“But I have a Myspace blog. Does that count?”
Sure, if you don’t mind your “friends” having to wade through a bunch of explicit content and adds to get to your blog. Sure, you can use the Myspace blog as long as you realize that there are actually people out there that refuse to use Myspace, and in order to see your blog they have to log in and have an account, in which they will undoubtedly receive numerous emails about how “hot eighteen year olds named Trisha want to chat with them”.
I don’t have a Myspace account. I don’t have a Facebook account. And I’ve never had either. But I do understand the value they had to budding musicians and even seasoned vets in an easily update-able web page. Pictures, tour dates, and yes even a blog of sorts. The issue here, to me, is the inability to control everything on your own page. With a “normal” blog there is nothing on the page that you personally don’t put there. No flashing adds, no women begging you to pay attention to them, and no annoying emails later. In fact, to think of it, I don’t think I have ever received an email from Wordpress, that I didn’t ask for.
I could go on and on about how myspace is on it’s way out and now there are a thousand other things out there doing the same thing. The funny thing is that they are all spreading artists too thin. How is someone supposed to keep up with a Myspace blog, a Facebook journal then a “journal” the label set up for them on their site, and still be able to do interviews, radio spots, and oh yeah, write songs to keep their career going? It can’t happen.
Here’s a thought. Have one place where all that happens, not connected to anything but your own artist site. Sort of like the “journal” that labels have incorporated into your site, but in a way that it doesn’t take a programmer to update. And yes they are out there. If I were to want to incorporate this Wordpress site into any other site, it would take about ten minutes to get that set up. Everything connected to you as an artist is right there. In one place. For everyone to see. Even the “anti-Myspacers”. It’s taking all the good things about Myspace and Facebook and whatever else and collecting it all, putting you in control and going directly to the people that are looking for you. Sure you can have Myspace, Facebook, and even a Youtube channel, but if people want to read something directly from you, they go to your own artist site.
I don’t think this idea is revolutionary, but again, it’s still not happening. I think there are too many strands that an artist can take and too many pages that they can leave un-updated and out of date. It’s better to do one page really well, than have fifteen crappy sites, with out of date information, and too many adds. Nothing says, “I’m not personable” like a site that hasn’t been updated in three months (or longer) and shows no signs of the artist coming back.
RSS
