MySpace has kicked off what its new owners hope will be its comeback tour. The site's senior executives joined with creative partner Justin Timberlake in outlining plans recently to return MySpace to its musical roots. Their presentation for top advertisers gathered at Radio City Music Hall in New York was followed by a VIP concert whose lineup included contemporary artists Far East Movement, Natasha Bedingfield and B.o.B.
The splashy promotional affair came three months after Irvine advertising firm Specific Media bought MySpace for $35 million and touted Timberlake's ability to lend cachet to the once-dominant social network that long ago lost its magnetism.
Social media experts expressed skepticism that MySpace could orchestrate a successful second act -- a feat that has eluded other faded Internet titans such as America Online and Yahoo (YHOO).
"I've been working in online since 1994, and there's no such thing as a comeback," said Jay Baer, president of Convince & Convert, a social media consultancy. "There are reconstitutions; there are name changes; there are strategic shifts. But in terms of somebody essentially committing user-satisfaction suicide and somehow sewing their wound shut, it's never happened."