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MCELENY ON SOCIAL

Still room for MySpace in the social music market

Tue, 7 Sep 2010 | By Charlotte McEleny

If MySpace can prove its worth to unsigned bands, then Apple’s Ping may not be a nail in its coffin.

The demise of MySpace has largely been attributed to the rise of Facebook, which swept in and stole its audience, who craved a simpler, more functional social experience.

The News Corp-owned social network has since decided to capitalise on its heritage of music in order to maintain its relevance in a competitive space.

The industry has, by and large, agreed that this could work for MySpace – although social music services such as mFlow have since launched, music streaming service Spotify has integrated Facebook functionality and, now, arguably online music’s biggest brand, iTunes, has stepped in with Ping.

Apple’s service is currently very simple and as such has received some early criticisms. Knowing Apple, though, this isn’t the finished product and the service is likely to become more interesting with every iTunes software update. What’s clear is that Ping won’t service unsigned bands, in the same way Spotify never will.

Currently no service truly has the same democratic approach for new and unsigned acts that MySpace does. The site has always used its plethora of content well, with weekly Best of MySpace podcasts to help users find new and exciting music. Adding a simpler and more modern user experience to this could boost its popularity.

Sites such as Midge Ure’s Tunited are also set up to support artists by encouraging people to discover and buy new music, so MySpace isn’t unique. But others dont have MySpace’s brand.

Brands will always want to be associated with music because they want to seem cool, cutting-edge and relevant. They flock to media that can genuinely be associated with new music and Ping’s arrival to the social music market may not have stolen this opportunity away from MySpace.

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Readers' comments (7)

  • Jennie | Tue, 7 Sep 2010 1:41 pm

    Interesting read. It will be interesting to see the changes Ping goes through and how it will compare to Myspace. Unsigned acts have very limited options when it comes to getting the word out and it would be a shame to lose Myspace. I think this article would work as a nice compliment. It goes into more detail about marketing in the music industry and other tools to use aside from Myspace.

    "8 Rules: Marketing in the Music Industry"

    http://www.greenbuzzagency.com/8-rules-marketing-in-the-music-industry

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  • Rob Murray | Tue, 7 Sep 2010 2:36 pm

    Myspace still has a role to play but it isn't as a social network. Myspace is used by the majority of bands as a landing page in itself these days. I speak from experience as my band has been on 'Best Of Myspace' which gave us some great promotion and we direct fans to the Myspace to listen to music or view events but NOT to network socially. Twitter is a lot better for that from a band perspective...

    As a social network it doesn't compare to Facebook but a band without a Myspace page is a very rare thing. So people who enjoy discovering and listening to new music use it a lot. People who don't have much of an interest in music will exclaim 'Myspace is dead etc.."

    Its core offering has changed since its launch 5 years ago and they are sensibly concentrating their efforts on the music side of the business rather than being a SN.

    So yes, there is still room : )

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  • Tim Greenhalgh | Tue, 7 Sep 2010 6:27 pm

    Good points, Charlotte. Apple is also taking a real pasting from the techies right now because Ping is not truly social - yet. Young bands do need a trusted platform to promote themselves (they're not likely to make any money) and MySpace still has that reputation. Does this mean that Rupert Murdoch will be stepping into John Peel's shoes. OMG!

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  • sean singleton | Thu, 9 Sep 2010 4:54 pm

    Nice to see some positive stories about MySpace. They have changed and carved out a new niche for themsleves. My only criticism would be they need to tell the rest of the world. I have not heard one good reaction to Ping from anyone I know. I dont think "social" is really Apple's thing....

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  • Zimbalam | Tue, 14 Sep 2010 11:48 am

    Interesting article and I think you're right, there is still a place for MySpace in the marketplace, but they need to do some work to stay relevant.

    However, I spotted in the article that you said unsigned artists will never be serviced by Ping and Spotify. This is actually inaccurate. Spotify already carries thousands, if not millions of independent and unsigned artists, we deliver hundreds of unsigned acts' music to Spotify every day. Additionally, Ping launched with no word on how independent artists could use the service, but, that said, they also launched without artists such as blink-182, Arcade Fire, Radiohead, McFly etc using the service. As such, the service is a sort of 'soft-launch'. We've already been contacted by Apple with regard to how artists can start claiming their Ping profiles and this will be integrated in the coming weeks and months, starting with the biggest and then moving to the smaller artists.

    Hope this clears things up somewhat.

    Thanks

    Zimbalam

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  • Glenn Lovell | Fri, 17 Sep 2010 6:37 pm

    Myspace definitely still has a major part to play in an unsigned artists career.

    As it remains THE tool of choice for industry - from A&R to booking agents to venue promoters.

    Just because it's fallen by the way side from a social networking standpoint, artists certainly shouldn't be neglecting their use of myspace...

    You can check out more about what I've got to say on this here...


    http://www.musicmarketingtips.co.uk/

    Thanks

    Glenn

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  • Patty a.k.a. Plezhurhouse | Mon, 20 Sep 2010 9:45 pm

    Thanks--this is an interesting article and supports what I have been saying for months now regarding MySpace. People always flock to the latest trend but you have to flock to or stay with what is beneficial to you. And as an artist I would never abandon my MySpace page which is where I got most of my friends and fans from in the first place. No it doesn't compare to Twitter and Facebook as far as social networking but neither do they compare to MySpace as far as unsigned bands and indie artists are concerned. Not to mention the scary warning you get when you add too many friends that they have suggested for you mind you on Facebook. People fail to realize that each one of these sites has its purpose and its whatever works for you you don't have to choose so stop with the MySpace is dead because for artists it most certainly isn't. Whatever MySpace can use to level the playing field I hope that they do because MySpace has proven to be a very useful partnership for us as artists and I for one will stay on until the bitter end.

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