MySpace Helps To Reinvent the Music Business

Jason North talks about some of the ways in which MySpace has helped to reinvent the music business.

The music industry in the late seventies was often characterized as being wasted and complacent – dominated by album-oriented radio dreck. The DIY (Do It Yourself) punk movement was birthed as a response to this bleak musical landscape. Punk artists were revolting against the established music industry and the bloated, self-indulgent “progressive” rock that had long dominated the airwaves. Flash forward thirty odd years and suddenly we’re having an information revolution – one that has affected almost every facet of our lives, including the music industry. Forget radio, because this revolution will be televised – via high speed Broadband.   

The internet music revolution has cut to the heart of a generally corrupt system where artists were forced to rely on big record companies to get their music released and marketed. Video may have killed the Radio Star, but it appears that Social Networking sites have killed the A&R! The sign o’ the times indicated that the Internet could be a viable shortcut to bypass the spin cycle and marketing tactics of the big record companies, instead empowering independent artists and consumers.

Besides becoming the casual term for any online network (Do you have a MySpace?), MySpace is also on its way to becoming a musical Google. From superstars to bedroom rockers, anyone can share their original work, sell it, and nurture a fanbase. Everyone is a star; one big circle going round and round! As an ironic response to Andy Warhol’s idea that everyone would have 15 minutes of fame, UK Graffiti Artist Banksy sardonically stated that everyone (in today’s over-exposed, online world) would instead get 15 minutes of anonymity. Now that we’re all stars, we can all bemoan the spotlight, too.

MySpace Music offers the same tools to everyone, whether they’re indie or established. The most crucial factor: MySpace is free – and worth every penny! For inexperienced musicians who are too intimidated to launch a proper website, MySpace provides a way to create a web  presence in just minutes. Artists can communicate directly with fans, recruit new listeners, post music and photos, announce tour dates, and blog about whatever tickles their fancy. MySpace has made every user into the VP of their own record label and PR agency.

MySpace succeeded where otherhave failed by leveraging technologies to the fullest and by consistently implementing features (such as blogs) before competing social networks. But their real hook was the fact that users could easily customize their own pages, allowing their personalities to “shine through”,  warts and all. “Can I add you to my friends list on MySpace?” has even replaced the traditional “Can I get your phone number?” at bars and events.

A July 19, 2005 article in Business Week suggested that one of the reasons for the success of MySpace Music was geography. It emerged out of the L.A. music and club scene, rather than being  concocted by a board of greedy shareholders or Silicon Valley venture capitalists. It spent its formative years in the tragi-glamorous Silicone Valley of Los Angeles – a city whose glittery, tinseled gears are oiled more by extreme media and brilliant, drug-addled artists than by solid business plans or the newest tech.

MySpace Music created the first ecosystem to think green by producing sustainable revenue streams for artists based on advertising, merchandise and concert sales. The site was built on the backs of grassroots musicians, making dozens of local acts into global sensations. The MySpace Music service provides advertising-supported, free music streaming – with the ability to purchase and download MP3 versions of songs. Unsigned musicians can use MySpace to post and sell music using a system called SNOCAP. Users can create online playlists and then embed them in their MySpace home pages with MySpace’s music player or listen to playlists built by other users and celebrities.

But the real focus for MySpace was on the advertising stream rather than selling downloads. While selling individual songs would benefit the artists, the website flourished by making money off of ads rather than making money off of affiliate fees. MySpace was in a prime position since they already had a large audience, a big sales force, and relationships with existing advertisers.

As of October 2008, more than 8 million bands and solo artists had set up music pages to keep their fans updated and to gain further exposure. The site has had such success in this arena that it has more website hits for music than MTV Online. Anyone who has used MySpace can attest to encountering online traffic jams by means of error messages.

In September of 2004 R.E.M. became the first band from a major record label to stream an entire album on MySpace before anyone could ask, “What is the frequency Kenneth?” Several bands followed suit, including the Black Eyed Peas. Interscope alumni Queens of the Stone Age, Nine Inch Nails and Audioslave. Weezer, Coldplay, Foo Fighters, Death Cab for Cutie, and Billy Corrigan of Smashing Pumpkins fame also used the site as a platform to share their work prior to its release. These bands promoted their new releases with album world premieres and music streaming on the site. Their titles enjoyed debuts at or near the top of the Billboard 200. Similarly, MySpace helped launch My Chemical Romance’s 2004 album, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge to over one million sales. The major labels have come to understand the wisdom of promoting their acts on MySpace.

In July of 2005, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. purchased MySpace’s parent, Intermix Media, for about $580 million.

In an effort to discover unknown talent currently on MySpace Music, in the fall of 2005 MySpace launched their own music label based out of the web firm’s Santa Monica, California offices. Their first imprint was manufactured by Universal Music Group’s Interscope Records and featured a mix of tracks by major-label, independent-label and unsigned acts. While MySpace signed and marketed the bands, Interscope partnered in the marketing acts from the first stages of development.

Jason North is an L.A.-based journalist covering arts & entertainment. Contact him at: [email protected]