Myspace Adds Music Media Experts to Lead Product Team

LOS ANGELES and NEW YORK, April 16, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Myspace, an Official Honoree of The 18^th Annual Webby Awards, today announced hiring Mitchell Pavao, formerly of SpinMedia, to take the helm of the company's tech team as vice president of product & technology. Leading the group with Pavao will be long-time collaborator, also formerly of SpinMedia, Brett Woitunski, who will focus on the interface, design and product development at Myspace as vice president of product & design.

Pavao and Woitunski's professional partnership dates back to their co-founding of popular indie music site PureVolume (2003) and social network for creatives Virb (2007), which were sold to SpinMedia and Media Temple, respectively.

Also joining Pavao's growing team at Myspace is a third SpinMedia veteran, Alex Chan, who will head up the platform's front-end engineering.

"Mitchell, Brett and Alex have a rare experience set, having developed music, media and social products," said Ron Nielsen, general manager, Myspace. "Myspace's platform lives in the intersection of these fundamental areas, so there's a perfect alignment between our product vision and their vast experience. We're very pleased to have them on the team."

Led by Pavao, one of the first things that the growing product team will focus on is the presentation and delivery of content, both on Myspace Discover and beyond. Since its launch, video content has been a growing area of focus for the new Myspace, which has built out an in-house editorial team and debuted seven series in under a year, including Five Minutes to the Stage, CRWN and Busking. 

"I'm impressed with what Myspace has accomplished in less than year. Leadership's commitment to setting their own course is truly admirable," said Mitchell Pavao, vice president of product & technology, Myspace. "What people don't realize is that when they rebuilt Myspace, they did so on top of one of the deepest tech stacks in the industry. From a product perspective, Myspace is at the forefront of technology, which is a very big draw for tech geeks like me. Naturally, I want to be part of that history."

About The Product Team:

Mitchell Pavao Joins Myspace as Vice President, Product & Technology
Based in the company's Los Angeles headquarters, Mitchell Pavao leads product and technology at Myspace. Mitchell is the former vice president of product for SpinMedia, where he was responsible for growing traffic, user experience and creating revenue opportunities across the company's portfolio of music, lifestyle and entertainment properties. Pavao is a tech entrepreneur who co-founded PureVolume.com and Virb.com, selling the sites to Buzz Media and Media Temple (mt), respectively. He also co-founded One Big Spark, an indie record label within Warner Music Group's East West incubator. Pavao has consulted with a number of startup ventures, including former Y Combinator's Vidly.  

Brett Woitunski Named Myspace Vice President, Product & Design
Brett Woitunski joins fellow PureVolume.com and Virb co-Founder Mitchell Pavao at Myspace as vice president, product & design. Prior to selling the popular music site and social network, Woitunski consulted with Warner Music Group. Woitunski served as vice president of product for SpinMedia before founding Yardwork Co., a Venice, CA-based creative consulting agency. He was recognized among Blender Magazine's "Powergeek 25: The Most Influential People in Digital Music." The prestigious list included such industry pioneers as Steve Jobs and the founders of YouTube.

Alex Chan Joins Myspace as Director, Front End Engineering
Alex Chan joins Myspace as the director of front end engineering. During his tenure at SpinMedia, Chan managed a team that headed a portfolio of 20 owned and operated sites, redesigning properties such as Celebuzz.com and HeartsAndFoxes.com with a mobile-first approach. Chan was previously director of user interface engineering for Demand Media and a web application developer for Juniper Networks.

About Myspace:
Myspace (myspace.com) is a place where people come to connect, discover and share. Showcasing artists and their work, the site gives people access to 53 million tracks and videos—the world's largest digital music library. With roots in music and social, the platform is built to empower all artists—from musicians and designers to writers and photographers—helping them connect with audiences, collaborators and partners to achieve their goals. Through an open design, compelling editorial features and analytics-based recommendations, Myspace fosters a creative community of people who connect around mutual affinity and inspiration for the purpose of shaping, sharing and discovering what's next.

Myspace and Myspace logo are registered trademarks of Myspace LLC.

EDITOR'S NOTE: High resolution images of Mitchell Pavao, Brett Woitunski, and Alex Chan are available upon request.

For more information on Myspace, please contact:
Neda Azarfar
[email protected]

or

Jackie Crystal
Rogers & Cowan for Myspace
[email protected]

SOURCE Myspace