Do bands depend on Myspace too much?

Just a thought as I was surfing the net. Alot of bands use Myspace as their main web page,and not have a seperate web site.
Is this a mistake? Or are bands just being lazy? Thoughts anyone.

I think it's a mistake.

Many people surf the net at work and many businesses (mine included) block access to MySpace because it's considered a "dating" site. I know I get frustrated when I stumble across a new band I want to check out and all they have is a MySpace link. I have to remember to check it out when I get home that evening and a lot of times I simply forget.

I think it is a good idea to communicate with younger fans, and makes fans feel like they have apersonal connection with the band. Unfortuntley I see no evidence that having 1 million MY Space friends translates to CD sales or guarntees a healthy concert attendence.

I personally feel they should create a seperate website, for fans who are not interested in joining social networking services such as Face Book or My Space.

MySpace, IMO, is better than an actual website for an indie band.

- it's free
- you can host songs on it for free
- you can doctor it up and make it look cool for free
- you have millions of potential listeners at your fingertips

Having a stand-alone website means you have to go through telling people about it or they don't know it's there at all. MySpace is like built-in traffic once you add a few people...it's been my band LINE OF FIRE's best friend.

Quote :

Having a stand-alone website means you have to go through telling people about it or they don't know it's there at all.

Why wouldn't a standalone website come up in search engine results? That's the first thing I do when I stumble across a band I've never heard of before; feed the name into Google. And when the only thing that comes up is a MySpace link, I usually forget about the band because I can't get to MySpace at work.

I think bands should have both if possible.

Ok, both is a good thing,but Myspace is blocked for me at work. This is where I do most of my online stuff.

Go Daddy is cheap... Also the industry people look for real sites. If you want to grow your band you need a real site to expand your web perssence.

There are a few bands who are on this site that need a site or at least keep their site updated...Hint to Seventh Calling and Ultimatum... Pics from 2005???

Glenn Rogers wrote:

Ok, both is a good thing,but Myspace is blocked for me at work. This is where I do most of my online stuff.

Go Daddy is cheap... Also the industry people look for real sites. If you want to grow your band you need a real site to expand your web perssence.

There are a few bands who are on this site that need a site or at least keep their site updated...Hint to Seventh Calling and Ultimatum... Pics from 2005???

That's why I said it's a mistake to only have MySpace. Many business block it.

tohostudios wrote:

Glenn Rogers wrote:

Ok, both is a good thing,but Myspace is blocked for me at work. This is where I do most of my online stuff.

Go Daddy is cheap... Also the industry people look for real sites. If you want to grow your band you need a real site to expand your web perssence.

There are a few bands who are on this site that need a site or at least keep their site updated...Hint to Seventh Calling and Ultimatum... Pics from 2005???

That's why I said it's a mistake to only have MySpace. Many business block it.

Agreed!!!

MySpace is blocked at many places, but Reverbnation and Purevolume are not...they're music-focused sites similar to MySpace without all the teeny-bopper stuff...LINE OF FIRE now has a page at both.

Yes gal darn it, they do. Myspace sucks. I'm sick of bands not having an actual website with REAL band info. I just don't get it. Why is "social networking" becoming the main venue for bands? You can have all your music samples, photos, info on a freakin' website without all the stupid "friend" requests, perverts (no offense MC666) and psychos (no offense FatFreddy) putting their crap on you page. Not to mention the maintenance that comes with all that.


Its lame. LAME I SAY!!!!!!

Like Shawn said....teeny-boppers.

I agree with those saying bands need both. MySpace, like it or not, is becoming a must-have for bands. The young-uns will search there first, I guarantee you.

But having a personal home page for a band is essential too, imho. I love reading a bands history, more about the members, see pictures and the discography. I learn more there then on MySpace.

We have our site built and are just waiting for our refund from one hosting place to get another. The one we got was so insanely difficult to set up, but our site should be up in the next week.

As for Seventh Calling relying on myspace. Not really relying on it, but we are trying to get our name out there. Only problem is that there are sites out there set up by former members that aren't authorized. Also when we just recently separated from our now former bassist, the bastard went and deleted our page so we had to start all over.

Its a great tool for bands though.

what kmorg said.

myspace is a great tool, but not meant to be the internet representation for the band. just another avenue to get your music heard.

I personally think myspace is dead. My band has an official page, myspace, facebook and countless other pages that I can't even think of. Our official pages is kept up to date, where as the myspace and facebook is only kept up to date about shows. We have them because they are free and at the time myspace started it was a great way to get your music out there, but I think over the last year or so I really gave up on myspace. It is full of nothing but spam. I also hate how impersonal it really is. I can't count how many friend requests we get every day and all it is, is other bands tell us to listen to their music. I'm more likely to actually check a band out if they tried to send a more personal email to us and struck up somewhat of a conversation. If a band is going to send another band a friend request they should really try and take interest in what the other band is doing and maybe trade some tips of things to do, Instead of "Check out our new song", because honestly I really don't care and I never check it out.

Anyone that is on the bands myspace or even facebook for that matter has all added themselves since I really don't see the sense in being annoying and just do a mass friend request to everyone on myspace. Between being in magazines and talking on messages boards like this the bands name gets out there and people find it. Also too the people who don't have bands and just have a personal myspace usually have band friend requests blocked anyway.

It is good to have those kind of pages, but I would always go with an official page over anything else. Its more professional and you have more freedom to do what you want to do. Also our concert attendences never really grew because someone saw us on myspace. We've had better luck with being in magazines, but thats a slowly dying thing as well it seems.

This reminds me though I should really check our other pages haha.

I've never been on Myspace, so I have no idea!!

I hate MySpace (or should I say, my computer hates it... any time I try to go to a MySpace page it just locks the whole damn thing up) so I never use it.

I hate myspace too for social networking. Just mostly spam - like Phoenix pointed out.

However, I use myspace on almost a daily basis - just checking out links for bands. It's a great way to hear a band's music.

Honestly, I've purchased many a CD based on what I heard on myspace.

Food for thought...Thanks everyone for their 2 cents.

I hate My Space, and I never go on it. I used to have a MY Space account but closed it down, like Freddy my computer did not like it plus I would get spammed almost daily.

I do have a FB account, the only band I have as my friend is Phoenix Reign, I am listed on some of other bands as fan on their FB accounts but I never check their pages because the info is not very useful.

I do not even use FB for social networking, most of what use FB is just as a sort of extention of this site, I only post music videos and my playlists, and that is about it. Most of the friends I have on FB that is also the only thing they do on the site, expect for some of my friends who use it as a soap box to air their politic views, and I rarely respond to their postings.

As far as I'm concerned Myspace's sole virtue is allowing me to sample a band's music. For any other purpose I find it an incomprehensible nightmare, but for bands and for me as a fan looking for more bands to get into, yeah, I think it's a great idea.

Glenn Rogers wrote:

Ok, both is a good thing,but Myspace is blocked for me at work. This is where I do most of my online stuff.

Go Daddy is cheap... Also the industry people look for real sites. If you want to grow your band you need a real site to expand your web perssence.

There are a few bands who are on this site that need a site or at least keep their site updated...Hint to Seventh Calling and Ultimatum... Pics from 2005???

All our more recent photos are on MySpace or Firestream's Music Vault.

ultmetal wrote:

Glenn Rogers wrote:

Ok, both is a good thing,but Myspace is blocked for me at work. This is where I do most of my online stuff.

Go Daddy is cheap... Also the industry people look for real sites. If you want to grow your band you need a real site to expand your web perssence.

There are a few bands who are on this site that need a site or at least keep their site updated...Hint to Seventh Calling and Ultimatum... Pics from 2005???

All our more recent photos are on MySpace or Firestream's Music Vault.

I'm not trying to get on you Scott,but that's my point...Is Myspace better for you? Should there be equal attention to both sites?

Glenn Rogers wrote:

ultmetal wrote:

Glenn Rogers wrote:

Ok, both is a good thing,but Myspace is blocked for me at work. This is where I do most of my online stuff.

Go Daddy is cheap... Also the industry people look for real sites. If you want to grow your band you need a real site to expand your web perssence.

There are a few bands who are on this site that need a site or at least keep their site updated...Hint to Seventh Calling and Ultimatum... Pics from 2005???

All our more recent photos are on MySpace or Firestream's Music Vault.

I'm not trying to get on you Scott,but that's my point...Is Myspace better for you? Should there be equal attention to both sites?

Probably. MySpace is easier, for sure. The www site is a lot of work and is in dire need of an updated look.

You know, awhile back I was told that actual web sites weren't even needed anymore. I thought of that as quite bizarre coming from a label and a manager. I think both should get equal attention though.

As for this myspace, facebook stuff... It gets so complicated at times. There are so many of those sites out there and more pop up all the time. Now people are expecting "Twitter" and even more.