Music is a vital part of our culture, lifestyle and collective memory. Better than an energy drink when you need a boost, music stimulates adrenalin and gets you going. Music helps us through heartbreak and sadness and reminds of our past and old songs always trigger a walk down memory lane.
In the world of social media, we are busy liking, tweeting, chatting, sharing, going viral and engaging more than ever but we've lost out on that one fundamental piece that bonds us and friends gather around - music. Where Myspace was once a popular music-based social media site tying together social media wiith music lovers, design problems and the wide acceptance of Facebook eventually led to its demise.
We all remember the excitment around Justin Timberlake's launch of the new MySpace teaser video from a couple of weeks ago highlighting its new sleek and polished look and features emphasizing imagery, a static footer navigation bar with a built-in music player and a left-to-right post timelines. But the new MySpace is more than just a pretty package backed by a famous name.
Shawn Busteed, (VP Technology and Programming at TBA Global) says that the new MySpace is heading back to the professional content creation supported by those in the music industry that first made MySpace so popular. With a focus on releasing features that are polished and clean, he hints that MySpace is working on content deals with record labels (and an agreement with someone like Spotify would be good too!) to make them a huge differentiator in the social marketplace. Addressing the old design issues, the new MySpace will let your personality shine through personalized designs - without the chaotic lost control from the past.
"There is a gap where Twitter and Facebook do not always find the most relevant content for people, and there are huge areas where pieces of content can be presented to users in a better way," says Shawn "MySpace needs to focus first on getting users back to the site before they could really be more attractive to sponsors."
Shawn also says that the teaser video didn't highlight the level of social interaction and the design that that is planned for the social side of the new MySpace.
So now that you're psyched, you're likely wondering "When are we going to see these features?"
That's what I was wondering too! New features will be rolled out slowly over the next few months - with no release date as of yet so stay tuned!
(P.S. I did ask Shawn if there was any way of asking Justin Timberlake these questions directly but that wasn't possible - can't blame me for trying!)