More Layoffs As MySpace Declines

Industry sources are pointing towards another round of lay-offs due to hit beleaguered social networking website MySpace in the very near future.

The downsizing - which has been described as "massive" - could see hundreds of workers given the pink slip. There is of course the harsh economic climate to contend with, as well as falling advertising revenue, but most analysts paint a greyer picture of MySpace.

Monthly unique visitors to MySpace have fallen from 64.6 million in June of 2008 to 56.8 million in May of 2009 while their arch-rivals, Facebook rose from 35.2 million to 113 million during the same period. The company - itself a subsidiary of News Corp (Fox) - is seeking to rebuild itself with a music-based strategy. Unfortunately the website has become synonymous with awful "emo" bands (pictured), spam and epilepsy-inducing, slow-loading pages.

TechCrunch reports that the new round of firings will dwarf the previous ones - 5% of its staff last year and 45 more last month - and will move beyond the company's periphery employees.

At least they finally got that Victorian music-player updated.