I think having a myspace is a great way for bands to get their name out there and interact with fans and other bands. Similarly, the top friends system is a great way for users to find similar artists to the ones they already like. What I don't like though is when an artist abuses their myspace by adding anyone and everyone and then spamming the crap out of them in the hope that all their friends will read their wall post and click their link. What annoys me even more is that most of the bands that behave like this are high schoolers who suck at music but are disillusioned into thinking they're going to be the next big thing and they're doing me a favor by letting me know ahead of time.
This is why I make it a point to only confirm bands after listening to them and only if I actually
like what I hear. I also make it a point to never add anyone, because I don't want to contribute to the headache induced by all the other spammers, but I'll confirm anyone who adds me, at least on my music profile.
One thing that I
do like though, is when a band takes the time to send me a personalized message, stating that they think I might like their sound based on the bands that I have listed in my top friends. This shows me that they actually care about their listeners, not just how many they have.
As for bands who have only a myspace, I think this is extremely unprofessional once you get to a certain point in your career. I view myspace exclusivity as a practice to be exercised by those like me who lack either the talent or incentive to create a real band, or those who have the ability but lack connections and resources. Obviously, not every band is going to be able to afford an official website, especially if they're still playing out of their parents' basement, but I think by the time you have a studio recording or two, you might also have the funds to maintain a basic website.
Personally though, I don't like to use myspace all that much, and I've only discovered a handful of decent bands through it. My primary sources of new music are blogspot pages that link to radpidshare, megaupload, etc. It may not be as legally ethical, but at least it gives me some level of spam blocker / quality control that will probably never be rivaled by myspace.
Even though I killed my myspace account, I can see it being really useful fo music accessibility.
here's a well designed page (Death Angel), no bio though but it's alright if you really want that kind of info it's not THAT hard to find:
http://www.myspace.com/deathangel
How do they get fifteen songs in their player? Last I checked, I could only put four in mine.
That's not quite what I mean, and you know it. Just 'cause the internet wouldn't let you listen to every cult, underground, super mystic band to pop out of the grim Transilvanian forests of Romania, doesn't mean you can't go to record store and buy a fucking CD by a signed band.
I live in such a small area that this isn't the case. My parents' house is so far away from civilization that basic cable service isn't available, and without cable lines, we can't get high speed internet either. Consequently, my only source for metal in high school was a radio show that aired from midnight to 6:00 AM Sunday morning. Even after emailing the DJ to get the proper spelling of band names and CDs, the nearest CD outlet is still 40 miles away from our house and they often have to put in a special order for my request, if it's even in their system at all.
Word of mouth didn't do me any good either, because my brother and I were the only two who listened to metal. Fortunately, I have a high speed connection at college, so I can download as much obscure foreign music as I can find.
Yes it is stupid but Myspace is shady...all their external links go through some kind of weird server (msplinks) which they own...sounds shifty.
They did this to fight spammers who kept posted their links on everyone's wall, because google indexes sites based upon the number of other sites that link back to them. By implementing the msplinks system, these spammers would no longer be able to bump their sites' popularity on google searches, which would hopefully discourage them from bothering so many other members. It seems to have worked too, because I used to receive about a dozen spam friend requests per week and now I haven't received any in over a month.
Actually, I also activated the CAPTCHA requirement for all incoming friend requests, so maybe that made a difference. However, I stopped receiving spam messages as well, even though I have no CAPTCHA requirement for those.
