How Myspace saved my life

Posted on 4th August 2011

MySpace gets a slamming these days (not unfairly) but I first fell in love with Social Media in 2004 when MySpace saved my life.

At the time I was a Promoter / Booker for a live music venue, each week I would receive millions* of demos from hopeful bands trying to win me over with CDs, DVDs, glossy photos, drawings, T-shirts and even cassette tapes (believe it of not).  And every week I’d have demos to listen to and categorise and paperwork to file, this took up a lot of my time and as much as I loved to hear the new music that was coming through it was taking up time that could be better spent planning the events, booking the line ups and actually watching the bands live.

Then – like a gift from the Gods – along came MySpace in its original format and instead of trawling through demos and having boxes of music in the back office, I would receive a lovely email and a link to the bands MySpace page.  Of course for the bands it was also a result because they could save a fortune on postage and materials.  Just one link would take me to their page where I could read their biography /check out their pics / see which genre they would class themselves as and … Drumroll… Listen to their music!  All of a sudden my working life was so much easier and when I started managing unsigned bands I knew exactly what I needed to do to present them to other venues on the circuit.. Genius!

There was of course a downside to MySpace, our thriving community on our Messageboard were all talking on MySpace and spending their time there, the Mods had lost interest and the Bots we’re taking over.  We put up a good fight but Facebook came along and put the final nail in the coffin.

We waved a sad goodbye to our message board and I focused my energy on Social Media engaging with our community and building up our following.  I found it invaluable in the marketing of the venue from promoting single events, to letting people know of any changes we might be making to chatting to the staff in a group and getting their imput.

Of course when Facebook came along it was all over for MySpace too, the only people left there were bands, all the fans were chatting on Facebook, I deleted my profile the other day, I must admit, I felt a little sad.  I also got a text from the singer of the last band I managed, he said “check me out on MySpace” and sent me a link, to which I replied “Darling you’re so last year, things have moved on..” And they really have.

I guess my profile will be going to the MySpace Graveyard

*’Slight’ exaggeration

Posted in Marketing