I concur! As a music promoter I find it a huge turn off for a band to only use a My Space site. First of all, can you even get it to work? If I want to listen to your music what are my chances of actually making that happen? About 70%. Plus, it makes you look cheap and unprofessional.

My number one complaint about My Space is just that it's unreliable and you need your site to be reliable.

My Space can be a great tool though. I've been doing a lot of work on my My Space sites because it does open you to a whole new world of people and be used as another place to put your newsletter and up your numbers for that.

Okay, enough rambling. I could go on, but I'll spare you my personal problems.

You're right...I actually have done the opposite. I lead people from Myspace to my bandzoogle website to make them MY members instead. I think that it's smarter to make people members through your personalized website instead of MYSpace.

Good point Chris. I'm on Myspace, but you won't even find a link to it from my website. You can get to my website form Myspace though.

Myspace is rather pointless. It seems like a big friend grab. Dashboard Confessional is my friend, who cares!?? I'm always interested in increaseing my web presence. To that end, it's okay. Myspace is a tiny portion of that effort.

I have to disagree. We use use all avenues of media including myspaces and garagebands, etc. Our album and video sales are on high and our traffic to our official website increases everyday. It's what works for us. Just our opinion. Marty Haviik

I agree myspace shouldn't be the main site but I do think it is a valuable tool. A large portion of our web traffic results from people linking from our myspace page.

I agree....Myspace has been a great tool for us. We've increased our traffic to our main site. For some reason, Myspace is very popular and lets people feel like they can stay connected to your band in a more personal way. Especially when u leave comments on their site, they feel like you see them and connect with them. Granted, i do as much work for my regular site as i do on my myspace site. I just feel that if avenues are there for you to get exposure and build a fan base, whatever that method may be, you would be foolish not to use it.

Nah... My aim is to get some really good mp3 teasers on the myspace site, and when album time comes, I will send a message out to all of my friends and try and sell some albums.

I leave comments on everyone's site that adds our band. In the comment, I always leave a hyperlink to our main site (no typing involved). The traffic has increased to our bandzoogle site. I have had a few people, from other sides of the country saying they like our sound. To me that equates to a potential fan or album sale that wasn't previously possible.

I scan the groups on MySpace for people with similar musical interests, and almost all will add our band. This will also help if we ever get to touring.

John
ToWeR 4

Good points, Chris.

I think MySpace is a lot like many other things in life...there are pros and cons to it.

Chris has highlighted some important facts about MS that we should all be aware of...

...but, with all the pressure to have a MS profile, can bands/artists really afford not to have one? I mean it's almost like an opening line from people nowadays. You play a show, get off the stage, and I can guarantee a handful of people are gonna ask me if our band is on MySpace...(even nationally signed artists have profiles and you would think they have all the promotions backing they need from their major labels...???)

I think the big danger (as Chris pointed out) is to fall back on MS as your main site. I've seen a lot of bands do this. What I tell people who inquire where to find us on the web, is that they can go to saturndown.com and find our myspace link there. This tactic at least leads them to your propitiatory site first.

MySpace is one of the latest crazes on the web and so people are naturally going to be all over it. Should bands and atists use MS to help promote their music? Sure, bands should use all and any means availble to promote their music...especially ones that are FREE! But let's not fall into the mind set that we are gonna get a record deal becasue we have 10,000 friends. It takes a long time to surf around profiles and click to add a friend...time that could probably be better spent bimproving your own site or promoting your own band.

On a side point, one of the biggest benefits we are finding with MS is to use it to network with other artists and bands in and around our area and even nationally. This is a great way to find out about venues in other cities, share shows, just become friends and share road notes...plus to us at least, it makes sense building your friend list full of bands, artists, promoters, venues, and fans that can actually help you, rather than simply adding every new "hot friend" to your list!

That being said, Happy MySpacing!

I disagree man, I think myspace has been an amazing tool and has totally revolutionized band promotion. No more passing out flyers on the streets, drop'n cds here and there. You get on there you can hit more people in whatever area you designate. Also, I think its cool that bands have 2 sites (myspace & the official site) If i am really diggin a band then I like to check out all the info I can, alot of bands also offer different tracks to download on the various sites, so when I goto both sites, that is one of the biggest things I look for. Plus myspace has alot more custom features you can add to make a cool design for your page. Bandzoogle is great, but I think it needs to focus more on custom features a user can add. Myspace was created for bands, but it has grown into the largest online community, I dont think anything can touch it. Other than its often server problems its #1 in my book. You guys do great things here at Bandzoogle, I dont want to sound like I am not totally impressed with this service! Keep it up yo, and dont be hate'n on the myspace! Word.

Myspace is ok to use, but unless your good with like designing website and stuff well you cant do much with it..
And it took me ages to figure out how to use the thing..
Though its a good place to get some people interested i spose..
www.myspace.com/thenum_locks

we use myspace.we have got a ton of shows from it.our cd reviewed by very reputable webzines.if you use it properly,it can increase your ticket sales,just don't be one of those bands that harrass or bombard people with invitations and bulletins every ten seconds .people go to our bandzoogle site because of myspace.although,it is still considered to be quite professional in the industry if you have your own website,myspace can make your bandzoogle site boom if you do it with common sense.

The irony to this all is that as we are posting these replies myspace is down for the quadrillionth time for maintenance, go figure.
Myspace and geocities can develope traffic to your own site and thats about the only use I'll ever find for a band from them.

Very true, myspace is a fad. I think we should all use it to our advantage and try not to get gobbled up by it

I'm not sure if it's common knowledge...but MySpace also uses a ton of spyware.

I went to the "Login" page after making a clean sweep of my computer with AdAware, closed the window then did a rescan. I found 3 critical objects!

I kinda liked myspace for my "personal use" but I won't even do that anymore.

our Myspace account was deleted! We had it up and running for almost a year! It was cool. It matched our site perfect! One day I went to check it and the url was some new guy and we were not even on the music search anymore. We had gaind like 5000 friends and 5 times the actual visits. Now it is just gone. I havent made a new one because im pissed about loosing the url.

I would have to say that having myspace as one of our bands pages has been a very resourceful tool. We have booked many shows and sold many cd's through myspace and pure volume. Bandzoogle has also become my favorite web hosting solution. Thank you for that but remmeber that exposure of any kind is still exposure. Happy Holidays.

- JP and SPUN.

I agree
why?
If you want to be a star
you have to model yourself after one

do you think the biggest acts out there limit themselves to myspace?

www.tsean.com

I used myspace to drive traffic to my site and to invite local "friends" to my shows. I had a show recently competing with the Warren Haynes Christmas jam and I was worried about attendance. I had a small crowd and a nice show - several of those attending came from myspace contact. One person even drove 45 miles for the show. I also think I've sold songs on iTunes driven by myspace. So, I agree that myspace should be an extension of your main site, not your main site.

Again, I don't think the big argument is that My Space isn't a great marketing tool, but more that you shouldn't use it exclusively. If a band is only using My Space, I think it's pretty tacky. I use it all the time though. Obviously, everyone here has a real website, so hopefully people are using My Space to market, but not only updating My Space and nothing else.

Enough of my crap.

We agree and disagree.
It is important to use a .com as you main site cause overall they are far more attractive not only as your main site but to visitors.

MySpace is a great site as another form of media outlet to get your songs/music/artform out there to people who may have never had a chance to or even had the possibilty to see or hear you.

Also, we use our own website more (it's simple to remember). But, we do use Myspace to introduce people to our band. Then, they check out our website.

MySpace has been a great tool in getting people out to our shows not only in our hometown but when we tour, it's an easy way to spread word.

-RD

Chris I have to agree with you. Our band uses our Myspace profile mainly for other bands. For gigs. Thank you for bandzoogle.

personally, i hate my space. how in the world can you compare the 2? bandzoogle? my space? no brainer there.

I agree with some of y'all. Myspace is to me gear towards the younger generation (teens and tweens). Sure they buy music but at lower rates because most don't have jobs yet. They go by word of mouth. If one says this cool, the rest will follow suit. Blah blah. Anyway...
I have a little site on there and it is very, very, very limited. Not the best way to go if you have a lot going on with your music. That's why i got with the Bandzoogle Posse. I have another website but it is not as strong as this one. Well it is but i love this one. I get more feedback with the Bandzoogle website and that's what i'm looking for. I put equal time into both. So i guess it depends on the individual who is maintaining your website. And it depends on you to get out there and hustle. Put your name out there. One way or another, I will be heard or recognized. Fer sho! Get at me mane. 1UP!

Does anyone know if there is an equivilent of bandzoogle for myspace? That lets you create a great site from templates etc?