The New MySpace… and JT.

Bringing Se… MySpace Back.

(or at least making a valiant attempt to…)

Our old lover is back with a new groove. If you hadn’t heard or are not a fan of Justin Timberlake (aka JT), you may have missed [or ignored] the opportunity to get back in bed with your high school sweet heart. Gone are the days of bedazzled backgrounds and Mafia Wars; MySpace is looking to reinvent not only itself but the web savvy music artists that made it famous.

In times past, the plan was to focus on music groups and artist to give them a social platform they could use for promotions and fan engagement. However, the original MySpace was quickly overrun with corresponding, spammers, businesses, and preteens without clear purpose or direction.

As a result users lost interest and the site became an after thought; old world relic really, of the late 90’s.

As 2013 rolled in, MySpace started offering glimpses of their new M.O.: slick interfaces, a propensity for side scrolling over vertical scrolling and a new way to share/engage with others.

The New MySpace home page featuring Justin Timberlake

So, who do you want to be – MySpace gives you a few options to categorize you. What happens if none are really applicable?

After receiving my invite months following the original request from August, I walked through a few screens to setup my new space. That’s right! This new version requires a new setup and none of your connections are ported over. There maybe plans to do so later on, but as of right now no details are available concerning the migration of old ‘spaces’ to the new. No worries though, your old profile, friends and information are all still available through the old access paths.

The new profiles feature clean lines and a lot of positive white space indicative of modern sites. The setup of a new user profile only takes a few minutes followed by a quick breakdown of the navigation and user options. As Greg Finn stated in his post, it is very “Tumblr-Like” and that isn’t a bad thing. I like Tumblr’s simplistic way of offering posts and MySpace’s layout is following suit, only with side scrolling.

As Facebook announced it’s Graph Search, MySpace released the new site to the world following the release of Justin Timberlake’s first single in seven years, Suit & Tie. The reason MySpace is such a JT supporter is because he is one of the main investors in the site, according to numerous sources including CNN & Fortune. With JT as a staunch supporter, is it possible that MySpace may get it’s sex appeal back and woo users to return? In the eyes of many tech writers the answer is a resounding and sad, no.

After the short, self guided tour you are left to your own devices. This was the first I have to say I didn’t like. With so much pomp and circumstance, I thought there would be a bit more to the tutorial but no, run free little starving artist, run free. The reasoning behind this could be that the discovery of the new features could be a welcomed adventure for some or it could be that the developers thought it fit with the target demographic; whatever the case, you will be on your own at that point. As you navigate through you will find beautiful layouts, images and elements but may become frustrated with the ‘friending’ process as well as a number of features. Feel free to connect with me if you’re out there, https://new.myspace.com/darth_quo_chang.

The Wrapper

What’s my opinion on this version of MySpace? It’s beautiful but it still lacks what every website needs: purpose. In a world where everyone and their angry cat have a blog or website, why would artists choose to use someone else’s system over creating their own? I don’t really think MySpace is dead but it isn’t going anywhere with just a new design. LinkedIn is for business, Facebook for friends & fans, Twitter for quick thoughts, what is MySpace for? MySpace needs a reason to live, without it, it is doomed to dazzling mediocrity-no matter how much Sexy Back JT sprinkles on it.