MySpace has announced that the site has acquired one million new users since December 2011. In addition to the new users, comScore reported last week that monthly traffic to MySpace had increased in January, marking the first increase in nearly a year, says the New York Times.
Specific Media, led by young investors Tim and Chris Vanderhook and pop star / actor Justin Timberlake purchased MySpace from News Corporation in June 2011 for $35 million. News Corp. paid $580 million for the site in 2005 and although a three-year search advertising deal with Google paid for the purchase, the social network has been in a downward spiral ever since.
The new owners were well aware that the site would no longer be able to compete with the likes of Facebook, Google+ and Twitter and decided to spin the property in a new direction. MySpace has since become a hub for posting and listening to music. MySpace now boasts the largest collection of free music on the web with over 42 million tracks. Competing music service Spotify had roughly 15 million tracks when they launched in the US in July 2011.
The MySpace team credits the recent growth to their new music player that launched in December as well as the site's integration with Facebook and Twitter. MySpace also inked a deal with Panasonic last month for MySpace TV which will allow commenting on television shows and music videos.
With this new approach, do you think MySpace stands a chance to become relevant once again or have their better days since passed them by?