Why Myspace is still essential, and tools to use it still.

**I found this statistics on http://techradar1.wordpress.com/2008/01/11/facebookmyspace-statistics/

Alright so I have a lot of artists who come to me, and ask if they still need myspace. Some come to me and ask if they still need any physical distribution of their music. Personally, I say why not do both, but just like in college have a major/ minor. Figure out which one you will devote 80% of your time/ money, and 20% to the other. Going in 50/50 has gotten a lot of people fucked (excuse the language, but its just the truth). Going 100% in one direction is no good either for your losing revenue from a potential of millions. A potential because it all depends on talents and consumers tastes of style.

Now comes to myspace. This to me seems a little low, but all the statistics are from January 2008. Myspace has over 110 million users around the globe, with an average of 300,000 new people a day. There has been over 14 billion comments, and more than 8 million artists.

How do you stand out with 8 million artists? Easy. Be better than them. Have the 7 second rule for your starting song, if the song just doesn’t catch my interest within 7 seconds I move on. There has been a few successes, but do not use your myspace as a selling tool for your album. You can promote it, but don’t have people buy off myspace, you should link them to your official page. Myspace is really a promotion site for your artists, not generally a selling tool. Every artist I have seen selling off their myspace using snocap or something else doesn’t know of the better tools like Nimbit.com, reverbnation.com, or even amazon.com. Plus why should I be interested in your music if the artists themselfs do not invest the time/ money to put into their art? I mean doing a little research can be great, and you can find so much great stuff  that can be essential to an artists career, but not too many people do that? Why? They think Talent alone can get you a deal and make you money. Wrong! You need sites like myspace/ facebook and other social networking websites to network, and get your music in the ears of listeners.

I mean its been so oversaturated that everytime I get a bands request now on my personal page, I just decline it unless they have a cool name, or their front page looks legit. On my business page, I accept everybody but rarely check their music unless the friend request is followed up with a comment or a message. That shows your interested in every fan you could receive. Mass friend adds is last year, and now you have to add a personality with the message. Anybody can copy and paste and work to make it personal, but what if you search for… let me say a random artist, Jay-Z. Lets say I still hate Jay from the studio beef between him and Nas, so in my favorite artists section I put, “Nas is the best, fuck Jay-z” (excuse the profanity again, that was taken from somebodies profile as is.). Now you do a search of profiles for Jay-Z fans, and my name pops up, and you say Hey, saw your a fan of Jay, I sound similar check me out. I would probably delete and report spam just because your trying to be personal and your not.

So pretty much, use myspace for a marketing tool to promote for your music/ shows and have links to those pages where to purchase the music/ tickets. Merchandise is in the same boat. If you do all of the above and  you still are not getting a piece of those 14 billion comments from your fans now “friends”, than check your style or just the people you send the request to. You do hardcore rock, and you sent a request to some 87 year old man in Virginia whose favorite artist is Willie Nelson and stated in his profile his distaste for Harcore rock. That really is not gonna work out now is it? I mean, you can send it but don’t expect an accept. Be smart with your myspace, and myspace will pay back. Be dumb with your myspace, and your one of the people who still think it doesn’t matter. its just a tool, use it, don’t live it.

From the mind of

Keveeno

Where will this industry take us?

Everybody is talking about the upbringing of indie labels taking this record industry out of their slump. I wouldn’t go as far and say the music industry in a slump, no, thats actually growing every day. Its just the fact of sales going down, and the record industry is taking the hit.There are many reasons for that, for examples,  Bush’s reccession (yes I’m biased, I hate this kat… so shoot me), the over saturated market (sometimes making sure your fans have new music everyday may seem all well, but the amount of quality that also stands out?), or it could be that this record industry of 20+ years may have been in a bubble that finally popped? So what is this solution? A lot of the indie labels I have talked to mention a lot of the same strategies that the majors failed on. There are many reasons to that, but still we need to figure a way past the old ways and come with something new. The tipping jar acts like street artists to world wide audiences, but sometimes the price to park the car can be more expensive than the tips given to the musician. It seems that rather than just looking at other strategies, we need something brand new. My recent work with 50 Entertainment shows they are dedicated as an indie label to figuring this industry out by helping few artists out with their career rather than throwing dozens of artists like a hook in the over saturated water hoping a million dollars bite. Sometimes all it takes is one group, with two hooks, very stable and strong rods (so when the million bite, the rod won’t break), and a good strategy when the big fish bite to pull it in.

From the mind of

Keveeno