Anyone going to Myspace today would’ve been met by a picture of Justin Timberlake, with an invitation to join or sign into the social network to listen to his new single. That means only one thing, the new Myspace is open to the public.
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The Myspace makeover has been in the works for some time now. The social network we all inhabited before Facebook first announced the new direction it would be taking the site in back in September.
What the company teased looked beautiful. Gone were the messages from Tom, the insane backgrounds and, it seems, the music that used to blare as soon as you entered a page. In its place was something much more minimal. Instead of the old clutter, imagery was emphasised, there’s looked to be a static footer for navigation, a left-to-right timeline of posts and a built-in music player.
And that’s more or less exactly what it’s delivered. Getting started is incredibly simple (it’s slightly ironic that you can log in using Facebook, the social network that ultimately killed the old Myspace) and you can have a fairly decent profile set up in just a couple of minutes.
There’s still room for customisation, but it looks like you’d have a much harder time producing something eye-bleedingly ugly than you did in the previous incarnation.
The music element looks pretty damn cool too. It’s almost as if the player from Grooveshark’s landed at the bottom of your social feed. The music available on the new Myspace right now is pretty mainstream, but as all the cool kids get on you can probably expect an influx of waifs in cotton dresses doing acoustic covers of Nicki Minaj songs and bearded, tight T-shirt wearing types singing songs about girls in coffee shops.
Exactly how many of those cool kids sign up to the new Myspace will determine how sucessful the makeover’s been. Everything looks great, but you’ve got to wonder whether enough people have forgotten about uncool Myspace to make them join and stay on the new version.
It should also be noted that the social network is still allowing those loyal few who prefer the old Myspace to go back there should they so desire.
