Justin Timberlake and New Myspace Ownership Mulling a Singing Competition

Everyone knows Myspace is about as popular as black and white television sets these days. Its new ownership group which includes Justin Timberlake is reportedly considering using a competition for singers to boost the ailing website's waning popularity. Is this a case of just "too little, too late?"

From Front Runner to Also-Ran

For those who only start networking socially with the advent of the medium's juggernaut Facebook, Myspace was the first big entrant in the race. Using the same paradigm as Facebook, Myspace allowed "friends" to connect with each other to share updates, blog entries, photos and more. Myspace Music was a key component to the site's early success, allowing both big and independent bands alike to promote their material to a vast new audience.

Not without its flaws, Myspace was still a very popular site, even allowing users to customize the backgrounds and other elements of their profile pages, something Facebook does not allow its users to do. With all its attractive qualities, Myspace was slapped hard when Mark Zuckerberg took his site the masses. In a matter of a few months many of the people who called Myspace their home on the Internet had jumped ship to the new kid in town.

The Butt of the Joke

Myspace's popularity has fallen so much that its very name has become the punchline to countless jokes centered around obsolescence. Once Facebook started allowing business and other entities such as bands and solo artists to have their own pages built solely for promotion, it seemed the final nail in Myspace's coffin had been pounded in. The reasons to stay on Myspace were just about wiped out, and Facebook's domination was just about complete.

Myspace now appears on the Internet's map as a ghost town. Many have either deactivated or deleted their accounts, and until a new ownership group (of which Justin Timberlake is a member) took over the site had all but disappeared from the public consciousness. Yet out of the rubble, the ownership group took interest in the site, and now they are faced with the daunting task of reviving a site that has been stripped of relevance and perhaps most importantly a user base.

Competing to Survive

One reported solution the owners of Myspace are considering is shifting the focus of the site to be almost completely on entertainment and entertainers. Rumors are that in order to generate big interest in the site's resurrection Myspace will play host to a singing competition in the vein of television heavyweights "American Idol" and "The Voice." No details are out yet as to whether Myspace users or a panel of judges, or some combination or modification thereof will be handling the voting duties.

Undoubtedly talent competitions are enjoying quite a resurgence in the last five years. Whether it's singing, dancing, cooking or whatever it is the folks on "America's Got Talent" do, it seems the public is very interested in discovering new talent via competition again. Perhaps it's the struggle of the under-dog to overcome the odds. Whatever the reason, talent competitions are for the time being a viable commodity again.

The big question of course is whether Myspace's new ownership can launch a counter-attack on Facebook in time to make any real headway. The cold, hard truth is that Myspace just is not very popular anymore. They face an incredibly tough uphill climb. Perhaps the biggest asset they have though is the fact that Timberlake, as hot as ever, is the big name attached to the site.

Last year Timberlake had a key role in the smash-hit film about Facebook, "The Social Network." If Timberlake and Specific Media are able to truly bring Myspace back to life, he may just get a chance to play himself in a movie about Myspace. While there aren't any guarantees when it comes to the Internet and its users' often fickle tastes, Timberlake's involvement at the very least gives Myspace a fighting chance.