Will ReverbNation Accelerate Myspace Decline?
At the close of 2010, MySpace caught a break when it partnered with ReverbNation.
It finally gave the artists on the social network a great set of tools to connect with their fans.
But did MySpace's alliance with ReverbNation hurt the social network more than it helped?
Given that MySpace already found itself nearing irrelevance, empowering artists with an e-mail marketing client may have hammered the final nail in its coffin.
When Hypebot posted a chart that detailed MySpace's traffic race to the bottom, Kirsten, an artist and music marketer herself, shared a theory as to why bad may have turned to worse once MySpace partnered with ReverbNation. She manages the social media pages for her band, ARCTIC, and for six other artists through a management client she works with. "MySpace has always infuriated me for their complete disregard for basic website usability, and the redesign fixed too little, too late," she says. "When ReverbNation and MySpace announced that they had added the ability to message all your MySpace fans at once, I thought that might finally be something useful." At last, the network could deliver on its true potental.
"Instead, every one of my artists' inboxes are filled with event invites and mailing list messages from other bands – not from fans.
In the past two months I have seen exactly one fan letter.
Between the constant spam and the problematic interface, I don't like to engage with Myspace at all, and feel that it would be kinder if the poor site were gently put out of its misery as soon as possible."
Kirsten says that this amount is "a far cry from five years ago." In other words, ReverbNation is doing fine, the trouble is that there aren't fans on the otherside anymore, and artists that still use MySpace are left to marketing to each other.
The fans are gone. The addition of ReverbNation came "a few years" too late.
I found the same problems for the band I manage.
I found that once the Reverb Nation link happened that both the band I work for and myself (on another Myspace account), were constantly getting email notifications for all these messages sent by Fan Reach and Fan Reach Pro. This despite having set email notifications to NONE!! (on Myspace and Reverb Nation accounts)
Requests to Myspace to stop this incoming messages resulted in nothing but a form letter in return.
I can vouch for this — the Fanreach feature became a way to message everyone on MySpace and try to get them to join the Reverbnation mailing lists so we didn’t have to mess around with the clunky new MySpace. Problem is, while we don’t interact on MySpace anymore (and we miss that!), Reverbnation for all its nice features lacks actual band/fan interaction as well. Fan interaction seems to have moved to Twitter and Facebook for now, until something better comes along.
the problem with MySpace began when it sold out to the majors then it simply became worse. MySpace was a great place for anyone in music and at the start despite technical issues, major acts and local ones were treated the same way.
That changed and the attitude that favored the major label artist prevailed. There were far more indie acts on Myspace than majors and they worked hard to make the site relevant and cool for their fans. When it became yet another spam toy for the majors, indies went after alternative sites and there were a few (most of them gone now) and it all ended when FaceBook became a player and created a level playing field for all, (even if it was a pretty lousy one for bands) it was better than MySpace.
My Space had a real shot at making something good, it turned its back on the very community that made it work. Too bad, I liked myspace for a few minutes there.
Bandromeda.com is a much better space for bands & fans! They will even be streaming live from their booth at SXSW starting on Monday! Check them out!
Not sure who posted that comment as me, but thank you.
We are officially launching Bandromeda.com next week at SXSW and will have some of our artists performing in our booth. We will stream everything live to our site via b-LIVE powered by Watchitoo.
We are also excited that one lucky artist who creates an account with us from now through The end of SXSW Interactive will win a Gibson Les Paul guitar!! Come by our booth to check it out!
Open Letter To News Corp:
Dear Rupert, Chase, and Jonathan,
Bet you never thought your mistakes, as well as the way you lie to people, would ever become public did you?
I would assume it is hard to dispute the facts when there are correspondences and audio recordings of all communications that support said representations as it relates to the conduct and activities by, or on the behalf of, News Corp, MySpace, and/or its representatives.
If Chase, Jonathan, or Rupert would personally and on behalf of News Corp and MySpace provide authorization and permission to release all correspondences and recorded telephone conversations related to this matter. We would be willing to accommodate that request by providing them to you and several media outlets, including Fox News, all related materials so that a “fair and balanced” determination could be made as to how News Corp does business.
This shall also allow outside individuals, parties, and the pubic to determine how badly Carey and Miller, through their activities and conduct, destroyed MySpace and drove it from a success to a complete failure.
As a result of their unwillingness further discuss and initiate a process that would have generated the stated revenues and results as referenced due to their egos and greed obstructing their ability to apply common sense and to utilize their brain matter. They have effectively destroyed MySpace and drove its value down more than any other decisions associated with the decline and eventual failure of MySpace.
We shall see if Carey, Miller, or Murdoch is willing to let the public in on the truth, and provide authorization so that the referenced material may be released, as well as all related documentation in support of the representations that have been made as it relates to this matter.
Here are the facts; Carey and Miller were given the opportunity to change the direction of MySpace last year with a proposal that would increase net profits of MySpace to 1.5 billion dollars by the third year.
Based on our experience with News Corp, Carey, and Miller no one should trust any of them.
They wanted us to disclose the plan to them without any written agreement in place. When that was refused, there were no further discussions.
I would venture to guess anyone they claim to be offering more than 10 million dollars for MySpace would be another one of their lies.
It is believed that the damage that Carey and Miller have done to MySpace has brought the value of MySpace down to nothing.
Anyone willing to pay the 50 to 200 million dollars MySpace alleges would mean one of two things. EITHER THEY LIED TO MYSPACE ABOUT WHAT THEY WERE WILLING TO PAY,,,,
OR MORE LIKELY IS NEWS CORP, CAREY, AND MILLER ARE LYING LIKE THEY ALWAYS DO IN AN EFFORT TO DRIVE THE PRICE UP.
TIME WILL TELL!!!
Open Letter To News Corp:
Dear Rupert, Chase, and Jonathan,
Bet you never thought your mistakes, as well as the way you lie to people, would ever become public did you?
I would assume it is hard to dispute the facts when there are correspondences and audio recordings of all communications that support said representations as it relates to the conduct and activities by, or on the behalf of, News Corp, MySpace, and/or its representatives.
If Chase, Jonathan, or Rupert would personally and on behalf of News Corp and MySpace provide authorization and permission to release all correspondences and recorded telephone conversations related to this matter. We would be willing to accommodate that request by providing them to you and several media outlets, including Fox News, all related materials so that a “fair and balanced” determination could be made as to how News Corp does business.
This shall also allow outside individuals, parties, and the pubic to determine how badly Carey and Miller, through their activities and conduct, destroyed MySpace and drove it from a success to a complete failure.
As a result of their unwillingness further discuss and initiate a process that would have generated the stated revenues and results as referenced due to their egos and greed obstructing their ability to apply common sense and to utilize their brain matter. They have effectively destroyed MySpace and drove its value down more than any other decisions associated with the decline and eventual failure of MySpace.
We shall see if Carey, Miller, or Murdoch is willing to let the public in on the truth, and provide authorization so that the referenced material may be released, as well as all related documentation in support of the representations that have been made as it relates to this matter.
Here are the facts; Carey and Miller were given the opportunity to change the direction of MySpace last year with a proposal that would increase net profits of MySpace to 1.5 billion dollars by the third year.
Based on our experience with News Corp, Carey, and Miller no one should trust any of them.
They wanted us to disclose the plan to them without any written agreement in place. When that was refused, there were no further discussions.
I would venture to guess anyone they claim to be offering more than 10 million dollars for MySpace would be another one of their lies.
It is believed that the damage that Carey and Miller have done to MySpace has brought the value of MySpace down to nothing.
Anyone willing to pay the 50 to 200 million dollars MySpace alleges would mean one of two things. EITHER THEY LIED TO MYSPACE ABOUT WHAT THEY WERE WILLING TO PAY,,,,
OR MORE LIKELY IS NEWS CORP, CAREY, AND MILLER ARE LYING LIKE THEY ALWAYS DO IN AN EFFORT TO DRIVE THE PRICE UP.
TIME WILL TELL!!!