Myspace a lot Music fans’ introduction to the new landscape of social networking. For half a decade after it was founded in 2003, the site was the most visited social network in the world and the first popular platform for musicians and celebrities looking to build a foundation. On Myspace Music, artists can upload tracks, connect with fans, and control their own brands. Free.
On Myspace, musicians can be more quaint and personalized than in album liner notes or on major label websites. Creating an interesting profile is a free growth trick that ensures fans will share the artist’s music with millions of other potential fans. Does it offend you, yeah? Drummer Rob Bloomfield said of the group, “The stupid name plus the eroticly dressed hentai Lolita avatar we used meant that thousands of people were asking Does It Offend You, Yeah? in their top 8 friends. ” Industry insiders were quick to clamor, looking for ways to monetize the digital middle finger the band was making powering the entire internet.
Myspace knows that its platform is making and breaking careers. The company built features to keep the momentum going, but it was the users who really pushed things forward. A generation of kids are customizing profile layouts in HTML, adding a line of code to trigger songs to play automatically. The ability to directly associate a song with your personality has become an interesting battle, resulting in unpredictable free publicity for artists.
Isac Walter, former A&R of Myspace Records, said: “You’ve got kids who become your publishers for free. “You’ve got an editorial board that does nothing but promote music for the sole purpose of generating more musicians, more views — and you have brands, the worst part is because They’re in crisis because they’re not selling any records.” Myspace has turned DJs into stars famous enough to secure record deals, but they still haven’t solved the problem of how to make money from music outside of touring.
Australian electronic music duo Bag Raiders attributes much of their early success to the platform: “We did a remix for this band – our friends – Valentinos, then suddenly But guys from Kitsuné in Paris messaged us on Myspace.” A spot on a Kitsuné mixtape, available online for free download, is a quick ticket to Myspace’s big hype, better pre-orders, and remixes by other artists on the circuit.
The Bag Raiders success story is not unusual: Uploading tracks to Myspace as a form of free promotion is quickly becoming the norm, from bands to DJs to rappers. “I can remember one year we were on tour in Australia, and I placed ads in the actual street press. Literally a year later, we sold out tours just by telling our Myspace friends about them. Presets’ Julian Hamilton changed that quickly.
As the traditional media barriers surrounding embargoes, press releases, and producer-led marketing were broken down by teen bloggers around the world, music critics, of course, also lost its place. “Rolling Stone It doesn’t matter anymore because there’s a Pitchfork now. Of course, the Pitchfork has become Rolling Stone, but for a while there, it seemed exciting and new, like the world was really changing,” Hamilton said.
This brief moment in music history can never be repeated today. For one thing, crispy, MP3-bitrate audio won’t fly now, and after so many years digital content flourished there’s no such thing as free writing. Perhaps even more importantly, the lifecycle of a song in the bloghouse generation wouldn’t be legally viable. “The whole reason that moment happened and dance music in general became world class is because of the culture of remixing and reinterpreting. Clayton Blaha, a journalist who represents clients including Diplo, Justice and Fool’s Gold Records, says the majority of them are mashups or unofficial remixes that fall outside the bounds of the law.
