Why did you get into the music industry, anyway? Because it's sexy! It's sexy to be an artist on stage, sexy to manage that artist, sexy to start a music-related tech company...
And there's nothing wrong with that. It's called doing what you love, and following your passions and abilities. But passions can be dangerous, and when it comes to investments and business models, a downright blindfold.
All of which makes me wonder: is that the reason why Specific Media not only purchased MySpace, but is now bringing Justin Timberlake on board to spearhead the comeback? I'm starting to think this might be a familiar re-run, a crash-and-burn we've witnessed countless times before.
As a straight advertising deal, this theoretically makes sense.
The reason is simple: there's lots of residual inventory that can be exploited. It drops substantially every year, and over that period, the net earnings are hopefully positive - especially in the hands of an internet advertising specialist like Specific Media. It's dry, calculated, low-CPM stuff, with lots of technical knob-twiddling and targeting.
And it's boring, at least at a cocktail party.
The rest is entirely puzzling, except when placed in the context of similarly-misguided music and entertainment deals. If you want to be in aluminum siding or accounting, have fun, but don't expect to wow anyone with anything except the money. If you want to sit next to Justin Timberlake, harness the excitement of a 'back-from-the-brink' comeback attempt and bask in lots of media attention, purchase MySpace.
And of course, we all love underdogs, especially when they involve music. But can you wrap your head around such a complicated, imploding mess like MySpace, one whose technical problems are just as severe as its image and popularity issues? A losing football team can get a new coach and quarterback, they don't have to repair the entire crumbling stadium and surrounding community!
You can easily say that MySpace is a victim of its environment; a finnicky internet population that simply craves something fresh. Facebook fit the void, and the rest was history. But that ignores all of the Hollywood-style ridiculousness that shadowed MySpace's demise. Cofounder Chris DeWolfe was gallivanting with Paris Hilton in the Hamptons instead of dealing with server allocations and competitive challenges; Tom was the one lying about his age while playing the hip frontman. The founders weren't even updating their profiles by the end.
So where does this go? It's an extremely difficult comeback, and most likely, one of the final chapters. Sure, there's a substantial brand name involved, but there's also complicated baggage associated with that name - not to mention incredible structural site issues, ever-increasing social networking competition, and a decimated and demoralized workforce.
All of which sounds like a $3.5 million property in less than 3 years... and there's nothing sexy about that.
/pr.
Comments Closed
@TravisWWWebb Wednesday, July 06, 2011
Travis Webb
Hope this isn't the case, but it's a compelling piece...
Mobile Artist (moartist.com) Thursday, July 07, 2011
myspace doesn't stand a chance when there's a real site/platform that is already out there! compare for yourself, it's free to sign up! moartist.com
Ghengis Cohen Wednesday, July 06, 2011
There's alot of truth in that pov, for sure. But many people were salivating over MySpace...prob a big reason that Larry Kenswill lost his top digital gig at Loeb was cause Vevo FAILED to get on the map with acquisition deal. When Vevo lost their bid, it hit the fan at Loeb, and so goes rest of the boat...: ( that's what we heard anyway. The real star in that deal is marketing girl Winnaman who brokered Timberlake with Specific Media in less than 48 hrs... brilliant move. Imagine the spin of that bare bones sale WITHOUT Timberlake. Then you're talking very UNsexy and super boring as said in story Paul. Is Courtney gonna be too much of a headcase for the conservative peeps in O.C.? TBD..but most likely.
Suzanne Lainson Wednesday, July 06, 2011
Although I quit logging into MySpace quite awhile ago, I found it provided a service that no other music site has done as well since. It served as a great EPK for bands/artists. Anyone could go there and see on one page an artist/band's bio, calendar, photos, videos, and music. Every other site forces you to click from page to page to see all that. Often you want to be able to size up a band/artist in less than a minute and MySpace is the only website that lets you do that.
And what many people have felt is a shortcoming -- that artists/bands had a lot of leeway in formatting the page -- was actually an asset. The other music sites require you to use their standardized formats.
So I kind of hope they can salvage MySpace. While it might be easier to come up with an entirely new music space, it apparently is very hard to do, given that no other company has managed to outdo MySpace as a music site.
Yes well... Thursday, July 07, 2011
Myspace can be saved it just has to have the reasons it was downgraded to be removed :)
balbers Thursday, July 07, 2011
Back in the old days, if I'd hear of a band where I wanted to check out 5 or 10 seconds of a few of their songs, I'd find 'em on MySpace. These days, there's too may alternatives with far superior audio quality, which is the same reason I avoid YouTube.
In the same situation these days, I'll check Grooveshark, Last.fm, Bandcamp, Soundcloud, downloads.nl, bomb-mp3 or beemp3.
@nishajl Thursday, July 07, 2011
My biggest problem with myspace was the music player - I got so many instances of music starting to play and then the same song starting to play again over the first stream I stopped going to the site out of annoyance.
If they had fixed that sooner, I would have continued to use it. When the part of your site that represents the selling point - hear music from any band you can think of - is broken, people start to look elsewhere.
My first port of call is now last.fm mainly because of the integration with other services I use to stream full tracks.
But I'm on hold to see where MySpace go next.
dhenn Thursday, July 07, 2011
What I find interesting about all this is Justin Timberlake isn't even making music at this point and has said many times he is not sure when he will again. He knows how bad the situation is, which why he is sticking with movies. ;-)
From a musician/user standpoint the site has become so difficult to update even the simplest thing that I don't bother with anything other than the basics - just making sure I have a page - but not as an effective way to communicate with fans.
WILL Thursday, July 07, 2011
Myspace's problems centred around phenominal amounts of spam and pages that took and age to load. I think they also stopped allowing music lovers to search for bands geographically which was a big plus in their early days.
Lee M Thursday, July 07, 2011
JT is on board for free press. It sure beats other modes of online spend. Good luck with the overplayed "talent find" comp; that's been done to death.
The site needs a dev overhaul, which could be done relatively cheaply.
It will be interesting to see their point of difference. If JT is onboard as the creative head he's going to need to come up with an "OMG! Why hasn't anyone thought of that sooner" functionality. And that is in the face of salvaging a half sunk Titanic.
cipher Friday, July 08, 2011
The technology is available and in the right hands and top marketing My Space can survive and flourish.
cipher
no space Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Myspace opened the world to me and my friends. We couldn't live without it and never seemed to be logged off, making many great new friends in the process.
Unfortunately, with all the stupid changes and upgrades, people got fed up with having to deal with something new every time they logged on. Even finding the 'log out' button became a challenge. At one point, I thought I'd logged into facebook it had changed so much!
Frustrated by all the glitches, people were reluctantly forced to go to facebook as Myspace ignored members' pleas to leave what ain't broke alone.
Unfortunately, I find facebook and twitter incredibly boring. My Myspace profile page is a labour of love and reflects all the things important to me. I've spent many hours customising it. I've refused to upgrade to the new profile because it's not as customisable so now I'm being punished by not being able to edit anything unless I upgrade.
Every upgrade became a downgrade for it's users.
Facebook's profile page is dead boring and uninspiring. I can't stand the activity stream where people who aren't even my friends can see comments I've left for others. Unfortunately Myspace copied.
I may be wrong but the solution seems simple, just bring back the old Myspace.
no space Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Unfortunately, I find facebook and twitter incredibly boring and now feel that I have no space.
My Myspace profile page is a labour of love and reflects all the things important to me. I've spent many hours customising it and I'm not alone. I've refused to upgrade to the new profile because it's not as customisable so now I'm being punished by not being able to edit anything unless I upgrade.
Facebook's pages are dead boring and uninspiring. I can't stand the activity stream where people who aren't even my friends can see comments I've left for others. Unfortunately Myspace copied.
As a photographer, all my photos are loaded into slideshows that are copy disabled. Can't do that on FB.
My friends reluctantly defected to FB because they couldn't keep up with all the silly, glitch-infested changes. Why fix what ain't broke? Even finding the "log out" button became a chore. At one point, I thought I'd accidentally logged on to FB because that's what it's been morphing into.
Every upgrade became a downgrade for it's users.
I may be wrong but the solution seems simple, just bring back the old Myspace.
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