MySpace
MySpace Music Makes a Play for the Kids
Do you remember your MySpace password? We don't, but we're going to start guessing. News Corp.'s MySpace Music page launched at midnight this morning. The new service is MySpace's answer to iTunes: 120 million users will be able to create and share free playlists from the five-million-artist-strong digital catalog.
MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe announced the new project last spring, with promises to offer concert tickets and band merchandise. But those services aren't available yet.
They can make mixes with up to 100 tracks and post them on their profiles and nab them from their friends' pages, too. Members will also be able to keep up with their MySpace friends' latest playlists with a news feed. read more »
Another Murdoch Gem! Old Timer's Jab at Facebook
Earlier, John Koblin cited some gems from Rupert Murdoch's chat with Esquire, but here's one that shines a little brighter for us new media watchers: When Mr. Murdoch got all swoony about his acquisition of MySpace, he also snuck in a little jab about Facebook, trying to put down the "what you'd call social networking" site that is basically kicking MySpace's butt in user numbers, aesthetic, services and advertisers:
When we bought MySpace, we thought it had great possibilities. We didn't realize it would grow as fast as it has, and of course it has given birth to imitators, which I guess they're calling Web 3.
Commission on Presidential Debates Teams Up with MySpace on Fall Debates
Today executives with News Corporation's MySpace announced that they have formed a partnership with the Commission on Presidential Debates to create MyDebates.org—a site that will include a downloadable application capable, in part, of streaming the fall presidential and vice presidential debates live.
Yesterday, the commission announced the slate of moderators for the fall debates, which will include PBS's Jim Lehrer, NBC's Tom Brokaw, PBS's Gwen Ifill, and CBS's Bob Schieffer. It's an esteemed group. But also one that's somewhat long in the tooth.
Back in April, we wrote about Google's frustrated attempts to team up with the commission on some sort of new media debate. read more »
MySpace Makeover On the Way
Social-networking behemoth MySpace has announced plans for an overhaul that will include improvements to its navigation, search, profile-editing and MySpaceTV functions, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The News Corp.-owned site will also re-launch its home page, a redesign aimed at accommodating what sales and marketing president Jeff Berman called “bigger and more powerful” brand takeovers. He adds that the decision to expand the advertising presence on the homepage—which, in today’s incarnation, functions as a shrine to Universal’s The Incredible Hulk--was made in the interest of the users, who, he claims, "Love the homepage takeovers. … They frequently view it as content, and it adds more value to their experience." Information about the population polled was not available, but it stands to reason that News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch was among it. read more »
MySpace Launches New Online Music Service
It seems like all the cool kids have been gravitating toward Facebook lately, but MySpace isn't out of style just yet. Today, the News Corp.-owned social networking giant announced its partnership with three major music companies -- Sony BMG, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group -- in creating a new online music service, according to The Wall Street Journal (a fellow Rupert Murdoch product). The ad-supported MySpace Music will offer free tunes and video streaming, as well as paid-for MP3 downloads and other digital goodies like ringtones, and MySpace's COO told the Journal that the new service would build on the site's already popular music environment, giving it "the potential to be a significant revenue driver." Could be bad news for iTunes, but as far as the competition with Facebook goes, that site still seems to be way ahead in the "killing time while at work" department -- Scrabulous anyone? More from WSJ after the jump. read more »
MTV and MySpace Rock the Vote
Herein: a partial guide to the 2008 presidential race's new-media-old-media bedfellows.
(a) CNN and YouTube.
(b) ABC and Facebook.
(c) MTV and...MySpace!
To wit: tonight, MTV and MySpace are teaming up for "a dialogue with John McCain", in which viewers and browsers can rock the vote 2008-style by submitting questions to the septuagenarian Arizona senator via IM.
