MySpace said Thursday that Michael Jackson's death has given birth to a young new generation of fans of the artist at the online social networking site.
MySpace, which launched in 2003, has lost ground in recent years to the spectacular rise of Facebook, which claims 200 million users compared to MySpace's 130 million -- leading the older site to reposition itself as a music-oriented community for artists and fans.
The number of comments and messages regarding Jackson at MySpace has topped 8.5 million since the "King of Pop" died on June 25th, and nearly 75 percent of all related status and mood updates have been from users ages 13 to 24, the site said.
MySpace Karaoke has logged 4,000 new videos of members singing Jackson songs since his death, with "You Are Not Alone" among the most popular.
And Jackson's works have remained six of the Top 10 professional music videos at News Corporation-owned MySpace for about two weeks.
Previously, Jackson wasn't among the top artists at MySpace, where favorites were more along the lines of younger favorites Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift and the Jonas Brothers.
A MySpace Music official, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the attention lavished on Jackson as an unprecedented break from usual patterns at the social networking service that indicated a wave of young users are tuning into the pop icon's works for the first time.
"These users are, for the first time, beginning to create playlists with Michael Jackson tracks, record karaoke videos, and add him as a friend," the official said. "We have never seen this activity from this generation on our site with Michael Jackson content."
Jackson's public memorial service on Tuesday in Los Angeles was streamed at MySpace, and members of the service added more than 2.4 million of the late artist's songs to playlists on profile pages on that day.
"When you think about what makes up culture and music; when there is someone as interesting and defining as Michael Jackson, his music really transcends generations," said Angela Courtin, senior vice president of marketing, entertainment and content at MySpace.
"Yes, he was odd. A lot of people are odd; that is part of what made him so enigmatic and why we were so drawn to him. Now, you have a generation of youth that are wondering what this is all about."
MySpace claims the most extensive online collection of Jackson music and videos that can be viewed or listened to online for free.
Once the top social networking site, MySpace has slipped, giving way to rival Facebook and micro-blogging website Twitter. Faced with losses, it has also cut its domestic staff by nearly 30 percent and laid off some 300 employees abroad.
The most popular Jackson songs at MySpace as of Thursday were "Pretty Young Thing," "Billie Jean," "Beat It," "Thriller" and "Rock With You."
The number of "friends" on Jackson's official profile page at MySpace has surged to 700,000 since his death, with 60 percent of the requests to sign up coming from users ages 14 to 24, according to Courtin.
"Our users are discovering what is the best about Michael through the lens of MySpace," she said. "His music is resonating."
Sales of Jackson music have rocketed since his death, with Nielsen SoundScan reporting that 800,000 copies of his albums were bought in the United States in the week ending July 5.
That number is double the preceding week and more than the first 26 weeks of this year combined, said SoundScan.
Approximately 140,000 of those albums, or 18 percent, were bought online in digital formats, according to SoundScan.
Online television and film service Hulu said viewership of the Jackson memorial was second only to the inauguration of US President Barack Obama in January.
At times, nearly four million people a minute were watching the streamed event, said Akamai Technologies, which specializes in delivering data online. MySpace partnered with Akamai and AEG to stream memorial video to its members.
Facebook said that about a million members worldwide weighed in online with comments while watching live online video of Jackson's memorial.
The MySpace rival connected members to memorial video streamed at CNN Live, E! Online, ABC and MTV. The popularity of the event was said to be outdone at Facebook by online viewing of Obama's swearing-in ceremony.
Source: http://www.yahoo.com
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