MySpace Poised to Buy Music Networking Site iLike

MySpace seeks to boost falling web traffic by acquiring iLike, a music networking site where users can share recommendations, playlists, and concert dates. iLike is a popular part of other social networking sites like Facebook and Orkut. It may replace MySpace Music as the method of sharing music information for MySpace users.

iLike launched in 2006 as a redesign of GarageBand.com. It has become popular with audiences and bands as a way to spread the word about albums, videos, and concerts. iLike sidebars for Windows and iTunes enable users to share recommendations and playlists. Earlier this summer iLike announced its intention to start a music store, rather than continuing to partner with Amazon.com and iTunes.

MySpace has been losing ground to competitor Facebook over the last year. Site traffic for June was just 68.4 million, down 6% from 2008. In the same time period Facebook’s visitors have doubled to 77 million. Advertising revenue for News Corp, owners of MySpace, has also dropped.

The deal between MySpace and iLike is thought to be somewhere around $20 million. No doubt MySpace hopes to boost its numbers by attracting iLike’s reported 50 million users.

AUTHOR: Kristina Canizares