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Don’t look now, but Myspace is back — for real this time. The old social network is now Myspace (no capital S), a full-scale music destination designed to bring artists and fans together.

“When we bought it in 2011, it was so mismanaged, I don’t know what it was,” says Tim Vanderhook, who purchased Myspace with his brother Chris and now serves as its CEO. “But we bought Myspace to return it back to what it was so great at, which was a platform for creative expression, promotion, and discovery. We’ve talked a lot about Katy Perry, Bruno Mars, Adele, all these artists who were discovered on Myspace. They were able to promote themselves and put out their brand. When you look at the intersection between all three of those things, that’s what we were trying to get back to. Ultimately we want to make a home for artists.”

For a lot of people who were just getting into the music business during Myspace’s first wave, it’s a welcome return. “I really got my start on Myspace back in ’06,” superproducer and rapper Hit-Boy told EW. “I reached out to everybody I thought could help me, and then people started reaching out to me. I just kept it going, and I would put new music on my page all the time… A lot of people I met on myspace back in ’05 or ’06 I’m still friends with today.”

Several other high profile artists have already signed on. In addition to Justin Timberlake, who operates as the creative director and has an ownership stake in the company, Pharrell Williams, Kenna, Mac Miller, Iggy Azaela, Charli XCX, Ciara, Schoolboy Q, and a host of others have already gotten involved by posting special GIFs (Williams seems especially adept at this), showing up in videos, and programming radio stations for Myspace’s newly-launched mobile app. READ FULL STORY »