Myspace has, very rapidly, become the latest hang for musicians. Oh, not your garden variety garage bands with the cute tattooed lead singer growling out his i'm-a-bad-ass-tortured-white-rocker-dude-from-the-suburbs anthem or the lil' girly singer-songwriter with the flat affect singing about her first lesbian lover. No, I'm talking about matured, seasoned jazz and classical musicians.
Now, I don't mean to suggest that MySpace is not an easy and cheap way to promote yourself but there are a number of reasons to give it a second thought before jumping in.
Reason Numero Uno:
Rupert Murdock and News Corp (fox news, et al).
Do you really want to be a micro-pawn in his game? What do you suppose he plans on doing with the personal information gleaned from the millions of those "blurbs" anyway - ask to be on your friends list?
Reason Two-o:
If your focus is to be the most popular cat on MySpace and have the biggest networking list - oh, I mean, "friends list" - you're engaged with something known in the real world as politics. Or, put another way, if you're concerned about whether people dig your shit, you're no longer engaged with art.
Besides, why would you acquiesce to being on someone's "friends" list with whom there is no chance of meaningful interaction? Hello - they're not your friends.
Reason Three-o
Don't ja get tired of deleting all those comments and invites from Bambi-Live-Cam and Jennifer-Spring-Break? But, who am I to judge: maybe there really is a chance to develop a meaningful relationship with them.
Reason Four-o
A typical page layout for myspace is a perfect example of what not to do on a webpage: they are usually slow loading, overwhelming pages, which (rudely) play the owner's tunes without so much as asking, jam packed with enough flashing whirligigs to induce a Grand Mal, and, in a word, Too Much (meaningless) Information!
Discloser: I'm very bitter 'cuz, like, I don't have 2,193 friends like you
