Myspace History

2005-12-04T12:51:00.000-08:00

Tom Anderson created MySpace.com in late 2003 to offer up a place for aspiring musicians and bands to share their music and concert locations. By the end of summer 2005, 32 million socially networked users, most of whom are under 22, were logging in at an average of twice a week, with a peer network consisting of an average of 68 friends. In August, MySpace.com was the fourth most visited domain on the Internet.

Two years ago, Myspace was an unadverstised, small musical community offering a way for musicians to gain exposure for their music. Now it's the largest online community on the net, with over 32 million users.

Last July, Rupert Murdoch led an attempt to buy the community for $580 million.
Though News Corp. vowed not to make any changes to this beloved online hangout, the move drew tremendous criticism from MySpace.com members, who feared corporate influence and monetization. Members rallied enough money to offer a higher price then Murdoch, and defeated the Newscorp. buyout. However, Murdoch gained control of Myspace by buying out the investment group.

130,000 new members join the site every day, totaling 3 million new members per month. Offering advertisers 9.5 billion page views in June, the site recently helped launch music album world premieres from bands like Nine Inch Nails, Weezer, Audioslave, and Black Eyed Peas. The Nine Inch Nails release alone resulted in a half million user streams in one week.

Myspace just launched a physical world offshoot of the site, called Myspace Records. Myspace Records just released their first CD, a compilation featuring a variety of artists, and also signed their first band, the Hollywood Undead, who attribute their success to exposure on Myspace.

JOMC 191 Community Study

Myspace History