, even one tarnished like this.

With soundcloud around there's no point to MySpace at all now, it's like paying $17m for a fax machine company.

Had to laugh at some poor wimmin on Who Wants to be a Millionare the other night. The question was

"Which company did Walt Disney recently purchase?".......for her answer she choose "Google"

Kris - the power of global marketing through social media is massive when you consider who would be entering in this sort of competition. Probably harder to do that through sites seen as rivals rather than as a completely new entity. Add to that the fact they're going to be spending a bunch more money to bring MySpace up to speed and then promote it anyway.

The metal mags (Revolver, Metal Hammer etc) are all full of MySpace advertising, with big big big bands endorsing it.
I do feel it's a sinking ship however.

last one out cut ya hair and turn JT off would ya

*throws a myspace trademarked goatsie and leaves*

For $35m, if they chuck some focus on it, throw out a bunch of the crap then they have an amazing platform to launch a decent social music site. It will come down to a real clear strategic focus and some decent design chops but fuck I reckon it's a bargain if they work it right.

you could say that gdub but what does an ad agency + JT know about the social habits of music fans

I'd suggest nothing

so getting it right and convincing people to give it another crack are slim I'd suggest

Good point, I enviage JT ding a SNL skit about it and BAM! Instant $$$

What does a geeky, unsocial Harvard suit know about the social habits of people? A lot according to his $50b valuation...

Of course it needs to have a decent understanding of a real unserved need in the customer base but imagine a well-organised, well-designed social music site that linked in bands, music sales, live streamed performances, event invites and tracking to gigs, discussions, crowd feedback etc etc. It will need some killer headline feature but I reckon there's huge opportunity there.

Couldn't agree more.



gc.

so you mean do all the stuff the old company was doing to various degrees and failed at miserably

Please note - I'm not saying they won't do the impossible but people want new not renewed old

of course they could do a disney and let it lie fallow for seven years and then target the new generation of tweens and below

I never had a MySpace page, but wasn't it a very generic "my own webpage" site that eventually whittled down to mainly being about bands just through attrition? I didn't think it had any kind of specific intent or design to be a music social site.

Personally I just love that Murdoch paid $600m for it and these guys rocked in and "paid" him $35m (quote marks due it to primarily being stock rather than cash) five years later

This. Suffered from the usual malaise of being part of a massive media empire, no one really had a clue. Fresh blood could be exactly what it needs.

you're better qualified to comment than me on the over valuation of the site when purchased I'd wager and it seems we're back in a era of over valuation - refer linkedin, facebook et al (bubble time at the social media trough once again)

myspace music made it popular - it was like a music mag that is facing declining ad revenues... its adds movies... then games and TV etc to try and boaster popularity and ad spend to maintain its viabilty but ultimately pleases no one and serves up the same content as everyone else (only badly - myspace + murdoch reeked of corporate cock) eventually going the way of the dinosaur

I too am laughing at Murdoch's mistake and lose... and am getting in early by laughing at JT

At first I agreed but still not sure. I'm starting to think LinkedIn and Facebook have massive targeted advertising audiences that might make them valuable but almost certainly not at the valuations floating around now.

I read a while ago how these over-valuations work and how it's basically stealing from the founders (and everyone else eventually)... just wish I could remember the details. Made shitloads of sense.

I hate myspace. I cancelled my page on it ages ago. I think with the rise of sites like soundcloud and mixcloud there is no need for it. Musically, its archaic. I have found far more talent and amazing music on the other two sites than I ever did on myspace. Would not trade again.

right charlies