It was only a matter of time, but the ship has sailed. Maybe all the Murdoch media pushed it over the edge, but regardless, MySpace is old news. Well, maybe not old news, but it’s certainly lost its edge. When you receive more friend requests from companies and bands you’ve never heard of than actual friends, you know its over.
Anyone and everyone looking to capture the youth demographic have put together a MySpace profile, and yes, PSFK is officially on the bandwagon too. However, there is a fine line between companies who are exploiting the “friendships" of MySpace and those who are engaging in a dialog with their audience and offering some type of reciprocation for their consumers loyalty – be it information or entertainment.
MySpace’s hay-day might be over, because we’ve been noticing a surge in generic profiles circulating with no artistic, entertaining, or interactive elements whatsoever. It was almost assumed that the porn industry would get involved early on, but when the cheap pharmaceuticals, the refinance your mortgage, and the work-from-home schemes all entered MySpace, the fat lady started screaming.
When companies make profiles on MySpace, it’s only cool if they conform to the “local language.” They need to play by the same socially accepted rules as normal people. Friends don’t meticulously track down anyone and everyone within their network to show them some crap. There needs to be an exchange between parties, where both parties feel mutually benefited. When that rule is broken, it becomes spam, and no one likes spam (except Hawaii).
The beauty of MySpace was it’s level playing field. There were fairly limited options to what someone could do their profile, and it was fun to see how people manipulated theirs through clever word play and what not. While most people were probably happy to see the colorful manipulations that basic html coding brought to the monotonous world of MySpace, it opened the doors for companies who can afford to pay graphic designers to trick out their profile and spend countless hours promoting it.
The ability to reach kids in their own world through their own medium is priceless, but it only works if companies continue to play by the existing rules. The marketability of MySpace may be the reason everyone’s talking now, but the marketability of MySpace may also be the reason people abandon it.
It was the kids who first made it a success. The kids will always be one step ahead and it’s only a matter of time until they flee the corporate meat market that is MySpace and find a new social networking site that’s off the radar – for now that is.
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I don’t know what you are talking about! the beauty of myspace has always been that users were given the flexibility to do whatever they want with their page. Thats why everyone left Friendster - because there were only limited options of what you could do. Get a clue!
September 7th, 2006 at 9:28 pm
Wait. It is? Why didnt i get this memo? Is this an attempt to remain ahead of the curve? I’m sorry, myspace is not over. To say that kids are about to flee the myspace meat market is ludacris. Being an avid myspacer and extremely plugged in to the myspace community i can tell you with all certainty that there is nothing with as many people, as many options, or as much social acceptance as found on myspace. Your views are those of someone who spends tons of time reading about myspace but is above the hump to feel “accepted” in the myspace world. Go to linkedin. That would fit your persona.
September 7th, 2006 at 10:15 pm
Actually in quite a few ways myspace has more limited options…or simply limitations. These in turn constrain it against evolving into something less superficial. For instance myspace only allows about 12 pictures, currently the least amount of any of these type of sites I’ve seen! Also features like groups and forums handle very clumsily and make all but the most hard core people tire of them easily. Whilst the html stuff does allow some tricking and uniqueness, one must basically take a home course in it to make something out of it. What most do is look up how-to’s on other site. Myspace itself is very unhelpful. In fact has anyone tried going to them for a problem about anything? That is except to take down a picture with nip slip (on that I say why?? you inhuman bastard!). Customer service does nothing outside of sending automated responses. Myspace can and will and is done better. The only thing stopping the flow of lemmings to somewere else is simply that no one’s taken the first step. Everyone is staying because of everyone else, even if they all really want to go elsewhere.
September 7th, 2006 at 10:50 pm
see ya at metroproper.com soon, k
September 7th, 2006 at 10:51 pm
I think your crazy. When you get friend requests from bands, they are getting their name out there. And if you like music, then you always enjoy new bands and new music…why would that be a bad thing to get to hear more bands than the bullshit ones on the radio? Is that so bad, that bands actually have a good place to get out into the world? this guy is crazy. myspace is an excelent place to have your band placed, to talk to friends and to look around…sorry your little dating game is over, or the little girls don’t fall for your act any more…why don’t you just give it up… thanks
September 7th, 2006 at 11:03 pm
I think that was an interesting article. I definately agree about the spamming thing, not so much the new bands thing.
I deleted my profile because the irritatingness of people on MySpace drove me crazy but (in order to still be able to access blogs and pictures) I have a completely uncustomised profile, with no information, no pictures or anything. I am still sent freind requests and invited to join groups. This is clearly spamming, and I don’t like it!
September 8th, 2006 at 6:54 am
With all due respect, this is ridiculous. Google just signed a $900m with MySpace. That’s a lot of moolah to be throwing away on an entity whose ‘hayday is over’.
September 8th, 2006 at 7:47 am
There is no question as to its current popularity, it’s clear that MySpace is still huge. All I am saying is that the end may be in sight. I think what we are seeing now is just the tip of the iceberg as far as corporate profiles and spam are concerned, which could be enough to start driving people away. Granted there is no other real competitor (other than Bebo in the UK), but if the MySpace popularity continues to swell, the bubble will eventually burst.
From a marketing perspective, I think MySpace is a brilliant tool. However, the majority of users are not marketers, they are kids, and I don’t think they signed up to be sold out. While its true that you have the ability to deny “friend requests” from anyone, I think it is getting a little over whelming having to sort out genuine friends vs. people trying to sell you shit.
As far as music goes, I think MySpace is a great way to both promote as well as discover new music. While I find band-spam less annoying than that coming from companies, I think they are still walking a fine line. I mean how often does a really awesome band ever find you? In my experience, it is almost always filtered through at least one person, who in turn will send me a link to the bands MySpace page. That is the type of WOM/viral action I think makes MySpace a success, when one friend passes along something cool to another simply because they think they will like it. But when the message comes directly from the artist/producer/promoter I find it a bit presumptuous.
Maybe it’s just my personal discontent with the notion of people blatantly branding themselves. Maybe living in New York, I’m not as reliant upon MySpace to find new music. Regardless, I do think people will eventually get sick of the spam and all the phony friend requests. Whether MySpace culture adapts to the changes or people move to a new space, I don’t know, but I think the corporate influence will certainly make a few people second guess who’s space it really is.
September 8th, 2006 at 3:33 pm
OF COURSE MYSPACE IS OVER…
DID YOU SEE THE WIRED ARTICLE? —-
Move over, MySpace: Pop legends and aspiring rock stars are heading for an online outlet that’s more Sims than social networking.
With thousands of bands now crowding the pages of MySpace.com, acts like Duran Duran and Suzanne Vega are turning to the online virtual world of Second Life to make themselves heard.
Artists are creating avatars and using the game’s audio-streaming features to play “live” concerts on stages made of polygons. With nearly 400,000 members, Second Life is considered by some record companies to be a good venue to reach fans.
“Certainly it’s part novelty, but I also see it as endemic to music to push performance into different dimensions,” said Ethan Kaplan, senior director of technology at Warner Bros. Records.
Later this month, the ’80s superband Duran Duran will perform on its very own 3-D luxury island. Rap star Talib Kweli is set to join in, according to Kaplan.
“When the video revolution began we instantly saw the opportunity to experiment and explore a new form of expression to enhance the musical experience,” said keyboard player Nick Rhodes in a statement. “Second Life is the future right now, offering endless possibilities for artists.”
On Aug. 3, singer Suzanne Vega became the first major artist to play a live gig in Second Life. The performance was simultaneously broadcast on public radio, with someone controlling Vega’s online avatar as she sang.
Rapper Chamillionaire and grunge five-piece Hinder have conducted meet-and-greets with fans inside Second Life, while BBC Radio 1 also staged its Big Weekend festival in the space, as well as in Dundee, Scotland.
In April, U2 devotees created avatars of the Irish band to re-enact a show from the quartet’s Vertigo tour.
New York singer and pianist Regina Spektor held a listening party in a facsimile of a Manhattan loft.
The big names, however, are following in the footsteps of members of Second Life’s growing unsigned music scene. To many amateur artists, the virtual world represents a good way to build a following.
“There’s more and more live musicians playing on here every week,” said Melanie Fudge, a Welsh acoustic songwriter who performs in-world from home most nights under the alias “Mel Cheeky.” Fudge said there’s no equipment to lug around, she doesn’t have to drive and she can mind her son while performing.
“There’s a crowd of 30 to 45 that show up to every online event (and) I have sold many more CDs through Second Life than I did previously,” she said.
Artists like Fudge use a microphone to pipe real-world performances into the 3-D space after billing gigs on the community’s events calendar.
The roster of artists covers many genres, from jazz musician “Astrin Few” and pianist Kevin Noble to indie songwriter “Cylindrian Rutabaga.”
Some of the best talents will play in person at the Second Life Community Convention in San Francisco this weekend.
Online, there’s a growing number of virtual venues at which to sing, from Irish pubs to amphitheaters. “You’ll find venues in the strangest of places, from deep underground to high in the sky,” said “Martha Cookie,” a music promoter who declined to give her real name but who commissioned the impressive Muse Arena, which claims to be Second Life’s most popular gig spot.
“I run anywhere between a half-dozen to a dozen gigs a week,” she said. “There must be well over a hundred live performers now; we’re regularly seeing numbers of up to 90 and a growing trend of music lovers logging in specifically for the gigs.”
Followers of in-world artists are often sent an instant message, inviting them to “teleport” to performances minutes before they start. They beam into the in-world venue where the concert is taking place.
Performers are rewarded with a growing fan base, spots on real-world podcasts and invitations to play online festivals like the City Stages concert in April.
“The environment is vastly different from any social-networking site,” Cookie said. “It allows unprecedented levels of interaction between performer and audience.”
September 10th, 2006 at 4:26 am
if i get another brief in creative asking me to come up with a fake character in myspace for coke/nike/levis i will scream. this is where advertising gets a bad name.
February 15th, 2007 at 11:25 pm
Man, I know….daily Im sent messages and friend requests from generic profiles with pics of hot chicks on them telling me to chat with them on their aol or msn..it sucks getting them all the time, I never accept or respond, so whats in it for them?? what the hell do they want??
May 9th, 2007 at 9:41 pm
It’s all about facebook now, only the high school kids think myspace is still cool
May 24th, 2008 at 1:09 am