Justin Timberlake takes stake in Facebook rival MySpace

Anyone who saw Oscar winning film The Social Network will remember the weirdly charismatic character of Napster founder Sean Parker, who was played with respectable aplomb by former NSync lip-syncer Justin Timberlake.

Now, in a move that sees a combination of life imitating art and the social networking world eating itself, Timberlake has been announced as one of the controlling owners of Specific Media, the company which has bought ailing social giant MySpace for $35m.

MySpace, once the darling of the social media world and host to Lily Allen's musical career, will be hoping Timberlake's street smarts and down-with-the-kids cool can reinvent the site as it competes with the likes of Twitter and, obviously, Facebook.

The man himself was effusive that he could do just that, arguing that MySpace still has a role to play in the 2011 internet age.

"There's a need for a place where fans can go to interact with their favourite entertainers, listen to music, watch videos, share and discover cool stuff and just connect. MySpace has the potential to be that place," Timberlake said.

"Art is inspired by people and vice versa, so there's a natural social component to entertainment. I'm excited to help revitalise MySpace by using its social media platform to bring artists and fans together in one community."

Hang on - 'interact with their favourite entertainers' (Twitter), 'listen to music' (Spotify), 'watch videos' (YouTube) and 'share and discover cool stuff and just connect' (Facebook). V3.co.uk thinks Timberlake and co have a way to go to turn MySpace around into a relevant web property.

Perhaps Timberlake's knowledge gained from hanging around Mark Zuckerberg during filming for The Social Network will pay off ... oh wait, that was Jesse Eisenberg playing Zuckerberg, lord this stuff is confusing.

30 Jun 2011