Is MySpace over?

May 8, 2008

I get this question a lot. Because you hear this a lot. And musicians want to know, because most of them rely on MySpace as an integral part of their online strategy.

Well, as much as it pains me to say this, I have to come back with the answer: No, I’m sorry - it still matters.

Because I’m not a fan of MySpace. Hate it with a fiery passion, in fact. And yet, when I compiled a recent top 10 list of music-related sites that artists NEED to be on, this came out as number one. It’s not relevant because it’s good - it’s important because it’s so widespread.

So while this makes me incredibly uncomfortable, here are three good reasons that MySpace is not just still alive and well, but actually pretty damn near crucial for online music business.

1. Over 100 million accounts
That doesn’t mean over 100 million users, but there are over 100 million registered accounts and there have been for a couple of years. That suggests that even very conservatively, there are over 10 million people periodically checking to see what’s up. You have to put your music where people can find it, and there are a lot of them here.

2. Music embedding
We all know that artists can have their own music on their own page - but most people completely overlook the fact that any standard user can have their favourite song by their favourite act on their own page. Make sure your friends are playing your music to their visitors too. Oh, and while you’re at it, change your settings so people can actually download your songs. Go do that now.

3. Default search
When people want to know about a band, or hear your music to figure out whether it’s worth going to your gig, MySpace is the first port of call for most music fans. They may not like it - and many of them don’t - but if they’re interested in hearing your music, this is the place they’ll look - because the chances are good that this is where they’d find it.

And while most people I know have moved their social networking to Facebook - or, for the more sophisticated early adopter - Twitter, Utterz or Pownce, musicians are still stuck in MurdochWorld, riddled with advertising they don’t get a cut of, and dealing with the ugliest and least user-friendly blog interface known to mankind.

You can use it for making contacts and connections, and I actually know people who do the majority of their business through MySpace - though I don’t recommend it.

It’s kind of nostalgic, actually
You can still friend me on MySpace. I go there occasionally. Twice in the last 8 months, in fact. But for daily social engagement - personally, I’m a Twitter user. You can follow me here.

So as far as MySpace goes — for now, it’s worth hanging around. But I can’t wait to lead the migration once there’s a credible alternative with enough critical mass to make it worthwhile.

Are you on MySpace? What makes it worth your while?

Technorati Tags: myspace, music

Also of interest:
Five mistakes you’re probably making with your MySpace page.

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13 Comments, Comment or Ping

Kevin Daoust

Sir, you’ve hit on some very good points.

I do agree that it is a mess of a site to begin with (and some of those themes that people install are quite ugly, and I’m saying that nicely…) but if treated properly, what other way can you get three tracks, photos, embedded video, biography, tour dates and other assorted goodies on the Web for free and in just under a few minutes?

Facebook might be closing in with its new “Fan” pages, but it’ll be a while before it overthrows MySpace as one of the go-to sites for music.

May 8th, 2008
mono

I created a MySpace artist page ages ago (without any of the five mistakes) and have found it to be generally a bit of a let down. After filtering the constant comment spam and friendings from people who are just trying to collect the most friends, I discovered I was left with relatively little in terms of people interested in the music. In those instances, I often politely redirect them to either my website or to my Last.fm page (which in recent times, I believe has far surpassed MySpace for artists) which is much better at audience appropriation in my opinion.

I must admit, I’ve yet to really look at Facebook as another alternative but it hasn’t really appealed to me so far.

“what other way can you get three tracks, photos, embedded video, biography, tour dates and other assorted goodies on the Web for free and in just under a few minutes?”

Yes, that would be a good summary of about half of Last.fm’s artist services, but without a track limit.

May 8th, 2008
fakedjs

Myspace is a mess but is a vehicle for keeping up with some of your favorite artists as well as discovering new talent. I’m surprised there was no mentioning here of the Warner-Myspace deal, a deal that some say will make Myspace an iTunes competitor. Given its stylistic issues and slow page loads I don’t see how it could even to Amazon or the Zune store.

May 8th, 2008
Peter Blue

We are still on MySpace for the reasons you mentioned, too. Although I like the features of Revernation, there are simply not enough fans on the site. As our music is instrumental, with melodic electric guitar, Hammond B3 etc, I did a search on Reverbnation for fans of Santana, Larry Carlton, Robben Ford etc. in order to introduce my music to them. I found 5 matches for Santana and none for the others. Doing the same thing on MySpace I get hundreds of results. So I’m going to use MySpace still. I will streamline my profile and throw out the slide show. There will be a major change on MySpace music within a few month, nobody knows what the site will be like then.
Blue Star on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/sexyguitar
on Reverbnation: http://www.reverbnation.com/bluestar, and if you like to catch me on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/sexyguitar

May 8th, 2008
Jon

You have to be willing to market yourself when you’re promoting your music. You can’t just expect people to find you. As for places to promote your music where you can get all those goodies: try Ning. Although you have to draw people to there - they aren’t already on the site - if you have a focus people are interested in, they’ll come.

May 8th, 2008
Tom Parnell

Yes, I absolutely agree. MySpace is a hideous thing. An e-blight. But it’s absolutely necessary to be on there. Hopefully funneling traffic in the direction of your *own* site (still a good portion of the hits to my band’s website come from MySpace - it’s generally one of the top 2 referring sites).

It’s a bit like being in the Yellow Pages, or something. It may be aesthetically uninspired, restrictive and generic - but it’s where most people I know would go to check out a band they’d heard mentioned. Because you *know* you’ll find the information you need, and won’t have to plough through an unfamiliar navigation structure to get to some songs.

Question: does the continued dominance of MySpace as ‘first port of call to listen to a band’ support the view that bands’ own websites should be designed on the assumption that they *won’t* be the first port of call for those unfamiliar with the music?

May 8th, 2008
Mike

I agree with you about myspace - it really is awful.

I think a comment you make in your otherwise great article is a bit contradictory: “I can’t wait to lead the migration once there’s a credible alternative with enough critical mass to make it worthwhile.”

Unfortunately there won’t be another site with critical mass unless someone leads the migration? Catch-22 really…

Cheers

May 8th, 2008
wolfgang

Yes, MySpace is over!

1* it gets slower and slower. reason: bad code (?) or just the people bloathing the system(?)
2* it has no effect on business. when I analyze where customers come from: not from MySpace.
3* 70% is one way communication. top-bands and labels just spam mass-mail. who can communicate with 1.000.000 fans bi-directional(?).
4* search engine is not effective. I don’t find people who have a MySpace site.
5* now they localize MySpace to make it easier to sell ads, but do they implement tools to rise local communication?

anyhow: I met some very nice people and artists via MySpace. Is this enough?

May 9th, 2008
James

I think most people agree MySpace is an awful site, but a necessary evil. Because of it’s dominance it’s the first port of call for people trying find music - potential fans don’t want to have to find the artist’s website, navigate through what can be complicated ‘arty’ pages and to find a ‘media’ page where there might be a stream or two in Windows Media, or Real Player. They want to be able to hit one page where they can see news, tour dates, photos, and most importantly - listen to music.

Sure there are other places that offer these services, but MySpace was the first and it got so huge so quickly it’s going to take a lot to topple it.

Interestingly I was working with a new major-label act in the UK recently and the new media dept. at the label were panicking because the artist didn’t have many MySpace friends (or plays on the audio player) - we’re talking 100’s in both cases, not 1000’s - “so what?” I asked - I was swiftly told that their concern was that Radio playlist panels (in this case BBC Radio One) looked at MySpace as their first port of call to see what kind of buzz the artist/label was creating, and their popularity on MySpace was seen as an indication as to whether the station should playlist them or not. So there you have it - have a ‘popular’ MySpace page or else Radio One won’t playlist you

For me, this is very worrying as it’s easy to get more friends by bulk inviting people (something we experimented with), and you can spend 10 mins every day refreshing your page to up the play count - thus fabricating your popularity.

All of this leads me to believe that no, MySpace isn’t dead - and it won’t be until a rival that is worthy in the eyes of the industry (and has colossal financial backing) comes along.

May 9th, 2008
Jason Kemp

Myspace is like some 1997 flashback, but I have found some great music there myself and so I think it might be a bit like commercial radio stations used to be but with some hidden gems.

As for other social networks I like ning as well. I was on twitter for a day or two - when it came out - endless chatter I do not get how that works unless its like sonar?

As for an alternative easy to use platform WordPress is my choice - there is a huge amount of choice of plug-ins for all kinds of media and with the latest versions user interface and image management has also been improved hugely. It is also fast and easy to implement.

All bands should absolutely have their own websites and brand identities where there intent is clearly communicated.

In my view Natalie Merchant and Over the Rhine have both managed to combine aesthetic designs, people friendly branding , whimsy and solid functionality without losing the plot which does seem to happen a lot at nograce(my)space.

May 9th, 2008
Jason Kemp

My apologies “there intent” should have read their intent.

As for WordPress I’m suggesting version 2.5.1 which is better than 2.5 and 2.3.3 which this site is still using but what a beautiful site anyway.

May 9th, 2008
Matt @ Kurb NZ

Yeah I done a lot of work with bands on Myspace.

I wrote a blog about it recently basically saying . . .

2005, 2006 was a great time for artists to be on Myspace.

Now, not so much. I compare myspace to street posters or a group txt before a gig. You should probably make sure it’s done because it’s cheap promotion.

Myspace has influenced the way people interact with music online now, um . . . a lot. Facebook hasn’t been able to replace the music functions Myspace fulfills.

Also, you should probably get a blog. That was my main point.

I would add to also watch Reverb Nation remembering that Myspace was a site that grew rapidly in one part because it gave artists access to tools theyd never used successfully until that point.

Y’know myspace may not be a beauty queen but ol’ Tom’s given me plenty to be thankful for.

I think the take away is . . . being an early adopter can be a very good thing.

I’ve just joined twitter. So far I have no followers.

May 9th, 2008
nancy

MySpace HAS been a great tool to generate an existence as one of the myriad of unsigned indie artists in the vast music sea. But I consider it a subwebsite to my primary website through Hostbaby which I found through selling my CDs on CDBaby. Now I’ve added my own blog to my main website to widen my accessibility through relationship which will become more important as things develop albeit slowly.

I agree that MS can be vexing– the annoying ads and it’s painfully slow at times (but if you disable the html that helps) — but I’m glad to hear Andrew say that’s it’s still around for awhile. Even though I don’t check in everyday, I do love the way the friends list grows on its own and I’ve bonded with other musicians there. The networking aspects in getting gigs has been helpful too. It’s great to have more than one place to display my calendar. It’s also was where I first learned to blog and comment on other blogs. For gigging, I also have a SonicBids acct to help me move beyond my local world. Because I don’t want to live online 24/7 (there IS life beyond music) I’ve decided to limit my presence to those 3 online dwellings.

All that to say, guess I’ll keep my MS acct till I find it detrimental to my musical existence. Although there are a few things to shore up (if I ever get around to it) after reading Andrew’s 5 MS Mistakes list!!

May 9th, 2008