The Channel Wire

August 18, 2009

MySpace is reportedly closing in on an acquisition of iLike, a deal that would give MySpace a shot in the arm it desperately needs. The potential acquisition, first reported Monday, would give the fading social network control of a music platform which not only has 50 million registered users but is also the most popular music application on Facebook, Bebo, Hi5 and other social networks with which MySpace competes.

The iLike network tracks members' music tastes and uses those tastes to recommend other artists. iLike users can share each other recommendations', play list, concert alerts and other content, and also access Universal Artist Dashboard, a portal through which musicians, promoters and record labels can reach out to potential listeners and manage how their content appears on social networks. iLike -- whose primary backer is Ticketmaster -- also controls GarageBand.com.

The story was first reported by TechCrunch.

While MySpace hasn't confirmed the acquisition, bringing iLike under MySpace's control would give MySpace a new reason to smile as the battle for social networking supremacy heats up. While it was once the Web's most dominant social networking platform, MySpace in the past year lost that title to Facebook, and has struggled to find its footing since laying off 30 percent of its workforce in June and watching key executives depart the company.

The move shows fresh tactics on the part of new MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta, who joined MySpace in April. Given the dramatic recent moves made by Facebook in recent weeks -- from Facebook's design tweaks to its auspicious acquisition of FriendFeed -- MySpace knows it's fighting an uphill battle.

iLike, however, is a gem of a property: a music service with registered users in the 50 millions, a technology platform with an innovative executive team, and, most important, another means to compete against rival social networks who have already acknowledged iLike's strengths. Given MySpace's popularity with artists and music playing capabilities, a music service like iLike isn't exactly a foreign concept to MySpace, either.

Let's see more, MySpace -- show us Facebook hasn't really won the war.