Punks against Myspace

[Shuei]

My band might soon be ready with our first demo, and we would - as any other band - like to promote ourself, so that we might get some shows to play.

As a part of that we have - as so many other bands - considered making a Myspace profile.
But as we all know Rubert Murdoch is a douchebag, i checked it out.

I found this article:
http://pithos2k.wordpress.com/2008/06/2 ... e-myspace/
http://dynamite.lautre.net/

FUCK MYSPACE !
Why MySpace sucks…
First of all, who owns MySpace?!
An australo-american businessman called Rupert Murdoch. To say it briefly, he’s a billionaire, a personal relation of the Bush family, a political propagandist through his media empire (among whicj the famous channel TV Fox News, first US television channel) and his active support of the US military operations throughout the world. During the preparation of the Iraq invasion, 175 worldwide newspapers and broadcast cources belonging to Murdoch have unambiguously supported the war process.

Why boycott MySpace ? The logic is simple. the most demanding effort for medias basing their business on advertising is to create some content. The content of the MySpace network is 100% users created. Mr Murdoch purchased MySpace 580 millions US$ and which is now estimated 10 times more. All that thanks to each of the MySpace users… And this added value only benefits strengthens to the power and social control on the populations. Sadder is to witness punk or skinhead bands who assert themselves as anti-capitalists and who claim to defend alternatives on one hand, selling themselves without objections on MySpace, under an ad for an airline or a cell phone company.Worse, less and less people seem to wonder about it. It quickly fell into fashion, making some bands to consider having a MySpace sometime after first practice. Astupid gadget stuffed with ads became vital, with supporters getting fierce when questioned about what is behind. Some preach the D.I.Y. but don’t even bother spending half an hour to publish a website broadcasting their songs and express whatever they want to the world. Those guys spend hours and hours to create melodies, write lyrics, record tracks, and bring out what they have in the guts… only to throw it to everyone through shitty websites filled with advertisements which belongs toone of the worst scum on Earth.. „cause that’s simple, easy and almost everyone have one“. And „too bad if a rotten almighty fascist gets richer, as long we can have our anti- militarist and highly political songs broadcast.“ Lack of time or technical skills are always great excuses… . . When the Dell catalogue, or leaflets for a bank which of course would have sponsored the show will be handled at gigs, there will sure be some to explain that the process remains subversive and that it harms the system… sorry in advance not convincing.

Few answers for the too much often heard arguments …

„Myspace is a tremendous tool“
And how did people do before MySpace? Well, they created websites themselves with their own fingers and brain, sent each others e- mails and everything was working just as fine. Connections and networks did still organize themselves as well. They inspired from the punk movement, which has always supported the D.I.Y. approach in its acts. Do It Yourself, / making a webpage to present a band. Anyone can achieve that, or at least has a relative who knows little enough of the computer systems.That requires (a little) more efforts than opening a MySpace account but is allows us to remain independent..

„Too bad to boycott MySpace, since this is a tremendous free communication tool fothousands of bands. Thanks to MySpace, we can listen to and get in touch with bands that we can’t hear anywhere else…or almost.“
Wrong. It still exists (and fortunately!) thousands of bands which don’t have a MySpace, or which don’t want one. And nothing prevent you to discover them with any good search engine, by reading fanzines, listening to good radio shows or chatting on good message boards.

„We can meet so much people, thanks to MySpace“
Oh yes ? So it was not all just about mentioning „thanks for the add !“? Anyone can boast to have plenty of virtual friends in the underground scene… What’s the point ?
„If we wonder about MySpace, then we shall also ask ourselves about the entire chain: the electricity supplier, the brand of the computer etc…“ This way of thinking is wrong. One must keep apart things for which there is a choice and things for which there is none. In many places, there is currently no alternative way to avoid the national energy provider. Similarly; do you know a way to bypass to the computer manufacturers? We don’t… It is strange actually to put MySpace on the same level as an electricity supplier, as the latter is obviously more vital than the other.

„We know there are lot of criticisable things about MySpace, but…“
The D.I.Y. principle should be bared in mind : – If something is knowingly wrong or criticisable, one shall manage to find/propose an alternative.

„There are some very commited bands on MySpace !“
So?! Who need idols to follow ? either knowingly or by ignorance…

„There is more importants fights than MySpace“
Defining action priority is an usual way forward for those who never do anything except looking for excuses. It must be considered in a more global frame : how does anyone concretely acts against capitalism, and other sources of exploitation, if he always lowers any struggle, as simple and apparently insignificant would they be ? „There are more importants things than vegetarism“, „There are more importants things to do than criticize Nike or Mc Donald’s“, „The fight for free OS is OK, but there are more important battles“ and now: „Criticize MySpace, yep, but don’t you have anything better to do?!“.. Each of this struggles are only various approaches of the same fight, toward a more global and constant battle. If we are to abide by a misplaced tolerance, such as „Be a little cooler man, that’s not so important.“, the whole momentum of the daily activism is lost. By definition, this activism doesn’t have to be conspicuous, and include many things seeming „unimportant“. we break all the mechanics of the daily activism – which, by definition, doesn’t have to be much visible, and include many things who appear „unimportant“. Eventually, this things add up in a consistent fight, of it own scale, but which at least exists.

THE ultimate argument : „Stop bothering us, MySpace is only a tool to connect bands with the people who want to reach them quickly and easily, blablabla…“
The final words are left to Patrick Le Lay, TF1 CEO ( the French leading TV broadcast): „In a „business“ frame, let us be realistic : basically, our job is to assist Coca-Cola, for example, the TF1 job, is to help Coca-Cola, for example, to sell its product [...]. But enabling the perception of a commercial requires to guarantee the viewers brain availability. Our shows aim to achieve that availability : to entertain it, to relax it, to prepare it between two commercials. What we sell to Coca-Cola indeed is human brain availability time [...]. Nothing is more difficult than reaching this availability. That’s where the need for permanent change is We must continuously seek the programs which works, follow the fashions, surf on the trends, in a context where information accelerate, multiply and gets standardized.“

http://dynamite.lautre.net Feel free to copy, distribute and translate this text at your will…

Though the article does make it's valid points, i am still wondering wether or not i should make a profile. The problem is, that bands are the ones that has the smallest chance of fighting all of this, as they have to have people booking them for shows - and many of those people are looking at myspace for bands. It's true that it sucks to support it, but the entire DIY movement have to move out of Myspace in order for it to work for the bands. That's just my opinion.

Any thoughts on this? And alternative ways of promoting, that might reach the same audience?

(To be fair, i'm not judging any band for having a myspace profile, i just think the debate is important)

[vAsSiLy77]

Your're absolutely right, I have to agree completly and I think I will never make a profile there -
but myspace deserves to be undermined with a constant flood of articles like the one you graced us with - remember Dead Kennedy's MTV-Get-Off-The-Air? Kind of guerilla warfare...
I guess I'm lacking the time and I'm too lazy to contribute my part - but I think it's ok. for you to promote your band on myspace as long as you fight myspace - using the enemy, you know... That just my opinion, it's up to you to choose what you do.
But whatever you do - luck to the band - (what's the name? - promoting it on this site?)

[ryan1980]

You may be able to obtain the same amount of traffic by going to FACEBOOK and uploading your music there, I dunno how you do that but I know there have bands/artists on there.

and theres this link: http://mashable.com/2007/06/22/music-social-networks-2/

an article on music-oriented social networking sites.

Good Luck with your band and Vas. is right, you should upload and promote on here too

[ungovernable]

Yeah myspace is shit, but being elitist against it is also stupid.

Just a litte information.... This pamphlet against myspace is written by "Dynamite", they are a french forum and it's fucking shit. The people behind dynamite are dumbasses elitists and sectarians, we had trouble with a lot of their members since many years. Once again a few days ago i had to go defend myself on their forum because they were talking shit about me and our websites (including anarcho-punk.net). Some people were lying and pretending i make money out of this website, they said i am a patriot and that we have nationalists on our moderation team, we publish RAC bands etc.... None of that is true.... Anyway, just to say these peoples are elitist scumbags and they critize everything and everyone, they think they are perfect but they are even worse than what they critize. They keep talking shit about us since we started Pirate-Punk.net, they dont like us for stupid reasons and they say that anarcho-punk.net is a shitty forum.

Anyway, just remember : the internet is hold by big capitalist company, we use windows made by the richest person on earth, the music we download is hosted on big capitalist servers, the data transit through capitalist cable, our energy comes from big companies and nuclear power, mp3 is a proprietary format of file and help to fund war, the guitars used by the bands are made by big companies, buying albums from bands is funding Compact Disc companies, etc etc etc.... Capitalist is everywhere, wake up!

90% of the bands on this website use myspace to promote themselves. Don't feel guilty if you do the same, small bands dont have much choice anyway... if you want to be heard and start your band this is almost impossible to do it without internet

As for alternative to myspace, i dont really know any that are not shitty... We have a project of making a website alternative to myspace without ads since a while, but we will need more money (and more time) before the project comes alive

[Raise Your Fist]

In this day and age, almost everything you do is supporting some corporation.
I cant stand it when people are like "im more anarchist than you because you have
a myspace." I actually get detailed and explain anarchism to people in my area.
Is that so wrong?

Edit: and i really dont support myspace, its just a good way to meet people in your area.
And to call out juggalos and scene kids, and especially kids that do the jerk.

[SenI]

Something a was it's topic about Myspace already. Personally, I do not know about you, but why not support Punkrocker.com as for alternative against Myspace? I have a year like I have my profiles in punkrockers.com and did not notice there is not some publicity.

[punkmar77]

Check out Bandcamp

[Vegetarian Barbarian]

Yea, if someone doesn't have a myspace, chances are they have a facebook, twitter account, dig account, last fm account, livejournal account etc. etc. Hell, if they even know you have a myspace, theres a pretty good chance that they are doing something as "unpunk" as having a myspace to find out about it. I say make one, and WHO FUCKING CARES.

I dont have to explain the whole "dont support corporations" bit because its below my intelligence level

[Shuei]

Thank you for answers.

I will consider making us a Myspace whenever we get the demo done.

Facebook is a good idea, but it's hard to promote unknown bands. It's great for more known bands to keep in contact with supporters and update, but i've heard it's hard to get a lot of publicity there. None the less it's probably worth a try.

My band hasn't got a demo that i would like to publish ready yet, though we've got our first song almost done. Our name is still being debated now, since one of our members didn't like it (all in all, the whole start up shit). I will post it here whenever we've got something done!

Ungovernable:
Jeez, we have such elitist's too. Funnily enough those that don't do shit. Talk about activism, but never do anything. Didn't know they were.

I'll check out the sites - Thank you!
I fell upon the site "ourstage.com". It's collaborating with MTV, and most is shit, but there's some decent bands around it.

[JesusCrust]

Ungov, crazy idea, I don't know if it's possible in some way because I have no idea how websites work, but is there a way to make a section on this site strictly for band profiles, (kind of like myspace music?). Like make an option to create a band profile here with a music player? Then we could promote bands from this site. Probably get the site a lot more hits too if everyone tells other people to check out their band here.

[ungovernable]

Something a was it's topic about Myspace already. Personally, I do not know about you, but why not support Punkrocker.com as for alternative against Myspace? I have a year like I have my profiles in punkrockers.com and did not notice there is not some publicity.

Punkrocker.com is a shitty website full of ads, its made to make money just like myspace. They also use half nude models to promote themselves and their forum is full of idiots.

Ungov, crazy idea, I don't know if it's possible in some way because I have no idea how websites work, but is there a way to make a section on this site strictly for band profiles, (kind of like myspace music?). Like make an option to create a band profile here with a music player? Then we could promote bands from this site. Probably get the site a lot more hits too if everyone tells other people to check out their band here.

Not really possible without making a different website. Also we don't have the disk space needed to offer music player to our members

[JesusCrust]

Damn, that'd be pretty rad though. I need to learn web design. I'd be more than down to make a page made solely for DIY artists.

[Protspecd]

90% of the bands on this website use myspace to promote themselves. Don't feel guilty if you do the same, small bands dont have much choice anyway... if you want to be heard and start your band this is almost impossible to do it without internet

Pretty much this. Though like you said, owned mostly by capitalism, the internet is the greatest way of having you opinion and music being heard. The internet has given the opportunity for anyone to voice their opinion and be heard by others from around the world. Using myspace or not, you are going to be funding capitalism...

I like your idea about the alternative myspace though. Maybe have bands pay 5 dollars (just a place holder, I have no idea what the server costs are) for a bigger space to store songs on the server (free for default space). Just enough to cover server costs to be non-for-profit, I see no shame in that. Anyone that bitches about that option should make their own server with no income to support it, obviously they won't because of how unrealistic it is..

[punkerfucker]

Punkrocker.com is a shitty website full of ads, its made to make money just like myspace. They also use half nude models to promote themselves and their forum is full of idiots.

yeah....this website's kinda suck...its like to promote a "punk fashion" on ugly nude models..

[SenI]

Punkrocker.com is a shitty website full of ads, its made to make money just like myspace. They also use half nude models to promote themselves and their forum is full of idiots.

Ooops ! That's about the fact, that I forgot. Sorry... I have noticed about the course models in this site, for me it was strange. But that's where a lot of girls with t-shirt Punkrocker.com on the pictures - it really looks like advertising. But at the expense of their forum, you're right. There really is full of idiots.

Hmm... yeah . By the way, who everybody heard of a fact, that Riseup.net want to create a libertarian social networks? If they can make it wakes excellent alternative to Myspace, Facebook, etc.

[ryan1980]

riseup labs already has something called crabgrass http://crabgrass.riseup.net/ its meant for PACS and grassroot groups to better organize with one another.

[Shuei]

I'm terrible at programming, but would otherwise be all for helping to create a music site for DIY music profiles.
I have experience as an admin on a forum before.

If nothing else, we could collaborate with Anarcho-Punk.net, it's not to make any kind of competition to this site, only to Myspace and such.

[KAAOS-82]

no problem with using myspace. you don't pay for it, they get there money from advertising so they're not taking my money

[DirtyRottenThrashPunk]

no problem with using myspace. you don't pay for it, they get there money from advertising so they're not taking my money

This. Plus, even if you did have to pay for it, pretty much anywhere you spend money you're gonna be profiting some rich asshole. Fuck you capitalism! Also, myspace is good for bands to get "exposure" on the scene and whatnot.

[JOE01]

It's good to take a stand against it and create an alternative network. I had to consider the arguments against it for a long time. We in Active Slaughter had one for a long time and our drummer urged us to fuck it off, we obliged him

http://www.activeslaughter.co.uk/index_proper.htm

http://www.dynamite.lautre.net/antimysp ... yspace.htm

Some of the excuses here about not personally giving them any money so it’s fine is a bit lame in my opinion, it’s not really trying to strive to create something different is it?

I should really look at updating our punkrockers.com profile, I think encouraging alternatives to myspace is a good thing; they are part of a vile corporation no matter how you dress it up. If it's OK to use myspace to promote anarcho music why not go all the way and play on MTV, sign to hellcat or EMI? These are just thoughts, I'm playing devil’s advocate though to be honest I am glad we fucked our myspace off, I don't miss it. We're not an active unit (pardon the pun) any more but I actually found it liberating not to be on myspace and my self as an individual outright refuse facebook. There were some advantages to being on myspace for sure, but surely all those ‘advantages’ can be achieved through creating alternatives?I think as a DIY punk community we should do more to strive to create alternatives than to leave our promotion in the domain of a Murdoch owned corporation!

Those are some of my thoughts anyway