MySpace - Necessary Evil?

mike65

I'm an amateur muso with a page on a website, its kinda its own world and not a very big one though as a host for music files its exellent. Obviously its nice to have as big an audience as possible so MySpace enters the equasion but every time I browse the music area I just get frustrated by the horrid messy interface and distracted by the "freinds" business - whats that about?

Some bedroom knob-twiddler is no more a friend of Bjork than I am of Vangelis. Is it worth setting up a page and can it be done in a vaguely tasteful fashion or do they all end up looking like a dogs dinner?

Mike.

all the stars

yeah definately... i have a myspace and have had 2 podcasts from it, and i know lots of people who sell their own music via their myspace as they do it all themselves .. Also, you never know who might offer you gigs from it or whatever... its a very good idea that way..

Dont worry about the friends thing.. some people put their influences in their friends.. no big deal..

AndyTheDude

A Myspace page with sample recordings is a MUST for a musician, IHMO. It's like a business card.

Sham Squire

It's absolutely necessary if you want exposure. That's exactly what it does. You get seen and heard by all sorts of random people and you don't even have to leave your house or buy a stamp. It's a fantastic service and you should get on it.
The friends thing is simple. Instead of "friend" read "network". Myspace is a networking tool. Asking for friends by sending friend requests is just like putting a poster up or advertising your music. Your not actually looking for friends your just getting your stuff out there. Same with leaving comments on peoples pages, it's all exposure. It gets your name and potentially music "out there" around the place.
Best of luck.

www.myspace.com/conanbrophy

Savman

I'm gonna go against the flow here and say that Myspace does my head in altogether. Some of the pages are dog ugly and can't navigate around them at all. As for the music side of things, well I just don't know. It's a good platform to use but some bands seem to think if they send Bon Jovi a friend request it means they'll land themselves a record deal.

So, er, Myspace, down with this sort of thing.

Denalihighway

I agree there Savman. It does wreck my head too how people let their pages become jumbled messes - but that's the problem with all user-generated websites, people just go nuts and don;t realise that the majority of people get turned off by the madness of all these random videos and widgets and links and all that sh*te.

But its a 100% no-brainer in my view - to have one that is. I agree with the 'business card' analogy. You meet someone and you dont have a cd, but they can put your myspace in their fone or write it on their hand - works for people on the street, and every initial interface with any aspect of the industry.

Also, I think its worth pointing out that a lot of outfits these days expect the likes of myspace to do all the work for them. Its an essential (imo) piece of kit but all the same legwork is still necessary, ie gigging (and being darn good at it), sweet talking, begging, sending stuff away and so on and so on. I've also observed (imo again) a lot of bands creating hype about 1 or 2 great songs they had on their profile or whatever but without anything to back it up like a tour or album or whatever thus creating hype but not capitalising on it and allowing people to completely tune out then. I actually think a lot of bands are shooting their bolt in this manner, you need to use it wisely as a complimentary marketing tool.