http://www.imeem.com is a beautiful site with some great concepts though, and as such i hope it gets the respect it deserves over the coming years.

i just have a hard time seeing all the great musicians out there migrating over.

I agree that MS can be vexing– the annoying ads and it’s painfully slow at times (but if you disable the html that helps) — but I’m glad to hear Andrew say that’s it’s still around for awhile. Even though I don’t check in everyday, I do love the way the friends list grows on its own and I’ve bonded with other musicians there. The networking aspects in getting gigs has been helpful too. It’s great to have more than one place to display my calendar. It’s also was where I first learned to blog and comment on other blogs. For gigging, I also have a SonicBids acct to help me move beyond my local world. Because I don’t want to live online 24/7 (there IS life beyond music) I’ve decided to limit my presence to those 3 online dwellings.

All that to say, guess I’ll keep my MS acct till I find it detrimental to my musical existence. Although there are a few things to shore up (if I ever get around to it) after reading Andrew’s 5 MS Mistakes list!!

I wrote a blog about it recently basically saying . . .

2005, 2006 was a great time for artists to be on Myspace.

Now, not so much. I compare myspace to street posters or a group txt before a gig. You should probably make sure it’s done because it’s cheap promotion.

Myspace has influenced the way people interact with music online now, um . . . a lot. Facebook hasn’t been able to replace the music functions Myspace fulfills.

Also, you should probably get a blog. That was my main point.

I would add to also watch Reverb Nation remembering that Myspace was a site that grew rapidly in one part because it gave artists access to tools theyd never used successfully until that point.

Y’know myspace may not be a beauty queen but ol’ Tom’s given me plenty to be thankful for.

I think the take away is . . . being an early adopter can be a very good thing.

I’ve just joined twitter. So far I have no followers.

As for WordPress I’m suggesting version 2.5.1 which is better than 2.5 and 2.3.3 which this site is still using but what a beautiful site anyway.

As for other social networks I like ning as well. I was on twitter for a day or two – when it came out – endless chatter I do not get how that works unless its like sonar?

As for an alternative easy to use platform WordPress is my choice – there is a huge amount of choice of plug-ins for all kinds of media and with the latest versions user interface and image management has also been improved hugely. It is also fast and easy to implement.

All bands should absolutely have their own websites and brand identities where there intent is clearly communicated.

In my view Natalie Merchant and Over the Rhine have both managed to combine aesthetic designs, people friendly branding , whimsy and solid functionality without losing the plot which does seem to happen a lot at nograce(my)space.

Sure there are other places that offer these services, but MySpace was the first and it got so huge so quickly it’s going to take a lot to topple it.

Interestingly I was working with a new major-label act in the UK recently and the new media dept. at the label were panicking because the artist didn’t have many MySpace friends (or plays on the audio player) – we’re talking 100’s in both cases, not 1000’s – “so what?” I asked – I was swiftly told that their concern was that Radio playlist panels (in this case BBC Radio One) looked at MySpace as their first port of call to see what kind of buzz the artist/label was creating, and their popularity on MySpace was seen as an indication as to whether the station should playlist them or not. So there you have it – have a ‘popular’ MySpace page or else Radio One won’t playlist you ;-)

For me, this is very worrying as it’s easy to get more friends by bulk inviting people (something we experimented with), and you can spend 10 mins every day refreshing your page to up the play count – thus fabricating your popularity.

All of this leads me to believe that no, MySpace isn’t dead – and it won’t be until a rival that is worthy in the eyes of the industry (and has colossal financial backing) comes along.