Oct. 22 (Bloomberg) -- MySpace’s battle with Facebook is over and the News Corp.-owned Web site is focused on a “fundamentally different” experience providing entertainment content, said Chief Executive Officer Owen Van Natta.

“I really don’t view Facebook as a competitor,” Van Natta said in an interview yesterday. “I personally have a Facebook account and I use it to communicate with my friends and my family. And I have a MySpace account that I use primarily to interact with other people in and around content.”

MySpace introduced music features yesterday for artists and fans, part of an effort by Van Natta, 39, to focus on building entertainment programming since joining the company in April. Van Natta, the former chief operating officer of Facebook, is trying to reverse what researcher eMarketer projects will be a 14 percent drop in advertising on MySpace this year.

Van Natta said he’s building the MySpace user experience around the “socialization’ of entertainment, including leveraging exclusive licensing deals with the world’s biggest music labels. Videos and online games are also a focus.

MySpace Music Videos will be a clearinghouse for videos from all the major record labels, the Los Angeles-based company said yesterday. It will include artist catalogs, as well as user recommendations on what to watch, a browsing tool, and a video player with “Buy” buttons.

Videos from the MySpace catalog also will be played on other social networks including Facebook as a result of the company’s recent acquisition of online music-sharing service iLike, Van Natta said. A new MySpace Artist Dashboard will provide a free data and analytics tool for musicians.

“The licenses that we have gotten through our partnerships are different from everybody else out there,” he said.

Music, Games

Other new features introduced yesterday will allow users to purchase music on from Apple Inc.’s iTunes and Amazon.com Inc. without leaving MySpace’s Web site.

Facebook, which has more than 300 million users, compared with MySpace’s 125 million, also is adding entertainment content. The closely held Palo Alto, California-based company said yesterday it’s starting a service that will let users buy music for friends, said Larry Yu, a company spokesman.

Van Natta said MySpace will be pursuing new partnerships and didn’t rule out a relationship with Facebook. MySpace currently has a deal allowing users to synch updates with Twitter.

“We’re really open to partnerships with anybody and everybody,” Van Natta said. “Discussions are going on all over the place.”

‘Redefining the Game’

Moving away from a rivalry with Facebook is the right strategy, said Charlene Li, an analyst with Altimeter Group LLC in San Mateo, California.

“Redefining the game is very smart,” Li said. “MySpace is much more focused on the content around entertainment, lifestyles, and interest areas around music, film, eating out and play. The social networking side of it is a bonus.”

Next year, a $900 million advertising partnership with Google Inc. is set to expire. Van Natta said the company’s health “doesn’t hinge on any individual partnership.”

New York-based News Corp. recorded second-quarter impairment charges mainly tied to the performance of Fox Interactive Media, the unit that includes MySpace. That reduced earnings by 17 cents a share, the company said.

News Corp. rose 15 cents to $12.72 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The Class A shares have risen 40 percent this year.

To contact the reporters on this story: Adam Satariano in San Francisco at asatariano1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 22, 2009 16:07 EDT