MySpace To Become Entertainment Site

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

MySpace, which has lost the crown as the world’s largest social network to Facebook and fired about a third of its staff will reposition itself as an entertainment destination. It is hard to see why that would work, but MySpace management may be running out of other viable options.

According tothe WSJ, “News Corp. Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch said MySpace needs to be refocused “as an entertainment portal.” It appears that it will move toward being a site where people share their music play lists and music videos.

How will MySpace make money on its new model? That is hard to figure out. Music sharing is already part of the community of people who use Apple (AAPL) iPods and other multimedia devices and peer-to-peer applications loaded onto PCs have similar functions.

Even if MySpace can get its members to use the site as an entertainment portal, there is not a clear path to exploiting that to build revenue. Most music lovers download tunes from the Apple ITunes store and similar services provided by large retailers.

MySpace has painted itself into a corner and moving into the music business is not going to help it.

Douglas A. McIntyre