This Ain’t Your Father’s Myspace

Article written by guest writer Kecia Lynn

What’s the Latest Development?

Myspace — now spelled with a lower-case S — is about to reemerge onto the Internet scene in a completely different way, thanks to the efforts of Specific Media, which purchased the company in 2011. Keeping the site’s most dedicated user base — musicians and their fans — in mind, founders Tim and Chris Vanderhook engineered a complete overhaul, with a horizontal, image-optimized feed, a multivariable search function, and drag-and-drop functionality for mixes and playlists, to name only some of the features. In addition, for the artists themselves, Myspace contains infographics tools that allow them to know more about their audience.

What’s the Big Idea?

Tim Vanderhook says that the new Myspace is “a social network for the creative community,” borrowing ideas from other sites such as Twitter and Spotify and encouraging a reciprocal relationship between musicians and fans that “didn’t exist historically.” The larger goal is to create “a platform where finding music, playing music, and sharing music are all seamless, coherent parts of the greater experience.” The site is not fully up yet, but is accepting requests for invitations.

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