First came Myspace. We all joined. Our favorite local bands were already well established there. The larger indie bands were soon to follow and finally the major label bands focused their attention towards the Myspace generation. Within 2 1/2 years Myspace had become the biggest networking opportunity on the web. In the following months we were introduced to a Myspace record label and Myspace TV. By last year myspace had become a cultural phenomenon. The truth behind eUniverses hand in the creation of Myspace was out and the Fox Network had purchased the site...but none of this mattered. Fox's newly acquired website made networking for bands, filmmakers, comedians, writers, non-profit organizations so simple that no one even cared that Myspace had literally gone corporate.
Myspace TV recently made a deal with the London based Shine group for international distribution and "air time" for its online shows like Roommates and more notably Quarter-Life, which made it to prime time on NBC during the writer's strike this winter. Myspace was also making headlines in recent week inking deals with Universal Music Group, SongBMG, and Warner Music Group to sell DRM-Free mp3's of their artists on the website.
Myspace records on the the other hand seems to be the weak link (I use weak very loosely) in this power circuit. I remember their first compilation being a poor first effort at best. And their phenom Tila Tequila'a Myspace Records Debut didn't fair as well as someone with 3,018,099 friends and a marketing team as adept as Myspace's. That's why I was intrigued by message I got from Myspace records about getting the new Pennywise album, Reason To Believe, for free.
Now I'm not claiming to be the biggest Pennywise fan. I don't think I even own an entire album by the band. Reason to Believe isn't the best I've heard from them, but it's still a solid effort from the California punk troop. It reminds me of the pre/post Gurewitz Bad Religion of the early mid 90's without the harmonies and a more obvious attempt at broad social commentary. If I was going to give it some sort of rating, I'd have to say 3 out of 5 stars (or what ever grading system you want to use). It won't find its way onto any of my best of lists but I don't think I'd skip over the album/songs if they came up randomly in myiTunes . The more interesting part of all this is that more than 600,000 people registered to download the album. An impressive number for a band ofPennywise's size. Now if they could just turn those downloads into actual sales...
Pennywise will be on tour from May until this summer and then you can catch them on stage for Warped tour.
(tour dates via their myspace)
| Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach | Long Beach, California | ||
| The Great Salt Air | Salt Lake City, Utah | ||
| Fillmore Auditorium | Denver, Colorado | ||
| Granada Theatre | Dallas, Texas | ||
| Warehouse Live | Houston, Texas | ||
| Emo’s Alternative Lounge | Austin, Texas | ||
| Sunshine Theatre | Albuquerque, New Mexico | ||
| KJEE @ Santa Barbara County Bowl | Santa Barbara, California | ||
| The Masquerade | Atlanta, Georgia | ||
| Jannus Landing | Saint Petersburg, Florida | ||
| House of Blues | Lake Buena Vista, Florida | ||
| Mojo Room | Port Saint Lucie, Florida | ||
| Plush | Jacksonville, Florida | ||
| House of Blues | N. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina | ||
| The National | Richmond, Virginia | ||
| Fillmore @ TLA | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | ||
| Fillmore @ Irving Plaza | New York, New York | ||
| WBCN "River Rave" @ Tweeter Center | Mansfield, Massachusetts | ||
| KWOD @ Pavillion at The A.R.C | Davis, California | ||
| Live 105 BFD @ Shoreline | Mountain View, |
Myspace is definitely a force to be reckoned with in the 21st century. Its only a matter of time before everyone in the world has a mandatory Myspace page.
Amendment:
I just saw this on The Daily Swarm
Wired: MySpace Music Won't Give Equity to Indie Bands
In an interview with Wired.com, MySpace Co-founder and CEO Chris DeWolfe (pictured right) said that while MySpace is open to offering an equity deal similar to what the majors got to “the right partners,” indie bands who are unaffiliated with an agreggator like The Orchard or a major label like Universal will not receive any the general revenue generated by MySpace Music.
They will, of course, receive a healthy share of their own song and merchandise sales, but none of the money generated by advertisements on their profile pages. That money will go to MySpace owner News Corp., the major labels and any indie music aggregators that manage to sign equity deals with MySpace…
This is ridiculous. I don't know how they can justify cutting off revnue to indie bands when its their fans clicking on the advertisments. I realise its a shank or be shanked world, but really? Come on Myspace, you can do a little better than that.
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