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MySpace unveiled its new messaging system late on Thursday night--which now lets members use the formerly internal service to e-mail others from an @myspace.com account--and the reactions have been pretty positive. Since it's slowing rolling out in beta over the next few weeks, hands-on reviews are hard to come by, but the design looks pretty good and people seem to agree that it may help reverse some of the site's well-publicized traffic stagnation.

Here are the numbers: MySpace says that nearly a fifth of its traffic is related to the messaging platform, and it has 130 million … Read more

PASADENA, Calif.--News Corp. digital chief Jonathan Miller said Thursday that MySpace needs a culture shift that focuses on spotting changes in consumer behavior and adapting more quickly.

"One of the things about this medium is you have to continually develop product," Miller said, speaking at the Brainstorm: Tech conference here. "You can't just put something on the shelf."

For MySpace, that means focusing on doing a few things well. Asked about Rupert Murdoch's recent comments that MySpace should focus on entertainment, Miller said: "When you get involved in companies that need to … Read more

So, according to PaidContent, MySpace is about to upgrade its messaging service to full-out Web mail: so that instead of only being able to communicate with other MySpace members, users will have an @myspace.com e-mail address. This will start rolling out on Thursday, apparently, with the new service available to all MySpace members by the end of the year.

This seems a little odd at first, considering we recently heard that the troubled MySpace was more or less giving up on trying to compete with Facebook, and was attempting to rebrand as an "entertainment portal." Launching a … Read more

NEW YORK--"The music business discovered data only to show how bad it was getting," MySpace Music President Courtney Holt said in a talk on Tuesday morning. "The first time I was asked to get data when I was working at Universal (Music Group) was, 'How many songs are being stolen?'"

Holt was speaking at an event called the New Music Seminar, a day-long conference geared toward the artist side of the record business. The angle of the event was dealing with a paradox that has emerged in the past decade: the Internet has launched so … Read more

The waning prospects of MySpace, once the dominate social network, are pushing parent company News Corp. to make some startling moves.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corp., said he plans to reshape MySpace into an "entertainment portal."

The Journal reported that MySpace will enable the site's users, the number of which is quickly shrinking, to access entertainment and related information. Murdoch, however, didn't offer the paper any details about what this new entertainment focus would include.

The statements, made at the Allen & Company Conference in Sun Valley, … Read more

Amid economic woes, stagnant growth, and a management shakeup, onetime social-networking pioneer MySpace has announced that it has cut its head count by slightly under 30 percent in what the company calls a "return to start-up culture." Well, that's a nice way to put it.

Reports had circulated that MySpace would be laying off nearly half its employees in a move that had delayed its relocation to a bigger office space in the Los Angeles area. With the layoffs, MySpace's full-time U.S. employee roster will be down to 1,000 people--which means somewhere just south … Read more

CARLSBAD, Calif.--MySpace's problem is pretty simple, says former Facebook executive Owen Van Natta, who is now MySpace's CEO.

"If you don't continue to innovate...people are going to shift interest elsewhere," Van Natta said, appearing on stage at D: All Things Digital, along with with News Corp. digital chief (and former AOL executive) Jon Miller. "We need to continue to innovate a lot more rapidly than we have been."

Van Natta said that, on the plus side, MySpace is more open than a lot of its rivals.

"There's a lot … Read more

Imeem, a social-networking site geared for music fans, has obtained new funding that in all likelihood saved the company from closing, according to music industry sources.

The money received so far by Imeem, which streams ad-supported music to users' PCs, is unlikely to last the company through the end of the year but the start-up's financing efforts continue, said the sources.

In March, TechCrunch reported that Imeem was in financial trouble after managers failed to sell the company or raise more money. At that time, the company denied that a shutdown was imminent. The company went back to some … Read more

Sure, for a year now, YouTube has trailed Hulu in the number of TV shows and films it offers, but in recent months all the momentum appeared to be with Google's video site.

That was until Thursday, when Hulu announced a partnership with Disney that at least one industry analyst believes has smashed YouTube's chances of becoming an online hub for top TV shows and feature films.

Disney will provide Hulu with full-length ad-supported episodes from ABC, SoapNet, and ABC Family. Some of the shows include "Lost," "Grey's Anatomy," "Ugly Betty," … Read more