MTV Launches Social Network For Musicians

It can now be said that, yes, MTV executives realize it's been half past "a while" since it appeared they cared about music.

While collective breaths probably shouldn't be held awaiting a resurgence of "Yo! MTV Raps" or "120 Minutes," MTV.com is using the network's brand recognition as a means of making a run at MySpace's success with musician self-marketing. MTV Music Group President Van Toffler announced during Thursday's South By Southwest Music Conference in Austin, TX that Artists.MTV will hopefully become the next great hub for musician web pages.

Toffler claimed the new web initiative would launch this May with a private beta run, reports Yahoo's OMG! blog. The exec called the platform a "digital homestead" for both established acts and emerging ones. "There is infinite choice out there, but with this artist platform, we want to provide a meaningful road map for consumers to wee through the chaos and discover the musical gems that should break through," Toffler said via written statement.

Even more significantly, it would probably be the nail that seals the MySpace coffin. Founded by Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe in 2003, it was "Facebook" before Facebook was cool. It reigned as the world's most visited social network from 2005-2008, and in 2006 even topped Google as the United States' most visited website. Unfortunately, things change. Specifically, the site became controversial after several statutory rape cases raised security questions; a $900-million, three-year advertising deal with Google didn't exactly pan out as hoped; and finally, Facebook went from being open only to college students and graduates to teens.

Eventually, the site that News Corporation once paid $580 million to acquire and employed 1,600 people was bought by Justin Timberlake and Specific Media LLC for $35 million, and now employs about 200 people.

Still, its music pages have become the most-visited entries. So to both imitate success and probably compete with/conquer, Artist.MTV will start with about 10,000 artist pages customizeable with video, merchandise and ticket-sale applications, according to Toffler.