In what might be the first acquisition by MySpace, after new CEO Owen Van Natta's April appointment, the once-leading social network is likely to strike a $20 million deal for the social music service iLike!

According to Michael Arrington of TechCrunch, which first reported the probable acquisition, the potential agreement between MySpace and iLike would indicate a new direction for MySpace, which has been struggling amid the changing media landscape - whereby Facebook and even Twitter apparently rule the roost.

Describing itself as "the Web's leading social music discovery service and the dominant music application on the Facebook, Orkut, hi5 and Bebo platforms," iLike functions both as a recommendation engine, as well as a networking site."

Going by a recent tally, 50 million users have active iLike accounts, and the popularity of its band pages is second only to MySpace's!

The most striking part of the deal is that since iLike's music application is used by the Facebook too - TechCrunch says nearly 10 million Facebook users use iLike every month - the acquisition will more than affect Facebook, which lacks its own music application!

In addition, with iLike's Universal Artist Dashboard, a portal used by musicians and labels to reach out to fans; and its 'indie' music site GarageBand. com, MySpace would be able to enhance its status as go-to music site!