PART 2: Artists
For the last two years, Myspace has been in a serious decline. The once mighty powerhouse of social networking is losing U.S. based traffic (according to Mashable it’s dropped 20% since June) and its revenue is drying up. In its heyday Myspace was an easy tool to understand for artists: get friends and get plays. It produced results while giving a pretty good indication of the scope of their fan base. As new sites popped up with better designs, easier navigation, and more unique options Myspace began to lag, and today it sits not forgotten, but certainly crippled.
“When Myspace first came out it helped The Sleeping a ton, but it seems to have lost its engine and not many people attend the site anymore,” says Doug Robinson, singer for New York based rock band (and Victory Records veterans) The Sleeping. “There are so many social media sites now that I honestly have no idea which are the most important or will be the most important in the future.”
“There’s just too many bands,” says Ryan Lallier, guitarist for Big Surrender. Lallier’s former band, Waking Ashland, did time on Tooth and Nail and Immortal before disbanding in 2007, and he notes how things have changed since then. “I think social media has a negative effect,” he says. “I know how annoyed I get with bands bugging me to listen to their music and I can’t help but think people are annoyed by us and consider us the same as the other millions of bands on the internet. I never got into it.”
