There’s definitely something that MySpace team has to do in order to stay alive.
Compete.com says that the arch nemesis of MySpace, Facebook, has already overcome MySpace in terms of traffic received. It happened somewhere around December 2008. However, MySpace didn’t witness any dramatic decrease in visitor numbers, as the monthly traffic has declined by only 8% since May 2008. The statistic is quite good for them, as Facebook has grown an astonishing 250% during the past year.

Statistics are nothing without proper interpretation.
Actually, these statistics show that MySpace is stagnating, nothing more and nothing less. The soaring numbers of Facebook users show that Facebook have targeted whole new audiences that MySpace couldn’t conquer without drastic changes to their site. Facebook is with a more flexible audience, as the pages of MySpace look plain ugly for the first time visitor.

User statistics also don’t mean anything, at least if the companies can’t profit from them.
The monetization of MySpace is clearly going better than the one of Facebook. The users just generate more cash than the ones at Facebook do. That’s the downturn of the popularity that the #1 Social Network in the world has – Facebook can’t target their users very well because of the tremendous age differences of members there. However, the main rival of MySpace has its advantages (e.g. a cleaner look) for attracting potential advertisers. Contrary, MySpace has no problems with its teen to twenties user base, because it’s easy to target. That is why they can cash in more, even from their shrinking user base.

What should be done?
MySpace has implemented a micro-blogging feature following what Facebook did. Well, you can disregard Twitter, but it’s bad for business if people find features that are offered on other sites and go to those sites, instead of putting up with what MySpace has. New features will be introduced undercover, in order to sustain the shrinking pool of MySpace users. It’s difficult to predict what some of these features might be.

MySpace is on a crossroad. One way, there is the golden crown of music that MySpace has successfully implemented, it still can be polished, and if they choose to do it, they’ll probably squeeze everything left out of the music niche that can possibly be taken.

The other way is taking risks to make MySpace more appealing to audiences other than teens trying to get in touch with the bands they like. Generally speaking, MySpace has to choose whether they want to fight Facebook or try to sustain their user base. It’d be interesting to see if they can do both, but only time will tell. Long gone are the days when MySpace first appeared and raised to heights no other Social Network can rise to again, they finally need to work with an attitude of a market shark, otherwise MySpace could be a fad that’s as popular as yesteryear’s parachute pants.

If so, Myspace.com recently announced that they are taking submissions for their newest reality TV show, called Married On Myspace.

The interactive online series will allow one lucky couple to receive the wedding of a lifetime while the MySpace community contributes to planning and experiencing their big day first hand.

The series consists of 13 webisodes and Myspace users will ultimately decide all the details of the nuptials, including the location the lucky couple will marry, where they’ll hold their respective bachelor and bachelorette parties and even what they’ll wear!

If you, or someone you know would like to submit your application to participate, please visit Married On Myspace.

But what’s happening looks more like an online demographic shift than impending doom. MySpace — at least for the time being — continues to be the best way to reach teenagers and young adults. As you can see from the Hitwise table, above, MySpace has actually grown one percent among users ages 18 to 24. The sharpest drop-off has been in older demographics. Facebook has already self-reported extensive growth among those older than 30. Likely as a result of that growth, the proportion of its users ages 18 to 24 has actually fallen 27 percent, from comprising 40.14 percent of its site to 29.22 percent. Specifically, Facebook has previously said that one of it’s largest growth areas is among women over 55.

Having used both websites, it’s easy to image why this shift is happening. MySpace has a much more chaotic design and has always been the home to music fans. Facebook is a bit cleaner and more corporate.

For now it looks like MySpace has maintained their hold with a certain demographic.

Do I think he’s going out and sleeping with these women? Probably not. I’m pretty sure he’s just playing pretend. He’s hitting mid-life. He just upped his commitment level to a woman (you) by moving in with her. He wants to play “I’m still young, rich, and single.” Understandable.

That said, he is lying – to you and to these women. He’s not just “socializing.” He’s playing a computer game, a Sim City, of sorts, where he can be whoever he wants to be. The problem is, MySpace isn’t Sim City. It’s a network of real people, some of whom are local. MySpace is not a game.

Or maybe the poor guy just got spammed due to his profile security settings. All my friends on MySpace are hot chicks too!

He did talk about the new music service launching this month that will partner with the major labels, offer free streaming, and include some original content from its audience of 120 million members. DeWolfe said that MySpace is very focused on making the new service a success, with more than 70 people, including top MySpace management, working on the project. He was asked if Amazon was providing the downloading capabilities, but declined to answer. MySpace has a strong music foundation, and may be able to make some inroads into the Apple/iTunes territory.

The feature won’t be available for a few months, but when it is, MySpace members will be able to update their profiles using Google Gears.

A federal judge in Los Angeles awarded MySpace.com $230 million dollars in damages for the “Spam King’s” activity at the popular social networking website. Myspace sued under the federal anti-spam law that incurs a $100.00 penalty for each spam – This penalty is tripled if it’s found that the violation happened intentionally. Wallace and Rines did not show up for the court hearing.

They are accused of sending more than 730,000 messages to fake “friends” with recommendations of “cool” websites that ended up being money making schemes.

It’s just another example of how spamming doesn’t pay..

Steve Pearman, MySpace vice president of product strategy, said at the O’Reilly Web 2.0 Expo here that the content of the gallery was driven by user requests for rich applications that provide an engaging experience and include strong privacy protections and insulation from spam.

“What’s been launched is a direct reflection of these desires,” he said. “That whole project has been driven by user input on what they want out of our apps. You have to check your ego at the door. It is not about what we want. It is about what the community needs.”

If you have a MySpace account, you can jump right over to the new Apps Gallery, and start adding applications instantly.

Expect the Gallery to grow a lot in coming months, as MySpace pushes the new service.

Along with MSNBC, MySpace members can access the latest political news, watch videos and participate in discussions about Presidential candidates and political issues. Users can also upload their own content to the site.

If you’d like to use MySpace’s election hub, it can be accessed at Decision ‘08.

Some in the music industry think it has long been time for a change.

“We believe that one of the greatest growth opportunities for our industry is to develop new partnerships and models focused on unlocking the value of music in the online community space,” said Edgar Bronfman Jr., chairman/CEO of Warner Music Group.

Right now, MySpace is dominant in the online music community space, with an audience that constantly seeks new music. MySpace hopes their DRM-free downloads will compel them to purchase songs, rather than bootleg them.

MySpace Music will be closely scrutinized in the next few months. It could be the next step in the evolution of the music industry.