Believe the Hypem – MySpace is Still Essential for Artists

 MySpace has been wounded animal for quite some time now - the Titanic of social networks, sunk by an iceberg of its own poor programming, bugs, glitches and stagnant format whose users were left to swim ashore to the new world of social networking, the promise land. Facebook has constantly adapted its system while MySpace on the other hand has shown little in terms of resilience and ingenuity - currently it resembles a beaten-up boxer on the ropes, the bookies odds stacked against the once great social networking titan.  Just like the wily veteran boxer on the ropes, MySpace still has the ability to land a knockout blow at any second, it still has a secret weapon and a foundation of skills that have served it well since day one: this prize asset however has been ignored in the futile attempt to compete with Facebook in its own back yard.

What the MySpace lot need to do is use their loaf and admit that they are no longer a social network - it’s no good for finding out which one of your friends ‘Likes’  ‘Cute Kittens With Fainting Goat Syndrome’ or has ‘just checked in at: Greggs The Bakers’, because your friends aren’t there – but it does have its uses.  There has been a lot of talk about the soon to be re-branding of MySpace and we’re in full agreement that something needs to be done to bring the service up to date. However, anyone who suggests that musicians should ditch MySpace completely is a few ladyfingers short of a trifle.  MySpace is still one of the best Google ranking pages a musician can set up.  Take this example for instance; we looked at the current most blogged artists as listed on The Hype Machine (hypem.com) today and Googled their names to see if they had ditched MySpace and if not how their MySpace page was ranking. The list looks like this:

Kanye West

Ok so Kanye is bound to have a MySpace page as well as every other possible online channel, platform, animal or mineral available to man. However, this should suggest that if MySpace is that dead, it would be drowned in a sea of other sites. No such thing: MySpace is the fourth highest Google result after his website, the G.O.O.D Fridays site (which has been a really nice series by the way – check out ‘The Joy’ with Curtis Mayfield) and Wikipedia.

Smith Westerns

Pop the name of blog darling of the moment, Smith Westerns into Google and the top result you get is MySpace.  Investigate a little bit further and you find that they last checked in today and still keep their tour dates updated and even have contact details for their management, booking and PR team...Old school but still it seems very relevant for this band.

Tame Impala

This is becoming a reoccurring theme in this research...YES MySpace is the top Google search result.

Warpaint

Warpaint.com 1 – MySpace 0
MySpace is only the second highest ranked page for much knickers-wetted-over Warpaint. It still beats Wikipedia and Warpaints record label Rough Trade

The Decemberists

The lowest chart position so far for MySpace, coming in at a not so shabby fifth

From this little bit of research it seems my point is well and truly proved; it’s doubled in size, I’ve whacked it in the oven and I’m now enjoying the mouth-watering taste of freshly baked success.  Terrible puns and gloating aside, the point is if you’re an independent band/artist, one of the first things you want to do is get yourself a good quality MySpace page, branded in line with the rest of your social media presence and updated regularly with tracks, events and other good stuff.  You don’t have to use MySpace as a marketing tool, simply jump aboard its SEO train and ride that sucker ‘til the wheels come off.