New Myspace and the TV network of the future

By Cory Bergman 

Like many of you, I can’t remember the last time I logged into Myspace, which has become overshadowed by Facebook’s growing universe. So today, News Corp announced that Myspace is relaunching as an entertainment hub, not a social network.

“We call this social entertainment,” says CEO Mike Jones. “Everything about the new Myspace – from the layout and design, to the color scheme, and even our logo – has been remade to deliver the best social entertainment experiences.” (Video preview)

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The new site, which will roll out over the next several weeks, will showcase a broad array of entertainment content based on user behavior, social recommendations and selections by “curators” — a subset of the audience “whose reputation and knowledge around particular entertainment topics and emerging cultural trends make them uniquely influential.” Myspace says it will support curators with a set of resources and tools.

Of all the new features of the new Myspace, these social curators are the most promising element — a new class of influencers who help drive entertainment trends and identify promising new artists. “Why does it matter?” writes Steve Rosenbaum. “Because artists will self-publish first to MySpace while they’re looking for a record deal. So MySpace members who discover hit music first are a powerful new force.” And not just music, but video, art, fashion and more.

In essence, the new Myspace is striving to reinvent the network. FOX TV provides a narrow collection of polished programming selected by television execs. The new Myspace would feature programming curated by the crowd, your friends and your own behaviors. And you can imagine how these personalized streams of entertainment could extend into the living room — a social television network of the future.

But perhaps we’re getting ahead of ourselves a bit. Myspace has a long ways to go to become relevant again. Now, if I could only remember my Myspace login.

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