Myspace up for sale as Myspace Music President Courtney Holt steps down

By Andrew Couts February 25, 2011

The slow death of Myspace continued this week with the president of Myspace Music, Courtney Holt, stepping down from his post, reports AllThingsDigital. The news of Holt’s departure comes amid rumors that Myspace parent company News Corp. has kicked off the process of selling the failing social media site.

According to a memo to the Myspace staff written by Myspace CEO Mike Jones, Holt will transition to a “key advisor” position to both Myspace and News Corp. It is not yet clear whether Holt will take an executive-level position at any other company, though such a move seems likely.

Myspace Music launched in 2008 as a joint venture between Myspace and a variety of major music labels. It remains one of the few sites that offers free, legal music streaming. And as anyone with a friend in a band knows, it has been one of the primary places for music group — mostly of the unknown variety — to go when they want to connect with fans. But it has still had trouble turning its traffic into profit.

Since this time last year, Myspace Music’s visitor number have dropped 46 percent, to 17 million unique US visitors per month. Myspace as a whole brought in 44.8 million unique visitors in January, reports the Wall Street Journal, a drop of 36 percent, according to numbers from comScore.

Last November, News Corp. COO Chase Carey admitted that News Corp. was open to the idea of selling the social networking site, which it purchased for $580 million in 2005. The news out today shows that about 20 parties, mostly private equity and venture capital entities, have show interest in purchasing Myspace.

As far as streaming music services are concerned, the sector seems only to be growing. Apple is reportedly planning to expand its iTunes service to allow users to store their music collections online, and stream the content to their Apple devices. Google is also looking into launching a music-streaming service. And UK-based music streaming site Spotify is rumored to be looking to introduce unlimited subscriptions to users in the US sometime in the near future.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Features Editor for Digital Trends, Andrew Couts covers a wide swath of consumer technology topics, with particular focus on…

Computing

Best deal ever? Get 80% off PureVPN and an Uber Eats voucher

A close-up of a computer monitor displaying a generic VPN.

Everyone should sign up to a virtual private network, so if you're looking for VPN deals, here's one that you wouldn't want to miss -- two years plus three extra months of PureVPN's Max Plan at 80% off for just $4 per month, for a total of $108 for 27 months. That's $16 in savings per month for dependable online protection, and to top it off, you'll be getting an Uber Eats voucher worth up to $30. We're not sure how much time is remaining on this offer though, so if you're interested, you're going to have to sign up for the subscription immediately.

Why you should sign up for PureVPN Max Plan
A VPN is a necessity in this digital age because it will protect your data from being accessed by cybercriminals. It will also help you get around any geoblocking restrictions as you can have your device appear as if it's located in another part of the world. PureVPN is one of the best VPNs for these purposes, as it uses a global network of more than 6,500 servers that are located across dozens of countries.

Computing

Razer’s most boring product is also one of its best

The Razer Iskur V2 gaming chair in an office.

Razer isn't exactly known for subtlety. This is the company that released a Bane-like RGB face mask, a headset with haptic feedback, and most recently, a mouse pad that has RGB lighting from corner to corner. The Iskur V2 chair is an exercise in subtlety, however, and a change of pace that pays off for Razer in a big way.

There's nothing special about the Iskur V2 at first glance. It's a gaming chair fit with the usual racer-style back and some green trim to let you know it's a Razer product. But there are no motors promising immersive haptic feedback, and no RGB leaving you tethered to a wall outlet (yes, Razer has done both in a chair before). The Iskur V2 is just a well-designed, comfortable chair, and that's exactly why it's so impressive.
Out of the box

Computing

Best OLED monitor deals: Get an OLED screen from just $450

Marvel's Spider-Man running on the Samsung Odyssey OLED G8.

Up to a couple of years ago, OLED technology only really existed in OLED TVs and very-high-end monitors that cost thousands and thousands of dollars. Luckily, the prices have come down quite substantially, even on the best OLED monitors, especially as the market gets more saturated with options. That means that if you tend to use a monitor for the majority of your content consumption, such as gaming, then you can grab an OLED monitor for a great price and experience amazing visual fidelity and reproduction.

To that end, we've gone out and scoured all the major retailers and brands to find our favorite OLED monitor deals out there and compiled them below. That said, if you haven't quite found what you're looking for, or feel you aren't ready for an OLED monitor, be sure to check out some of these other great monitor deals.
LG UltraGear 27-inch gaming monitor -- $660, was $1,000