myspace - good or bad

jales22

do you guys think myspace helps bands that much??....

i'm talking smaller bands not big national bands...

discuss..

DaytimeDilemma

It does. Alot of venues use myspace as their primary source for booking. It definitely help out in that area. It's sort of like an EPK.

anotherclone

I am not a musician, however I have heard that Colbie Callait (sp) was discovered on myspace.

MichaelMcKevin

Absolutely Good. It definitely can't hurt in any way.

dharma69

Absolutely!

And I say this as a person who just lets her MySpace page sit there while the Music Friends requests pile up. I sort through them, discern the crap from the noteworthy (file the Goth metal Nazi band's request under "CRAP") and I'm gifted with new music, seeing new bands in tiny venues and who knows, I might just be in early and watching the growth of the next U2 or Pearl Jam.

From sampling the EP's to going to a handful of MySpace bands' shows, it's been a good thing for me and I think it is overall for the musician and for the music lover.

SteveMurray

Definitely a good thing, i've got pretty darn bad quality recordings up on our myspace and even still i've had pubs and clubs ask us to play that i dont think would of bothered if they couldnt just log on and listen to the tunes.

I find it a really easy way to say here's what we sound like

genie

Aye! for the musicians

onesacrowd

Having a MySpace is pretty mandatory now for all musicians trying to gather eartime. It can be annoying when you get these bands sending you messages such as "You like the Beatles... You're bound to like my band." However, they're just trying to get people to listen to their music, which is what you have to do. And as dharma said, if you sift through all the crap you get sent, you will find a gem or two.

ianvomsaal

Any form of marketing for your band is a good thing (plus, you can't argue with a cost of $0.00).
But on that note, I don't just accept anyone as a "FRIEND".

WHY:
I started my MySpace in 2004 (long time ago) - if I accepted all friend requests I’d probably have over a million
friends. Unfortunately it seems like soo many people on MySpace are just trying to get an OBSCENE amount
of friends, like it's a contest to see who can get the most friends (Maybe some of you have experienced
this, or maybe some of you are these people) . . . for a band I see it as counterproductive.

After I reached the 3,500 friend benchmark (within one year) I realized that it was becoming fairly ridiculous
(and kind of UNADVANTAGEOUS) to have so many friends outside of the local areas that I actually "play on a
regular basis" - it also gets fairly laborious trying to sort out who I genuinely know, and who are realistically local
enough for show invites, WHICH IS LITERALLY WHY I STARTED THIS MYSPACE SITE IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!
(I want to get people to my shows, so why would I ever have friends in the UK or over 500 miles away - they'll
never be able to come to my show), & that MySpace "sort by location" function has never seemed to work for me.
In an attempt to limit my "Friends List" I ended up DELETING almost all of those "FRIENDS".

These days I intentionally have a maintainable amount of friends (currently only 167 friends).
I basically only approving LOCALS (within 55-miles), and People/Bands that I personally know or have
personally worked, played, or recorded with.
EVERYONE in my "Friends List" falls into one of those two categories.

- Ian


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All Those Yesterdays

Many many eyes are exposed to bands they would normally not be.

FinsburyParkCarrots

Definitely good. Because of Myspace, I now regularly gig in London, I've got a gig at the legendary Hope and Anchor coming up in March and I'm recording an album. Otherwise, I'd be playing toilets in Cambridge and dealing with cliquey wankers.