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Myspace concedes to Facebook

Marketplace Staff Oct 27, 2010
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Myspace concedes to Facebook

Marketplace Staff Oct 27, 2010
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TEXT OF STORY

Kai Ryssdal: Five or six years ago, Myspace was the social network to be a part of. Anxious parents worried it was an addiction. Hip teenagers wore T-shirts that said “Myspace Ruined My Life.”

And then Facebook happened. Myspace has spent years trying to beat the front-runner at its own game. Today, it stopped.

Marketplace’s Jennifer Collins reports now on the business strategy of surrender.


Jennifer Collins: Myspace already has a place for musicians, like Aram Sinnreich, who plays bass in a band called Brave New Girl.

Brave New Girl, singing: No one ever said good-bye…

Actually when it comes to Myspace, they did. Facebook now has four times as many users. And News Corp — Myspace’s parent company — has lost millions on the site it bought five years ago for more than half a billion dollars. So Myspace is trying to lure musicians and their fans back by remaking itself as an entertainment site.

Aram Sinnreich is also a media professor at Rutgers University.

Aram Sinnreich: There’s no single site that offers musicians — independent musicians — the kind of visibility and ubiquity that Myspace provided.

The new entertainment-focused Myspace will roll out its remade site over the next month. Josh Bernoff covers social media for Forrester Research.

Josh Bernoff: So the real question is not whether you should have bought it for $500 million, because that money’s already spent, but what’s the best you can make out of it?

Tech consultant Laura Didio says Myspace still needs to do something to lure people back.

Laura Didio: Maybe they should get Ashton Kutcher to see how many people they can sign up.

And what to do with that Myspace Ruined My Life T-shirt?

Didio: You can certainly wear it to wash the car.

I’m Jennifer Collins for Marketplace.

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