UPDATE: Band Gets MySpace URL Back With Apology!
magine that for two years you've dilegently updated your MySpace page, invited friends and communicated with fans. You're an indie band on a budget; so MySpace and the friends you've made there are an important part of your marketing plan. But just as things start rolling, you get this email from MySpace telling you that your MySpace URL is about to be changed. (click on image to enlarge)
That's exactly what happened to the Montreal band Mobile two months into their second album release just as they left on tour with Chris Cornell. I'll let the band's manager Don Affleck take the story from here:
We equip our bands with the tools to make community development online simpler. Our main goal is to ensure our bands are connecting directly with fans and that their online communities are active and nurtured BY THE BANDS!
So last wednesday one of our bands (Mobile) receives an email from the Myspace "Team" saying:
"Greetings MySpace member,
We are in the process of making MySpace better which requires the use of the URL you have chosen. MySpace will reset your URL within 48 hours...
of receipt of this email. After it has been reset, you will be able to choose another URL. The reset of your URL will not affect your profile at all. Should you have any questions, feel free to reply back and a MySpace representative will assist you in this process.
Thank you for your time and understanding!
The MySpace Team"This is a fucking joke right?!?! Nope, apparently Team-Myspace (fuck
ya!) came down and rained fire on Mobile's myspace url because they are launching their "mobile" platform whose url is:
www.myspace.com/myspacemobileThe band's url WAS: www.myspace.com/mobile --- so they're not even
using the band's actual url!! They just couldn't stand to lose any
eyeballs during their marketing roll-out of their wonderful new service!!!So now, after 2 years of the band authentically building and nurturing relationships online, Team-Myspace click-fucks the band out of their url.
NOW I understand why music lovers AND musicians are migrating away from Myspace and onto Facebook, Bebo etc. -- TRUST -- there can be no trust in a place that can takeover one's address at will -- how would a community service survive if users knew that at any moment their little plot of cyberspace could be stripped away?!? I can understand if you threatened to kill the president or suggested that your big black van was a sweet innocent candy store....but isn't Myspace all about the music?? Didn't they just launch their music service in the USA??? But Myspace isn't about the music.....never has been....this is about generating advertising revenue. Funny thing is, shit like this proves Team-Myspace only knows how to beat a dead horse; and who the fuck is gonna' be friends with a dead horse when the alternatives are active communities which users can trust?
Why did MySpace do it? Because they can.
Mobile the band's MySpace URL http://myspace.com/mobile has been redirected to MySpace's mobile offering (http://www.myspace.com/myspacemobile). Yes, redirected. MySpace isn't using the "/mobile" URL directly. They just wanted to avoid any confusion with "/myspacemoibile".
This move comes on the heals of criticism that MySpace Music offered equity to major label partners and left out indie labels and bands. Some indies have still refused to sign on; and more than two months after launch, artists that aren't affiliated with a label still have no way to participate in the new income sharing program.
UPDATE: Band Gets MySpace URL Back With Apology!
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
what do you think? dID MySpace Music go too far or are they just doing what they need to do to make an ad supported service successful?
