MySpace Adds 1 Million Users After Music Refocus

MySpace traffic has been in a death spiral for more than two years. At its peak, MySpace attracted 75.9 million unique visitors each month, but that had slipped to 33 million when the site was sold at fire sale prices last June. Slowly, however, that's changing according to MySpace's new owners Tim and Chris Vanderhook. who offered stats to support their turnaround claim.

MySpace's decline had continued under the new owners falling to 24 million unique users monthly. But according to new comScore data, traffic on MySpace rose for the first time in over a year during January to 25.1 million. That's up 4% from December,

The new owners say that the upswing is happening because of new integration with Facebook and Twitter, and a refocus on music and entertainment including a new music player. MySpace offers a 42 million track music library which includes major label music alongside many, often older, songs by indie artists that are not available on other services. 

One major challenge for MySpace is encouraging indie artists to become more active on MySpace again; uploading new tracks and interacting with fans there. But for artists looking for exposure in a fractured media landscape, getting re-involved on MySpace may be worth the effort.

“We went from zero signups per day to 40,000,” said Chris Vanderhook, the company’s chief operating officer told the New Tork Times.