MySpace Buys iLike

August 20, 2009 | by Christopher Nickson

Social networking site MySpace has bought the music discovery service iLike, reportedly for $20 million.

News Corp-owned social networking site MySpace has been quiet of late, having been hammed into second place by the relentless ascendancy of Facebook.

Yesterday, however, MySpace announced that it had bought music discovery service iLike, which lets users listen to and share music across social networks, and is, in fact, Facebook’s most popular music application – although it hasn’t been on MySpace.

No one’s giving the exact price, but the rumors are that it went for the relatively paltry figure of $20 million.

MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta said that, for now at least, iLike is set to remain on Facebook:

"In the short term users should expect the iLike experience to be unaffected.”

"Our expectation is that social networks are going to be thrilled that we're making iLike an even richer experience."

It’s a good fit for MySpace, which wants to differentiate itself – and grow – by focusing on music and entertainment, as sees iLike as a way to expand the recommendations to films, games, and more.