[Sigia-l] Your take on MySpace

[Jay Linden]

For perspective's sake:

1) I'm not an IA anymore.  I'm a solution architect (infrastructure) by 
trade, which is why I don't post here anymore.

2) I'm also a musician and have a MySpace space.

3) I haven't been under 25 for over 25 (years).

My experience is that the notion of MySpace as a kids-and-musicians 
environment is at least 6-8 months out of date.  Most of the musicians I 
know are either fully ensconced on MySpace or getting their foot in the 
water, to be sure.  But the same holds for most of the non-musicians I 
know (I am 52.)

Skot seems to be suggesting that one should have a MySpace space *or* a 
Website.  That's like saying one should have an automobile *or* a 
refrigerator.

I suspect Skot and others probably don't understand the use and value of 
MySpace.  It has little to do with being a website, as I would hope 
every subscriber to this list can figure out that a MySpace presence 
makes a lousy website, and is generally only used that way by people who 
can't afford to also have a website or who don't have the savvy to 
create one or the knowledge of someone who can.

What it is, on the other hand, is a remarkable networking and marketing 
tool.  You don't have "friends"; you have mutually agreed-to networked 
links to other people's presences.

If MySpace weren't mis-interfaced (forgive me verbing a noun) with a 
"social network" skin, you'd have no trouble figuring out how to use it.

Here's the hypothetical.  Get a bunch of information architects onto the 
environment.  They link to each other for communication, support, "water 
cooler" chat, but also shared knowledge, references for potential 
employers and clients, etc.  And they also interlink directly with the 
potential employers and clients, industry associations, the businesses 
in the industries in which they function, the people in their up- and 
downstream (designers, developers, project managers) etc.

Here's how it works for me as a musician (folk singer-songwriter; feel 
free to click the MySpace link at the bottom, it won't bite and neither 
do I).

I'm a newcomer recording artist (and an old-comer at just about 
everything else).  In just a few months, I have made contacts with other 
artists all over the world, some of whom have offered to share gigs with 
me or recommend me strongly to the venues in their cities.  I have 
"inside track" contacts with organizations (such as Folk Alliance), 
media, venues, artists who sing other people's songs, and a handful of 
top flight musicians who otherwise would never have heard what I do but 
who now give me credentials by their respect for my music.

I have sold CDs to people who found me there.  I have arranged 
publicity.  I have a page from which an unlimited number of streams and 
downloads of my music can be taken at no cost (the thousand or so 
plays/month I've been getting would be costing me upwards of an extra 
$20/month in bandwidth from my own website).

And, of course, through the marvels of hypertext, I integrate my MySpace 
space (say that three times fast) with my sales page on CD Baby, my own 
website, anything else I want.  Sort of like being able to take a cold 
soft drink from the refrigerator and drink it in my car.

Would this have worked with my own website?  You figure it out.  Who in 
the name of Zeus' white beard is going to go to my website if they don't 
already know who I am?  But you only need to know and like one or more 
of the several hundred good artists with "friend" links who have a 
musical affinity to mine to find a link to my MySpace page.

This means that I not only have vastly better marketing clout through 
MySpace than I could ever get through my site alone, but I can also 
target and segment my market, by sharing links with the kinds of artists 
whose fans would like my music, and offering the same back.

Would this work in the pharmaceutical, NGO, public, manufacturing or IT 
industries?  Of course it would.

And if MySpace weren't set up with an interface like a place where kids 
gather, and an outdated reputation for attracting just kids and 
musicians, it would be way easier for grownups to figure this out.

Skot Nelson wrote:

> It's a generation gap. I don't know anybody who uses MySpace who isn't:
> a) less then 25, or
> b) a musician
> 
> and I think most of the musicians use it because they think they  
> should, rather than it adding much real value -- they all have their  
> own sites still.
> 
> On Aug-8-2006, at 2:15 PM, Lee Hsieh wrote:
> 
> 
>>It mitigates teenage angst in the form of public self-expression and
>>recognition.

-- 

Jay Linden                                    Cambridge, Ontario, Canada
Songwriter etc.				    	    http://jaylinden.com
Brand New CD release -- "Satchel"	     http://cdbaby.com/cd/linden
Hear 3 songs at Sonicbids EPK:        http://www.sonicbids.com/jaylinden
Hear 4 songs at MySpace:		    http://myspace.com/jaylinden
Last year I went fishing with Salvador Dali. He was using a dotted line.
He caught every other fish. 				-- Steven Wright