Before Facebook, there was Myspace – that is the sentiment the latter would like to prove and remind social networkers of with its brand-new facelift, along with a few new features and an iOS app in tow.
When Myspace relaunched back in January, the company’s COO Chris Vanderhook clarified that rather than competing with social media giant Facebook, Myspace would like to be recognized as the go-to site for music discovery and for artists to communicate with their fans, and their new upgrades hope to steer the attention of Pandora and Spotify lovers – as well as the vast amounts of music apps popping up like mushrooms – in their direction. Aside from putting their most famous supporter Justin Timberlake, front line and center, the company’s biggest pull is its ability to learn from their extensive past and apply newer design and technology to keep up with the times. “The magic of Myspace has always been at the intersection of creative expression, community, promotion, and discovery,” said Myspace CEO Tim Vanderhook. “Myspace aims to power a new ecosystem catering directly to the creative community, enabling artists to manage their digital presence, build an audience, upload and distribute their content, and learn from data all on a single platform.”
The recent update includes People Browse, a social function that will allow you to connect with fellow users that share your taste in music. Artists can now consider Myspace as a one-stop shop for all their online marketing needs through a new analytics tool called Insights, designed to optimize the way musicians build their fanbase and propagate their work by providing visualized data reports. For the GIF lovers out there, there’s also a tool provided for you to create and share animated GIFs – although this doesn’t really drive Myspace’s aim to be your music app of choice hard, it certainly doesn’t hurt to offer the option.
The new Myspace iOS app is something that we definitely want, and the fact that the company is finally giving mobile development the attention it so deserves illustrates how serious it is in providing users old and new a brand-new experience you would want to take with you wherever you go. You can now download the app through the App Store and use it to not only browse through radio stations pre-programmed by Myspace as well as your favorite musicians, but you can also create personalized radio stations that suit your every mood through the app’s My Radio feature. The site boasts a library of over 50 million songs sourced from small to big labels as well as acts that currently don’t have official representation.
User profiles that use the classic version of the site have been automatically upgraded to the new Myspace platform. New sign-ups can use their Facebook or Twitter accounts as well as their email address to create a Myspace profile. To cater to non-iOS device users, Myspace also designed a mobile-optimized version of the site available today.
