Having a billion myspace friends: Really that great?

[antispatula]

It has always bothered me that people think that having a hundred thousand friends on myspace is going to make them huge celebrities, and that maybe if they download an automatic friend adder and get 500 friends a day, within no time they're bound to be famous!

Take this hoe for example:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm...riendid=466959

She has over 3,000 plays today. That's more than lots of big-label bands....yet she SUCKS SO BAD.

She has a quarter of a million friends. She has thousands of plays a day. Yet we all know she doesn't have many fans and doesn't sell lots of cd's, and people don't go to her shows, if she even ever does them.

I'm not ripping on myspace, I've got one, and think it's a great tool. But people don't get how useless a million friends can be. I've got only 300. I know and talk to a pretty big percentage of them, lots and lots are local people that live within 1 or 2 hours from my town.


I think a better way to understand how many of your "friends" are really fans of your music is to take the number of plays you have and divide it by your ammount of friends.

The profile I linked to above, even though got 3,000 plays today, only had a 1.2% playrate.

Just my two cents. Anyone agree/disagree?

[Anomaly Design]

I agree, and I think 300 friend is still a shitload. I have 15. Its only an ego trip for the bitch, she wants to feel special so good for her. Its just like TV or the radio, sure she has alot of plays but that doesn't keep her from sucking horribly.

[antispatula]

agreed

I think the most important thing you ca do with myspace is add people in your region, and other in major cities or areas. Lets say you want to do a show in San Fransisco, but don't know anyone there. It is possible to add people that are specifically in the San Fran area, and eventually play a show there and have people actaully show up to see you specifically.

[2001n4ever]

she is not that bad to be honest..........but there is something else to consider.....
she is a very attractive girl so I am sure anytime she leaves a comment hundreds upon thousands of men click on her links.....
I sure as hell did.......lol
But her music is not as bad as you make it seem...I am sure she has a strong following too.

[2001n4ever]

and oh yeah.....she has been a memeber since 03.......thats 3 years of adding friends.

[Renascent]

I'd say it's give and take. Most people get annoyed with bulletins and things along those lines that bands constantly post. However, there's a ton of creeps on myspace just begging to get some artist to respond to their comments, or that just like to look at pictures of hot chicks (hey, i sure do)
I think the biggest part about the bazzillion friends is... You can't overlook how many people like "discovering" new bands. If that chick were to get signed to a label and get huge, she'd already have tons of "die hard fans" even if they're not even really into her music. Why? Because "they heard it first!"
I think its good to have a wide base of fans, especially with downloaded music being the new forefront of distribution, but it's also important to manually add people locally and interact more with a core audience to get people out to your shows and buy your merch.
thats my opinion

[DavidK]

I am signed to a small indie label. When they went to Borders to see if they would carry my CD, one of the things Borders liked was the 3000 people I have on myspace. It the check with 250K was any good, record companies would be checking her out.

[zacanger]

Well... I have five thousand something. But they're all people I know, or people who know people I know, or something like that. Or you people.

[peopleperson]

Well, first, you have to be GOOD. Second, the right audience has to come into contact with your stuff. I suppose setting a large net might eventually pay off in some regard, but those two things are about all that matters.

[Erockrazor]

Okay on my bands myspace we have 100 friends. I havent added one of them because I feel guilty. I feel as if they like my music they have the freedom to either add me to their friends list or not. I feel awkward asking for "fans". I'm a horrible self promoter to be honest with you haha. I feel like bands with so many friends are more than less just adding a whole bunch of people and not really winning them over with their music. Plus when you try to add people to be your bands friends , I'm sure there are people who just want to add digits to their "friends list".

My conclusion , a lot of friends may get you a little more publicity but more than less its not building a solid fanbase. How many of those people would actually go to your shows? I guess each side has its ups and downs. Good question I suppose haha.

If anything previously stated by myself doesnt make any sense , its supposed to be that way. Thanks, Eric.

[leavings]

I think it's always good to expose your music to a new (and large) audience so long as you feel you're putting your best foot forward. If 3000 people listen to your music every day, some of them are bound to like it. Even if only 0.1% decide to buy a CD from what they hear, that's still 0.1% who may not have heard of you otherwise.

I do think it's important to be scrupulous about how you market yourself. Most people dislike spam and incessant advertising, but the MySpace crowd seems to be tolerant of unsolicited campaigning by musicians...

If people don't like it, they'll delete your messages and remove you as a friend.

[pdadda]

I should start by saying that I do not do music for a living. I think it is retarded when people try to make it look like people like their music when they suck. But it doesn't really affect me. I'll keep having shows where 20-30 people who like my music show up, and those douches can play one show a year in their mom's basement for their stuffed animals. We both end up happy. By the way, will you guys all go to my page and add me as a friend so I look popular?

[FALKEN]

hey - adding a bazillion people actually works for some. I remember myself and everyone I know getting a friend request a year or two ago from some chick singer that I thought sucked ass. Now she is in the top 10 indie artists on the myspace list. That's pretty impressive, good music or not.

One way I've used the friend adding feature is when playing out of town. How else are you supposed to promote? Often the venue doesn't even book any local bands!! how stupid is that!!! so myspace seems to work pretty good on that front (say a 1-2% return rate) but 4 or 5 people showing up from that is better than none.

By the way, pretty soon you will be able to sell mp3's on myspace just like itunes. When I found that out I started wishing I had a few more friends. I think it is going to make things a hell of a lot more competitve than they already are. I mean, I could be the best band in the world but if some ho added a few thousand friends she's probably ahead of me in the game. no matter what market share you are after.

[ecktronic]

Im not big into Myspace.
It is a good tool for promoting your band, but after using it for a year I am bored looking at the site!
We are in the Top 3 in the Myspace charts for Unsigned UK Rock which is pretty cool.

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/SEROTONEBAND

Eck

[ecktronic]

[QUOTE=FALKEN
By the way, pretty soon you will be able to sell mp3's on myspace just like itunes. [/QUOTE]
You have always been able to sell MP3s on myspace!
You just need to sign up to a good MP3 download distributor and place a link on your site. The Orchard is the biggest download distributor in the world.
They supply to Yahoo, Napster, I-Tunes etc.

Eck

[zacanger]

[QUOTE=ecktronic]

Originally Posted by FALKEN
By the way, pretty soon you will be able to sell mp3's on myspace just like itunes. [/QUOTE

You have always been able to sell MP3s on myspace!
You just need to sign up to a good MP3 download distributor and place a link on your site. The Orchard is the biggest download distributor in the world.
They supply to Yahoo, Napster, I-Tunes etc.

Eck

Yeah, but now Myspace supplies a way for you to do it.

[numetaljordan]

i have a myspace for my small project studio and i have around 300 friends. Alot of the bands ive come to record are because i added them on myspace

[HangDawg]

Originally Posted by 2001n4ever

she is not that bad to be honest..........but there is something else to consider.....
she is a very attractive girl so I am sure anytime she leaves a comment hundreds upon thousands of men click on her links.....
I sure as hell did.......lol
But her music is not as bad as you make it seem...I am sure she has a strong following too.

Ahhh, it's utter crap. I was turned off after the first 30 secs. worth of oohhh, ahhhhhhh, woooooooooooooooooyeeaahhh. And she was flat to boot. I don't care how big her tits are and she's not really that hot either.

[warble2]

Originally Posted by HangDawg

Ahhh, it's utter crap. I was turned off after the first 30 secs. worth of oohhh, ahhhhhhh, woooooooooooooooooyeeaahhh. And she was flat to boot. I don't care how big her tits are and she's not really that hot either.

I was thinking how to put it, but you did an adequate job

[djdocrok]

I think it is definetly that great... Music is a business and its all about the numbers, if you've ever worked/studied sales you understand this principle. Even if only one if every 1,000 people likes your music, but you can get 1,000,000 people to check you out, thats still 1,000 fans you might not have ever had.
The worse your play rate, the more traffic you better drive.
It doesn't matter if you make the best music in the world if no one ever hears it!

Myspace is a great marketing tool for getting out there and so is Youtube (which seems to be a big part of how she got out there) and any other free media service.
I detect a slight note of jealousy/hate going on, because there are many not good acts that have a lot of views/friends...

[steve.h]

I agree w/ dj, and would like to further that line of thought for you a bit...

There are over 6,000,000,000 people on earth. That's a sh*tload, in case you can't tell. Now think of 1,000 people in a room. That's a good-sized crowd. 1,000 old, young, smart, stupid, hispanic, white, black, short, tall, rich, poor, etc. people. Now if you play your band's music for them, the chances are extremely high at least one person will like it enough to buy your CD, or at least come to a show. Now take that 1/1,000 and apply it to the whole world. That's 6 MILLION fans man. If each of them made you $1, that'd be 6 MILLION DOLLARS. These numbers are a fact. Now, add in the consideration that a good many of the people on myspace are there with the specific intent of finding new music, and the fact that you can search for and add people based on what kind of music they like, where they live, what other bands they're friends with, etc. and your chances of a sale/fan go up significantly. Myspace contains nearly every remotely mainstream band's target market.

So yes, it matters a sh*tload how many friends you have, how many plays you get, etc. But the bands that really succeed are the ones that take it to the next level and comment/message/ just f***ing talk to every single person that makes any sort of communication with them, and do it honestly. Tell them their taste in music is sweet, or their picture made you laugh, or you wish you could play their state, etc. etc. Looking huge is only the first part of the 'big picture', but it is a major one. If you look huge, people will think you're huge. They'll wonder why they haven't heard of you before. If you talk to them, many will think you're a huge band that took the time to talk to their fans, which makes them relate to you and come to your shows, etc.

Anyway, I'm ranting here, but a good band can use myspace to get quite far up the success ladder if used correctly.

[nukeitout]

Yea, it's not stupid to use myspace to get popular, but I agree that it can be relied on so heavily to the point that other aspects can suffer, like all they do is post on myspace and they never play or write or walk around with flyers to smell some fresh air.

The more people that know you exsist, the more fans you have. Any publicity is good, and myspace is very cheap, costing only time and internet connectivity (which most people already have). It also has a huge following. I don't like it much, but I use it because I have many friends who completely abandoned email in favor of myspace.

I used to talk down a lot of things and people who did things that I would consider 'uncool' but I have sorted garbage at a recycling plant for minimum wage before (at 16 years old) so I really cant say anything about anyone making a buck doing something more rewarding that sorting paper and cardboard.

If I ever find the time to write some more music and take it seriously, I'm sure I'll spend a little time pumping up my myspace friends, too, but I won't overdo it to the point that I don't play shows or place newspaper ads.

[steve.h]

Exactly, it is really easy to rely on it or get stuck in a "myspace rut". You've gotta use it as an additional marketing/promotional tool, instead of a way to run your entire band. Their messaging is great to establish contact with a bunch of promoters/venues/etc., but to really run a band you've gotta use real email, real phones, and talk to real people in real places!

[Mindset]

I personally dislike myspace, but have one anyways, because of contacts of mine that have one and would like me to add them as a friend. Nice sized local contacts. Anyways, I've been forced to deny damn near everyone that requests me as a friend, and that number has been going plenty. It is a good tool to market with, but should never be the only tool you market with, unless that's all you know, and that's all you want.

Now a days, when I ask for someone's number to contact them, I usually get a myspace url with it but hey, I guess his name is Tom, created something that became so popular, and is becoming second nature to everyone who loves it, go him.

I'm going to go create a www.yourspace.com instead.

[zbert]

I wish I could remember who said Even bad publicity is good just as long as they spell my name right. It's all marketing. Hell, Britney Spears became a star and she can't sing worth a damn. I can't see any A&R guy thinking this chick any good. Her voice was flat and the material was not that good. Only my opinion. I think myspace is a good thing. I've found lots of good music (and a lot of bad) It's only a tool. A small tool. You got to have the talent to back it up. A good indie artist will benefit from a lot of myspace friends. Here is one of my new favorites http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm...endid=21753099
She is from Denmark where she put out 2 CD's. She now has a world wide release but not that know in the US. She is the real deal singer, songwriter. Anyway myspace has become a necessary evil.