[Review] The new Myspace is here, and it kicks ass!
Being the original rockstar of social networking, Myspace was one of the first ever popular social networking sites. I remember when I opened my account with them in 2004, it immediately struck me as a vibrant community to share pictures, updates and above all, music.
You see, one of Myspace’s competitive strengths over the likes of Hi5 and Facebook has always been the way it handles music and media in general. The revamped site, although available in limited form, is a gigantic statement that the social media pioneer is back with a bang and signalling the bulldozer straight in Facebook’s face. And what makes it stronger is that the new site is backed by Justin Timberlake and incorporates many elements of modern web design, particularly visual usability elements that excels at discovery, illustration and fast loading interface elements.
So how does it fare with music?
The site is primarily a music service, mixing a Spotify-like player (and radio) with elements of Facebook and Pinterest. MySpace has stated that it intends to expand the service into broader entertainment channels. MySpace has a brilliant intuitive music player, which interacts with the site content extremely well. It constantly docks at the bottom of the screen, and whatever media you select enters the queue and starts playing as soon as you click on it, similar to Youtube’s video playlist feature. If you’re in the middle of listening to a playlist (or “Mix”), the song or video just slips into the queue without disturbing the rest of it.
Artist pages
Myspace has introduced an amazing new rating and authentication system for active musicians and artists and has a “verified” system, represented by a blue check mark underneath the person’s profile pic. All of the pillars of the artist page such as profile pic handling, album uploads and plans still hold true to today.
So, is this really a big time comeback?
I personally think that although it may do extremely well in places like the US and Canada, it may bomb in the middle east because of its heavy reliance of subscription based services such as Spotify that aren’t strong in these neck of the online woods. Nevertheless, it is a fabulous revamp and we wish the team at Myspace the very best!
About the Author
Caesar (Kuwait Music) Caesar is the Founder and CEO of Kuwait Music. A passionate musician and web nerd, Caesar spends most of his time thinking about how to build a healthy music business in the region Follow Caesar at the below links: Google+
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Well, if it could beats bandcamp at actually allowing people to download music without regional restrictions. Then why not?
It will and it does!