The proposed $20 million acquisition of "social music discovery service" iLike though may not bring about a sudden turnaround in the fortunes of the struggling social networking service MySpace, but would likely do the small players in the music industry a world of good!

The hitching up with the high-concept site iLike - a popular music application on MySpace's rival social network site Facebook - is the first 'expansion' step by the new MySpace management, after a succession of severe cuts and writedowns.

The new MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta had already mentioned earlier that iLike technology will help MySpace users in sharing songs, videos and games away from their MySpace home pages. Van Natta had said: "We believe what iLike has created isn't limited to just music and should extend to all the areas important to MySpace users, such as entertainment, video, and games."

Highlighting Nielsen's June figures that indicate MySpace Music joint venture with recording companies having nearly 12.1 million monthly visitors; Van Natta said the iLike technology would further complement its free music streaming and discovery platform.

However, the integration of iLike and MySpace Music, which may help upcoming musicians reach out to bigger audience, may not come right away. As per the deal, initially, iLike will remain headquartered in Seattle, with an unchanged management team working under the founder brothers, Ali and Hadi Partovi.