A BusinessInsider.com article today reminded me its been one year since Justin Timberlake’s invested into MySpace.com
At the time I thought Justin would have been better served if he simply applied for the new gTLD of .Music.
I can’t exactly tell you how, but through representatives very close to Justin I made him aware of the opportunity that a .Music application would have provided, especially since his investment in MySpace.com was really all about music.
He passed.
The article goes on to note:
“It’s been a year since Specific Media bought MySpace and vowed to make it hip again, but after 12 months the once-hot brand is still ice cold.”
When you compare the acquisition of MySpace last year for some $30 million dollars against owning the .Music extension for what may wind up being well less than that and controlling everything to the right of the dot, rather than buying one site and trying to rehabilitate it, I still think that Justin made the wrong decision.
What do you think?
Well, .music might not take off anyway… My guess is that artists won’t endorse dot-music neither will the community as in the case of dot-triple-x, to make it an extension worthwhile. Artists are shooting for FirstNameLastName.com, and UDRP’ing it when it’s already taken.
I think the acquisition was a good one, but the execution after it was absolutely poor. It was a nice price for the buyer based on how much they paid for the numbers of users there and the traffic, but they clearly did not understand the demographic and appealing to them.
What does Justin Timberlake know about the average 15 year old? (and the venture capital guys even less) Even when he was 15 he was famous so he can’t relate, they don’t know what their target market wants.
Step 1a – Focus group of 100 current myspace users and what they like/dislike.
Step 1b – Focus group of 100 users who left myspace and why they left.
I would guess that their Step 1 was doing what they thought people would like, or what they’d tell people they would like.
“if he simply applied for the new gTLD of .Music”
but would be he ready to start a battle with the music’s bigs?
well he probably could have joined the applicant who has the support of the RIAA and other groups
BTY I think he is a music big
I think Facebook sucks. It’s always been a less interesting version of MySpace. I’m amazed Facebook succeeded where MySpace failed, but I give credit to the evil genius (just joking) who started Facebook and has since been documented, like freaking royalty, in movies and popular culture. I’m all Zuckerberg’d out. He made billions off of a pretty mediocre website, now I wish he would kindly go away.
As for dot music, I guess it goes back to the old debate… Will gTLDs succeed? Ask any dot com specualtor and they’ll probably say no. Ask anyone who is tired of dot com ruling the web, and they’ll probably say yes. Personally, I think your suggestion Timberlake invest in dot music was a good one. However, it remains to be seen if that particular gTLD succeeds. I can think of other gTLDs that have more potential. But as far a Timberlake goes, he could have really promoted the heck out of dot music. Hindsight is 20/20. He may be regretting his decision now.
I think there are better places to put $30 mil than MySpace or .music
Even keeping it in cash would be better.
But if I had to choose between one or the other, I don’t know, it’s actually a hard choice.
He should have JV’d with Kim.com, paid nothing and given Kim the credibility he needed.
I think Justin should finally tie the knot with Jess.
Justin <3 Jess
Who said MySpace is dead? Applying for .music wouldn't have come with the millions of musicians who already had boarded on the platform. The new "makover" is in Beta as I understand it.