What MySpace Could Learn From Google And How It Could Change The Music Business
We get some pretty informed comments on Hypebot, but I admit that I was surprised when one of the best comments to cross screen recently was about a multi-part series critical of MySpace that I wrote almost a year ago.
Surprisingly for a web 2.0 article, much of what was written still rings true. (You’ll find links to the series here.) But in all that I wrote, I missed a key point that Hypebot reader Chris made when he commented:
"Okay lets review the absolute IDIOCY of the MySpace marketing approach… the thing that makes MySpace unique is that it collects ultra specific demographic info about each of its users to tailor every users page like a psychological profile.And how do the geniuses at MySpace use that profile? They only run big-budget national advertising campaigns on the pages. WTF? Why did you bother collecting all that regional specific info if the only people who can afford to advertise are big generic corporations who don’t give a crap about local demographics?
Google already learned this lesson with AdWords. If you have the ability to….
…target the users specific region and lifestyle, use that to your
advantage! Run ads about the brand new donut shop down the street who
only has 100 bucks to spend for advertising but want to run that ad on
all the users who put “Law Enforcement” as their profession in the
surrounding 5 zip codes. That’s the way you make MySpace a
powerful advertising engine.The ability to place local targeted ads at
any budget you can afford is what took Google’s profits from 800M a
year to 10.3B a year. AdWords is a brilliant example of what MySpace
could and should be. They need only make advertising available to the
masses."
Universal is already using Google’s targeted ad platform as part of its DRM free experiment. But can you imagine the power of being able to place your artist’s new release on the page of every MySpace user who considers the act a favorite?
I really hate ads, but what you write makes perfect sense!
That’s just the tip of the iceberg…(new release advertising)…
How about:
1. advertising opps for the $7.5B music instrument biz
2. the fact that you can’t even filter a basic SEARCH of profiles (i.e. search “influences” for keyword “zappa”)
the list goes on and on…
Man, I totally agree with what you said. Wow, I actually have a 2 out of a 3 part series on this EXACT topic (www.freshbreakfast.com). Part 1 is about how we will inevitably run into a ad-rev supported system where music is free to consumers, and has a section on how social networks needs to create a sophisticated, relevant and effective ad serving platform, like Google. Part 2 specifically mentions how Myspace is falling behind in bringing about that new music industry, and 13 companies picking up the batan.
Part 1: http://freshbreakfast.com/2007/08/21/how-giving-away-free-music-will-save-the-recording-industry/
Part 2: http://freshbreakfast.com/2007/09/04/the-bakers-dozen-burning-through-the-thicket-companies/
This is a cool blog. I’m gonna need to troll through your archives.
I think it might actually be a case of oversupply vs demand – in other words, mysaps has tons and tons of page space for ads – more than can be consumed by those who target narrowly (think about it – narrow targeting means fewer ads). If there’s nothing in their inventory of targeted ads they fill it up with generic stuff. Remember google essentially bought out myspace’s targeted ad inventory for what – $3B?
So the thing is that statistically unless you represent a targeted demographic that someone is pumping millions of $ to reach with an ad, you’re likely to see generic ads.
I do think myspace is losing in the race to geocode search and on local ads though. I never see locally targeted ads.
Myspace’s core value centered around having almost every small band create a page. It’s still mandadory for such bands. However – have you ever tried to find which small myspace bands are playing near you?? Go ahead I challenge you to find the links… I hope you know your zipcode lol.
Then you get a 1997-style table listing of shows.
Compare that to something like
gruvr music maps which are geocoded and KML’d… myspaz has lots of catching up to do