“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.
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I hear that! For the last two years I’ve been trying to update my facebook, myspace, blog, website, and now I have a virb and purevolume….it’s SO time consuming. Too time consuming. I had a friend who canceled their myspace because she said she felt it had begun to cut into her time with God (sifting through all the muck to communicate and find new music, etc.) Yeah, I definitely think that if you are going to attempt updating ALL of that regularly, it’ll really push into higher priorities’ time slots.
Recently I’ve been pointing all my sites to my personal blog because I find that it’s easiest to update and I feel more comfortable sharing there. I’d love to have a one stop site.
It’s also possible to link your “notes” in Facebook directly to your blog. That way you can concentrate on the blogging (which I prefer) but still have an updated Facebook.
I’m not sure if the same thing is possible on Myspace, but really… who cares?
“It’s better to do one page really well, than have fifteen crappy sites, with out of date information, and too many adds.”
Amen. I’ve been loving Last.fm for a few months now. Maybe we’ll consolidate things there.
Myspace blogs bite. They’re horrible.
I have a Myspace, but I don’t use the blogs on there, and I didn’t really use them before I started Wordpress anyways. Besides, more people [that I don't know] read my blog than my Myspace blog, available to all my friends. Shows how nice they are.
My space is a no brainer. just dont use it.
Ive been doing graphics and web for about 6 or 7 yrs, and in the last year I’ve really paid attention to blogging and what it does for the internet. (preaching to the choir here, but…) Just about everyone that I’ve done work for wants to be able to update themselves. it takes alot of time and energy to build a site that offers that. I dont think that the general public (even bloggers) realizes what goes on behind the browser window.
blogging technology is a huge step in the evolution of the internet. just think about that. im sure alot of you remember the C: prompt from the 80’s.
I LOVE Myspace!! How dare you????? I mean really do you have to rag on something so useful and fulfilling?
Get real.
For those of you that are still reading this Trina here seems to have a high opinion of myspace, but has neglected to tell us anything “useful and fulfilling” about it.
Oh yeah, and her clever email address, if anyone wants to send her a note, was left as screw@you.com. Feel free to drop in and say Hi to her.
I think that before myspace and things like it were available, it was hard for artists and their fans to keep in touch. Blogging software and RSS feeds have made it so much easier.
I remember regularly visitng band sites to see if there was anything new, and unfortunately, a lot of times there wasn’t. Now, the idea of blogging probably hadn’t taken off by then, but neither had RSS feeds. Now, I don’t even have to visit a site to see what’s new. I just read the blog or check the RSS feed for changes. This makes it great for fans because you aren’t wasting time going through bookmarks to see what’s new on the site AND it’s probably great for artists because it’s an incentive to keep on posting so that your site doesn’t become old and stale. As RSS feeds and reading catches on with more people, artists will want to have more direct control over the content that they provide their fans and personally run blogs and sites will be the answer, in my opinion.
With blogging software you won’t need a tech crew, maybe just a good designer to create a blog design that you really like (or just do it on your own).
I’ve tweaked the look and feel of my blog that I host on my site, I’m sure there’s time on the bus to do the same for someone else.
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