New Myspace sees big losses -- just like old Myspace
Myspace is out to raise $50 million in funding and that's news. The fact that it wants to compete against Spotify isn't.
The new Myspace has had a tough first year and is again looking for funding.
According to Business Insider, a little more than year after Interactive Media Holdings -- which is mostly owned by the Vanderhook family -- took control of Myspace, the company has lost more than $40 million on $14 million in revenue this year.
Myspace expects to lose another $25 million in funding next year, according to the documents. Meanwhile, the company is out looking to raise $50 million in investment, says Business Insider.
Too much shouldn't be made about the losses, as the new Myspace is a work in progress. Interactive Media Holdings, which was called Specific Media, is trying to resuscitate the once dominate social-networking site after Facebook stomped it into jelly. Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. paid $580 million in 2005 for Myspace and sold it last year for $35 million.
Read Business Insider, but a word of caution. All the breathless talk about Myspace becoming a Spotify killer is silly. Spotify and Pandora are music services with a lot of buzz. Of course Myspace is going to hitch its wagon to those services. We didn't think Myspace would bet a comeback on downloads did we?
In Myspace's heyday, the service was popular as a source of music and it looked like, by bringing in singer Justin Timberlake as an investor, the new management was going back to its roots.
Regardless of what Myspace calls itself, the leadership there has a lot of work cut out for it. There're not many well known Web brands that have come back from the dead.