popular thinking

MYSPACE SYNERGY: I've joined the world of MySpace.

Here is my profile.

Had to do it. Especially since I just wrote about MySpace and its ever-expanding role in the music industry. Here is the story, published in today's Boston Herald. Later, I'll add the so-called blogger's cut, wherein I include all of the other information that did not make it into print. Until then, enjoy!

A friend just told you about this great new band.
What do you do?
For those of you not already clued into MySpace.com, try this experiment.
Let's call your band "mynewband.'' Go online and type www.myspace.com/mynewband.
We're betting the band already has a MySpace page, where you can listen to up to four songs for free, see when the band will perform near you and find other fans.
Almost 31 million people have joined MySpace, with about 3 million more signing up each month. You'll find more than 500,000 bands there, including about 10,000 from Massachusetts.
"It's gotten to the point where if you're not on there, you're not in the game,'' said Jim Scordamaglia, manager of local rock band Aberdeen City. The group, which plays a NEMO showcase tonight, maintains its own Web site as well, but considers MySpace a necessity.
Scordamaglia said the ease in setting up a MySpace page and the social interaction the site provides allows all bands, from unsigned artists to major-label stars, to have better access to their fans.
With a catchy name, Somerville-based punksters Harry and the Potters have won a large fanbase, with 14,451 "friends'' and counting registered on MySpace. The band is consistently one of the top-ranked unsigned bands in the state for MySpace views and listens.
"We've been on MySpace for a little more than a year or so, and it's just been awesome, is all I can say,'' said guitarist Paul DeGeorge.
Harry Potter fans around the world stumble onto their site.
Holly Steiner, a 20-year-old student at Mount Saint Joseph College in Cincinnati, said her roommate turned her onto Harry and the Potters.
"I immediately found them on MySpace because I know that almost every band is listed there,'' Steiner said. "Typically, when I hear of a new band, I try to find them on MySpace because I know that I can hear that band's songs and determine whether or not the CD is worth buying.''
DeGeorge, 26, said his favorite MySpace feature is its invitation program, which allows the Potters to contact specific fans along their tour route. He also sometimes uses the site before hitting the clubs to check out the other acts on the bill.
"Ultimately, they have a page on MySpace. So I'm shocked at this point if they don't,'' he said.
Mike Poulin, a 17-year-old (Update: Mike is from Belchertown) High School student, said he heard about Harry and the Potters through his classmates who are hosting the band tonight. Poulin said he has discovered lots of other bands through MySpace.
"It is a great place for bands to get their names out there and easier and cheaper than a record label,'' he said. "Although I do not really go on any other sites, I know a lot of my friends and local bands go onto PureVolume.''
PureVolume.com is an Allston-based portal that also focuses on music, with particular emphasis on emo, punk and indie rock. It lacks the instant fan connections and the sheer size of MySpace, though it still garners about 300,000 daily online visits.
If MySpace is a blessing for up-and-coming bands, then it's a financial gift for established acts like Guster.
When Guster's manager, Dalton Sim, found that 60,000 MySpace members had listed the band in their personal profiles, he knew the band needed to sign on.
"That's like 60,000 kids that I can reach at the touch of a button,'' he said.
But first, those kids need to become MySpace friends of Guster. So Sim pays an employee $10 an hour to sort through all 31 million (and growing) MySpace profiles, looking for potential Guster fans.
MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe said music "was always part of the plan, but it wasn't the primary plan. Our initial plan was to create a portal around the social network.''
MySpace, which launched officially in January 2004, took over where Friendster left off, taking cues from Craiglist, Evite, MP3.com, Blogger, instant messaging and chat programs.
But the introduction in 2004 of a four-song stand-alone music player, and free bandwith, changed everything. So did R.E.M.'s decision to leak its latest record on the site. Tons of other bands have followed suit.
MySpace generated more than 500,000 streaming airplays of Nine Inch Nails' new record, With-Teeth, in an exclusive in late April, and the site is sponsoring the band's ongoing tour with Queens of the Stone Age.
"There have been a lot of changes in the music industry and there haven't been a lot of opportunities out there to discover new music,'' DeWolfe said. "It's good for us, too, because now all of the advertisers want to be associated with music and cool music sites.''
MySpace has become the fourth most-traveled Web site in page views and generates 12 percent of all online advertising. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. wants to buy the company. MySpace also plans to develop its own record label.
DeWolfe said the social interaction on MySpace makes it a viral marketing mecca.
"Friends tell friends tell friends - that's really the best way to discover new music,'' he said. "MySpace just really mirrors what happens in the offline world.''