Life is tight

nerdology:

In the past week few weeks I have been following the fiasco surrounding MySpace as covered by the Telegraph.   The short version is: they had a CEO, Owen Van Natta, who was focused on a goal and optimistic about the future of MySpace.  In February he quit unexpectedly after only 9 months at his post.

Now, two men sit at the top and they are planning a relaunch of sorts. They tell the Telegraph that in the coming months they plan to introduce new services on their site as well as “20-30 micro apps” across iPhone, Blackberry and Android mobile platforms.  The services will give users information about their page like unique visitors numbers.  Also they plan on focusing on causal games (think Farmville) and a system where users are awarded points for contributing to MySpace ie: posting a link, uploading a video, or making comments (it sounds an awful lot like tumblrarity if you remember that).  They want to create incentive to participate in the community… unfortunately they’re doing it all wrong.

“MySpace is a not place for people to talk about what they are up to. It’s the place people talk about what they are into.” Co-president Jason Hirschorn said to the Telegraph in a recent interview.

After reading the article I was curious.  I logged onto my MySpace account for the first time in nearly three years to do some research.  After clicking and searching and seeing the site with a fresh set of eyes I believe I can save MySpace.  Actually, I think I turn it into a compelling place for people use in conjunction with Facebook and Twitter rather than as an alternative.

I explored the photo uploader, checked out the suspended state of friend’s profiles, sifted through 26 unread messages and really used the site for about half an hour.  It wasn’t until I found my way to MySpace music that I actually became little bit impressed.

First of all, the dedicated MySpace Music page looks way better than their dashboard and is way more conducive to information consumption. It allowed me to easily find bands I know, listen some of their music and add songs to my page.   They also have exclusive interviews and music videos.  MySpace Music is easily the best thing going for the service and it is here that they should build their foundation for the future.

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