[NewMusic] myspace poop

[olorin at lmi.net]

wow - interesting discussion here. let me examine the myspace/fascism  
dilemma for a moment.

the issue here is basically one of broadcasting. people are on myspace  
not only because it's convenient to have a web presence there but  
because lots of other people are on the website who will see your  
profile and perhaps buy your stuff or give you gigs. some of the music  
is awesome, much of it is total crap, but everyone is there because  
it's THE thing to do. so how do you wean folks off of a fascist-owned  
music site which is awfully convenient for folks to use (though slow  
as molasses) and serves a lot more like a tool to subvert the dominant  
paradigm than specifically a way for RM to rake in more $$?

answer - it's not going to be easy. there are alternatives - try  
www.virb.com, nice looking, skinnable (i think) and fast response but  
practically nobody knows about them at the moment. it could work as a  
myspace replacement functionally speaking, but it's missing all the  
manpower - all the artists checking things out hoping to be checked  
out - which unfortunately is the best reason to stay on myspace for  
now - at least until, lemming like, everybody abandons ship and goes  
to the next 'cool' site that's the buzzword of the month.

i agree, an open source myspace would be something more politically in  
line and it might happen in the not-too-distant future. right now  
billions of people are benefitting from open source databases and  
software being used constantly for free on millions of websites so  
it's certainly possible. one called Mugshot has been up for a few  
years at this point www.mugshot.org. i don't think it's specifically  
music related, more of an aggregator for coordinating information  
between multiple existing sites like myspace, facebook, etc. it is  
open source however.

anyway, my .02 at this point.

scott