Up From The Ashes

Ever heard of Myspace! Sure you have. But, since the rise of Twitter, YouTube, and the mighty Facebook, Myspace kind of lost in the shuffle. Fear not. After the exit of News Corp which sold the site for 35 million dollars to Specific media, the sites new owners have vowed to put the music back onto Myspace, as it relaunched in October.

The new Myspace is not attempting to compete with Facebook. Instead, they are returning the sites focus to music. A lot of the advertising once spent on Myspace has move on to YouTube. The site's user interface has been, and is still in a state of flux. Many users who abandoned Myspace in protest over News Corps heavy commercialization, have been slowly trickling back, as the site continues to become more user friendly again.

Many of the Myspace users who never left have continued to network and meet new friends, bands, or artists amongst it's 120 million users. They have been enjoying the new cleaner, leaner look and some added features that make reaching out much easier than it was in it's early days.

The new Myspace will continue to cater to the so called "premium" artists, those whose music is promoted by the four major record companies. However, much of the music and music profiles from countless independent bands and artist still remain. Scores of music files containing some of the most obscure DIY artists still abound. If your looking for that hard to find song, band, or artist it is most likely that you will find it on Myspace.

Many of the returning Myspace users no doubt have been pleasantly surprised at just how much easier the site has become to use. Perhaps, if you were a Myspace user who moved on to Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube, you might consider coming back to Myspace. If you do, you'll find that it is slowing returning back to "My Space," instead of "Their Space." Personally, I find myself spending more time at Myspace rather than Facebook, but being a DIY artist, I think that that only makes sense. After all, Myspace is where the music lives.