I agree with the points above however I do think that Myspace is focusing too much on signed acts with too many add’s.

I agree with all the points you make but here’s why I finally dumped my myspace account: I had simply stopped paying attention to it. I would make good intentioned resolutions to update my account with my shows or with new songs, and then I’d forget (or it would just seem like too much work after updating my website). So I dumped it. I figured in the end it was better to have no myspace than a poorly maintained one with no shows listed.

I feel forced to maintain my myspace pages despite the continual reduction in their basic web functionality. Myspace was originally developed to link musicians with fans, and musicians with musicians. One of the ways in which these communities were built was by musicians being able to search for other musicians in their neighborhood or in the neighborhoods that they were visiting on their tours. Myspace’s geographic search of bands/artists disappeared a long time ago, and the folks at myspace (executives and tech) don’t really care (or just don’t get it). One used to be able to search for bands in your city with the same musical influences, but that was one of the first features to disappear. Seriously, so much important functionality of myspace has been disappearing little by little (particularly since you were acquire by FOX) and many musicians have been migrating to Facebook as a result. If only myspace could have maintained their original functionality (as opposed to letting it disappear) then I think there would be greater satisfaction with the site.

These are good points. As much as I’d love to close Shaimus’ myspace account, we’re continually asked by venues, press, and other people for our myspace page specifically. Even though I usually link them to an online press kit where they can download the music for free! They still say “Yeah, but that’s a bit of a hassle. What’s your myspace page?”

I think it’s a terrible tool for any actual networking, and interacting with fans is much easier on facebook or twitter. But it seems to still represent an online business card throughout the industry so we can’t afford to just close the page down… As much as we might want to.

I keep a MySpace page, but I don’t do much with it. I don’t bother updating shows or anything on there, I just have a link that gets users to my real site where I DO update the calendar regularly. I don’t have time to update multiple calendars on multiple sites. But I do maintain a presence, at least.

What’s up with ReverbNation? I thought it was going to be the next great thing for music networking, but I don’t know how many musicians use it. Also, the player has a problem with hanging partway through the songs, so I’ve given up on using their tune widgets (which I thought was a really cool idea, in theory). I use Facebook more than anything for show promotions, etc.

Every instance that Myspace has made an attempt to “improve” the site they have only made it more cumbersome.

Examples:
The way that gigs must be entered.
The activity stream.
The homepage layout.

Once people are hip to Facebook fanpages Myspace will be completely obsolete. I cannot wait.

Glad to see CDbaby partner up with MySpace. I’m hoping you can bring some of your corporate know-how and innovation to bringing MySpace up to currency. It seems to have been resting on its laurels for too long, relying on junky advertising and a clunky interface. We use it for its strengths and its brand recognition, but wish it would become a much more user-friendly web ally in every musician’s struggle to gain recognition in this overcrowded realm.

Robert R. Martin, Axiomatics, Victoria BC Canada

Hi Keith,

They are as blind as our government and media officials who reports that our economy seems to be getting better, when in reality, it is getting worse. And soon, they will notice that once they is a large fall-off, this would influence other musicians to dump myspace, leaving no alternative for industry professionals but to admit that myspace is out off sync with the market trend, especially regarding CDBABY’s musicians.

Thanks

Yes, although there are tons of music sites out there, MySpace is still the essential site for me and my fans (and potential fans) to connect. I haven’t found a single site out there that creates the fan connection I get from MySpace.

Myspace used to be a place that FANS populated. Now it’s only OTHER BANDS. Anyplace that’s short on music lovers and big on pitchmen is going to die. I just deleted over 273 emails from my Myspace inbox. Not one of them was related to my music.

It wasn’t always that way. CDBaby has real listeners checking out the profiles. It generates interest and sales. YouTube is a much better bet for exposure. Instead of showing images from your last show or even talking about the next show, upload it and let them see why they should come out to see you.

The next frontier for CDBaby is direct digital downloads from the CDbaby profile pages. Embedded audio players and a link to iTunes, Amazon etc WITHOUT the physical CD.

A single song distributed for $9 is a step in the right direction.

Wow! What a great topic! I was just going to blog about this on my web site. GREAT timing, CDbaby!

I completely disagree with the notion that Myspace is dead; and disagree wholeheartedly with those who are pushing, wishing and waiting for its final breath.

On the contrary! Myspace is VERY MUCH alive! Facebook is the BEST thing that could have happened to Myspace.

Case in point: I’m CONSISTENLY, on a weekly basis, contacted by individuals wanting to sell my CDs in their brick and mortar shops. A half dozen radio stations from the USA and the UK have contacted me, asking me for a CD to play and to promote on their FM radio stations. I’ve had one WELL-KNOWN music insider contact me wanting to promote my music for television and film. And all of this has happened within 60 days, since my CD was released in March.

In contrast, Facebook is extremely limiting. When I’m on there I feel that I’m a the mercy of the FB “man” and having to watch for Wall posts and news about stuff I have no use for is not my idea of a nice place to hang out! In oder to gain fans you have to pay for ads; unless you’re willing to wait an eternity for “buzz” about your music to make its way around FB. How can that possibly be a good place for musicians?! Cmon!

On the other hand, with Myspace I can go direclty to a person and say: “I see that you like artist XYZ…why don’t you check out my music…you may like it!” I’ve made such invitations hundreds of times and have yet to receive a negative reply. I’ve tried that on Facebook and have received numerous: “Do I know you? Why are you contacting me?”

For all of the unfriendliness, endless widgets, stupid colors and everything else that is bad about Myspace(along with the porn and the whores and the “playas”), it’s MUCH more musician friendly than Facebook. Not even close!

Facebook is boring and intrusive. I get more invitations in ONE DAY from Facebook, to join “Group Joe Blow” and “Event X, than I do from Myspace in one month’s time.

I won’t disagree with those that say that Myspace can be unnecessarily complex and overwhelming; specially if someone overloads their site with umpteen videos. But that’s the beauty of Myspace. If you want to screw yourself up by complicating the user’s visit, then you can do that. There is no rule, or law that limits you to what you can put there(like Facebook).

True, Myspace caters to the signed artists but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Think about it: You’re sharing the same space as the mega stars and sooner or later your music will rise to the top, if it’s truly good.

I have BOTH, a Facebook page and a Myspace profile and I can say with COMPLETE certainty that Myspace generates a hundred times the traffic that Facebook does. I can track the visits to my www website and the VAST majority are coming from Myspace users. As for the radio stations and review sites that have contacted me, only two have come from Facebook and the rest(a dozen or more) have contacted me via Myspace.

The bottom line: my music is selling and getting MUCH more visibility from Myspace and everything bad about it is hardly noticeable.

No, I don’t work for Myspace of CDBaby or anyone else. I’m a self-produced recording aritist who’s trying to survive, just like you!

My $0.02

I am constantly confused by artist’s running from MySpace to Facebook (which seems ill-fitted to bands in my experience) & also to ReverbNation & BandCamp (both of whom have a lot lower stats than MySpace – just go to Alexa.com ). I hear people complain about spam at MySpace, but I get more on Facebook. I think the truth of MySpace being dead is that Twitter & Facebook have better publicists. Just like people who just listen to the news might think Second Life is bigger than World of Warcraft.

We agree. Although the ads and constant inane posts by some users are irritating, Myspace is one of the few popular sites that allows artists to focus on our content – music mp3s, photos, and videos. Even the free account allows a fair amount of content, and it is easy to upload. The problem with other networking sites, such as Facebook or Twitter, is that their focus is different, and one gets tired of constantly reading the minute by minute stream of conscious pettiness there. The negatives are also valid, but on the balance, it is worth spending a few minutes a week to keep your Myspace site fairly current.

MySpace won’t even allow me to get my band page running because they want a different email address than the one I use for my personal MySpace page.

I think they’re bulky and clunky and too difficult to use at times.

Any help????

Thanks.

ah…forgot to say that there is ONE heavy knock against Myspace and that is the quality of the music player. If I could change ONE thing about Myspace, it would be that. I have a couple of pieces on there where the cymbals sound awful, but I have little control over that, and it bothers me to no end.

Supposedly, Myspace limits bandwidth to artist who don’t have as many ‘plays’ or profile ‘views’. Don’t know if that’s true, but I do know that I’ve listened to other artists who have very high play numbers and the music sounds pretty clean; unlike the music on my profile.

CDBaby: now that you’re in business with Myspace, PLEASE encourage them to change their player or to change the way that they distribute bandwidth.

If Myspace would offer unlimited song length and TOP quality, it would stick a knife in FB’s heart!

It’s definitely not dead. It’s definitely also not the greatest thing ever – but take Facebook for an example. You can’t even listen to a band on Facebook once you’re on their page – and you also have to have a Facebook account in order to even begin to try to interact with the artist. You can still, always, go to someone’s MySpace page and hear the music. And until other websites step it up, it’s going to stay that way for a while. I really hope that ReverbNation steps up their game because I am a HUGE fan of their interface and all the options they offer to artists. It’s a really nice service. For me, unless Facebook changes soon I’m going to delete my band from there. It’s a horrible, horrible thing and it hasn’t helped me one bit at all, whereas ReverbNation… a lot of fans have come up to me at shows and said that was where they first heard my music… BECAUSE IT’S RIGHT THERE and you can see it. Yeeeeeeeesh

Also, don’t forget that MySpace is still visited regularly by fans and artists outside the U.S., particularly mainland Europe. If you already have or want to have an international fan base, MySpace is a must, at least for now.

I think it’s important to remember that facebook has become the center of social media for the personal account.
However, MySpace still remains king when it comes to Music.

Instead of using MySpace for a place to spam users with bulletins & over-add people (which is what caused much of the social network’s demise), use it to keep those who visit it updated with your Show List & Latest songs.

MySpace currently isn’t the most affective tool to keep a continuous connection with your fans (due to a huge user drop off), but it IS the most affective tool to present your music so that anyone can easily find it.
And you want people to easily discover your music.

in addition. there are TONS of people (especially if you plan to include the under 18 audience in you fanbase) who use myspace just as much, if not exclusively as facebook.

it’s your duty as an artist to maintain all possible social networks.
to neglect any of the 3 most affective options (MySpace, Facebook & Twitter) is a BIG mistake.
Any other sites you use like bandcamp and reverbnation are great. but should not be used to completely replace the giants.

business sense people!

Keith, I read through your blog(excellent one, btw!) and here are your OWN words about Facebook:

2) Check/update facebook and twitter – I find myself going back to these pages waaaaay too often as if something magical would have happened.

Precisely the problem I have with Facebook: It’s a time-killer! One can get sucked into reading and weaving in and out of the Wall posts, or reading this or that other ‘news stream’, that next thing you know…it’s 2AM! Plus, I’m constantly being contacted by people from the other side of the world asking me: “hey I like your music a lot…can you send me some FREE mp3s?….or…”Can you help me find a name for my band?(a guy from Iran, of all places!).

You could argue that the same thing happens when visiting Myspace, but for some reason my experience with Myspace is not as time consuming. I feel that I have more control over the Myspace experience while Facebook is driven by others.

The worst thing about MySpace is that it feels like being in a bad relationship that you have to stay engaged with for reasons X,Y,Z. Why in the world did they make it so *darn* difficult to add gigs? Even though I stopped using the majority of the “networking” functions on MySpace long ago, I kept updating music and dates. Now they have gone and made the the show updater REALLY annoying to use. Perhaps they should look to Google Calendar for advice…

BTW, Kinda funny there is no “Myspace” option on the “Share This” below the article… I’m just sayin’!

I’m considering canceling everything but our own website. The reason is that every time I make a profile and upload music, a new one comes along. Some people search myspace. Some facebook. Apparently some Reverb Nation. But I think as a community we are missing the point. THESE ONLY WORK WHEN WE ALL USE THE SAME ONE! Imagine a world where everyone automatically goes to a central website to search ALL bands. Imagine the search capabilities. The exposure. The fan’s user experience. I know it sounds socialist or 1984ish or too controlled and centralized, but I really do believe that we should all conform to ONE website. For everything. Social, calendar, events, photos, contacts, and yes music. I know what company could pull it off too. I don’t know why they haven’t yet. Maybe they’re just watching myspace and facebook’s mistakes. Starts with G and ends with oogle. That’s my vote. I wish they would just press the button on that social network site (which you know they have on deck) and put all the other ones out of their misery.

Well thats enough ranting for me. I need to go update my bands calendar on about a hundred different websites.

I’m sick of artists whining about MySpace. The reason why MySpace has lost popularity -in my opinion- is because all us wannabes drove the masses away with our bombastic solicitations. Because of us, Facebook became an attractive gated community.

I’m sure there are plenty of good sites for artists out there, but I stick with MySpace (which I recently resumed using) cause it’s user friendly, fun, and with a little tasteful effort, I’m finding some nice pockets of listeners in Europe and Latin America that haven’t been driven away and turned off like folks seem to be here in the U.S. …which still is a viable market because of the sheer numbers.

I’m weary of folks that write anything off. Everything is a fad. Those who stay true, will find their audience, no matter where they are or what they use. Go MySpace! …but yeah, please reign in the gaudy clutter. Nothing worse than waiting for a wannabe’s page to upload.

huh… well i hate checking myspace cuz most of the messages are no longer real people but it is interesting to hear that people still check it for music… it bothers me that i have a myspace still and ive been looking for reasons to delete my page but my ping.fm account automatically updates it and now that you say this i guess i will keep it and pay more attention to updating the info and songs on it… cool thanks!

If other bands want to leave myspace, then good. Makes it less crowded for me to promote my band. I get over 200 new friends a day there, and going strong.

I totally agree with this article.

Yes, Facebook may the latest and the greatest when it comes to social networking between individuals (that is until the next big thing comes around), but MySpace is still the best tool when it comes to bands and music. As a manager, I still do 90% of my work in music on MySpace. It still surpasses my use of e-mail or any other form of communication for my business.

The problem with Facebook when it comes to music is that it is very easy for people to become fans of bands that they already know about, but it’s not easy for bands to make efforts in connecting with new and potential fans on the site. The band that I manage still uses MySpace to make hundreds of new fans a month which is almost impossible to do on Facebook. The band still gets about 50 times more comments and messages from fans on MySpace than they do on Facebook. We’ve gotten a lot of show offers and opportunities from people who have stumbled across the band’s MySpace page. That hasn’t happened once on Facebook.

I really don’t understand it when people stop using MySpace because they now use Facebook. Why? Is it impossible or unthinkable to use both? Does it actually take much longer or is that much harder to use both? In my work in the music business, I have control over four separate MySpace accounts and to be honest, it doesn’t take a lot of time out of my day to keep all of them updated.

“And let’s face it, Myspace hasn’t earned the right to continue to be relevant. The only reason it is still included in the conversation is that it has a massive amount of users.”

Let’s face it, that’s exactly why MySpace is still relevant – because people, lots of people, still use it. For that very reason alone, if you’re a musician or band, you would be foolish to stop using it. The recipe for success in this business includes exposure, so you should be using anything and everything you can to get your name and music out to more people, regardless of how “uncool” or incovenient it may be.

MySpace is a free tool with millions of users. That makes it my best friend in my world of music.

Just to correct, Facebook pages/content can easily be made available to people who do not or wish not to log in. In fact, much of the stink surrounding FB is due to things like that being done for you by default, LOL.

Glad that the article was made available for us. Very interesting.

One more thing. Besides being a performer I also book a small coffee house. Six acts a week. First thing I want to know is “What’s your myspace address?”. If the hopeful act says “I don’t have one” I know right away I’m dealing with a rank amateur. And secondly, as a booker, I can hear and see what I need to know in 20 seconds. Then I can tell them yes/no/maybe. So, hooray for Myspace from that perspective.

John

MySpace Music still has the best format for creating a website for an artist or a band. Like a lot of things, it is what you put into it and how you use it.
I have had many nice things happen because of my myspace sites. Facebook is fun for keeping up with family and close friends. But for me as a musician, MySpace is still the best way to go, a great way to communicate with presenters, fans, and other musicians, better than Facebook or Sonicbids.

We think myspace is wonderful had loads of gigs out of it, industry interest and friends

I agree that myspace is still an important platform but i know that i think its annoying for a bunch of reasons.
Compared to facebook its very stale and not as user friendly.
One thing that makes me give up on it is for example updating the events on there.
Did the myspace team hire someone to make that as difficult as possible!?

Too bad that MySpace appears to still be a go-to. The reason I say that is because it’s a PITA. I had/have it for my fomer band, but really don’t want to create an account for my new band. I have a dedicated website with an automatically launching flash music player and a playlist (which is what MySpace uses anyway) and streamlined access to content. I don’t like spending time online and don’t want to waste time “friending” a bunch of other bands on MySpace … I want to create music and book gigs.

On that note, many local promoters around here don’t want a link to MySpace; they want to see a dedicated website. If you have a MySpace page but not a dedicated website, THAT is whay they see as a “rank amateur.” They want to see a dedicated website, plus a downloadable press kit either from your own site or through SonicBids. But the promoter guy above says differently, so I guess YMMV.

But then, I am also in the jazz world and cater to an older audience, not really going for the all-ages rock show. My other band played lots of festivals and gigs in nice clubs and got paid fairly well. Perhaps it’s a different market with different expectations. So if deciding whether MySpace is good for you or a time suck, you have to know whether gatekeepers and fans in your sphere want to be served by that medium.

good article. and im not quitting myspace anytime soon.

But i agree with earlier comment that MySpace new “events” listing is over the top. Its not SO unusual to play two local low-key shows on the same day…. but when I tried to post details of an afternoon and evening show, it gave me a big flashing warning like “ARE YOU SURE???” Do they think I’m a stadium band???

do the people who do these networking sites ever try to experience their own concepts firsthand? If they were in bands with own pages, they’d realise straight away what works and what doesnt

bandcamp is pretty cool, way cooler than myspace, its the reason ppl are leaving myspace. though the friendcount is a good way to judge popularity and thats only available on myspace not bandcamp.

N.R. Media,

My point was really not to push facebook as much as it was to state how I feel about Myspace. Myspace was intended to be a social netorking site that pushed music. It was a great way to build a fan base and introduce people to music. Soooo… Where are the INDIVIDUAL USERS? They’re on facebook or twitter. That being the case, if Myspace is no longer a great social networking site and is just a website for bands (albeit with some name recognition), then its a piss-poor service and there are other sites that are better, have better audio quality, are faster and allow tools and mailing lists that reach far beyond the reach of Myspace’s usergroup.

My blog comment (http://producerkeith1.blogspot.com) was written to hopefully motivate bands to take their fan base into their own hands. I wanted to encourage them to blog, introduce people to their music and not expect the work to be done for them. I don’t even think I listed Myspace…. because I no longer believe that it effectively builds a fan base. The fan count is mostly just a number and says very little for the popularity of a band. Label executives are smarter than that!! I promise they are.

I’m not suggesting that anyone delete your Myspace page altogether. Any site that can introduce your band to any fans is something that can be used. It’s a tool. I am suggesting that we take Myspace off of the pedestal and view it in the context of a changing internet culture. It’s 2010 and things have changed.

Oh yeah, bands can totally exist without a myspace and not everyone holds to this opinion. If this is the opinion of some, then they really are out of touch with the times. GOOGLE will find a band on any social networking site, twitter, reverb nation, etc.

And so what if a promoter says, “what is their myspace address?” Simply reply. “Oh, sorry, we don’t have a myspace because we found it to do very little to further our career. We use ________ instead. It has better streaming quality so you can hear our music better. It also allows us to manage our e-mailing list of 2 million emails.”

Much more impressive and progressive if you ask me.

For most musicians being more liberally bent, you guys sure do hang on to old technology!

(P.S. The Myspace porn ads piss me off!! a lot … coming down off my soapbox now haha

I really do love the conversation!

Myspace is the Greatest tool for musician period. Any musician or artist who says other wise is just straight up delusional. There is just 1 and I mean 1 not 2 or 3, but just one problem I have with myspace, there sound quality, let just say is not quite up to par. Ok there sound quality sucks!!!
But other than that, why do you even need a web-site if your a musician or artist, people will 99.9 percent of the time go straight to your myspace page over your web site, even if they google you and your website shows up first, they will guarantee you over look your website (for those few artist who even have one) 99 percent of the time and click on your myspace instead and then maybe after there done on your myspace click a link to your web-site.
Facebook has it’s benefits, but could never compare to myspace when it comes to being an effective tool for artist and musicians. Myspace still and will alway reign supreme. Facebook is like a big blog, people come there cry about how much there life sucks and how much they wanna be heard and seen and poke in other people’s business. Facebook really makes me sick some times. It’s ment to be a tool to keep people, families and friends connected after they leave high School and/or college. Yeah it still serves as a useful tool don’t get me wrong but pales into comparison to myspace. First of all you can’t have fans anymore on Facebook people can either like or unlike you, waht a joke. I person can know and be friends with more than 5000 people, I guess there right, not even the president of the United States I would guess know 5000 people personally, lol. Freaking Facebook. Can all their servers some how magically disappear so all the facebook junkies who love to come spill their guts out ever 5 seconds on Facebook seek professional help.

Now these are just my toughts and opinion people ok, although true in every aspect. Just my opinion.

Here are my final thoughts:

1. If your a artist of a musician, Myspace is ground zero, a must have.

2. Since myspace don’t really offer you the best audio quality, use Reverb Nation as an alternative to a official web site. Reverb Nation is just unbelievable people. Sound quality is amazing for online streaming. Up to 8 mb per single mp3 on the free platform and can be extended buy paying a few dollors more per month if you desire more, but really you shouldn’t 8 megz is plenty and you upload an endless amount of songs for free at 8 mb per song. You have total control over 30 sec streams or full streams, fan exclusive it just can’t be beat. http://www.reverbnation.com. Amazing.

3. My third point is where Facebook comes in. you use Facebook as a personal tool to send people to your myspace and reverb and other online outlets. Facebook plays the middle man role. it’s the link to your myspace, youtube and other online outlets.

4. If your not some signed artist with a deal, why do you have a website, it’s a waste of money really. Ok your web-site makes you look more establish, not!!! If your running a business yes, but if you an artist, it’s all about how many myspace friends/fans you got…plain and simple.

5. if you disagree with anything i just wrote above here email me at imanidiot@needaclue.com

fye- That website shown above there is not really mine???!!! Some dude I bought a cd from on the streets a few weeks ago.

Thank you for raising up this topic, CD Baby!

I’m really surprised at how many people want to write off MySpace (or already did). For bands as well as for labels (that is our case, as I represent Metal On Metal Records, an independent label focused on old school metal) it’s definitely a #1 tool.

I’ve read all comments here and I could just write I totally agree with what N.R. Media, Mestizo Management and other MySpace defenders wrote (very good points!), but I’d like to add a few examples from our own experience of using MySpace (since December 2008) and Facebook (since February 2010) to explain WHY we are absolutely pro MySpace and don’t think Facebook is a good tool for bands and labels (while for individuals it may work best).

The only important point I agree with with the MySpace naysayers is that less and less people (fans) use it (and that thereare some cluttered and slow loading pages, OK), but that’s not the reason enough to abandon your MS page. Because while you may be getting less friend requests than in the past, you can bet that people still do check your MySpace pages and will continue to do so.

When we want to check a band, the link we click on first from Metal Archives (that’s always the very first place to go for us!) is ALWAYS the MySpace link ’cause we know we can listen to their music immediately, while the official websites either don’t have mp3 samples or you have to spend a lot of time to find them – not to mention many bands totally quit updating their websites. MySpace is the first place we go to no matter if we want to check the music of bands that play at a festival we’re about to visit, or consider buying their CDs, or simply to discover new bands, as first and foremost we are FANS.

We’ve discovered many great bands through and thanks to MySpace (’cause they either asked us for adding or we went from link to link and found them by ourselves) and well, even signed a few of them!
Would we go to Facebook to search for info and music of the bands? You gotta be kidding me, right?

FACEBOOK has WAY too many limits.
Starting from the functional and graphic limits (you can’t have a personalized layout, you can’t use html, you can’t post news with multiple pictures etc. etc.) and ending on communication. It’s possible to add songs there, but we see that practically nobody plays them! Within 2 weeks since creating the Facebook page for Metal On Metal Records the number of our “fans” rocketed to a few hundred (we actually wondered how it was possible) – then it more-less stopped, contrary to MySpace “friends” request (more on that later).

On Facebook we are practically forced to be passive (except for posting on our own wall).
Having a Facebook PAGE we can only wait for people to become our “fans” (or “like us”, as they changed that some time ago). There’s NO way to send add requests/invitations (unless you pay for ads… well, no way! ). There’s NO way to post comments on people’s profiles – there’s simply no such option. The only thing we can do is to post a comment to somebody’s wall post on OUR own page. How can somebody call it interaction? Not to mention that we’re not able to even see the “wall” of most of our “fans” in the first place (just the “info” tab). And if we see, it’s too often crammed up with all those silly games or apps like Farmville. Frankly, I prefer to see ads on MySpace (actually there’s only ONE ad on the top of each MS profile, so I don’t get what this big fuss is all about, I just ignore them anyway). So contrary to MySpace we CAN’T send messages, we CAN’T send add invites and we CAN’T post comments on other profiles. And of course we get zero updates from our “fans” (stream).

I realize in order to socialize and interact in full we’d have to get a PERSONAL Facebook profile instead of the PAGE we have, but that’s nothing we’re interested in (anyway, it’s the pages that are supposed to be for bands and business, not personal profiles).

MYSPACE gives us many more possibilities.
You could for sure notice there are more and more really nicely designed pages that basically cover the default layout (and that’s something pleasant for the eyes, not only artist’s eyes like mine, I’m sure). Not all MS pages look like crap (that is: cluttered up with dozens and dozens of random and often huge pictures, especially those glittering ones, ugh!). Our label page is not so fancy, but we personalized it according to our needs with a lot of useful information about each release and plenty of links (including links to CD Baby pages of particular albums).

The songs on our MS player are played from a few to even up to 50 times per day, so it’s a good proof MS is not dead yet. Since 10 songs in the player are too few for us, we added a second player under the default one, so that people can check all our bands’ music visiting our page there.

Moreover we have no problem with spammy COMMENTS: simply require captcha and most of all require approval before the comments are posted. Don’t want to see certain images in comments on your page? Simply don’t approve them – problem solved. But if you choose carefully your MS contacts (I prefer to use this word instead of “friends”) and don’t just add any and everyone out there, I’m sure you won’t have many problems with unwanted comments.

Don’t want to get too many spam ADD REQUESTS? Opt in for captcha again. Some months ago there was a bug on MySpace that made all requests be approved automatically. Terror struck, as we are VERY picky when it comes to accepting add requests (as a matter of fact we deny or ignore a big majority of them, as we don’t want to add/support bands whose music is not our cup of tea or some “friend collectors” who evidently are not into the kind of music we are all about – unfortunately too many people, and that goes mostly to musicians, can’t read what we wrote on our page…), but we fixed it the next day and regained the control. We go for QUALITY, not quantity – and this goes also for contacts (we’d roughly had 20,000 “friends” by now if we accepted everyone/every band automatically).

Yes, what I like about MySpace is that it gives us total control over who is our “friend” there.
Plus “CATEGORIES” are a very useful thing… If you sort all your MySpace contacts into several categories, it will make it MUCH easier for you to find whom you want in case you need to contact for example zines, radios, bookers/festivals etc. You can create categories divided by country/region if you find it useful too – or just anything that can be helpful for you to sort your important contacts and real friends from all the rest.
Does Facebook give you that option?
If you put your MS contacts into categories, you can now easily view the stream (status, bulletins, blogs etc.) of the group of contacts you are actually interested in, not contacts that you don’t even know.

We’ve got plenty of webzines’ and magazines’ journalists and radio DJs contacting us through MySpace. Needless to say NOTHING like that happened through Facebook – no communication whatsoever.
Other statistics (including daily visits and song plays) speak for themselves too.

This said, we ae still pro the actual websites and are going to maintain ours, even though obviously it gets many less visits than our MySpace page. But it’s the place we collect all information, have pages for all the bands on our roster, password protected pages for media people, shop and of course you can track down the news we’ve posted since the website went online.

And I suggest all bands to do the same (I mean: have their representative own websites and keep them updated) AND use all other possible promotional/networking tools that are made available to them. If you for some strange reason prefer Facebook, fine for you, but don’t neglect MySpace alltogether!

Thanks for reading this long rant – hope you found some useful points in it!

Jowita

Myspace was working great for us – in terms of unknown people finding the band, and then suddenly about two years ago all the friending DIED. I was used to getting several friends a day.

I looked about to see what changed in our settings, and nothing I can figure out. Social networking sites can be valuable tools to buiold audience, but they can also suck time from more productive pursuits. I can’t say that more people came to our shows from hearing us on myspace. But I know thousands more people have heard our music that way. Unless it’s crawl bots that are listening.

I still use MySpace. However, I’ve also gotten viruses TWICE from trying to use the Events posting through whatever 3rd party partner they used. Now with events, instead of being able to invite people using the categories I created in my friends list; I’m stuck entering EACH ONE by name. Also, if the name and URL don’t match then sometimes MySpace won’t even find them. They’ve shed a LOT of talent in their IT dept of late. I used to go to MySpace FIRST and then filter to all the other social nets. Now I go their last and feel like it is a chore and one that is without reward. They’ve even broken the sync with ArtistData.com so I have to now manually list each show. Take a look at your nThousand “friends” on MySpace and ask yourself, how many have recently been to a show, or bought music or merch?

A couple years ago I submitted my music and website to a company that supposedly gives musicians helpful advice and feedback for a fee. I was expecting (and needing) criticism, but I got such weird, illogical feedback that I was mad and regretted spending my very hard-earned dollars….

The guy basically told me that my music was all crap, which I knew wasn’t true due to sales and placement in films, etc. He also said “Your site is unattractive and difficult to navigate, you should use MySpace instead.”

Um, of all the social networking sites out there, MySpace has GOT to be the ugliest and most difficult to navigate! I have had a MySpace music page for YEARS, and, although I get hit on regularly, and get sent drinks, hearts, smilies and whatever the hell else stupid applications they have, I rarely get a full song play.

Also, I got seven hundred fans on Facebook within a couple months, and I very rarely get any new “friends” or fans or whatever they’re called at MySpace.

I almost always agree wholeheartedly with the articles I read here, but I am not feeling you guys on this one.

Oh, and P.S, my site is NOT unattractive and difficult to navigate; it is simple, lovely, and made using HostBaby! I think that stupid reviewer guy just got dumped by his woman, or needed some ExLax or something.

Myspace may still be good for certain big-label artists, but as for indies, there’s never been much going on there besides independent musicians endlessly self-promoting to each other. Myspace music is on the slow morphine drip, as is myspace in general, and it’ll be a great day when it finally dies!

Myspace is really demoralizing, I have 54,000 friends on Myspace and 100% of every message I get is spam, it’s like a room full of people shouting and nobody listening… Its really getting harder and harder to find the time to spend an hour a day deleting advertisements from my comments section…

I just wish that CD Baby had been in control over the MySpace music store as opposed to SnoCap. I lost money on that failure.

myspace is still relevant, especially with the recent changes. With the exception of the Spunky Munkey page on facebook, I seldom use it, personally I find it kind of silly.

I didn’t read all of the posts, so someone might’ve already expressed this, but I’ve gotta say probably the single most annoying thing about myspace is their inability to get with the times and allow you to post music that is in a sonically-respectable file format, not some low bitrate, horribly low quality file format that makes your music sound like a demo. Bandcamp has no issue allowing you to post files as huge as WAV’s. Not saying myspace has to get up to WAV, but please, at least 256 kbps quality. You could be listening to the most sonically pristine recording and not know it…

From a practical standpoint, you deserve to allow your music to shine (if already does!) and if you have to suffer through 5 million ads and 10 spam friend invites/requests a day. C’mon, myspace, get with it already.

Myspace has made more changes to their Music Player – They have removed the ‘Total Plays’ counter that was previously visible on the Myspace Music player. This now means there is no distinction between somebody who posts a new song at (0 plays) and somebody who has had the same song posted for several months at (0 plays). These new changes to the Myspace Music player do not help their musicians in any way – why do it??? Myspace is getting working backwards – getting worse & worse – why?

Of all the peoples I’ve read, Mikes stood out strongly. Its only bands themselves that have a myspace account, and sometimes other music orientated people such as promoters and agents..
The problem is, its not only about your fans seeking out new information. Its about you feeding your fans fresh news to keep them engaged.
If they have to actively return to your page for info they are far less likely to do so compared to a Facebook band page which instantly pops up on their news feed.
So how about this: (this is the system I’m using) – I designed a GREAT myspace page

check it out here and now that it is all set up, my fans can simply drop by the page to check out the new song or see a bit of news on my blog.

On top of that, my facebook page is where I give out updates as to my career info which keeps them in the know without having to seek my pages. On top of that they can leave opinions etc on my band page as I its a live and open blog!
One wesite for music, one website for info. Lovely.

My Space won’t let me leave. Those folks have my content, etc. and I can’t break through to someone to help me. I haven’t used it in years. They won’t let me log in to my own page. I hope Myspace dies sooner than later.