Fire Sale: MySpace is Sold to California Ad Network for $35 Million

The heart of rock & roll is still beating, but does MySpace still have a pulse? Its new owner hopes to resuscitate the once-dominant social-media site.

Oh, how the (formerly) mighty have fallen. After years of decline and several leaders at the helm, MySpace has finally been sold at deep discount like a one-hit wonder CD in the cut-out bin. It was announced Wednesday that Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. will sell MySpace to California advertising network Specific Media for a mere $35 million.

And speaking of 35 million, that's how many people visited MySpace in May, less than half of its highest total, which came in October 2008.) But the selling price is far below what News Corp. had hoped to attract for MySpace (it was looking for $100 million), and it's minuscule compared to the $580 million that the media conglomerate paid for MySpace back in 2005.

Irvine-based Specific Media (which has only been in business since 1999) is hoping to turn MySpace around by focusing on its former strength as a portal for musicians and actors and their fans.To add some celebrity juice to that effort, Specific has brought in none other than pop star Justin Timberlake as a minority investor. (Is it just a coincidence that JT played Napster and Facebook entrepreneur Sean Parker in the movie "The Social Network"?)

Specific says that Timberlake will "play a major role in the creative direction of Myspace," according to an L.A. Times article. News Corp. will retain a small stake in MySpace, the article says.

So will Specific's MySpace strategy succeed where others have failed? It's hard to say. I've enjoyed using MySpace as a way to find new music (though not to connect with "buddies," etc.), so I'll be looking in on the retooled version.

It's a sad ending for MySpace, which was once the hottest social-media website before it got lapped by Facebook. The good news for MySpace is that it's fallen so far from its heights that there's nowhere to go but up.

MySpace Opens "Glee" Auditions for One More Day (This Wed.)

Although I've never seen the TV show "Glee" (I seem to be about the only person in the world who hasn't), I know many people love it. So this post is for everyone who wants to be on the show (or has a young friend or relative who wants to be on it).

By popular demand, MySpace is having what it calls an "encore" of auditions for "Glee." The new casting call will begin on Wednesday, April 28th at 12 Noon Pacific Time (3 pm Eastern) through Thursday, April 29th at 11:59 am Pacific (2:59 pm Eastern). You can submit a "Glee" audition during this time window if you haven't done it already.

See the official "Glee" auditions MySpace page, www.myspace.com/gleeauditions, for details. And make sure you read the "Glee" terms and conditions of submission before taking part in the process. Among other things, you must be at least 16 years old, must not be under any contract that prohibits you from giving exclusive services to "Glee," and must be a registered MySpace user.

To keep up with all the latest news on "Glee" auditions and other happenings related to the show, sign up with the various official "Glee" social networking sites. There's the "Glee" community on Fox TV, the "Glee" Twitter page, and the "Glee" Facebook page.

Music News: Roger Waters 2010 Tour, Supergrass Breaks Up, Lilith Fair Sched Complete, CD Baby & MySpace Connect, No Cream Reunion, More

* Former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters will tour in 2010 to perform the band's album "The Wall" live in its entirety. You'll find Roger Waters tour dates here.

* U.K. pop group Supergrass is breaking up after almost two decades together. They produced six studio albums, according to the linked article, including the anthemic "Alright."

* Online music retailer CD Baby is partnering with MySpace Music to sell tunes from CD Baby artists on the widely used social-networking site. Though MySpace has lost momentum to Facebook and Twitter as a go-to social-networking destination, it's still a potent force for musicians and fans to reach each other.

* Lilith Fair has announced its complete list of 2010 tour dates. The all-women touring festival, begun by Sarah McLachlan a decade ago, returns this summer. McLachlan is once again headlining every event on the tour, which otherwise has a different line-up of 11 performers at each date.

* Jack Bruce, best known as the bassist for 1960s supergroup Cream (with Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker) and West, Bruce, & Laing, has confirmed that Cream will never reunite again. Which makes me very glad that I saw them in 2005 at Madison Square Garden. Even though that ticket was the most money I've ever spend for a concert ticket, it was well worth it.

* And finally, the highly influential Malcolm McLaren died last week, and KCRW music librarian Eric J. Lawrence offers a brief remembrance here. McLaren is best know for managing the Sex Pistols, but he also recorded his own albums and had a hand in fashion and cinema. 

Modest Mouse's New "King Rat" Video, Directed by Heath Ledger, is Released

Besides being an actor, the late Heath Ledger also directed several music videos, and his last one was released today. Ledger's six-minute video for Modest Mouse's song "King Rat" made its debut today exclusively on MySpace Video. (Embedding the video was disabled, but I've put a screen cap above and you can view the video at the link.)

Although the animated video features fish and other sea creatures piloting a fishing boat, which seems like standard cartoon fare, the video takes a dark turn as we see the "fishermen" hunting for (and killing) humans. (Which may explain why the video has a positive rating of only 25%.) It's said that the video reflects Ledger's interest in the issue of illegal commercial whaling, which is a controversial issue in the late actor's native Australia.

A press release says that Ledger had proposed the idea for the video in 2007, according to a blog post at SeattlePI.com. The video was unfinished at the time of his death, but was completed by a company that Ledger had worked with, in honor of the actor.

The release also said that, in keeping with Ledger's interests in protecting ocean life, proceeds from sales of the first month of the video's iTunes sales will go to an international marine wildlife organization.

Yahoo in Talks with News Corp. about Working Together on MySpace and More

Yahoo is in talks with News Corporation about combining the latter's MySpace and other News Corp.-owned online properties with Yahoo. The move is seen as a move to fend off Microsoft's attempt to take over Yahoo, and would reportedly include News Corp. paying cash to Yahoo.

Yahoo and News Corp. have reportedly been in talks about some kind of combining of their properties over the last year and a half, but the talks have taken on new urgency with Microsoft's recent unsolicited takeover bid for Yahoo, which Yahoo turned down.

"Quarterlife": The Web-Only TV Show from the Creators of "thirtysomething"

Producers Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz have always felt out of step with the whims of the traditional TV network game, even though they've definitely had success with it. So now they're making TV show on their own terms, except that you won't find it on any TV.

The show, "Quarterlife," involves a group of people in their twenties trying to manage love, life, work, and other things while trying to figure out what to do after college. "Quarterlife" can be viewed only on the show's MySpace page.

Zwick and Herskovitz have the creative chops to attract viewers and keep them engaged. Their series "thirtysomething" captured the minds (and eyeballs) of young professionals during the late '80s and ran for several years, attracting lots of critical acclaim (and some derision) along the way.

They had mixed luck with their later TV series, gaining more critical praise and loyal audiences (but the size of those audiences was modest by major-network standards). Each of these shows—"My So-Called Life," "Relativity," and "Once and Again"—ended up being shuffled around to different times and days, which Zwick and Herskovitz feel made it tough for them to gain a steady audience.

I've always liked the work and the approach of Zwick and Herskovitz. They presented characters who felt like real people in real-life situations, not cardboard cut-outs. And they've always had some great young actors. The 15-year-old Claire Danes played 15-year-old Angela Chase in "My So-Called Life," which also starred Jared Leto in his first widespread exposure as an actor. And I seem to recall that the young Brad Pitt even played a bad-boy motorcycle boyfriend of the family's babysitter on one episode of "thirtysomething."

So I'm glad to see these two pros at work again and having more control than they've every had. With "Quarterlife," Zwick and Herskovitz are producing the show they want without having to worry about network schedules, oversight, or bottom-line issues. (In fact, "Quarterlife" was originally supposed to be a network TV show, but never got aired, as far as I know.)

And if "Quarterlife" doesn't last very long, don't feel bad for Zwick and Herskovitz. Like I said, they're definitely got creative chops and can find work: Together they have produced movies such as "Blood Diamond," "The Last Samurai," and "Legends of the Fall." And Zwick has been the director of a number of films including "Glory" and and "Courage Under Fire."

It'll be interesting to see how the "Quarterlife" experiment turns out. If it goes well, we might see other creative teams deciding to bypass the whims of network programmers and seek out their own audience on the Web. Considering the tremendous network pressure for a hit, with new shows being pulled off the air after only one episode if they don't draw an immediate audience, it might be a smart move. Or the only move.