Here is my talk on bands and MySpace:
The MySpace music scene has changed the face of modern music. Some people would say it is a positive step forward for music, where as others would say quite the opposite.
MySpace was created as a social networking service for people on the web. Now, although the personal aspect of MySpace is HUGE, I’m not going to talk about it as a personal networking service, but more from the musician’s perspective.
Now, in a blank search on MySpace for bands, it came up with 711, 950 bands that use MySpace. That sure is a hell of a lot of bands... I personally have my own MySpace page for my solo music which is myspace.com/mungoraye. I also have access to my bands website which is myspace.com/justlikejosiah. Now, the way I see it, setting up a MySpace page for a band can be a key move to get your music out there. I mean, my bands site has been up for 746 days or so, and had a total of 8928 views which calculates to around 12 views per day. The music on the site has been played 10, 912 times… Do the math. There is no other way to get such a huge audience like the web. You could put your stuff out there on your own personal website that can be downloaded, but then you have to pay for hosting…plus the people downloading the music aren’t paying royalties. At least with MySpace you can put your music out there to be heard, but not downloaded. We sell CD’s through our site because people get to hear our music there…
Another aspect of the MySpace music pages is that you can post your up and coming gigs on the page. If people ask us when our next gig is, we usually just say “Uh…check our MySpace…” because we don’t usually know ourselves.
If you go to any bands MySpace page, you can check this kind of stuff out for yourself… There is the photo gallery, where you can see pictures of the band, gigs and other crap… You can check out songs, gigs, blogs even who is in the band, the bands main influences, who the band sounds like, if they’re on a record label and heaps more. MySpace is more than a community for teeny-boppers who want to send each other cruddy little GIF images; it’s a huge domain for bands. What a way to get your music out there!
As of late last year Triple J took up the same kind of idea. Triple J unearthed is a fairly famous competition for bands in Australia. They have unearthed artists such as Missy Higgins, Grinspoon, Killing Heidi, Sick Puppies and of course, good friends of mine (plug, plug) local act E.E.S. Triple J used to travel to each region of Australia, listening to bands and short listing good acts etc… etc… They would eventually end up with one band that would turn into the next “big thing”. Triple J now has an online version of this. Bands can upload their music very much like MySpace, but other artists/listeners vote.
Now, back to MySpace… Up until recently (June 2006) there was a concern from musicians about the MySpace user agreement… It was worded
"You hereby grant to MySpace.com a non-exclusive, fully-paid and royalty-free, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense through unlimited levels of sublicensees) to use, copy, modify, adapt, translate, publicly perform, publicly display, store, reproduce, transmit, and distribute such Content on and through the Services"
Giving a website (or company) this much freedom to do whatever they want with your music is just ridiculous. Most people wouldn’t have read over this DEADLY clause when first signing up to MySpace. The big concern was because the agreement was being made with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. After this was discovered by a lot of people, and word of mouth got around, MySpace changed the agreement to:
"MySpace.com does not claim any ownership rights in the text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, musical works, works of authorship, or any other materials (collectively, 'Content') that you post to the MySpace Services. After posting your Content to the MySpace Services, you continue to retain all ownership rights in such Content, and you continue to have the right to use your Content in any way you choose".
Obviously to musicians, this was a huge sigh of relief.
MySpace Music has been such a success that they have created their own record company. Distribution is through Universal Group and manufacturing and marketing is through Universal Interscope Records. It’s an independent label which such artists as Mickey Avalon, Hollywood Undead, Sherwood, Kate Voegele and a few more… To be honest, I don’t really think it has taken off yet, but it might soon.
There are plenty of horrible bands out there using MySpace as a place to learn never to create music again. Unfortunately, there are more crap bands than there are good. Is it a reliable source? Has MySpace changed the face of music for years to come? It is still hard to get a record deal and to make it in the music industry, but I think MySpace has (in some regards) made it easier. But by opening the world up to some of the crazy idiots out there, it has also made it harder. Do record companies have to sift through utter shit everyday by looking at all of the bands on MySpace to find the “next big thing”? Hopefully not…
In conclusion, I’d like to add that I have nothing against MySpace… I also don’t really like it. Unfortunately it is now just part of my life… I don’t go on it every day or every week, but when I do I usually get stuck on it listening to bands I like and wasting time. It is good for some people in the music industry, but makes it harder for everyone too. Obviously it has to be a good investment for someone like Rupert Murdoch to buy it… Let’s just hope it doesn’t ruin good music.
