Launched in August 2003, MySpace seemed to be the destination for music-related social networking. With both regular user and music accounts, fans and musicians alike could create pages to interact with each other, and musicians could easily friend other musicians, thus creating virtual communities based on mutual genres or location. In June 2006 it was ranked the most popular social networking site in the United States, but in recent years other sites have risen far past MySpace. In April 2008, Facebook came out on top as the world’s premier social network, and as other sites like Twitter and YouTube soar in popularity, MySpace seems to be stopping dead in its tracks. The pages are inundated with advertisements and the interface is clunky (not to mention the music player crushes mp3s to 96 kbps, a dreadfully low bit rate that often severely distorts the original sound). With the panoply of options for sharing one’s music online, is MySpace really necessary anymore? While some would argue that it’s still a useful tool for keeping in touch – and it’s never a bad idea to have all your bases covered – other sites exist that may be able to promote and in some cases, sell your music, better.
Seems pretty dead to me as a social networking platform (Facebook and Twitter swallowed it completely), but it's still a go-to for me (age 31, so fading fast) when I want to hear a band for the first time -- because googling "[band name] myspace" is almost guaranteed to turn up a song by the band (no matter how obscure) within two clicks. And, incidentally, it's the only place I'm aware of where you can find music by the now-defunct Murfreesboro, Tennessee, power-pop band the Preservatives -- http://www.myspace.com/thepreservatives -- who absolutely rule.
ReplyDeleteI remember hearing a couple of years ago that MySpace had a bigger foothold than Facebook in the social networking space in the UK. Not sure if that's still true.
I agree with this. I ceased using MySpace about 6 months after I established my Facebook account and officially disbanded my MySpace account a few weeks ago. MySpace is over. The initial lack of uniformity in the interface was unsophisticated. Thought that has been now resolved, despite endeavors by MySpace to make the ads non-intrusive as can be seen from your example, you ended up looking like a sponsored property! MySpace is continually acting in a reactionary fashion. As Facebook and Twitter and YouTube use initiative and forward thinking and employ risk to create new elements that enhance interactivity, MySpace responds by adopting these same elements when they are a proven success. Such a model of 'progress' is useless in the digital world.
ReplyDeleteI think alot of music consumers still use Myspace to discover new artists. But, they can and do use other social networking sites as well (including Twitter and Facebook) for the same thing. But, the lack of control over advertising is ultimately an issue of branding. If an artist's web page isn't a full expression of an artist's branding efforts how does one distinguish between the special and the mediocre artists? Aside from the advertising issue, Myspace doesn't provide artists with the tools to set themselves apart. I think most Myspace webpages are visually crowded and aesthetically unpleasing. Myspace is fine to set up an initial web page for new artists, but over time the lack of control over advertising, the visually crowded pages, and inability to truly customize a page is not helpful in a crowded marketplace where branding is extremely important. Plus artists can use more relevant tools to to market their music without the visual clutter. Artists should abandon any assumptions about using a particular form of social media that doesn't provide them with the tools to develop and maintain their personal brand. And most need to customize their own personal webpage. Although well-designed sites can be expensive, semi-customized themes are easy and relatively cheap to purchase.
ReplyDeleteAs the other comments say, I think it's almost dead. We let fans to download on Bandcamp.com, where users can choose 120 to 320 kbps to do. It's however doesn't have Japanese edition, and some users have difficulty seemingly. The next coming musicians, I think, have to have the diverse channel to promote and sell their music like downloading, live and advertisement on web.
ReplyDeleteI just launched a social music site called kNERD.COM ... Most of my original ideas come from how much I disagree with MySpace's model.
ReplyDeleteIt's not dead yet, but it's the biggest whale on the beach. Musos still need to feed on the carcass, but that won't last much longer unless someone launches it back into the sea ...
ReplyDeleteIt sucks, yeah, but it's not dead yet, here's why: http://bit.ly/c1jdNt
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