I was thinking about MySpace yesterday and what I would do if I was given the opportunity to rejuvenate it (as a thought experiment). It’s easy to point out the failings in an idea, but nontrivial to actually fix one. So, here is my idea:
Buy Bandcamp. Don’t replace it. Continue running it as it is. Now, for every Bandcamp user, MySpace exists as a social layer (with music powered by Bandcamp). You register for Bandcamp, upload your songs, and the Bandcamp experience remains the same. However, you now also have a MySpace page, where you can get in touch with other artists, network, book shows, discover, etc. In the past, this was the only useful part of MySpace from an artist perspective.
Next, harmonize data between MySpace and Bandcamp and build a very powerful recommendation and discovery engine using Bandcamp’s transactional data and MySpace’s artist-artist graph. This recommendation engine can be used to power discovery on Bandcamp and MySpace, making the non-artist user experience great on both sites.
This marriage would infuse MySpace with artists while giving Bandcamp artists the feature artists most desperately need: social connectivity.
Bandcamp is a really great service. We don’t need or want to replace it. They’ve got a clean and minimal interface, support payments, and do well for artists and users. However, they don’t have a social component and, as of the last time I checked, do not plan on it. For those that remember what being in an indie band (or fan of indie music) was like when MySpace was around, it was very amazing. Sure, the UI sucked, but the amount of tours and connections made through that platform was marvellous. Powered by the simple Friends, Favourites, and Wall comments, MySpace was a simple-to-use discovery paradise. And now that social cohesion is gone.
Through Weird Canada, which existed during and after MySpace’s domination, I experienced the shift in social cohesion first-hand. I’ve seen the decline in shows and networking as bands have greater difficulty discovering bands in other cities. We desperately need a social network geared towards artists and sometimes I wonder if the time when MySpace did just that is gone. But then again, Bandcamp adoption is quite high, so perhaps there’s a hope!
PS - you may ask: why not SoundCloud? I love SoundCloud (both as a user and as an engineer). However, it’s a large product with a (unique) social layer that misses some of the key needs of traditional “bands.” It could work, though, but Bandcamp’s simplicity and focus on the traditional artist->album->track model makes it an easier platform to integrate with (IMO).
PPS - implicit in my idea is that popularity is not driven by high-profile, celebrity users, but “regular” creative human beings. MySpace’s currently tactic of empowering and promoting celebrities is not likely to win the hearts and minds of artists and users to actually use the site.