Do You Still Use MySpace for Music Promo?
I know, MySpace is hopelessly unhip these days. I don't need to be convinced. I've always hated it. But then, I hate Facebook, too. I get some useful stuff out of using Twitter, trending topics aside. The bottom line is, however, that I'm just not a social networking kind of girl, and I am especially skeptical of the idea that having loads of social networking friends/followers/whatever you call them on Facebook-ers has any relationship whatsoever to how many fans you have.
BUT...I have to say something about MySpace. It works for me. When I promote an article on MySpace, in the Musicians' Group, people click on it. They read. They get in touch. In large numbers. And let me say, I have hardly any MySpace friends. Less than 400. I haven't proactively "friended" anyone since the novelty wore off about a week after I set up my page. Yet, when I post something in the groups, it just works. I have no idea why, but it does. So, despite the fact that many people, including myself, find MySpace to be objectionable, I have to set aside attitudes about the site to take note of the fact that it really is giving me more traffic than ever before. It is something to consider.
So, it got me thinking - is anyone out there still using MySpace for music promotion? Has it worked for you? If you have been a long time user, have you noticed a change in the effectiveness over the years? Let me know how MySpace is working for you these days.
And we do all know that Facebook and Twitter will become uncool, too, right?
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I must say that while I still use MySpace for promotion I think I’ve got the least response from it compared to Facebook and especially Twitter. Through Twitter I’ve managed to connect on a personal level with DJs and journalists who have been able to help me promote my debut album better than I could have hoped. Through MySpace all I seem to find is standard users (who like what they like and don’t care to try something that isn’t “what’s in”) or other musicians who only respond in order to tout their own releases.
Then again perhaps I haven’t fully tried to use MySpace like those who have gotten the most out of it. I should use the forums but while I use Twitter to make friends and have a laugh, I find myself only inclined to use a very non-friendly interface system like MySpace to advertise my work. I think I’d be part of the problem on the forums rather than the solution!
I have been using Myspace since a few months after it launched. I did a tour in 2004 where “Tom” came out to our kick off and told me specifically they were about to try out a music player, that was early March that year. It launched not much later and we built a 55 city tour with it. However as of May 08 I personally lost interest. I saw it more of a drama world and cancelled my personal acct. That didn’t last long by Jan 09 I had a new acct and continue to this day to get business and make “new friends” whom I have found to be valuable to ventures I am involved with and the interactivity and usefulness over all still seems to be better than facebook no matter how cool or uncool it is at any given point in my opinion.
I loathe Myspace, but it is often a necessary evil when dealing with unsigned/indie Metal bands, the majority of whom appear to live or die by it. It really depends on the message you are trying to get across. Bands have been brainwashed into believing a Myspace bulletin is effective music marketing, but will often ignore great tools such as the blog!
Coming from a business standpoint, it seems like a cheezy & unprofessional way of doing things, but we (Metal Music Promotions) receive several times the up front traffic and contacts through our Myspace profile than our website. Then again, we direct everything to the website, so apparently it is working, right?
I haven’t been involved with a band site in MySpace for at least a year. So I don’t have so much direct involvement anymore.
But comparing it to other music sites, I find it is still the easiest to set up and customize. I like the one page format where you can put up whatever you want to most grab attention.
When MySpace turned off the automatic plays, I noticed that many artists had less daily plays as a result. So it’s become less of a numbers game now.
Also, for artists who really work YouTube, that seems to be a better promotional tool than MySpace.
I’ve never done a lot with ReverbNation. I set up a band account there a number of years ago, when RN didn’t offer nearly as much. Now, although RN does offer more, I’m not working with that band on a daily basis, so I don’t really have a good sense of how useful it would be to that artist to promote.
The bands that really take advantage of all the RN has to offer seem to have a lot to play around with. But I don’t think fans automatically go to a band’s RN site like they do MySpace. So therefore, you’ve got to put RN’s tools on sites where the fans do go.
Me personally I don’t care anything about myspace!! I think it is overated point blank period…..
My frustration with MySpace has been and still is the clunky interface. Facebook rarely crashes on me in the same way and the html coding that folks swamp their pages with can really be tricky to sift through when wanting to leave a meaningful comment.
That being said, there’s a definite demographic relevance to MySpace – my fans on there tend to skew more working class, people of color. My Facebook fans tend to skew whiter and more affluent. While there’s probably tons of reasons for this, I think it’s worth acknowledging the potential to reach different fans through different sites, regardless of the “hip” factor.
- Danny