-Last month I discussed My Space and why it’s still a good idea for a band to have a page on it. To recap: it’s a quick/easy/free way to set up your band presence on the web via pics, audio, video & blogging. My Space music has connections to the major labels-which may or may not be good for you. There’s millions of people on it that you can potentially expose your music to-plus many promoters, agents & managers still use a band’s My Space stats when deciding to use them.

-So, what’s the flip side? Many bands use their My Space page not only as their main site, but their ONLY site. That’s a mistake IMHO. Remember me just saying there are millions on My Space? There are-but that number is dwindling at a major rate-in large part because people have migrated over to Facebook. Yes, you can still do a lot of promoting on My Space-but at times it seems like you’re just promoting to other bands and/or spammers-both who basically don’t care what you do. It doesn’t help that My Space has a bad rap in regards to users getting hit w/ virus’ either. Many sites can now do what My Space does-and better. My Space’s music player can hold up to 10 songs (unless you’re signed to a major label-in which case it’s unlimited). Reverbnation’s player has no limits-whether your signed or not. With pics-one can use Flickr or Photobucket-with less worry of possible virus’. Blogging-Word Press anyone? Same with You Tube for Video. While Facebook isn’t as “band friendly” as My Space-a lot of people like it that way. For ex., how many times on My Space have you looked at your bulletins to see some band sending out a bulletin for their event-not just once, but 10+ times in 1 hour (!). Now multiply that by the 20 other bands on your friends list. Plus the other 20+ bands requesting that you add them, ad nausium… My Space is also slower-especially when you get to a page where someone puts codes/graphics/videos all over and, even w/ broadband, it takes awhile for the page to load up-let alone run.The comment system on Facebook is similar to a blog/message board-whereas WITH My Space’s it’s linear. I have seen many comments from people saying Facebook is easier & quicker to use than My Space-which is one of the main reasons people left. As for My Space stats-well, let’s just say 50,000 friends on your page doesn’t equal 50,000 hardcore fans-or even 50,000 casual fans. It just means 50,000 pages (not necessarily people) clicked “accept”. Take your friend count and multiply it by 1-3%. That’s more accurate.

-Of Course, My Space wasn’t just going to sit around and watch all their people migrate to Facebook right?….Umm, let me rephrase that…. After finally realizing something had to be done to fix things, My Space “reinvented itself”-just a few weeks ago in fact (after I’d already written last month’s article). Tune in next month for my thoughts on this. Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

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