Justin Timberlake Considering MySpace Talent Competition

Singer/actor wants to bring new talent to the site he now co-owns, manager says.
By Gil Kaufman

Justin Timberlake
Photo: Ethan Miller/ Getty Images

Now that he's bought a chunk of recently sold MySpace, Justin Timberlake is eager to get his hands dirty relaunching the once-powerful social networking destination.

According to Timberlake's longtime manager, the singer-turned-actor has got plenty of ideas about how to get MySpace back on track as a destination for music fans, including finding new talent. Manager Johnny Wright said that using the site to find the next great singer or group is just one of the concepts that got kicked around during the frantic two weeks of negotiations that went on before Specific Media's deal with Timberlake to buy MySpace from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. was announced last week.

"Whether it becomes a talent competition or something like that, those are things that we will still flesh out," Wright said, according to The Associated Press. "We definitely want to bring the industry back to MySpace to really look at the talented people that have put their faces there."

More detailed plans for how Timberlake and the site's new managers will run Myspace are expected at an August 17 press conference.

California-based Specific Media paid $35 million for MySpace last week in a mostly stock deal that came six years after Murdoch's News Corp. outbid a number of other media giants to purchase the then-hot site for $580 million. In the ensuing years, MySpace cooled off as new rivals such as Facebook took off.

Hours after Specific announced its deal to buy MySpace, it issued a press release touting Timberlake's status as a part owner and creative force, noting that he will have his own office and staff. Given Timberlake's role as the founder of Napster in the hit Facebook movie "The Social Network," his involvement in the project quickly became a global headline. And, according to reports, that partnership wasn't even sealed until just 30 minutes before Specific Media's MySpace purchase was made public.

While Wright didn't offer any details on what form the talent show might take, the manager who has handled the singer since his 'NSYNC days said his client is eager to get things going. The day after the deal closed, Wright said he got an email from an anxious Timberlake that read, "Are you up? My mind is going dizzy with ideas. I need to talk."

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1666784/justin-timberlake-myspace-talent-competition.jhtml

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