Just when it had been written off forever ... MySpace came back with news of a sale with the backing of Justin Timberlake. Big plans were being laid, we were told. The skeptics doubted that MySpace could make a comeback, others took a wait and see approach. Now, MySpace has dropped one of the first official offerings this week at the Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas: They were getting into the connected TV game with MySpace TV.
“We’re ready to take television and entertainment to the next step by upgrading it to the social networking experience. Why text or email your friends to talk about your favorite programs after they’ve aired when you could be sharing the experience with real-time interactivity from anywhere across the globe? This is the evolution of one of our greatest inventions, the television. And, we no longer have to crowd around the same one to experience it together,” said Justin Timberlake at CES.
It makes sense, MySpace has always been about entertainment more than social media, and the MySpace Music part of the site is what it's most well-known for. So their challenge now is to make MySpace TV the kind of real-time, social media experience that happens during a live TV event when people are using Twitter: the ability to have a "group" discussion of commentary with small groups of friends or the community at large who are all watching the event.
"MySpace Social: From the big game, to the red carpet or just the latest episode of your favorite show, Myspace TV makes TV social. Find out what's hot, what's trending, what your friends are watching or even what your favorite celebrity just commented on. Why just 'watch' TV when you can experience TV? Myspace TV gives you more information about your favorite shows, videos and artists, and provides you real-time engagement with your friends to get you closer to the shows you love," reads the announcement on the MySpace web site.
It looks like a MySpace TV set (in partnership with Panasonic) like the Apple TV set or Google TV set offerings, as well as MySpace TV as a social media app that combines the type of real time social media experience you get with Twitter and Facebook and mixing it with the music and video experience we've always known on MySpace. They have a library of over 42 million songs and more than 100,000 videos. Bands often see their MySpace pages come up near the top of Google searches, even if they haven't been active for a while. This will be an interesting story to watch as the Apple TV vs. Google TV fight rolls on ... just how much of a dent can MySpace TV make?
Check out more about steaming music sites in the Spacelab Streaming Music Guide.
Read more |
RSS feed for Spacelab headlines
