The Dwindling Relevance of MySpace

Since 2008, MySpace has been been making regular and large staffing cuts. In 2009, comScore reported that Facebook had twice the global traffic as MySpace.

Back in February of 2010, one of the CEOs quit, and it was seen as a really bad sign. Back in the heyday of MySpace, bands flocked to MySpace music in an effort to connect with their fans in a medium their fans were already using. Today, I know many people who only go on MySpace to find new music and tour dates from their favorite artists. The powers that be over at MySpace have been saying that they’re going to refocus according to that trend. They recently acquired iLike, a music service, and revamped their music section. However, they have been talking about moving away from social networking and focusing on entertainment for years without much follow-through, so time will tell. It’s also important to keep in mind that there are plenty of other places to get your music and if someone goes to MySpace for a music page, there’s nothing making them browse around the rest of the site.

In July 2010, MySpace started to beta test a cleaner (and more Facebook-like) profile template and bought out another social networking service: Threadbox. This seems to indicate that, no matter their claims to focus in music, they’re still trying to resuscitate a dying form of social media. They’re trying, but nobody’s optimistic and, more importantly, nobody is excited, which is what MySpace needs to get any popularity back.

Of course, who knows what might catch on, but it’s pretty well accepted at this point that unless you’re an indie band, a MySpace logo on your website looks antiquated and maybe even a little weird.


One thought on “The Dwindling Relevance of MySpace

  1. Emily Cotler says:

    Addendum: let me be clear — if you are getting traffic from MySpace, by all means keep the profile. We just think that the MySpace button on your site isn’t all that relevant anymore, and could look outdated. And therefore maybe a little weird.

    But if it’s working for you… great. Just be aware that MySpace is still trying to reorganize, and no one really seems excited about it. Just food for thought as you allocate your resources in your social networking efforts.

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