I read alot of internal and official press materials, as well as talk to some of the engineers and project managers at Nokia, so it may have been a verbal, video, or written thing. I believe it was at the Mobile World Congress where Nokia demoed the widgets they were working on, and mentioned one being for MySpace. But it was definitely fact, because I'm a musician, and for content creators and artists, MySpace is unmatched.

For everyone that thinks MySpace is irrelevant, check the facts first. Facebook grew past MySpace because of the tight integration and support in the iPhone. People that had never used the internet, much less a social network, had easy access, marketing, and peer influence to join Facebook. The iPhone's lack of Flash meant media streaming was a nonfactor, and the creative community suffered. (Try chasing your stray audience to Facebook, and see how well you can share media by comparison. NIght and day.)

Facebook may have surpassed MySpace globally, but in the US, usership is nearly neck and neck. They barely passed MySpace in the US in March. So for Americans, it is very relevant. And for musicians, its how we maintain our independence from major labels and still manage a profit. It is probably the biggest marketing tool for a working musician.

Today, MySpace is still the second largest social network, and honestly, one of the only profitable of the major ones. It is the number two destination for online video after YouTube. It is number three behind AOL and Yahoo Music for music streams, streaming more than Sony, Rhapsody, and Pandora combined. Of all social networks, it is the leader in media streaming, streaming 105% more media plays than the next in line, Facebook.

An app would balance the playing field for the two social networks, which obviously are complementary since they serve 2 purposes. One is for relating through conversation, video, and through music and media, and the other is based on family and society through common interests. Both allow status updates to be synced with Twitter, both allow online photo storage and video hosting, but only MySpace allows custom playlists, video streams, and free music streams. As an artist, we need this platform to remain viable, and an app on Maemo would really help in that regard. Make it in Qt and pack it for Symbian, and it might just be a mass market hit...