Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Myspace Music

Personally, when I joined Myspace, it was to keep up with all the news and events going on with my friends. At the time, Myspace seemed to be the easiest platform to communicate with my friends and set up social gatherings. Myspace always had a music section. I remember there was a search engine for music on myspace and a way to put music on your profile in the form of a song or a playlist. However, I did not realize how popular music became on Myspace.

As Levinson mentions, Myspace enabled recording artists to build an audience for their music before they contacted an agent or a record company. Although many of these amateur recording artists do not make it into mainstream, it still gives them a forum for their music to be heard. Levinson writes about Ebony Moore and James Harris who have not reached mainstream but their Myspace pages have recieved over 100,000 views, an impressive feat. Like Moore and Harris, the band Truth on Earth, also not mainstream, has a Myspace page and their music is available on Amazon and iTunes. Levinson also discusses Kate Nash and Lily Allen, popular musicians in the United Kingdom who have gone mainstream. Levinson finally mentions Sean Kingston who I've heard, but I never realized he started out on Myspace. Kingston has had some successful hits in the United States, setting an example that musicians who start out on Myspace can eventually hit the big time.

2 comments:

  1. It's certainly true that music, and the arts in general, is a strong point of MySpace, although folks also complain about the incessant friend requests from bands.

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  2. The constant friend requests from bands is actually part of the reason I have a hard time taking them seriously. It can be a turn off, and I won't even want to give them a listen.

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