The number of myspace friends and counts on your player have become some standard measurement tool to help gauge the “popularity” of an artist. Mostly because everyone needs a way to compare the popularity of one band to another and this seems to be the only quantitative way. It’s just sad how myspace has become such a huge staple in artist online promotion. At first it was a great online tool to help unsigned an indie bands get noticed in a cost efficient and viral way (it definitely beats standing outside of The Wiltern handing out CD samples and flyers after a show). And now nationwide it has become a barometer for an artist’s success (next to artist sales of course). Although at this point - it seems to be smart for an unsigned band to allocate their time trying to pump up their myspace friends and plays - they’re really just reacting to what everyone else is doing and not staying ahead of the game. With bulletins becoming saturated with spam from random companies, and ads plastered everywhere - the overall value of myspace, myspace plays, and friends will eventually be obsolete - so start putting some of your resources elsewhere.

The future is in leveraging your myspace friends and using it as a tool to draw over to your own artists destination site. Brand your own entity and start making money from your own content-start thinking about mobile- and plleeeasse stop helping to brand myspace unless you like it from behind.

Patty