Rebrand and reboot
Once the social network of choice for many, Myspace has made a bold step away from the likes of Facebook to rebrand itself as a ‘social entertainment destination' designed to appeal to youth.
In a move that could either make it or break it, News Corp's network has refocused its efforts to build a personalised space where users can share music, celebrity gossip, films, TV and games via the web, mobile and real events, in a bid to become cool again.
US users will be able to try out the new beta site immediately, choosing between homepage views, personalising their space and getting ‘rewards' for their postings.
"This marks the beginning of an exciting turning point for Myspace. Our new strategy expands on Myspace's existing strengths - a deep understanding of social, a wealth of entertainment content and the ability to surface emerging cultural trends in real time through our users," said Mike Jones, CEO of Myspace.
"Myspace is unique in that it is powered by the passions of our users, who program the site by expressing interests, sharing tastes and knowledge around particular topics, and scouting out up-and-coming subcultures. This is the just the first step and there will be many more features, programs and improvements to come," he added.
Myspace also has a new brand identity (note the lack of capital S) and the word ‘space' has been replaced in the logo with a bracket, which ‘represents where people can express themselves, enabling users to personalize the logo and make it their own - just as they can throughout Myspace,' apparently.
Essentially, it would seem that just like Prince and others before it, Myspace wants to be so cool it has replaced its name with a symbol.
Marketing lingo aside, it would appear that Myspace will pull in exclusive content and let its users personalise their ‘space,' unlike Facebook. It will also have ‘curators' who are Myspace users with a reputation and knowledge about certain bands, trends and interests etc that make them influential. These curators will get tools and a platform to expand their sphere of influence, which should appeal to teen bloggers.
The beta site also looks different from its ailing predecessor and is much less ‘busy' with a more contemporary colour palate and more content-centric organisation. The home page features new content that pops up in real-time and a user's new profile will be automatically populated with content based on their interests, with different views available.