Remember when one of the most popular social networks you used to be on made you rank your friends in a “Top 8″ order? Man, that sucked. Of course, since Facebook’s inception, Myspace has long become abandoned and forgotten by teens, college students, and adults alike — except for those who are trying to promote their music. Oh, yes, music. This is exactly what Myspace has left going for it, and it’s the focus of what the once-reigning social network aims to rebrand itself under according to this teaser video released yesterday of a Pinterest-meets-Windows-8-Metro-UI new design.
As you can see in the clip, Myspace is finally integrating a fuller screen interface with larger blocks of photos, album covers, and status bars. It’s visually more attractive and in tune with today’s web design aesthetics for sure, and still incorporate the use of music in various facets of Myspace functionalities. For example, users will be able to search artists for albums or particular songs, or upload music along with a wall post to their friends. They can also curate playlists and check out the demographics of who’s listening to the tunes.
“We’re hard at work building the new Myspace, entirely from scratch. But we’re staying true to our roots in one important way – empowering people to express themselves however they want,” Myspace writes in a statement. ”So whether you’re a musician, photographer, filmmaker, designer or just a dedicated fan, we’d love for you to be a part of our brand new community.”
The video also comes with a nice little endorsement from the one and only Justin Timberlake, who bought an investment stake in Myspace last year. The teaser video revolves around how artists like JT can search network of friends and media connections, and how fans can feel closer to their favorite musicians by following their status updates and newly uploaded photos.
Interested users can also sign up with Myspace via their other, ahem, more frequently-used social media accounts, such as Facebook and Twitter. Unlike the old Myspace where you have to play songs on individual profiles, a static music bar remains at the bottom of the page so you’re always jamming to your favorite songs.
Is it too little too late for Myspace to make a comeback? All we can say at this point is the use of a spinning vinyl on the current teaser landing page is more than an appropriate symbolism for something that’s long abandoned, forgotten, but can still be pretty cool if you let it — emphasis on the if.
So they took the best elements of Tumblr, Grooveshark, Twitter and Facebook…and yet nothing seems all that compelling to go back to.
Maybe this could work on getting them the younger generation that didn’t of the joke that was MySpace the last half decade or so, but in terms of getting the old users back? I don’t see a new revamp doing that.
They still seem lost in terms of what they want to be and what they see MySpace serving a need for. They’ve got a pretty package, sure, but what’s inside it that people want?
Personally, I’m pretty tired of FB atm and would like to find a new network to switch over to. And this new MySpace doesn’t look half bad. I doubt that I’ll start using it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not good (need to try it first)
Out of what I’ve see far, the biggest issue I have is that it looks way too much like Windows, which isn’t a look I really care for
The need a good iphone and ipad app.
Couldn’t agree more with this statement. Except add in Android phone / tablet app as well :)
Looks like twitter…