Justin Timberlake takes stake in MySpace

Relaxnews
Thursday 30 June 2011 19:00 EDT
Comments
(AFP PHOTO / ROBYN BECK)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Music superstar and actor Justin Timberlake has signed on as a new partial owner of MySpace, along with Specific Media, which bought the service from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Timberlake will play a significant role in the reboot of the website, developing a strategy for a new creative direction for MySpace.

Ironically, in 2010's acclaimed film The Social Network, the pop singer portrayed Sean Parker, one of Facebook's early leaders and a co-founder of the former file-sharing service Napster.

California-based Specific Media, which specializes in online advertising, finalized its purchase of MySpace for $35 million on June 29, for considerably less than the $580 million the News Corp. paid for the website six years ago.

Despite the shrinking of the MySpace subscriber base in light of Facebook's dominance in the social media market, many musicians still maintain a presence on the site.

"There's a need for a place where fans can go to interact with their favorite entertainers, listen to music, watch videos, share and discover cool stuff and just connect," Timberlake said in a statement. "I'm excited to help revitalize Myspace by using its social media platform to bring artists and fans together in one community."

The specific plans for MySpace will be unveiled at a press conference later this summer, but according to The Wrap, there is interest in developing MySpace as part of the "interest graph," organizing users around interests, instead of the "social graph," like Facebook - and focusing on music.

http://www.myspace.com/justintimberlake

RC

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in