Sinking Ship
So, according to this article Facebook has finally dethroned MySpace. But we all knew that was going to happen right? Now here’s the funny thing to me. The only two Social Networking sites that are shrinking are MySpace and AOL Community. Hmmm. MySpace and something I’ve never heard of. Now, I’m not saying that MySpace is going away forever. I mean, sure, they have millions of dollars and researching and all that, so I’m sure they will be around for a while, but it’s interesting that it’s actually shrinking. Going down. Loosing ground. I love it.
As someone who has never liked the cheap, trashy, Windows feel of MySpace I’m glad to see that there might be a time soon where people don’t ask me if having a MySpace can replace them having a ‘real’ website. In fact, according to that same article, the only thing that MySpace is “winning” at is showing more ads. Makes you really want to go there doesn’t it? I’m excited to see what MySpace pulls out to actually compete with the competition, but really I’m excited to begin to have to think less and less about it.
Now, I know what most of your answers are going to be, but is there anyone out there still using MySpace? Anyone who goes to it daily and says hi to all of your indie hip-hop artist and amateur porn star “friends”? I don’t.
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Once And Only Once
So check this out. My friend Kyle pointed out yesterday that over on the Crowder guys MySpace they have posted a few of the pictures that I took on the tour with them. Now, normally I wouldn’t condone clicking on any link that says the words “My” and “Space” together, but in this case I can make an exception.
It’s pretty cool to see the times that I decided to push a button on a camera have turned into something that they like and are using. They have about two-hundred photos so hopefully more pop up in the future.
There is also a little rumor floating around that several of the pics that I took will be featured in the DVD due out August 19th. Okay it’s not really a rumor. It’s true, and they said that they would send me some to check out. Maybe we can do a little giveaway thing on here like BooMama does.
So anyway. This time and this time only, head over to MySpace, log in several times, sign away your first born, be blasted with music starting, slowing down your browser, and crashing your computer, then check out some pictures I took.
Enjoy.
I Am Jacks Social Network
Well, I did it. I signed up on several of the world wide web social networking systems against my better judgement. You might be asking, why. Why did Brody sign up on all of those world wide web social networking systems?
Well I can tell you why. I did it so I could use them to point people here. I did it so I could learn how to use them to point people here. And I did it because I need to know how to use that stuff. So there you have it folks. Yes, I have a MySpace. No, there is nothing on it. Yes, I have a Facebook. No, there is nothing on it. Yes I have a Virb. You guessed it… nothing on it. I also have a Twitter account, that I have used a couple times, but, no there’s not much there. Aren’t you impressed?
So now comes the fun part of digging through all the weird code and verifications to make sure I know how to work these things. After all, everyone has them right? Now I do to.
Seriously, what really spurred this on was the announcement of this, and my quest to know more about the different things concerning artists and online presence. Who knows maybe someday we can all work together as a big happy world wide web social networking family.
MySpace Debate (Part Two)
So we got pretty much a lot of the same answers on the first post, but there were a few good points, pointed out by some folks. Now, first I would like to point out that I am not suggesting that we throw out Myspace all together. From a marketing end that would be stupid. I realize that it’s something that has to exist, but I still hold to what I say in that an artists Myspace page needs to point to something that doesn’t suck. We all (mostly) agree that Myspace sucks, but I think all of us see the usefulness of it.
If we all agree that it sucks, but has to be there, why not have that point to something that doesn’t suck. Shaun made some great points in the comment section about spreading yourself out there enough that no matter what avenue people are on there is a way to find you. That’s an obvious good call. Tim also made some good points about the reach of Myspace over anything else out there. But again, why spend the time, where there could be a giant button that directs the reader to something more personal and that, again, doesn’t suck?
Dale over at IdeaDen is neck deep in artists online presence and rebutted with this post, which also states that while Myspace sucks, it also may “rule”. Dale writes:
It allows people to modify….er eh…destroy their profiles and make their site look more like a drunken programmers product after a Mountain Dew shortage. Despite all of its shortcomings, one thing remains true…if you want to find out about music and connect to the bazzzillllions of people looking for it…then Myspace is king.
Well written and true. As sad as that is. I think my big question is, What Next? What happens when Facebook is the “kind of sucks, kind of rules” thing and we are on to bigger and better? How many artists are leaving behind too many un-updated sites that are causing more confusion for their career than it is helping it? Do they need to hire someone full-time simply to make sure all of these social networking things are consistent? Or do all of these places simply point to one consistent place, and that being the “.com”?
Just thoughts. Thanks for all the input. What do you guys think?
MySpace Debate
I have talked to a lot of people in the past month or so about bands web presence and sooner or later during the conversation these few sentences are spoken:
Me: “What do you think of your Myspace page?”
Random Artist (Popular or Not): “Myspace sucks, I hate it.”
I can’t tell you how many times I have heard those words in the past month or two and how many times I have had to hold my tongue from saying, “I freaking told you”. Myspace is on it’s way out, but there are still so many artists using it. Why? Because they have to. They have to until it fades away and becomes another un-updated useless site and then eventually redirects them somewhere else.
Remember a year ago when a common question was “Are you on Myspace?” or “I will just look you up on Myspace” was a phrase coupled with saying goodbye. Now those words are replaced with two simple words. “Myspace Sucks”. Which I guess was sort of three words before something altered the english language.
I understand that there are artists that still need to use it, and it will be around for a long time, but guess what? Facebook will do the same thing in six months. So will Virb, and yes, Carlos, so will Twitter. One thing that isn’t going anywhere is the internet. That (I have a hunch) will be around for a while. Along with all of these social networking things disappearing so will easy to remember domain names, and almost every “.com” that you can think of. There’s really nothing we can do about the “.com” thing for bands, until someone invents a “.band” and that is strictly for musicians. (Don’t steal the idea, I need that to pay for my kids college.)
What I am tying to say is that eventually people will need their “.com” to be a central point for all things social networking. That will become the hub of everything online and it should be. That’s where people will look for you. That’s where Google will look for you. So why not be there? And along with that, why not make that the most reliable place to learn about you on the web? Sounds obvious doesn’t it? Yet hundreds of artists are spending time and energy on a Myspace page, that if you didn’t notice today, will have problems that you can’t fix.
I spend a lot of time checking out the “web presence” of all of the artists that I am working with, which unfortunately means sitting there waiting for their Myspace page to load. Today I was checking one of the artists pages and noticed that the “Shows” part of the page was all out of order and repeated over and over several times making the page unbelievably long. I scrolled and scrolled to get to the bottom and ten minutes later I made it. I shook my head, looked at several other artists with the same problem, and went to some other page. Once again, confusion that can be avoided and issues that can’t be fixed when someone else is in charge of your info.
So what do you think? Myspace still cool or suck? I think I know the answer, but lets talk it out.
