hey guys, this isn't a rant really but id just like to view your opinions...so here goes.

ive been searching through ALOT of these posts in the recording thread and found that most guys and gals posting their music direct you to some download site. now, this might be that im incredibly impatiant (which i am) but i cant be arsed to continually sit there and wait, for valuable seconds :), to listen to their music...dont get me wrong. i love listening to all the music posted here and love sharing mine all the same. but, the problem comes when you've waited to download and then you have the joy of listening to a few seconds of music...

ok, my point being (finally )...MYSPACE...whos with me when i say this is the best way of networking/promoting bands on the net today. its easy to set up, easy to update and you can design your own page playing tunes for the friendly people as soon as they check you out...ITS A MUST. i urge the fine people of this fine website to get a myspace and let us others enjoy the fine tunes while sitting back and browsing through their comments or checking out their great page...

whos with me? all comments for/against myspace welcome...

http://www.myspace.com/thejohnnyparrytrio

our myspace...feel free to join our friends list :)

Personally I think myspace has turned into a valueable tool to promote bands, but I don't think it should replace a "true" website for said band.

i agree that bands should have their own website...but think of it in percentages eg. if people search a certain band, artist etc that happens to be in your influences they'll probably end up at your page at some point. whereas only mates or people who already know of you will search your website...the answer is simple. millions of people search bands on myspace everyday and may check out your page, so start a myspace and put a link to your website.

They should make something similar for just bands only. Tie it in with Pandora, so that you can have your music played for people who have certain tastes. Myspace isn't as popular as it once was (people are now happy to bash it since it was sold), so I think the opportunity for bands is starting to wane. That being said, my band has a myspace anyway.

I'll be honest, if your band doesn't have a myspace page... odds are I'm not listening. The thing that is great is your songs start streaming as soon as you get there. While that's happening, you can read the bands bio, etc all on one page.

No, it's not as good as a real website if you really want to know about a band, but if you don't have a myspace page for your band and you have recordings... I'm not going to download your music unless I'm really really interested. I can look at a myspace page for 20 seconds and make an assumption about a band... it's usually accurate.

Personally I think myspace has turned into a valueable tool to promote bands, but I don't think it should replace a "true" website for said band.

We've had a "true" website for about a year now, (see sig below), but just put up a myspace page a couple of days ago. I'm amazed at the activity on it right away!

We've had a "true" website for about a year now, (see sig below), but just put up a myspace page a couple of days ago. I'm amazed at the activity on it right away!

Yep, it's instant. Tons of spam, but it's everywhere. Real websites don't allow such a high level of interaction with fans. A fan can email you, but what are they going to say? Emails are more formal than a comment or friends request. You can just say "Hey" without it being an email.

yeah, you guys that aren't on myspace and want to promote your music, go sign up now. right now.

myspace is going to dominate the music market for the foreseeable future. bands are getting signed based on their myspace popularity. i booked our most recent tour almost entirely from myspace (6 shows in 10 days on the way to California!).

i think a true website is the best tool since it's tremendously more flexible, but the myspace still needs to stay up.

oh, i forgot to mention that as soon as everyone catches on to the use of MySpace bots to add friends and send comments, it's gonna tank.

$40 will get you thousands of friends pretty much overnight, and the number of friends you have can be a big factor in getting "noticed".

They should make something similar for just bands only. Tie it in with Pandora, so that you can have your music played for people who have certain tastes. Myspace isn't as popular as it once was (people are now happy to bash it since it was sold), so I think the opportunity for bands is starting to wane. That being said, my band has a myspace anyway.

I doubt MySpace is waning. Perhaps being congested and overpopulated by bad bands.

Anyways, MySpace is more popular than ever. It used to be a very "scene" thing, as I used to remember my first profile being in the 10,000 range and seeing most of the people who traffic L.A. hotspots (it was originallly pushed in the Hollywood scene area.)

The opportunities for bands are still limitless. We've booked successful tours with MySpace, talked to promoters through MySpace, talk to our manager through MySpace, talk to club owners, promote, talk to fans, sell merchandise, sell music (snocap) etc. etc.

BTW a few months ago we stopped paying the bill for our website host. We still own the domain name, but we don't waste money on a website. We have too much traffic going to MySpace to bother trying to redirect it to a website.

Well I guess this is the right time to promote my band, The Fusion Porn's Myspace

www.myspace.com/thefusionporn

glad to see the majority are on the myspace train, personally think its the best free promotional out there for unsigned bands...also acts as a nice way to get in touch with your heroes, i know its not usually them who run their myspace but it adds a spark to the fantasy...lol.

matt...completely agree my friend. the reason i posted this thread was the fact i love listening to the music posted here but hate having to wait for it to download, which in fact adds up to a good few minutes all together...im not bashing the guys that do this, just urging them to get a myspace.

apart from the automatic stream of your own music you can start blogs about your bands, link web addresses or any other link you fancy, post gigs, the list goes on if your creative enough...we've got record interest from ours, gigs in europe and some cracking music reviews...i really cant speak the true volume of how important this is for unsigned bands

ANOTHER HUGE plus, promoting upcoming shows. We can post a bulletin advertising shows, and people usually read them. It's an instant connection with fans.

I usually don't buy into trends because they are usually pointless, but myspace is genius. Denying the draw of myspace will only hurt your band.

I have to agree that, for better or for worse, MySpace is pretty much de rigeur for any musician/band these days.

But I disagree that the use of bots, etc. will kill it. It's pretty obvious when some random band has >10000 friends and/or >100000 plays and you don't recognize them at all that they are gaming the system.

It's been absolutely critical for us, since we have yet to get photos taken, or assemble a legit press kit....

I read a book called The Future of Music and has a good prediction that the way money will be made on music in the future will be the service and live performances (Pod Casts count as live).
Service can be many things, links on myspace, top 10/20/100 lists by anyone from billboard to a myspace site. The challenge will be for how to collect and earn cash.
MySpace is a good start into this realm.

Thanks to the original poster (Dave!). I read this thread and got set about immediately to get a myspace website for the Rockabilly band I'm in.

Feel free to add yourself to our friends list. We only have 3 and one is Tom and the other is spam.

http://myspace.com/dickcashrockabilly

I'm definately a supporter of Myspace in terms of finding new music. Let's face it, I'm in college, a musician, and at one time was training to be a pilot. Those three leave a bloke a little broke, and though I try to keep an open ear, I definately don't have money to waste buying CD's just to sample tracks and throw it out the next day. Also, it's a way for bands and musicians to network and support each other. Though I've made at least one enemy on Myspace, I have to say that the general Myspace community is there when you need it.


Anyways, here's for yet another underhanded spam tactic to support my new project. :hiding:
http://www.myspace.com/doominquisitor

I like the idea of myspace. But I hate "myspace" bands. You know exactly what im talking about.

The ones with 20,000 friends and a sweet layout and hundreds of comments per day and shows out the wazoo.....but their music is completely unoriginal and they're undeserving of the credit they get.

I love it for finding good music to listen to, and Im not going to make any comments on my own band (I feel like we dont always take advantage of useful resources like myspace).

The music industry has grown to the saddest industry of all. Where virtual friends and computer skills can outweigh talent and determination.

I would be happy if myspace phased out. But I know that wont happen. So what are we left to do? Pay someone a chunk of money to make us an artsy layout? Lay awake at night damning ourselves for not getting better quality recordings?

It all seems a little too complicated. Myspace seemingly ended the era of bands that were "discovered"....and started something I cant even begin to comprehend.

Bottom line, yeah...we have one...but i'm not sure how good it is yet. Not trying to be cynical, just not quite sure what to think.

james...that sound promising ;) the download thing is really seting the charts on fire at the mo, for better or worse i dont know, but it definately puts unsigned bands in with a chance. and myspace will become a great contributor to this, as it grows...

vegan...glad to see the thread inspired you :) good luck with the space, ive sent a friend request (johnny parry trio)

as to all the more negative posts, thanks for your contribution as well. i want this thread to show people opinions, good or bad about myspace and i think the guys around talkbass will all have a view on it ;)

opivy...dont feel to negative about the high friends list with some bands. just coz they have high lists doesnt mean their cheating the system (allthough some might). a mates band has thousands of friends on their space, but they gig alsmost every other day and so play infront of new people continually who add to their space...more to the point, one of my mates has 1000+ friends on his spce (mostly girls, lucky swine lol) and genuinely close friends who he tries to stay in contact with. dont dismiss a band just coz of their high friends list...

also, sorry for the shameless plug, but if anyone interested please read the daily vault review on our page blog...im very excited about it and would love to share with you guys :)

I'm not so much angry at the means by which they attain their friends...just the fact that they have them.

I cant tell you how many bands I've found that list their genre as "pop punk" and sound/play/sing all the same. But since they sound vaguely like a radio-friendly band, everyone adds them and says "omfg u guyz are amazzzzzing"

On the other hand, I'm really inspired by good bands that have lots of friends, it seems more logical.

Good bands I found on myspace: Sigur Ros, Mew, Portugal. The Man, Casket Salesmen, Morning for the Masses, Minus the Bear, Circa Survive, The Dear Hunter, ect.

Theyre all pretty good at using myspace to their advantage.

The bands you listed are fairly big (well, Indie big). I like Myspace for unknown bands who use it without cheating. The only friends requests my band has sent out were initially to friends and to bands who inspired us so we can put them in our top whatever to be cheesy.

People hear us at shows, remeber the band name, check myspace, friends request... we build a fanbase.

But when a 10,000+ band friend requests and have ads and junk all over their page... it's pointless, nobody listens to those bands, they just add them so EVERYONE can have more friends. Because the most friends on myspace = you win. Cheeezzzeeeyyyyzz.

I find that it really waters down a band's image if not done properly (and improper means what many bands do: bad formatting, awful backround, 6 things streaming at the same time... basically bad web design because whether you like it or not, it IS a web page afterall) and I think having the guitarist do a myspace and fancy it up without knowing a darn thing about web design really makes the band look unprofessional and cheesy.

Also there's the bands who are myspace only. Says "I want you to listen to me, but I'm too cheap to spend money on a website, so don't respect my band"

Granted it's a great tool if done properly, but there are so many things that water it down.

yeah, I have a couple myspace pages for my music
and my band Gunpowder has one at
www.myspace.com/gunpowderband (http://www.myspace.com/gunpowderband)

But we also have www.gunpowderband.com (http://www.gunpowderband.com)

I've even set them up for old bands of mine that are no longer around, but I wanted to put some of the music up, songs I wrote - they can be good if you are looking for a new band - to direct them to mp3s.

http://www.myspace.com/leftoutlamont

and
http://www.myspace.com/randomeye

opivy...surely thats the point of having a band space though. this is where it differs from a website. you can generate a spce fanbase and know exactly who your talking to (like a mailing list), unlike a website where people will visit but cant directly interact with the band. so it makes sense to generate as many 'friends' as you possibly can, its all about networking, its not competition. it would be silly to dismiss myspace through petty jealousy...who cares about what other bands have its a great way to promote YOUR band...like matt says, myspace creates a great advantage to check out unsigned bands without having to search round endless clubs for that half hour of something your gonna like...

we have a mysapce and a website and i personally prefer the myspace. you know exactly who likes you and can can aim at promoting your band to those people

I agree with Matt ( although I slay satan daily). We set up a myspace page just for exposure, and its on our "gig banner". Too easy for someone who wants info on the band, upcoming shows, etc.

www.myspace.com/paththe

I hate myspace. The concept is great... as someone stated earlier, you can form an opinion of a band in about 2 minutes. However, half of the band pages are unreadable due to the structure of the customization options and background graphics that camoflage the text.

For the love of God people, LIGHT text on a DARK background color and DARK text on a LIGHT background please!!

Myspace popularity is declining. Although it is great for band exposure.

lowsound

Personally I'd never get a personal Myspace account, but I can see the benefits it has for bands, especially for networking with other local bands and booking gigs and stuff like that... Besides bands though, I can't see why someone would want to have a myspace account.


http://www.myspace.com/blackauroraband

MySpace works for my band check us out at http://www.myspace.com/olmusky1

I like the idea of myspace. But I hate "myspace" bands. You know exactly what im talking about.

The ones with 20,000 friends and a sweet layout and hundreds of comments per day and shows out the wazoo.....but their music is completely unoriginal and they're undeserving of the credit they get.

That also sounds like 90% of the bands that I hear on the radio everyday-but I doubt they were all made it by myspace!

The way I look at myspace is this: it's a cool (and free) way for people to hear your music. Post your music, shows, pics, bio etc. All major bands use it as a 2nd site. Sure, it dilutes the market (too much available music out there-most of it crap) and sure there are lots bands who are successful though myspace that wouldn't be otherwise. But how is that any different then the old days, when record execs controlled everything? If you fit the look and sound...you're golden. If not, good luck because there is no way for anyone to hear your stuff (other than coming to a live show and distributing CDs yourself).