Aug 24 2008
Music Magic on MySpace
Now, in addition to people who want to chat online, single people who wish to meet other single people, do-it-at-home matchmakers who want to match their friends up with other friends, families who wish to stay in contact; business people who want to network with other business people, classmates and students looking for potential study partners, and anyone looking for long-lost friends, musicians also have a home on MySpace.com.
Whether you are a musician looking to share your songs or a music lover looking for music or music videos, MySpace has your ticket—and the ticket of millions of people across the globe. With over 100 million members, MySpace has become the fourth most popular English-language website and the third most popular website in the United States, surpassing even Google and ebay. Nearly 250,000 new members join the social networking site every day.
The MySpace Music Page features a number of music links for both musicians and music lovers. You need not be a member of MySpace to view the comedy content. There is a Featured Artist section, which lists the hot artists based on genre. Links to the featured musicians’ personal profile pages allows you to listen to their music and learn about the bands. The MySpace Exclusives section keys users in to upcoming music events, tours, or releases. A Featured Video section links to a new music video and artist profile page. MySpace On Tour highlights upcoming tours, dates, and venues of featured artists. The Pick of the Week, sponsored by Filter Magazine, reviews new releases and offers recommendations for music listeners. MySpace also allows your to search and listen to top bands by searching via music genre.
MySpace has been a critical tool in the progression of many amateur bands. Membership to MySpace is necessary if you are a musician wanted to post your music for others to listen to on your MySpace personal profile. With its wide viewership, MySpace can offer musicians a significant amount of publicity. A number of artists, like the English band Arctic Monkeys and pop artist Lily Allen, owe some of their success to the publicity generated by MySpace.
A number of other musicians, however, have found issue with MySpace’s terms of agreement. Up until June 2006, the fine print within the MySpace’s user agreement states: “You hereby grant to MySpace.com a non-exclusive, fully-paid and royalty-free, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense through unlimited levels of sublicensees) to use, copy, modify, adapt, translate, publicly perform, publicly display, store, reproduce, transmit, and distribute such Content on and through the Services”. As this agreement is essentially made between the artist and Rupert Murdoch’s media giant News Corporation, many musicians, including songwriter Billy Bragg, were rightly concerned. Bragg actually pulled his songs from the website in protest. In repsonse to the concern raised by musicians, MySpace changed their user agreement to assure artists that the company does not claim any ownership of the text, files, photos, video, sounds, musical works, or any other materials posted to MySpace. Hopefully, this amendment will reassure artists as to the safety of their material on MySpace so that thousands of users can continue to enjoy it.
If you are a musician looking to share your music with others, connect with other musicians, or be discovered by an audience that could top 100 million people, MySpace Music is the place for you. If you are a music lover looking to discover up and coming artists, find upcoming music events in your neighborhood, or connect with the musicians who make some of your favorite tunes, MySpace music is also the place for you.