6 ms·

Myspace to “lay off 550 to 600 employees tomorrow”

23 points by skbohra123 16y ago

cmaggard 16y ago
To be honest I'm astounded that they still had that many to lay off.
ben1040 16y ago
Amazing how Myspace has about fallen off the face of the earth. I remember 5 or 6 years ago at the height of Myspace, it was getting harder for me to stay on top of the local music scene, because bands began to give up on posting flyers in bars. Posting flyers took time and money, while Myspace was free and 99% of their fans were on it anyway.
- bmj 16y ago
  Has this changed? Are bands moving to Facebook? I ask because I'm not on Facebook, but I do find lots of info on Myspace.
  - ben1040 16y ago
    I was under the impression that music (venues, bands) was the last bit of territory that Myspace was able to defend. My wife and I have turned into old fogies and don't get out to local rock shows much anymore but the few garage bands I've caught recently still seem to have Myspace pages that they haven't abandoned yet.
  - ubercore 16y ago
    My band is on facebook primarily for event invitations. We use bandcamp for posting songs, and our own .com that basically serves as links to facebook and bandcamp. We also use reverbnation on our facebook site. We _also_ commission physical flyers from local artists.
  - thewordpainter 16y ago
    Facebook will eclipse MySpace for largest percentage of bands with a presence soon enough. ben - i'm with you. can't believe how fast MySpace has fallen off. Dug this article up: http://gigaom.com/2005/08/06/why-murdoch-bought-myspace/ http://gigaom.com/2005/08/06/why-murdoch-bought-myspace/ Did NewsCorp really have plans to compete with MTV? In general, the collapse of MySpace and Digg epitomizes what I've said about social networks all along: they're not sustainable, just like @tallanvor alludes to below.
  - thewordpainter 16y ago
    Facebook will eclipse MySpace for largest percentage of bands with a presence soon enough. ben - i'm with you. can't believe how fast MySpace has fallen off. Dug this article up: http://gigaom.com/2005/08/06/why-murdoch-bought-myspace/ http://gigaom.com/2005/08/06/why-murdoch-bought-myspace/ Did NewsCorp really have plans to compete with MTV? In general, the collapse of MySpace and Digg epitomizes what I've said about social networks all along: they're not sustainable, just like @tallanvor alludes to below.
dangrover 16y ago
I remember people marveling at Digg's 60 employees when they started to lay some off. Oy.
Spoutingshite 16y ago
Myspace has been confined to the "special needs" area of the interned for quite a while, however it's a shame that this news article has come out as it's aparently in advance of an official notice that effects the lives of 600 people. I don't see how the public interest in this trumps the lack of respect to the employees. Shame.
- beoba 16y ago
  Seriously wondering here: What's disrespectful about this announcement?
tallanvor 16y ago
This isn't too surprising. The early versions of social networking (MySpace, Friendster, Hi5, etc.) didn't manage to adapt quickly enough to maintain relevance. Facebook faces the same risk down the line. Sure, they've done much better at adapting and finding ways to hold the interest of users, but there's no guarantee that they will continue to do so.
- PatrickTulskie 16y ago
  The difference is that Facebook continues to innovate while everyone else is still cobbling together features to compete and mimick facebook.
- Kadin 16y ago
  I'm not entirely sure it was 'adaptation' that was the issue. It wasn't that Facebook adapted and MySpace didn't; it was more that Facebook started off in a totally different direction from MySpace, and it turned out that the market preferred Facebook's way. To focus on just a single difference that's probably the most obvious to casual users, Myspace allowed users a great deal of flexibility in designing their own pages (poorly), Facebook didn't and still doesn't, and basically presents a standardized page for each user with their information on it. There's a significant 'philosophical difference' there. Those differences extended beyond design to their user-acquisition strategy, which created the network effects that allowed Facebook to crush Myspace among college users. Bluntly, the market decided it preferred a nicely manicured, access-controlled walled garden to the free-for-all of Myspace. Interestingly, though, I think Facebook has now opened itself up to everyone to the point where it risks getting "Myspaced" itself; if influential users were to suddenly jump ship to something else, Facebook could become about as cool as having a Myspace page or Hotmail email address, and an exodus could follow. Facebook built itself in large part on exclusivity but has attempted to move away from it in order to grow. They're trying to walk a very delicate edge and I suspect that they'll fall off eventually.
angdis 16y ago
I like to compare facebook with myspace: MySpace: Like your parents basement. Bad behavior, language and lack of decorum-- no problem. This is where the "fun" parties were. Facebook: Like your parents living room. Don't spill anything on the carpet because it will stain and be there forever. Only "nice" friends are allowed. The parents are monitoring everything. RIP MySpace!
- pavel_lishin 16y ago
  And much like the basement, seemingly built and furnished by a drunken contractor who would be leaving the country in two weeks.
citricsquid 16y ago
I wonder, does anyone believe that Myspace can recover with the right decisions, or are they destined for a slow death whatever they do?
- thewordpainter 16y ago
  MySpace is done. They've been done. They tried to reestablish the brand with a general focus on entertainment, but nobody was buying it. I'd say up until the last six months, they still had 80%+ of the artist market using their service. You can't give that up...but they did. Now every artist is spreading out to sites like Bandcamp. without the artists, what do they have? a social network? ha!
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
JacobAldridge 16y ago
Not my usual HN style to link to an old gag-of-sorts, but this is kinda relevant and somewhat smart funny: Tom joins Facebook http://failbook.failblog.org/2010/12/17/funny-facebook-fails-classic-tom-joins-facebook/ http://failbook.failblog.org/2010/12/17/funny-facebook-fails...
fwdbureau 16y ago
Maybe this is too small scale to be relevant, but i recently designed a site for a rockabilly clothes webstore, with a complete panel of tools: myspace (traditional friending, exchanging thankyous), facebook (fanpage & paying ads), google ads and twitter... And since day 1, myspace has been the nr. 1 referrer (to such an extent that bandwidth quotas exploded, and my customer had to upgrade their hosting plan). So I would say that for some niches, myspace is still nr. 1. Also, coding css for myspace is really fun, if you like a good challenge

23 points by skbohra123 16y ago

To be honest I'm astounded that they still had that many to lay off.

Amazing how Myspace has about fallen off the face of the earth. I remember 5 or 6 years ago at the height of Myspace, it was getting harder for me to stay on top of the local music scene, because bands began to give up on posting flyers in bars. Posting flyers took time and money, while Myspace was free and 99% of their fans were on it anyway.

bmj 16y ago
Has this changed? Are bands moving to Facebook? I ask because I'm not on Facebook, but I do find lots of info on Myspace.
- ben1040 16y ago
  I was under the impression that music (venues, bands) was the last bit of territory that Myspace was able to defend. My wife and I have turned into old fogies and don't get out to local rock shows much anymore but the few garage bands I've caught recently still seem to have Myspace pages that they haven't abandoned yet.
- ubercore 16y ago
  My band is on facebook primarily for event invitations. We use bandcamp for posting songs, and our own .com that basically serves as links to facebook and bandcamp. We also use reverbnation on our facebook site. We _also_ commission physical flyers from local artists.
- thewordpainter 16y ago
  Facebook will eclipse MySpace for largest percentage of bands with a presence soon enough. ben - i'm with you. can't believe how fast MySpace has fallen off. Dug this article up: http://gigaom.com/2005/08/06/why-murdoch-bought-myspace/ http://gigaom.com/2005/08/06/why-murdoch-bought-myspace/ Did NewsCorp really have plans to compete with MTV? In general, the collapse of MySpace and Digg epitomizes what I've said about social networks all along: they're not sustainable, just like @tallanvor alludes to below.
- thewordpainter 16y ago
  Facebook will eclipse MySpace for largest percentage of bands with a presence soon enough. ben - i'm with you. can't believe how fast MySpace has fallen off. Dug this article up: http://gigaom.com/2005/08/06/why-murdoch-bought-myspace/ http://gigaom.com/2005/08/06/why-murdoch-bought-myspace/ Did NewsCorp really have plans to compete with MTV? In general, the collapse of MySpace and Digg epitomizes what I've said about social networks all along: they're not sustainable, just like @tallanvor alludes to below.

dangrover 16y ago

I remember people marveling at Digg's 60 employees when they started to lay some off. Oy.

Spoutingshite 16y ago

Myspace has been confined to the "special needs" area of the interned for quite a while, however it's a shame that this news article has come out as it's aparently in advance of an official notice that effects the lives of 600 people. I don't see how the public interest in this trumps the lack of respect to the employees. Shame.

beoba 16y ago
Seriously wondering here: What's disrespectful about this announcement?

tallanvor 16y ago

This isn't too surprising. The early versions of social networking (MySpace, Friendster, Hi5, etc.) didn't manage to adapt quickly enough to maintain relevance. Facebook faces the same risk down the line. Sure, they've done much better at adapting and finding ways to hold the interest of users, but there's no guarantee that they will continue to do so.

PatrickTulskie 16y ago
The difference is that Facebook continues to innovate while everyone else is still cobbling together features to compete and mimick facebook.
Kadin 16y ago
I'm not entirely sure it was 'adaptation' that was the issue. It wasn't that Facebook adapted and MySpace didn't; it was more that Facebook started off in a totally different direction from MySpace, and it turned out that the market preferred Facebook's way. To focus on just a single difference that's probably the most obvious to casual users, Myspace allowed users a great deal of flexibility in designing their own pages (poorly), Facebook didn't and still doesn't, and basically presents a standardized page for each user with their information on it. There's a significant 'philosophical difference' there. Those differences extended beyond design to their user-acquisition strategy, which created the network effects that allowed Facebook to crush Myspace among college users. Bluntly, the market decided it preferred a nicely manicured, access-controlled walled garden to the free-for-all of Myspace. Interestingly, though, I think Facebook has now opened itself up to everyone to the point where it risks getting "Myspaced" itself; if influential users were to suddenly jump ship to something else, Facebook could become about as cool as having a Myspace page or Hotmail email address, and an exodus could follow. Facebook built itself in large part on exclusivity but has attempted to move away from it in order to grow. They're trying to walk a very delicate edge and I suspect that they'll fall off eventually.

angdis 16y ago

I like to compare facebook with myspace: MySpace: Like your parents basement. Bad behavior, language and lack of decorum-- no problem. This is where the "fun" parties were. Facebook: Like your parents living room. Don't spill anything on the carpet because it will stain and be there forever. Only "nice" friends are allowed. The parents are monitoring everything. RIP MySpace!

pavel_lishin 16y ago
And much like the basement, seemingly built and furnished by a drunken contractor who would be leaving the country in two weeks.

citricsquid 16y ago

I wonder, does anyone believe that Myspace can recover with the right decisions, or are they destined for a slow death whatever they do?

thewordpainter 16y ago
MySpace is done. They've been done. They tried to reestablish the brand with a general focus on entertainment, but nobody was buying it. I'd say up until the last six months, they still had 80%+ of the artist market using their service. You can't give that up...but they did. Now every artist is spreading out to sites like Bandcamp. without the artists, what do they have? a social network? ha!
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

JacobAldridge 16y ago

Not my usual HN style to link to an old gag-of-sorts, but this is kinda relevant and somewhat smart funny: Tom joins Facebook http://failbook.failblog.org/2010/12/17/funny-facebook-fails-classic-tom-joins-facebook/ http://failbook.failblog.org/2010/12/17/funny-facebook-fails...

fwdbureau 16y ago

Maybe this is too small scale to be relevant, but i recently designed a site for a rockabilly clothes webstore, with a complete panel of tools: myspace (traditional friending, exchanging thankyous), facebook (fanpage & paying ads), google ads and twitter... And since day 1, myspace has been the nr. 1 referrer (to such an extent that bandwidth quotas exploded, and my customer had to upgrade their hosting plan). So I would say that for some niches, myspace is still nr. 1. Also, coding css for myspace is really fun, if you like a good challenge