MySpace for Music
June 21st, 2010 | by Jen |Last October, MySpace reached an all-time low of 50.2 million unique visitors per month. That number has only decreased since (47.6 million in March). The site is hemorrhaging money, while a certain competitor extends its reach throughout the web, in spite of mounting privacy issues. After years of enduring seizure-inducing Flash animations and child predator scares, some ex-users seem glad to see it go. As the world of social media moves on though, there’s at least one bit of the site worth keeping: MySpace Music.
MySpace Music profiles remain the simplest, fastest way to check out a new band. On a site known for layout nightmares, they appear structured and informative, more so than their Facebook counterparts. Almost despite itself, the MySpace team has built an enduring template, one the company is now applying to gaming. Here are some reasons why we hope MySpace Music sticks around.
The biggest advantage MySpace music pages have over their Facebook counterparts is standardized layout. Yes, you read that right. Where artist pages are concerned, MySpace, not Facebook, offers the more predictable, easy-to-navigate design. While potential for endless customization remains, the one fixed feature is the most important: The music player. Let’s look at an example.
Take The National, a longtime indie favorite whose new album has garnered enough mainstream press for a number-three chart debut. Say you read a positive review and want to give their music a quick once-over. Go to their MySpace page and you find that ugly-but-familiar music player sitting in the upper right-hand corner. The same box sits in the same place on every artist’s page, generally above the fold, with the newest songs on top. The untamed flexibility of MySpace profiles makes it difficult to find many things (coherent structure, for one), but not this.
The standardized MySpace layout helps industry scouts as well. Marni Wandner of promotion firm Sneak Attack Media (Tom Petty, Against Me!) says that the consistent format plays a big role in the site’s appeal. “You find a band on MySpace and you immediately know where the player is,” she writes. “You know where to look to see what label they’re on, you know where the tour dates are.”