Myspace: Dead or Alive?

“Thanks for the add!”

If you had a Myspace and NEVER received or doled out one of these in a comment or message… well, you’re lying.

Myspace’s explosion in popularity after it was introduced in 2003 made it one of the most popular social networking sites in the early to mid 2000s, with over 100 million accounts created by 2006.

The ability to customize one’s profile through simple HTML codes allowed users to decorate the hell out of their pages, many with ridiculous glitter banners and incomprehensible font. This customization, through Myspace Music, also allowed artists to upload songs and videos to their profile pages for streaming and downloading.

Having a Myspace became one of the first things to do once you formed a band – you uploaded a couple of your demos onto your music player, found a decent and flattering photo to upload, wrote a nice little “About Me,” and started friending strangers on the Internet like crazy.

Starting in the late 2000s, bands and labels started realizing that they could REALLY trick out these Myspace pages with some intense HTML coding – completely revamping the design and look of the page to fit your artist’s “vibe.” Today, even if you’re unsigned, some bands will shell out those 500 bucks for a sweet Myspace design. Not necessarily the most efficient use of 500 bucks as an emerging band I personally say, but hey, we do live in an appearance driven economy after all.

Moving to present day, Facebook has overtaken Myspace as the king of social networking sites – the infiltration of porn stars and spammers on Myspace being the beginning of its downfall. Artists have begun created Facebook pages, but without the level of success achieved with Myspace.

Even though Myspace is declining in its popularity among actual users, I think it’s still an important social networking element for an artist. It is no replacement for a website where the artist owns the domain name, but at least it’s something. A Myspace profile is still a place where you can aggregate all your collateral as a band – a place for your music, your demos, your videos, your blog updates, and a place to connect directly with your fans.

Thanks for the add!