General Music Chat

Facebook is now the largest social networking site. It has grown while MySpace has declined, like 30% in growth, from what it was.

People have flocked to Facebook, and spend little time on MySpace now.

THIS IS BAD!!!!!

MySpace was ideal for Musicians to have a free way to market themselves.

Facebook is not really band friendly, and they SEVERELY limit how many friend requests you can send out. MySpace allows around 500 transactions a day, be they friend requests, or messaging.

I hope MySpace turns this around.

One thing I cannot stand about Facebook, is the CONSTANT ad windows, they leave you on, every time you do something. Navigating is a pain in the ass. It is ANNOYING, and takes far too much time, skipping things that you don't want, or having to navigate away from the bullshit pages every other time you do something.

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People and these "social networking" sites are so fickle.
Reminds me of teenage girls.
What will be "all the rage" next ?
That old addage about not putting all your eggs into one basket could not be more true.

So true George.

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facebook is nice for strait up networking, you don't have to worry about the flashy gaudy page with a million things to load, but as far as being nice for musicians I haven't bothered yet, as I'm still a solo bassist who really can't sing for anything. as for the whole adds thing on facebook, they just started doing that stuff not to long ago from my memory but I worked a very heady pot festival last weekend soo my brain might be screwed

I have 2 facebook pages - a personal one, and a band page.
But I think Facebook is a pain in the butt - it's way too slow, and, it's all mostly a bunch of gabbing . . .
I never go to Facebook, unless I get a notification; then I'm outa facebook within 2 minutes. Too busy DOING things.
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I don't have time to gossip on the telephone - why should I blab on the internet - about essentially nothing?

And all those 'tests' - what type of flower are you, which movie star are you, when will you die, who will you marrry . . . maaaan - people need to get a life, instead of all that time-wasting stuff . . .
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. . . read a book, write a song, invite a friend over for a drink and cards, make a bookshelf, walk the dog, take a college course, throw out some junk, visit a friend - in PERSON . . . .
But to spend hours and hours doing nothing; just living vicariously . . . that's not living at all - that's half- embalmed . . .

- not for me . . .
I talk here, now and then, but I also DO stuff- constantly. Today I spent an hour recording 4 vocal tracks, 2 hours editing various songs, 1/2 hour in practice before the 3 hour band rehearsal, then I drove 5 towns away tonight, - um last night (it's Wed, now) - and played in public for 40 minutes, made some new friends . . .
That's not counting stuff like getting my emissions checked, chopping wood, cleaning the ashes out of the wood stove, paying bills and what-not.
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Hey, I want to look back on my life, and have memories of doing things, don't you? . . . out in the REAL world.
. . . not memories of staring at a computer screen for hours on end.

I couldn't agree with you more Alan.

All the time wasted playing ridiculous games. Everyone needs a little fun, and leisure, but man, to spend hours and hours each day for something that means almost nothing? How much could they learn if they were educating themselves online instead? Or helping others by being part of a meaningful discussion group instead, to find solutions to problems, or a support group or something. They could get more politically active, even online. They could take college courses. Learn a new trade or skill. Create something of value.

We dwell in a seemingly infinite universe, we are formed out of remnants of stars, we have an incredible natural world that sustains us, and we use the amazing gift of life, to what? Pass the time until someone buries or cremates us?

Something is lacking in that picture.

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I agree, why waste soooo much time on there when the kids could be learning how to play instruments and jammin and hangin out with friends, thats what I liked most when I was a teenager (when big hair metal , though I don't consider it metal, and never will, was THE thing)...whew!

I'm with George-

Facebook is the flavor today, it will be something else tomorrow.

I agree Myspace is much better for musicians, but as far as networking, unless you are the "insane uber-fan", it's just not enough to keep people interested. Myspace flash ads are equally as annoying and slow the page load times bad enough, and then most bands have these HUGE backdrops and 10 billion media widgets and flash windows.. so they just make it worse.

I remember a publisher told us at a seminar - "your myspace should be SIMPLE as can be, we don't care how many cool pictures and backdrops or how many apps you can run at once... if it doesn't load fast enough, we've usually moved on by the time we hit the 8 second mark (paraphrased)"

I intentionally kept all of my MySpace pages as simple as possible. I don't really visit there much anymore, but still book some gigs through it. But it's basically just a place to park your music.

www.myspace.com/thefarleys

Craig what about Twitter? It seems Im always behind the curve but a lot of people I talk to have moved to that.

It seems my age group of people have flocked to facebook as of late.

I try to use all of them to help promote the band.

My wife is on facebook. It takes up all of her free time these days.

There's some stupid little game she plays, where she's a farmer, & has to do things in real time or she loses. So, she spends hours every evening doing dumb sh*t on the 'puter, planting, harvesting, stealing crops, selling them...I just don't get it. We have a garden that she won't touch right out the front door.

I guess she thinks that what I do here is dumb sh*t too...

Perhaps she's right...

I've never visited this facebook stuff, & I will remain blissfully ignorant, until I find it necessary to actually DO something there...I kinda like my luddite status...

John,

Yes, I use Twitter and so far their growth hasn't slowed down, but it is very limited in functionality (which is the draw for many) it is really for texting, with a limit of 140 characters (?) This is useful, but the benefit of MySpace is the customization of your page and the ability to have music and videos on there. It is like having a good website for your band, and almost takes the place of it, since MySpace had become known as "THE" place for bands. You should still have your own URL and website, but these days many, many bands just have their URL redirect to their MySpace site.

Nothing has really taken the place of MySpace for bands yet.


Kramer,

Good points there.

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I have 2 facebook pages - a personal one, and a band page.
But I think Facebook is a pain in the butt - it's way too slow, and, it's all mostly a bunch of gabbing . . .

FaceBook Lite is in beta right now and it's pretty nice. It's a very clean Facebook. I like it.

Craig is right though; FaceBook isn't as musician-friendly as MySpace.

Problem I have with MySpace is how absolutely sucky the design is. I can't believe they haven't fixed their templates yet. And it doesn't matter if you customize your CSS, it still sucks.

This is the closest to an electronic time killer I have. I use my phone to communicate, usually ten words or less and bang I,m done. I would rather be doing something in real time in the real world. Sure I come by here often. I have met some really cool people here. Those people have greatly expanded my knowlege base for music / Band related stuff.
I am really a loner. I can count my true friends on my left hand while fretting an Am Bar.
Well I have a few more than that, but I do play close to the vest.
For me to have gotten out to meet Paul and Billy was way out of my norm and comfort zone.
Other than our music (and BSn with ya,ll) I got no need to tweet.

I only waste time on You- Tube and Bandmix.

If and when I get my damn new house built, I hope to get back into gigging, and then a My Space membership would seem a necessary asset.

HJ