Myspace is dead, now what? (looking for bands)

[Trevoire520]

I find that the search function on Myspace is pretty awful. Surely you know one or two bands in your local area? See what local bands are in their friends and work from there. Though personally I think you're going to struggle to find work if you don't know anyone in your city.

 

[mjlaudio]

keep updating who you are working with......what you are doing.......there are loads of bands on there. twitter can be used essentially like Instant Messenger except you know everyones IM name. so you can directly contact say, Metallica....refer them to your myspace where you have samples of your work and then they can contact you through myspace or facebook or twitter to book sessions for their next record. The best milage I have found is that you can use programs to link the three.

The only thing missing is I find I have to do the searching work instead of them finding me......that is where myspace kicked ass because I would get the bands i work with to put me in their top friends and I would do the same for them so people could see who worked on what............in the age of digital downloads printed credits are becoming worth less and less and press releases worth more and more.

PS
sorry didnt read your post well enough....yeah you gotta know what bands are in your niche and who is out there......local rehearsal spots are good, school of music at colleges.

 

[El_Gato]

I just searched in Mysp for As I Lay Dying "Sounds like" in your area and +650 results so far, I didn't try them but I guess someone will work... PERHAPS your search method is wrong at some point.

Facebook is very useful in Spain, also Twitter and Reverbnation's great but internationally, not S-pain...

Some marketing strategies like "one free track only this month" ads and flyers with good pics and info would work great too!!

 

[El_Gato]

ups not "Sounds like" search but "Influences"

 

[AudioGeekZine]

DUDE! good idea, I didn't think of that.

I just found the last band I worked with on Myspace, (they had 1 name, then changed it, then changed it back but different URL) so I'm going to add all the bands on their friends list, then expand from there through the network.

 

[El_Gato]

Mysp: Look for the bands you like @ search, go show more, then go advanced and you'll see the options were you can fill by Influences or Sounds Like, area (suggest postal code better than town as there are many cities with the same name), kms around, etc...

 

[jrt12]

mysapce is dead? since when? just because you cant find bands in your area on myspace, you pronounce its dead? look, i know facebook has recently passed myspace in users or whatever, but i would argue that traffic on myspace is still a huge draw, esp in the international front.

but lets look at a more relevant gauge... look at your fav band's page. i would bet that their myspace page has a shit ton more friends and music plays than their facebook page. here's a random 5 min sample i ran:

Dimmu Borgir:
myspace: 228,000 fans with 2,500 plays today
facebook: 84,000 fans


Gojira:
myspace: 102,000 fans with 2,100 plays today
facebook: 21,000 fans


Paramore:
myspace: 1.3 million fans with 551,000 plays today (yes, 551K!!!)
facebook: 1.1 million fans


Breaking Benjamin:
myspace: 618,000 friends with 61,000 plays today
facebook: 200,000 fans


thats a fuck load of traffic for a dead site. i think myspace is doing pretty damn good. maybe its still not #1 in the US, but its far from dead and for an international audience, there's no beating it. i personally think facebook is boring, but you gotta cover all the fronts in your marketing. not sure why you guys are so quick to write off myspace, but whatever. do what you wish, i still think its a necessary tool, on top of your own site and utilization of other tools (youtube, etc).

 

[AudioGeekZine]

I've made good progress today, when I searched the other day I got nothing, maybe it was broken that day. Today I just went though a couple bands's friend list and added all the nearby bands and sent them a note saying I'd like to work with them. I even got a few replies back.

Boring as hell to do for a couple hours straight but hopefully worth the effort.

I'm not looking for fans, teenage girls and spambots etc, I don't give a shit about numbers (and do you really want to go through the 1.3 million friends on Paramore's list to find the ones that might be interested in your business?). I'm looking for work. Going after international and signed bands is pointless at this stage in my career, I'm after the independent and just starting out bands.

 

[jrt12]

well since you seem to know exactly what youre doing, i'll spare you the explanation of your flawed logic in your last paragraph. have fun

 

[AudioGeekZine]

are you a musician or a studio owner?

 

[jrt12]

a musician by night and marketing professional by day

look, it sounds like myspace is exactly the tool you need. for any band with less than 5K friends, you have advanced search options. if youre looking for local bands, more than half the time they'll have less than 5K friends. and most smaller bands try to "friend" as many other bands as they can to get their friend count up. this is doign the filtering and search work for you. go into their frieds list, pull down the menu and filter out only the bands in their list.

IF you are looking only for local bands, then that obviously limits the bands that fit your criteria and will need more filtering depending on what you think a fair radius is. otherwise, this is the fast easy way contact the "the independent and just starting out bands."

the numbers i quoted above show that myspace is not only far from dead, but still the leader over facebook in engagement with fans. while this isnt your goal, its the bands goal. so bands will not abandone this venue if its still a strong and flexible avenue to connect with their fans. also, i would bet that most bands starting out would put up a myspace page, before they put up a facebook or independent website of their own. those are your target consumers

btw, i'm one of the small, starting out bands... and i'm having my stuff produced by someone all the way across the world. so i thnk its limiting to rule out the int'l audience as well.

 

[colonel kurtz]

as easy as it is to agree that myspace is "dead"....i just dug up a potential client today by going to the page of a band i worked with last month and adding a band who commented on their page that don't have anything of their own recorded yet

hopefully i can score the gig so i can buy a new damned PC already...

 

[colynomial]

Haha I actually just got your Myspace friend request today! Sadly though, I am on the Sneap Forum so naturally, I do my own recording.

Good luck in Toronto man- maybe you want to try advertising in some outlying suburbs? Chances are the "potential client" to "entrepreneur studio engineer" ratio might be higher. In my personal experience, I've always found that the "scene" outside of Toronto is better. Too many people in the city all vying for the same spot- it's hard to make a name for yourself as an artist or an engineer unless you've already got the credentials.