Three years ago, Steve & Dubber talked about Twitter as a conversational medium, how it had been misrepresented in the mainstream press, and what its potential was for independent music.
Recently, we revisited that conversation, and thought we’d try and bring it up to date. So we did. Only, we forgot to share that with you. Apologies for the oversight. Here it is now.
Photo by captain simon’s mandolin
Exactly one year ago, I wrote a blog post about the fact that Myspace has failed musicians and fans alike.
Recently, after speaking to the Head of Music for Myspace, I wrote another blog post explaining that Myspace is not just ugly, frustrating and riddled with spam – but actually compromises the ethics of its users while exploiting your music and your audiences… and why it can and will never be what it should be.
Myspace is not simply irrelevant, it’s utterly poisonous.
When I wrote that first blog post, I suggested that Sunday October 24th 2010 should be declared ‘Quit Myspace Day’. Nothing has happened in the intervening year to change my mind about that. In fact, if anything, I’m more convinced than ever that we’re all better off without it.
So now it’s time to just close our accounts and enjoy a Myspace-free life. Tell everyone you know. If you’re on Twitter, it’d be great to see the tag #quitmyspace trending.
You deserve much better. Happy Quit Myspace Day, everyone.
The first thing you should know about the Product Manager for MySpace Music is that he’s an independent musician. He’s in a band called Big Kid. That’s him playing the drums. He also writes most of the songs. I found that both encouraging and surprising.
Myspace Music Product Manager Steve Clark approached me through my blog to have a chat about what was going on at Myspace, the big changes that they were making, and what they were doing to belatedly address the fact that they have access to (as I put it) every frickin’ band on the planet.
Now, I’ve been critical of Myspace in the past (to say the least). My complaints have been many and varied, but my concerns have been especially with respect to the fact that all of their efforts in the music space have been directed exclusively at major labels – and the fact that as an interface, both for artists and for fans, it’s a pile of crap.
A friend of mine once joked that you can’t polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter. Basically, Myspace has been rolled in glitter.
Steve Lawson from Andrew Dubber on Vimeo.
You’re probably aware that I use Twitter. In fact, I’m a bit of an evangelist for it. I think it’s up there with Email and RSS as one of the few absolutely killer online appliances – and pretty much a must for musicians and independent music businesses these days.
And yet, it’s been getting some bad press. There are people who say it’s all narcissists and psychopaths. Others who claim it’s just a hiding ground for celebrity junkies.
Steve Lawson, one of my top must-read music business thinkers, wrote a blog post today that explains Twitter in the face of some terrible journalism. I caught up with him for lunch in London and we had a chat about it.
Quite predictably, I made a video. That’s it up there.
Ooizit is a social networking site aimed at promoting UK bands to UK audiences. That’s pretty much the whole pitch.
What do you think? Do we need another social network? Do we need another site for ‘unsigned bands’? What’s great about Ooizit? Do you use it? What does it do that sets it apart?
ReverbNation provides a whole lot of tools for the artists, record labels, management and venues.
Rather than acting as a platform in its own right (although you can use it as such), ReverbNation supplies you with widget tools, fan signup tools, mailing lists, street team management facilities and lots of different reporting tools so you can see who is doing what with your music and where. It’ll also help you get your music into Facebook.
Positioning itself as a kind of Swiss Army knife of online music business, ReverbNation certainly has a lot of features and uses. But is it any good?
Using ReverbNation? Has it helped? Is all that reporting useful or just information overload? What’s the best thing about ReverbNation? The worst? Let’s hear what you think…