Musicians Building Their Own Social Networking Sites

[Terry Olaes]

Eschewing traditional sites like MySpace & Facebook, increasing numbers of musicians are building their own their websites and incorporating social networking capabilities. Reasons given revolve around control of the data: artists want to have control over the user contact database, advertising, and site content without relying on a 3rd party website. However, this doesn’t mean that the musicians are abandoning their MySpace fan base.

The artist networks aren't meant to replace MySpace or Facebook, which tend to attract a broader audience and more users. "(Artists) think about MySpace and Facebook as funnels for their own social networks," says Gina Bianchini, CEO of Ning, a company that provides social networking tools for Thisis50, Sara Bareilles and others.

 

[Brad Gamma]

If this means that more artists have their own site then great. I hate how band websites are mostly just a link to myspace. I knew some cool bands who had awesome creative and fun websites, but slowly abandoned them and put a placeholder with a link to myspace instead.

 

[DedEmbryonicCe11]

Good riddance. Most of the bands I listen to had websites or at least fansites that were relatively equivalent long before Myspace and Facebook showed up. If anything, all the social networking sites did was bring in an influx of terrible bands I'd never want to listen to spamming me for my virtual support in their crusade to land a record deal and bang a few broads before everyone else realizes they can't play and write. I'm much in favor of bands building a real website so people can look for them if they want to.