MySpace: Doesn't care about friendship, only music

Having seen Facebook steal most of the time-sinking behaviour for which it was once famous, MySpace has now decided to concentrate on the one area where it is still doing fairly well: Music and entertainment:

Mr Van Natta wants to capitalise on MySpace’s status as a leading online music destination and used a presentation at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco on Wednesday to unveil new features that enhance its music credentials.

The company has struck a deal with Apple’s iTunes store to allow its users to buy tracks without having to leave the MySpace site. It has integrated iLike, a music application company, and launched Dashboard, an interactive tool for bands and musicians, as well as compiling the largest catalogue of music videos on the web.

Mr Van Natta said the applications were a “springboard” for the revamped MySpace and would be followed by other new features in the coming months that tap into the site’s large online community.

Hosting music is pretty expensive, and it has to be questionable how long bands will flock to use MySpace if the audience is heading off elsewhere. Still, at least it's a strategy, and it's felt like a long time since MySpace had one of those.