Myspace vs. Facebook

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

I realise this sounds like a middle school conversation waiting to happen.

Anywho, we (my band and I) use both for personal profiles as well as band promotion.  And I gotta say I prefer the Myspace format much more.  When handing out business cards, they have our myspace listed, to which we get the response, "We're on Facebook," or "Facebook is better."  Our response was, "You can't put music on Facebook."  Until recently this was true.  Technically it's still true.  ReverbNation hosts the music but has a FB application that makes it viewable from a FB page.  Plus, the url address for a Myspace is simple compared to a FB.....and, you have to be a FB member to view a FB page whereas anyone with internet access can view a public Myspace profile.  Also, no YouTube videos can be posted on FB, only links.  The only advantages I can see for FB is that more people are on it, and pages load faster.

Thoughts?  Comments?

 

[Dan025]

i agree that myspace is better for bands. i prefer facebook to keep in touch with friends, there are less problems with spam. i think the reason is that the intent of facebook is to stay in touch with people you already know. it is obvious when some porn site sets up a profile and tries to friend you, you see a name yo dont know and ignore it, and the way to get you to the porn site is usually a link on there wall which makes it obvious before you friend anyone. on my space people tried to meet new people. of coarse it could be privatized but people more or less put them selves out there to be noticed, and my in box at one point was flooded with messages from fake people. with the popularity of facebook right now i think you need both.

 

[JaySwear]

i prefer facebook over myspace for my own use. not even close. BUT myspace is where i go to listen to music. i don't think i've logged in to my own myspace in 2 years or more, but i still use it to check on bands. myspace has always been ridiculously slow and virus ridden on my computers. thats why i love facebook for personal use.

to be completely honest, for JUST music i love www.PureVolume.com. it's an old one (way before myspace was big for music) and is really a no-frills sort of site. not many big bands use it, but it's still decently popular. if i'm looking for a band i always start there.

 

[tfarny]

Facebook does suck for music, it's a poor setup, but that's what people follow. I can't imagine myspace can maintain a business model just hosting free music sites that only club promoters ever check. I say just do both, keep your name out there. I think Facebook's setup encourages interaction, but since it's mostly "Joe Schmoe has been playing FARMVILLE" followed by "Jane Schmane just ate a HUGE pizza!" I can't say I'm at all convinved that more interaction = better.

 

[Volitions Advocate]

Just use both.

 

[SlingBass]

I realise this sounds like a middle school conversation waiting to happen.

Anywho, we (my band and I) use both for personal profiles as well as band promotion.  And I gotta say I prefer the Myspace format much more.  When handing out business cards, they have our myspace listed, to which we get the response, "We're on Facebook," or "Facebook is better."  Our response was, "You can't put music on Facebook."  Until recently this was true.  Technically it's still true.  ReverbNation hosts the music but has a FB application that makes it viewable from a FB page.  Plus, the url address for a Myspace is simple compared to a FB.....and, you have to be a FB member to view a FB page whereas anyone with internet access can view a public Myspace profile.  Also, no YouTube videos can be posted on FB, only links.  The only advantages I can see for FB is that more people are on it, and pages load faster.

You pretty much summed it up.  MySpace is often the accepted medium for bands - but, Facebook can tie into that with personalities and profiles that allow the individual members more direct contact with friends, fans, mentors, and folks from their past.  I, personally, have no interest in Twitter or Facebook, but use MySpace for personal and band contact.  That's just my slight anti-social nature bleeding through, however.  IF I want to find someone...I can.  IF I need to be found, and an individual doesn't know how/where that can be done...there may well be a reason for it 

 

[nathan a]

My band has 8 followers of Myspace, and 54 on Facebook. It's a lousy interface for bands, but I find it vastly easier to get the word out.

 

[ledzepplin6914]

Just use both.

+1

 

[taez555]

Myspace is dead.   It's basically become a wasteland for bands and people promoting themselves.  Facebook and twitter are the only games in town right now, especially if you want to reach people and promote your music.   Unfortunatly when it comes to music, MySpace is far better.   The thing is... Facebook could be dead in a year as well.  Keeping up with whatever social media is the "it" thing is tough these days.

My suggestion would be to spend a few dollars ($10 a month or less) and get a dedicated web host and domain name.  www."nameofyourband".com.  You can post music, videos, etc, whatever you want.

If you're handing out business cards "www.myspace.com/yourband", looks like you're cheap and don't care about your band.  Seriously, most hosts with a domain name are $5-$10 a month.  Plus.... you never have to keep up with the hot social media, you have a dedicated hub for your band.  From there you simply create dedicated band pages on all the current social media sights, and whenever you update one, you update all the rest at the same time.    

just my $.02

 

[taez555]

"www.myspace.com/yourband",

I didn't know till after I posted that was a real link.    Turns out they haven't updated their myspace page since 2008.  Ouch

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

All good stuff.  I agree 100% about Myspace being dead, that was kind of the crux of the 1st post.  I believe it's far superior yet FB is kicking it's butt, and it is a fad.  The next thing will kick FB's butt.  I do agree that a myspace address on a card looks low rent, but here's our deal.  I'm the most computer savy one in the bunch, and I know nothing about registering domain names, reading/creating code for a web page, who to pay for all of this, or where to learn it.  This has been a learning process, everything from a good PA mix, to stage presence, to reading a crowd, to how to advertise.  Myspace has been a "Have your own Promote Your Band Website for dummies."  It went on the cards because that was our biggest question in the beginning, "Do you have a Myspace?"  I guess we need to step up and dress for the job we want rather than the job we have.

 

[Lucky #7]

MySpace may have music, but I can't stand the layouts and the tricked out pages.  It's just annoying.  Even the Facebook pages with a bunch of apps and what-not get on my nerves. I need to figure out how to turn off getting notifications from people's Farmville and Mafia Wars stuff too.

 

[SlingBass]

I guess we need to step up and dress for the job we want rather than the job we have.

I'll agree with that sentence 

 

[kboman]

Many record companies judge whether a band is worthy of signing or not on how many plays their songs get on Myspace. Apparently the quality of the music is less relevant...

 

[Volitions Advocate]

My suggestion would be to spend a few dollars ($10 a month or less) and get a dedicated web host and domain name.  www."nameofyourband".com.  You can post music, videos, etc, whatever you want.

Many record companies judge whether a band is worthy of signing or not on how many plays their songs get on Myspace. Apparently the quality of the music is less relevant...

absolutely get your own webpage, it isn't hard to do, you just have to know how to use an FTP program and the basics of HTML and you're okay.  There's lots of sites out there that give out free templates with css as well,  that's what i did for my wife's website.  usually the hosting and the domain name are separate bills.  To own your own URL is maybe 5 - 10 dollasr a year like taez said, and hosting for me is 30 dollars every 6 months for 120GB of webspace and unlimited bandwidth.  and if you want to add a website, you just get another url and put it's content on the same webspace. so I pay 60 dollars a year for hosting. + 7 dollars a year for each website.  I'll be getting another website here soon which will just be another 7 dollars, and I'll still only be using about 100 mb of my 120 gb


Also. Recently spoke to a rep from Sony on the phone (we met him by chance at a concert at the saddledome) and he said that none of the record companies are searching for talent anymore,, they're searching for bands who have fans on facebook, hits on youtube, and plays on myspace, as well as about 20000 copies sold under their belt.  So Social networking is your friend,  Link to your myspace,twitter/facebook/youtube straight from your own website.  thats how we've been doing it.

www.kelliane.com
www.hollowembrace.com    << that one hasn't been updated in awhile, we're not really together at the moment.

 

[kboman]

There's really no good excuse not to have a proper web site - if all you have is a Myspace account, you're not being serious/professional. Which is fine if you're doing it as a hobby, but I've come across one band too many whose .com simply redirects to myspace.com/whatever... *facepalm*

 

[Volitions Advocate]

 

[kboman]

That's the one.