'MySpace' - a great way to promote your music?

Ptarmigan · Post by **Ptarmigan** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 5:23 pm

What are the merits of, or problems with, MySpace?

Just wondering how many folks here have a page at 'MySpace'?

This MySpace phenomenon received mixed reviews from members of the 'Footstompin' forum at:

http://www.footstompin.com/forum?threadid=56732

However, I've been a member for a week & I have found loads of great musicians & groups there, which I might not otherwise have found out about, or at least perhaps not so quickly.

Also, I have not worked out how to upload sound & video onto my own site, but I found that was so easy to do at MySpace.

It appears to be a great way to let folks hear your music too & have fun listening to their - new music to your ears.

I'd be interested to hear what other folks here think about it?

You can check out my space & listen to some of my music at:
http://www.myspace.com/causewaytraditions

letmeburyem · Post by **letmeburyem** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 10:14 am

I think myspace is an excellent way to promote your music. I know from personal experience, I found a great band through myspace, went to see them play at apub I had never been to, and now see them nearly every week and play in their seisiuns.

Myspace is a free service, many people use it for networking, and the Trad Irish population is pretty large. I say use it for all its worth- what do you have to lose?

Wanderer · Post by **Wanderer** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 10:46 am

my band just started posting their events last week on myspace...I don't know yet whether or not it is having any effect on our attendance..

The Sporting Pitchfork · Tue Jul 25, 2006 4:58 pm

Seems like a great idea, as far as I see it. A surprising number of musicians are adding "MySpace Music" pages...Caoimhin O Raghallaigh, Fred Morrison, Dave Cory, Pat D'Arcy, Elliot Grasso, and Johnny Connolly have all become "friends" of mine through the miracle of MySpace (well, I knew a few of them before...). If you look at each of their pages, they all seem to be getting a fair amount of traffic--lots of bored people out there just randomly searching around on MySpace, for the most part. It's a great way to discover new and interesting stuff...I'll probably put up a music page of my own at some point soon...

Kevin L. Rietmann · Post by **Kevin L. Rietmann** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 6:56 pm

That's funny, Caoimhin O Raghallaigh actually doesn't have any friends, presumably because he also doesn't have any fadas...
(Look for Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh)
(Don't bother looking for "Sporting Pitchfork")
Caoimhín's page cues up some pizzicato hardingfele. Sounds like a Phillip Glass lullaby. Kitty Lie Over has its own page. Weird. Kinda like Corporations having rights.

ketida · Post by **ketida** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 9:31 pm

Great stuff, Ptarmigan! Very nice.

But..I signed up and did a search for "Irish traditional music" and I got ONE hit...the Dubliners. How do I find all the others?

ketida · Post by **ketida** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 9:33 pm

OH, and the ads really are annoying. The www is just becoming too, too commercial. Blech.

djm · Post by **djm** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 6:29 am

Ketida wrote:OH, and the ads really are annoying. The www is just becoming too, too commercial. Blech.

Sorry, but that sounds a bit silly, seeing as how it is the advertising that is paying for the site. The web is steering major advertising dollars away from more traditional formats like tv and newspapers. Its what makes free web utilities free. All you have to do is ignore the ads.

djm

Wanderer · Post by **Wanderer** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 6:38 am

djm wrote:
Ketida wrote:OH, and the ads really are annoying. The www is just becoming too, too commercial. Blech.
Sorry, but that sounds a bit silly, seeing as how it is the advertising that is paying for the site. The web is steering major advertising dollars away from more traditional formats like tv and newspapers. Its what makes free web utilities free. All you have to do is ignore the ads.

djm

Ads are what make my website pay for itself...if it weren't for ads, I'd have taken it down a long time ago.

Only about 1 in a thousand people click an ad--that's hardly any at all. In a direct mail (junk mail) campaign, mail order folks expect about a 1-2% return. But that 0.1% click rate on my site is to keep things paid for.

Caj · Post by **Caj** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 7:08 am

Beware though. There was a recent flap about an ad banner on MySpace taking over computers and installing spyware. Here:

Hacked Ad Seen on MySpace Served Spyware to a Million

An online banner advertisement that ran on MySpace.com and other sites over the past week used a Windows security flaw to infect more than a million users with spyware when people merely browsed the sites with unpatched versions of Windows, according to data collected by iDefense, a Verisign company. [etc]

So there's another reason to dislike ads: you're basically letting random people place something potentially malicious on your web page. Another reason to opt for Google text-ads, which are much safer; and another reason to install an ad-blocker.

Caj

djm · Post by **djm** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 8:14 am

Great info to have, Caj. Thx.

Any recommendations on ad-blockers?

djm

letmeburyem · Post by **letmeburyem** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 8:56 am

ketida wrote:Great stuff, Ptarmigan! Very nice.

But..I signed up and did a search for "Irish traditional music" and I got ONE hit...the Dubliners. How do I find all the others?

Myspace's search function is pretty ineffective. THey don't have a music section dedicated to Celtic or Trad Irish: Everyone I've found is listed under folk or some derivation of it.

I got started by finding one good band, and then checking their "friend of" list, then their "friend of" list, etc. You're welcome to check out my friend of list to use that as a starting point: same username as here.

SteveS · Post by **SteveS** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 9:07 am

I was easily sold on it for the ability to post music clips for free. I used to have mp3's on my band's website, but we didn't want to pay for the extra bandwidth required for that once people starting downloading them more frequently.

As for finding Irish trad (or any other interest), once you have found one, you could search through their friends or comments for others. If you have trouble finding even one, then try a google search (e.g. search "Irish fiddle myspace" or "[name of band or musician] myspace"). If you don't find the band or musician you were searching for, you might at least find someone who lists that as an influence and that may lead to others you recognize. You might be surprised who all is on there.

Kevin L. Rietmann · Post by **Kevin L. Rietmann** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 9:47 am

Owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, shudder...

uilleannified · Post by **uilleannified** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 3:38 pm

Jazuz not there as well!

I'll have to be updating me postmarks

Chiff and Fipple Forums

'MySpace' - a great way to promote your music?

'MySpace' - a great way to promote your music?

It's free, why not?