Was MySpace the Best Social Network for Musicians?

Recently, it was announced that MySpace had lost a major part of its catalog. This got me reminiscing. Hard. Has a producer who started making music in the mid-aughts, I can attest that the social network was the best platform for musicians.

I started recording music around 2006, when I installed a cracked version of Garageband on my Mac G4. A few friends told me I should upload my music on the Internet at the time. That’s how I was introduced to both social media and streaming.

This wasn’t only the golden age of MySpace, it was also a great time for indie music.

It’s hard to remember, but music still had a value back then. I’m not saying it was better to be charged 99¢ per tune, but the fact remains : getting a song for free was still akin to getting swag.

Modems were slow, so even if video streaming sites like YouTube and Dailymotion were gaining momentum, a video still took some time to load for most user with a sketchy connection.

In comparison, music was easily accessible, and could pretty much be streamed in a matter of seconds.

That might be why music was at the center of MySpace concept. You could have your artist page and upload a couple songs, which people could then embed to their personal profile. Music was a part of your identity, just as much as your profile customization.

As a user, it often felt like MySpace was a music platform that had been invaded by regular user. Imagine if the Apple Store was your portal to social media. I bet you’d visit the site a bit more often, and think about music more often, too.

A couple years later, Facebook came around, providing a better site for civilian’s (i.e. non-musician's) needs. MySpace was never the same.

On Facebook, musicians were just a part of the equation. Even huge mainstream artists like Coldplay had only a few 100k followers at first, compared to their millions of “friends” on MySpace. You could upload your music on a clunky player which everyone ignored.

Also, music wasn’t as rare anymore.

While SoundCloud and Bandcamp have tried to fill the void left by MySpace, both have succeeded only marginally. SoundCloud is a niche destination that has positively affected our culture (see the ubiquity of trap rap), but it never really was a popular destinations for casual music lovers. Bandcamp is strictly a marketplace at this point.

Today, YouTube, Instagram and Spotify are all part of a successful musician’s strategy, but they don’t have the same potential for musical virality, unless you’re ready to drop some serious coin. For most young indie musicians, it’s not always possible, and it’s not really part of the culture.

That’s probably why Twitter has become a favorite for the hip hop community. While most have deserted the network’s low-tech interface and exploding feed, it’s still a place to express your opinions, joke around and repost content you like. Stuff like cat videos, funny memes and, of course, music.

According to many musicians, it’s still the easiest way to go viral in 2019.

Like Twitter, MySpace was messier than Instagram is today, but who said culture was supposed to be clean.