I read a Fast Company article this morning about Myspace making a comeback. Yes, I said Myspace, as in the social media dinosaur that my generation knew (and secretly loved) in our early high school years.
The article concentrates on how Myspace dove into a complete redesign and define phase, basically reinventing itself…with a sleek new layout to focus on the one thing that has kept it alive; music.
Back in the day (yes, 5 years ago is “back in the day” for this blog’s purpose), Myspace gave users the an interactive forum with ability to customize their profiles using HTML, host a song on their music player, but more importantly, it provided a digital place for musicians to showcase and disseminate their music, for free. Beyonce had a page, my dad’s band had a page; if you played music that you wanted people to hear, you had a Myspace page.
In the article, the co-owners describe the new Myspace as “a striking new site that gives artists a handsome place to host their music and fans a place to connect with the artists they love.” I think the connectivity between the musicians and their fans can be a powerful tool for Myspace’s success. The new layout seems to incorporate elements from Facebook, Pandora, and Twitter, which gives it the possibility to be a social media hit or hot mess.
Because we grew up in the Myspace era, I mentioned this article to Jess, who was successfully able to log back into her Myspace account and learn her last post was from 4 years ago. She said “This feels like a ghost town, all of these people had profiles, but it’s like everyone abandon them for Facebook and no one is here”.
Although the notion of the old Myspace, our song choices, usernames and profile pictures that remain from half a decade ago may be embarrassing and ridiculous, the new layout and potential for social media and music does not seem outlandish at all.
Click here to read the article and see the video of the new Myspace, I’m interested to see how this goes.