Aside from rousing praise at CES by co-owner Justin Timberlake, Myspace isn't getting much love these days — even from big boss Rupert Murdoch, who admits to a giant foul-up in how News Corp. has managed the company.

But the network soldiered on at CES last week, announcing a deal with Panasonic to make television more social with its Myspace TV app. Running on new Web-enabled "VIERA Connect" sets, the app allows Myspace friends to see what their pals are watching and chat about it in real time. (It will come to other TV brands later.) Myspace TV launches in the first half of the year, and people can sign up for a trial at myspace.com/tv .

It's an idea whose time has come — and in fact did come a few years ago when people began using Twitter and Facebook to chat about television. Witness, for example, the 9,420 tweets per second referencing Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow around the time of his 80-yard touchdown pass in overtime on Jan. 8.

But Myspace thinks that it can make TV even more social with a dedicated app replacing the ad-hoc juggling of a TV set with smartphone or laptop.

They won't really be first to this, either. At least a half-dozen other companies already have social TV apps. One of the biggest is GetGlue , an iPhone, iPad and Android phone app, with a website for other phones. It allows people to "check in" to indicate they are watching a particular TV show, movie or even live concert. They can then see who else — friend or potential friend — is also checked in and have a chat over the app, while also sending their comments to Facebook or Twitter.

The company says it had 2 million users and more than 100 million check-ins last year. And GetGlue has plenty of competitors, including IntoNow, Peel, Social Guide, yap.tv, Miso and Umami.

Most of them also serve as guides, by showing what programs are popular at the moment and which ones people might like based on the shows they already watch.

Of course, most of these apps still require people remembering to check in. "TV is a fantastic lean-back," said Myspace CEO Tim Vanderhook. "I want to be entertained when I’m watching television. I don't want to be manually checking into a device."

The Myspace TV app saves the trouble because, by running on the set, it automatically knows what people are watching. It's not quite alone here, however. If Peel users also buy the $100 wireless remote station, selecting a show in the app also tunes the TV to that channel. And Umami promises to recognize what's playing by analyzing the audio from a show (a la music-spotting app Shazam).

And the benefits of Myspace TV must be weighed against the hard question: Who's still on Myspace these days? It gets less than a sixth as many visitors as Facebook, according to a December report from analytics firm comScore.

GetGlue and other social TV apps hardly have big followings, either. But people can sign up for them through the world's largest network, Facebook, simply by tapping a button. That enables the TV apps to post check-ins to the mega-social network, allowing most people to share with a lot more friends than they could on Myspace.

And, of course, the other apps work with most of the smartphones that about half of American's already have, plus with many tablets. So people can get social with the other apps right now, without having to buy a new TV.

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In theory, a MySpace Introduces segment on Lana Del Rey was a good idea. The Born To Die songstress made our cut of 2012’s Most Anticipated Albums thanks to the high-volume buzz surrounding her from the moment she first stepped onto the scene, but the general public still hadn’t heard of her. Until last night. Now it’s hard to imagine anyone with a Twitter account not hearing about her Saturday Night Live appearance, which has been the butt of many a joke. How unfortunate, then, that that was actually a large majority of people’s “introduction” to the “National Anthem” singer, rather than MySpace’s far more artful clip.

Shot like a horror movie, the MySpace Introduces teaser is actually pretty creepy for something that’s supposed to introduce us to a new artist, like the kind of thing you might see if the little girl from The Ring decided to put out a pop album. Still, it is more reminiscent of Lana Del Rey’s more haunting (and much better) performances (like this one at London’s Corinthia Hotel) than last night’s less successful endeavor — and a much more fitting introduction.

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Myspace chose 2012 International CES and Panasonic Viera Connect-enabled HDTVs as its first public initiative to become more than a late-night comedian’s punchline, bringing Justin Timberlake on stage to announce the launch of Myspace TV. Viera Connect is Panasonic’s connected TV platform.

Timberlake is a major investor and co-owner of the social platform, so it makes sense to use his considerable star wattage to light up Myspace chief executive officer Tim Vanderhook as the new over-the-top television service was unveiled. The emphasis of Myspace TV is on connecting people around the programming they collectively choose to watch, which is intended to restore the value of real-time TV as it effects deeper engagement, simplified discovery, and interaction – which at its most basic level creates fan communities to comment, rate, chat and evangelize to friends.

“We’re ready to take television and entertainment to the next step by upgrading it to the social networking experience,” Timberlake said. “Why text or email your friends to talk about your favorite programs after they’ve aired when you could be sharing the experience with real-time interactivity from anywhere across the globe? This is the evolution of one of our greatest inventions, the television. And, we no longer have to crowd around the same one to experience it together.”

Myspace, which apparently has demoted its capital letter S, has a seriously undervalued vault full of music and music video rights. It initially will leverage these for Myspace TV when it launches in the next few months, but promises it will expand to enfold broadcast and on-demand movies, news, sports, unscripted shows and anything else on TV within its social embrace. A companion app will be available on tablets and smartphones. At the moment, Myspace is giving its TV service a workout in invitation-only beta.

Vanderhook’s statement: “Myspace was the first successful social network because it allowed individuals to share their interests, listen to music, express their creativity and connect around the things they love. Historically, TV has been a shared experience, as people gathered together to watch their favorite programs. Our belief was that we could enhance the TV experience by increasing viewers’ ability to connect to both content and each other. By partnering with Panasonic, we’re bringing together the content that people love and a social experience in one service: Myspace TV.”

Joseph Taylor, chairman chief executive officer, Panasonic Corp. of North America: “Year after year, Panasonic’s Viera Connect Smart Viera TV platform has continued to expand rapidly but with a singular focus to deliver to our consumers an extremely robust and interactive connected TV experience that can be customized and enjoyed on their large-screen HDTVs. We are proud to partner with the new Myspace on the debut of Myspace TV on our Viera Connect Smart TV platform. By partnering with a brand like Myspace on the Viera Connect Smart TV platform, we’re taking connected TV to a whole new level of engaging, interactive experiences for consumers.”

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Myspace’s new music player has unmatched access to signed and unsigned artists who need a platform to get their music out, according to Chris Vanderhook, the company’s COO, writes Maria Stadtmueller.

“The new player is our commitment to fostering the artist-fan connection – not only allowing people to play their favorite songs, but also offering suggestions to unearth new favourites. Through the Facebook integration, we’re extending the discovery process across networks, allowing music fans to circulate their playlists and recommend top picks to all their friends.”

During Myspace beta testing, the recent player enhancements drove consumer engagement beyond the one-hour mark to over 20 songs and resulted in a 10% lift in the average number of music streams per person. The Myspace music player is available both online and on mobile devices, allowing people to access their favourite music anytime, without ad interruptions and subscription fees.

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Former TechCrunch writer and current blogger/venture capitalist MG Siegler stirred things up this week by complaining that Google's politically correct overlords had censored his profile picture because in it -- not sure how to put this delicately -- he was giving the world the finger.

SearchEngineLand's Danny Sullivan explained Google's rationale (in a post on Google+): "Why's Google care so much if +MG Siegler wants a middle finger in his Google+ profile picture? Because in turn, that has him giving the finger in Google's search results. And that mess is kind of Google's own doing on how it has linked author pictures so much to Google+ profiles."

Now in a blast from the past, Tom Anderson has taken to Google+ to pounce on the debate. As the co-founder of Myspace, the guy who was everyone's automatic friend on the service, he has a lot to say including this: MySpace became a "cesspool" because people put up all kinds of potentially offensive content.

"All Google+ has done here is execute on its stated plan: removing offensive photos. This is Facebook’s plan, Twitter's plan and Myspace's before it. When you’re processing hundreds of thousands of photos a day (and in Facebook’s case, millions a day), it’s not easy to spot such material (even with algorithms). It’s not that Google+ has decided to do things differently, it’s just that they’re ahead of the game and doing things better," Anderson wrote.

Further, Anderson says users of Google+ (and presumably Google) "don't need to see you flipping us off, nor do we need to see you naked, or displaying something else generally considered offensive. When a social network lets that stuff slide, it turns into a cesspool that no one wants to visit … sorta like Myspace was."

In a Twitter post, Siegler responds: "As much as I enjoy #fingergate I do have this other job I'm attempting to do..."The real beneficiary may be Google+ itself which, if you believe predictions from the armchair statisticians out there, is starting to get some real traction.

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Specific Media-owned Myspace has rolled out a Myspace music player with features such as built-in search, music recommendations and integration with one-time arch social network rival Facebook. The new player boasts over 40 million tracks, with 30 million exclusives from unsigned artists. Listeners will be able to use the advertising-supported service for free.

According to comScore metrics, Myspace has just 25 million users, down from a peak of 76 million in December 2008. In the UK, the website recently fell out of the market’s top 10 social network’s ranking for the first time.

“Myspace traffic has been on the decline for at least three years now but this is the first time the social network has fallen out of the Experian Hitwise top 10,” explains James Murray from Experian Hitwise.

“In its place, Stumble Upon has risen in the rankings and is now the UK’s tenth most popular social network. As the social media landscape continues to evolve, brands need to be aware of the fast moving trends and which social sites people are visiting.”

MySpace is planning a large-scale revamp next year, and will be adding video to the mix – the company aims to entice brands with this content. MySpace told Billboard it wants advertisers to back exclusive video, such as behind-the-scenes footage.

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Months after it was purchased by online ad firm Specific Media at a fire sale price, MySpace is finally getting a makeover.  The focus, as the new owners promised, is on music and includes full Facebook integration, a final admission that MySpace is no longer the social network it was created to be.

Rolling out today, the changes, first reported by Billboard, also include a revamped music player with music recommendation and music search built in. "Music is white-hot right now and we want to be able to capitalize on our music catalog and our history in music. It's something the previous management didn't really highlight,"MySpace chief operating officer Chris Vanderhook told Billboard.

Vanderhook's hope is to use the deals that MySpace has with labels along with an exclusive catalog of millions of tracks from independent artists to reposition the site as a music destination.  Many artists, however, stopped updating their MySpace pages months ago, and their is no guarantee they or their fans will return.

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Irvine-based digital media agency Specific Media LLC launched Myspace Music Player, a new feature that lets users listen to songs for free via its recently acquired Myspace social networking website. Myspace Music Player is the first significant bid to bolster Myspace and boost its traffic since Specific Media’s announced a deal to acquire Beverly Hills-based Myspace LLC in June.

Myspace Music Player is an online library that holds 42 million songs. Users get free access and do not have to listen to advertisements. The company has not set any limits on use. The new feature also is tied in with Facebook. Users of Myspace Music Player can share selections with Facebook friends.

Myspace inked licensing agreements with Sony, Universal, EMI and Warner in addition to deals with thousands of independent record labels to amass the music library's inventory. Specific acquired Myspace from New York-based News Corp. for $35 million.

News Corp. had paid $580 million for Myspace during the site's peak in 2005. Myspace soon saw users leave for Facebook and other social networking sites. Specific has made few announcements on the site's progress since the acquisition.

A media event outlining the company's plans for Myspace was originally planned for the summer, but never occurred. Specific executives did participate in an advertising conference in the fall where they provided some details about changes to the site and advertising opportunities to a select group of marketers.

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BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., Dec. 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Myspace (www.myspace.com), a leading social entertainment destination that lets artists and fans share and discover content, today announced the release of its new Myspace Music Player, which empowers people to access the world's largest catalog of music online. 

The new player is the first to provide free unlimited on-demand listening, lean-back personalized radio mode, improved search functionality, as well as instant sync capabilities that allows people to share the music they've listened to on Myspace with their friends on Facebook. The player's advanced features reflect Myspace's DNA: promoting and enabling music sharing and discovery. Through unique licensing agreements with Sony, Universal, EMI and Warner (aka The Big Four record labels) and partnerships with 20,000 independent labels, Myspace has unrivaled global rights to more than 42 million songs, boasting a library that is three-times the size of other online catalogs.   "Myspace has unmatched access to signed and unsigned artists who need a platform to get their music out. The new player is our commitment to fostering the artist-fan connection—not only allowing people to play their favorite songs, but also offering suggestions to unearth new favorites," said Chris Vanderhook, COO of Myspace.

"Through the Facebook integration, we're extending the discovery process across networks, allowing music fans to circulate their playlists and recommend top picks to all their friends."The new Myspace Music Player allows users to do the following: On-Demand Listening lets people listen to individual songs, full albums and playlists for free, on demand without interruption of audio advertisements and with no caps on streaming or skips. Facebook Integration allows people to listen and share their music selections instantly with friends via Myspace and Facebook's news feed, ticker and timeline.  Myspace automatically creates a profile for new users so there is no time wasted setting up an account.  Radio Mode is a lean-back listening experience that recommends tracks for people based on their music listening history.

The player functionality also allows listeners to add songs to their existing playlists based on newly-discovered favorites that they heard first through the Myspace recommendations made in Radio Mode.  Additionally, through Radio Mode, people can discover all 15 million artists on Myspace – major, independent, signed or unsigned – and visit an artist's radio station at the link: myspace.com/artistname/radio. Discover new music with improved search options such as Discovery/Browse, Top Charts, Similar Songs and Editor's Picks. Myspace beta testing reveals that the recent player enhancements have driven consumer engagement beyond the one-hour mark to over 20 songs and resulted in a 10% lift in the average number of music streams per person.

The Myspace music player is available both online and on mobile devices, allowing people to access their favorite music anytime, anywhere without advertisement interruptions and subscription fees. The newly released player is the biggest development to Myspace since the company's acquisition by Specific Media in June 2011.ABOUT MYSPACE:Myspace, LLC. is a leading social entertainment destination powered by the passions of fans. Aimed at a Gen Y audience, Myspace drives social interaction by providing a highly personalized experience around entertainment and connecting people to the music, celebrities, TV, movies, and games that they love.

These entertainment experiences are available through multiple platforms, including online, mobile devices, and offline events. Myspace is also the home of Myspace Music, which offers an ever-growing catalog of freely streamable audio and video content to users and provides major, independent, and unsigned artists alike with the tools to reach new audiences. The company is headquartered in Beverly Hills, CA and is a subsidiary of Specific Media.ABOUT SPECIFIC MEDIA:Specific Media is a digital media company driving viewership for content owners, engagement for brands and relevance for consumers. With capabilities spanning original programming, cross-channel distribution and addressable advertising, the company connects audiences, content and brands, adding meaning to each touch-point.

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After teasing a few key advertisers with a short presentation in September, MySpace has debuted its first major product offering under new owners Specific Media. The new MySpace music player launches today with enhanced music recommendations and built-in search engines to increase time spent with the player, as well as a Facebook integration that should mark the official end of MySpace's attempts to compete for the social-networking crown.

"This is a natural partnership," MySpace chief operating officer Chris Vanderhook tells Billboard.biz. "Because of the users they have and the integrations with Spotify, Mog and Rdio it makes sense to open up our catalog to their users."

And the size of MySpace's catalog is what Specific's looking to tout the most. With over 42 million songs total, MySpace has exclusive access to 30 million songs from independent, unsigned artists, which still make up the bread and butter of MySpace's user base.

That audience, however, has been cut by more than half from November 2010 to November 2011, with unique monthly users dropping from 54.3 million to 24.9 million during that time period, according to ComScore. But MySpace is looking to re-establish itself as a leading music site rather than the social-networking destination News Corp. tried and failed to make it for over five years.

 "Music is white-hot right now and we want to be able to capitalize on our music catalog and our history in music. It's something the previous management didn't really highlight," Vanderhook says.

The music player is ad-supported and free to users, with no audio ads airing mid-stream a la Pandora. That consumer-friendly offering plus a much easier-to-use search function are what Vanderhook believes are MySpace's top two killer apps this time around, based on audience research. "What we started to see in data was that the average user only knows four to five song-and-artists combos. Ask someone to name more than five songs and artists and most people can't. Most people didn't know what else to type in so then they would leave. It was clunky having to search for an artist."

But the music player is still just a first step in what Vanderhook promises will be a much bigger, full-scale relaunch slated for some time in the first half of 2012. "The great part about [MySpace CEO] Tim [Vanderhook] and I is we own the company, we don't answer to anybody. We're gonna build great product and we're gonna put it out when it's ready. I think under previous leadership they put out a timeline and put out whatever product they had. We haven't said, 'This has to be out by this date.'"

As for the advertisers MySpace began pitching in earnest this September, Vanderhook says the site will be focusing on creating and customizing premium video for their ad partners as part of its new MySpace Entertainment division helmed by former Fox branded entertainment exec Roger Mincheff. "If you're watching a video for Alicia Keys, for example, and there's a marketer who wants to be attached to Alicia Keys they probably also want to be a part of that video content," Vanderhook says. "So if you're watching that Alicia Keys video, it makes sense for me to recommend that you might be interested to watch that video and the behind-the-scenes of Alicia Keys as brought to you by a brand."

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