41 ms·

MySpace, R.I.P.

44 points by krtl 17y ago

rmanocha 17y ago
It's hard for me to understand why people still use MySpace. I've never had an account there, but from all the user profile pages (not sure if that's what they're called) I've visited, none have been easy on the eye. Facebook seems to be the much better option to me. The Facebook fan pages can be used by most bands to build their brand and market themselves (I've only ever seen Bands using MySpace - nobody I know uses it) - maybe they should create some way for people to migrate their MySpace accounts to Facebook - that'll probably speed up MySpace's demise.
- psawaya 17y ago
  You need to look at it through the eyes of a teenage girl. People customize their myspaces in ways that Facebook will never allow, and it becomes part of their identity. Here's an example: http://bit.ly/cLX6RT http://bit.ly/cLX6RT
  - dan_the_welder 17y ago
    That's a really well done page, unlike most of the eye-pain clutter people generally do.
- dazzawazza 17y ago
  In the sub-world of Heavy Metal bands I know use MySpace and Facebook and see much more traction/interaction from their MySpace page. Their FB presence really only help fans add tour dates to their calendar. The MS page is used for contacting the band and listening to new/demo tracks. It could be that people see FB as a personal network for them and their friends whereas MS is used for music discovery. I think you'd have to work in FB or MS to really know.
- adrianwaj 17y ago
  I use it only to keep track of the music artists I like. It actually works really well.
- bartl 17y ago
  Myspace is good as a home page for musicians, due to the high availability of bandwidth for sample tracks. Virtually every musical artist who is anything at all, has a home page there. Facebook is a poor replacement as you must be logged in to be able to see a Facebook page. I don't like being spied on, so I don't have a Facebook account, and never will. As a pure social networking site for ordinary people, MySpace's days are long over.
  - billpg 17y ago
    You don't need to be logged in to see a fan page.
JacobAldridge 17y ago
I don't have quick access to user numbers, but Google search trends is interesting (especially when you consider the readwriteweb example today of people typing 'facebook login' into google). Here's the comparison of Facebook, Myspace, and Orkut - http://www.google.com/trends?q=facebook%2C+myspace%2C+orkut&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=1 http://www.google.com/trends?q=facebook%2C+myspace%2C+orkut&... Nothing surprising, except that there are some areas (USA? Tijuana??) where Myspace still out searches Facebook.
philk 17y ago
The web doesn’t hold much attraction for Rupert Murdoch who is now enamored with e-readers and tablets. Tablets, according to those in the know, are being viewed as saviors for News Corp.’s core business: news and information. He thinks that since devices are not that useful without his content; he eventually wins because he will get people to win. “Content is not just king, it is the emperor of all things electronic!” he recently said. I think he's missing the point here. a) Newscorp has flourished as a business because up until recently media has been an industry with a high barrier to entry. To paraphrase Warren Buffett, if you own the only newspaper in town it's a bit like owning a local monopoly. The same applies for television channels, etc. which have high upfront costs. b) The problem facing Newscorp now is that the internet has lowered the barrier to entry dramatically, so that its size and financial clout is no longer a major advantage. For instance, would you rather read an article in a Newscorp paper or one of PGs essays? In the past it'd be hard for PG to get his essays out there, now it's much easier. This means a much higher level of competition, and competition destroys margins. c) e-Readers/Tablets don't make the barrier to entry much higher. (You can publish stuff on the Kindle for free, for instance: https://dtp.amazon.com/mn/signin https://dtp.amazon.com/mn/signin). Hence it's hard to see how he can compete in the tablet/e-Reader space any better than he could compete online.
- hacknews 17y ago
  "This means a much higher level of competition, and competition destroys margins." This has wider implications on the ability to profit over the long run in a capitalist society. In open markets margins should tend to zero. It seems the only way to profit would be to have some edge in terms protected market (monopoly) or slight protected technical advantage for a short period. But once the protected advantages are gone margins should tend to zero. Therefore, this isn't just a problem of old media but of all markets.
  - crc32 17y ago
    I am not sure that "margins tending to zero" applies at all to any market where the marginal cost of producing is non-zero.
mambodog 17y ago
I think Myspace still has the band/musician space, largely because what Myspace allows and Facebook doesn't (restyling the page, embedded music player) are pretty necessary to artists asserting their brand identity. Which is really the main reason for them to have a presence.
- dan_the_welder 17y ago
  Take a look at Bandcamp, it's the last nail in MySpace's coffin. Main page, http://www.bandcamp.com/ http://www.bandcamp.com/ Random couple of artist pages for an indication of the customization available, never mind the billing and music serving back end. http://redfang.bandcamp.com/ http://redfang.bandcamp.com/ http://danielaspector.bandcamp.com/ http://danielaspector.bandcamp.com/
  - ahlatimer 17y ago
    The problem I see with Bandcamp is that there's no discovery portion of it. If you already know of an artist, it's great, but you can't stumble across some new artist like you can on MySpace.
    - dan_the_welder 17y ago
      Not to be sarcastic, but there is the whole internet full of tools to point people at your Bandcamp or MySpace page, in fact that's what people are doing for their MySpace music pages, promoting them on Facebook and in some cases writing their address on bathroom walls. Also, there is something to be said for doing a single thing and doing it well. Managed hosting of musicians websites and nothing else. If anything this is the year of overshoot, Google wants to be Facebook, Facebook wants to be Twitter (still), the Sixty One decided to be more like a glossy magazine. Everyone wants to be your single source, conveniently forgetting that this is the internet we are talking about and not the cable or phone company.
  - pbhjpbhj 17y ago
    "Bandcamp"? Are they targeting the nerd market with that name?
adrianwaj 17y ago
MySpace Music is hopeless: the interface, the way content is presented, the way search results are inaccurate and incomplete. The search field isn't even selected by default. If I were Murdoch I would be focusing on an awesome API for anyone to access any and all of News Corp's material. A content warehouse, by which large users can be charged. Uncooperating with Google is one thing, but it should be balanced with this one. Otherwise, News could run a public talent search for hackers, like The Apprentice or Rockstar INXS, to find CEOs.

44 points by krtl 17y ago

It's hard for me to understand why people still use MySpace. I've never had an account there, but from all the user profile pages (not sure if that's what they're called) I've visited, none have been easy on the eye. Facebook seems to be the much better option to me. The Facebook fan pages can be used by most bands to build their brand and market themselves (I've only ever seen Bands using MySpace - nobody I know uses it) - maybe they should create some way for people to migrate their MySpace accounts to Facebook - that'll probably speed up MySpace's demise.

psawaya 17y ago
You need to look at it through the eyes of a teenage girl. People customize their myspaces in ways that Facebook will never allow, and it becomes part of their identity. Here's an example: http://bit.ly/cLX6RT http://bit.ly/cLX6RT
- dan_the_welder 17y ago
  That's a really well done page, unlike most of the eye-pain clutter people generally do.
dazzawazza 17y ago
In the sub-world of Heavy Metal bands I know use MySpace and Facebook and see much more traction/interaction from their MySpace page. Their FB presence really only help fans add tour dates to their calendar. The MS page is used for contacting the band and listening to new/demo tracks. It could be that people see FB as a personal network for them and their friends whereas MS is used for music discovery. I think you'd have to work in FB or MS to really know.
adrianwaj 17y ago
I use it only to keep track of the music artists I like. It actually works really well.
bartl 17y ago
Myspace is good as a home page for musicians, due to the high availability of bandwidth for sample tracks. Virtually every musical artist who is anything at all, has a home page there. Facebook is a poor replacement as you must be logged in to be able to see a Facebook page. I don't like being spied on, so I don't have a Facebook account, and never will. As a pure social networking site for ordinary people, MySpace's days are long over.
- billpg 17y ago
  You don't need to be logged in to see a fan page.

JacobAldridge 17y ago

I don't have quick access to user numbers, but Google search trends is interesting (especially when you consider the readwriteweb example today of people typing 'facebook login' into google). Here's the comparison of Facebook, Myspace, and Orkut - http://www.google.com/trends?q=facebook%2C+myspace%2C+orkut&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=1 http://www.google.com/trends?q=facebook%2C+myspace%2C+orkut&... Nothing surprising, except that there are some areas (USA? Tijuana??) where Myspace still out searches Facebook.

philk 17y ago

The web doesn’t hold much attraction for Rupert Murdoch who is now enamored with e-readers and tablets. Tablets, according to those in the know, are being viewed as saviors for News Corp.’s core business: news and information. He thinks that since devices are not that useful without his content; he eventually wins because he will get people to win. “Content is not just king, it is the emperor of all things electronic!” he recently said. I think he's missing the point here. a) Newscorp has flourished as a business because up until recently media has been an industry with a high barrier to entry. To paraphrase Warren Buffett, if you own the only newspaper in town it's a bit like owning a local monopoly. The same applies for television channels, etc. which have high upfront costs. b) The problem facing Newscorp now is that the internet has lowered the barrier to entry dramatically, so that its size and financial clout is no longer a major advantage. For instance, would you rather read an article in a Newscorp paper or one of PGs essays? In the past it'd be hard for PG to get his essays out there, now it's much easier. This means a much higher level of competition, and competition destroys margins. c) e-Readers/Tablets don't make the barrier to entry much higher. (You can publish stuff on the Kindle for free, for instance: https://dtp.amazon.com/mn/signin https://dtp.amazon.com/mn/signin). Hence it's hard to see how he can compete in the tablet/e-Reader space any better than he could compete online.

hacknews 17y ago
"This means a much higher level of competition, and competition destroys margins." This has wider implications on the ability to profit over the long run in a capitalist society. In open markets margins should tend to zero. It seems the only way to profit would be to have some edge in terms protected market (monopoly) or slight protected technical advantage for a short period. But once the protected advantages are gone margins should tend to zero. Therefore, this isn't just a problem of old media but of all markets.
- crc32 17y ago
  I am not sure that "margins tending to zero" applies at all to any market where the marginal cost of producing is non-zero.

mambodog 17y ago

I think Myspace still has the band/musician space, largely because what Myspace allows and Facebook doesn't (restyling the page, embedded music player) are pretty necessary to artists asserting their brand identity. Which is really the main reason for them to have a presence.

dan_the_welder 17y ago
Take a look at Bandcamp, it's the last nail in MySpace's coffin. Main page, http://www.bandcamp.com/ http://www.bandcamp.com/ Random couple of artist pages for an indication of the customization available, never mind the billing and music serving back end. http://redfang.bandcamp.com/ http://redfang.bandcamp.com/ http://danielaspector.bandcamp.com/ http://danielaspector.bandcamp.com/
- ahlatimer 17y ago
  The problem I see with Bandcamp is that there's no discovery portion of it. If you already know of an artist, it's great, but you can't stumble across some new artist like you can on MySpace.
  - dan_the_welder 17y ago
    Not to be sarcastic, but there is the whole internet full of tools to point people at your Bandcamp or MySpace page, in fact that's what people are doing for their MySpace music pages, promoting them on Facebook and in some cases writing their address on bathroom walls. Also, there is something to be said for doing a single thing and doing it well. Managed hosting of musicians websites and nothing else. If anything this is the year of overshoot, Google wants to be Facebook, Facebook wants to be Twitter (still), the Sixty One decided to be more like a glossy magazine. Everyone wants to be your single source, conveniently forgetting that this is the internet we are talking about and not the cable or phone company.
- pbhjpbhj 17y ago
  "Bandcamp"? Are they targeting the nerd market with that name?

adrianwaj 17y ago

MySpace Music is hopeless: the interface, the way content is presented, the way search results are inaccurate and incomplete. The search field isn't even selected by default. If I were Murdoch I would be focusing on an awesome API for anyone to access any and all of News Corp's material. A content warehouse, by which large users can be charged. Uncooperating with Google is one thing, but it should be balanced with this one. Otherwise, News could run a public talent search for hackers, like The Apprentice or Rockstar INXS, to find CEOs.