After a change in ownership, and in focus — from social networking to media and entertainment — MySpace might be showing some signs of life. The New York Times reports the website is recruiting about 40,000 new signups a day — up from zero — and is expected to announce a total of one million since the launch of its new music player in December. It’s not all good news though — while signups are on the rise, and January’s traffic is up 4 percent over December's, traffic is still down about 25 percent from when Specific Media took the foundering site off News Corp’s hands.

MySpace still has a long way to go to achieve even a shadow of its former glory, but the company has some assets in its corner — a huge 42-million song library, brand recognition, and a surprisingly large amount of traffic. News Corp originally bought the site for $580 million (before screwing up in every way possible) — if the company can continue its new upward trend, the Vanderhook brothers may have gotten a bargain with their $35 million purchase.