Is MySpace On The Way Out?
This article on HotPress.com caught my eye:
HMV claim Slipknot deal shows bands moving away from MySpace
GetCloser.com is the new website from HMV aiming to revolutionise online music’s current MySpace-friendly status. Well, once it’s available to the world at large that is: currently only those based in the UK should click the “I’m From The UK!” site entry button or else monsters will pour from your screen.
To launch the beta version of the site they’ve enlisted the help of Slipknot, who oddly enough, have a new album All Hope Is Gone out next week. 90-second snippets will stream to users on the site, which bills itself “built by collectors for collectors”…HMV, collectors? Just a tad.
HMV claim getcloser.com is a “social discovery site,” with a ‘gap analyser’ tool to suggest new additions to complement users’ iTunes. Which Last.FM has been doing for ages and more recently, iLike. GetCloser also offers to compile film reccomendations though I’m curious also how it will read movie catalogues, unless users have to individually browse for their favourites. Which we’ve all been doing with Facebook fan pages anyway.
So, *yawn*, go away already. As a seasoned Spacer I think it’ll take something really special to affect its stronghold in the online music arena. Undeniably a major cog in the modern music industry, practically all bands operate from their online profile…heck, even my mum has Tom in her top friends!
What do you think? Is it time MySpace moved over? Are you a loyal user or fed up with phished accounts? Are social networking sites important to your online profile? Would you like to see new developments to keep the competition fresh? Is change inevitable or does MySpace need to secure its future as the number one website of the global music audience in order to counter this new contender to the throne?
I’ll be around my desk this weekend, getting my house in order while it’s quiet. Feel free to share your thoughts!
August 15th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
I definitely think Myspace has moved over…it’s still a necessity in order to showcase music and is always asked for. But I also see the likes of Facebook and then other ‘Social Discovery Sites’ having the more immediate impact that Myspace had originally and lost because of being completely saturated by so many bands. There is so much on Myspace now, and the quality is so varied, that I do think it has lost a lot of its impact.
August 16th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
We definitely share different views on MySpace then: I think the sheer number of registered users on the site are its strongest point. It’s the closest thing the world has to a constantly-refreshed music database. I’d say it still wields serious clout because bands are practically required to be part of the Extended Network to ‘exist’ on the grand scale, in that their music is instantly accessible by anyone in the world.
I’m curious as to how you think MySpace has moved over. To agree I’d have to see a mass emigration of MySpaz users (roughly 114 million) to another music site. There was an enormous shift to Facebook this time last year and it’s now surpassed MySpace by ten million. I deliberately didn’t draw too much of a comparison between MS and FB because it’s really a different kind of social networking aimed more towards linking the college/professional demographic without much emphasis on music.
MySpacers are people who love music while ‘Bookers love people.
August 17th, 2008 at 11:53 am
i was wondering how long it’d be before someone tried to aggregate all the applications of those various sites and i suppose to a degree FB has half achieved that already
unlikely though that there is enough room for this site right now as i don’t think folks will abandon MS and FB wholesale yet
August 17th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
myspace wil eventually go the way of the original mp3.com, ampcast.com (in fact ampcast was way ahead of anything myspace has currently got) and people are starting to realise having all those ‘friends’ is really not worth fuck all to anyone. myspace started as a social networking site and thats basically what it is. many bands have beleived they only need a myspace address - spurred on no doubt by the fake facts of the artic monkeys etc apaprently making their fortune via the internet (false too boot).
personally, I cant wait to see people moving on from myspace as its very limiting and I’d much prefer to visit a bands website and get a much better idea of who they are. As said on Spinal Tap - “It’s a fad …”
August 18th, 2008 at 9:15 am
I can’t see myspace going anywhere; for music it’s still the biggest one out there (though I think last.fm is way better, bands just don’t seem to utilise it). For a while it looked as though myspace was going to fade away, but it’s user seem as strong as ever and their recent redesign and improvemnets to the site show a step in the right direction
Like the inital Bebo craze, I see Facebook fanaticism leveling off and many accounts lying dormant (i know mine is, grrr you application requests) - but myspace is concreted by still being the best place to look up a band, hear their music etc - whether people are using it for networking or not, I think it’s still the best place for a band to promote themselves to the world.
Shame myspace is still one of the ugliest sites on the internet!
August 18th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Cormac, yo! Another voice of dissention!
Ampcast and mp3.com were like 128MB music players: a great idea at their time, paving the way for a stronger digital future. MP3.com might have survived if it had the sheer reach of MySpace but there was always too much potential for legal fall-out to really survive in that model. All the same it provided a valuable service to those wishing to push their music into the stratosphere and proved a similar resource would be guaranteed a modicum of success.
Now MySpace is the 160gig iPod in comparison and although new brands are popping up all over, people are sticking with the service they’ve found is reliable and does the job.
I’m not against a new site that revitalises the online music industry but I find it hard to imagine what features any other site can really implement now. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
Band websites are cool but difficult for just anyone to knock up. That’s the beauty of MySpace, it’s free and anyone can join. The personal touches are apparent in each profile despite the site’s uniform layout.
Those bands who believe they only need a MySpaz addy are naive and not likely to get very far unless they put the work in. However those who do work hard find repayment as proof of their effort is seen as word spreads and their fanbase grows. As Flynn says,it’s the first place anyone checks out a band.
That same fanbase has kept you guys in the HWCH top ten downloads for the last few weeks, eh?
Flynn, the points you made are exactly my own thoughts. I think MS have realised that their monopoly of the music/social networking demographic is too valuable to risk losing and they’ve been polishing the interface to keep the users happy.
I like Last.FM too, it’s a really pleasant site to use and the recommendation features work really well for me. I can’t see droves of users hopping over to GC,com for the sake of movie titles. Last.FM is a community of music lovers but as HMV run GC.com, it screams “massive advertising gimmick” too loudly for my tastes.
August 18th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
if theres ever dissention to be done, im there
August 18th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
I suppose I was just saying that I feel Myspace doesn’t have the impact that it did originally. But I guess, it would be hard to maintain that impact…I don’t think people will migrate over en mass. I just see pages being updated a little less frequently, and personally find it harder to ‘discover’ music on Myspace than I did originally. I find Facebook a much more useful promotional tool, so I agree that it isn’t an acurate comparison…you make some very good points!