My Myspace Space
Thinking of ways to distribute my music to the masses of desktop captives, I did the one thing all sensible musicians do now….I got a Myspace account.
Here it is: www.myspace.com/howardho
But I didn’t count on the residual effect it would have on me. First off is the desire for people to listening to my stuff, and maybe download it and maybe put it on their myspace pages. So that would also involve checking back periodically to make sure people are able to find it. And that would mean returning again and again to check the statistics.
Of course, I figured if I had friends, then maybe I could get them and their friends to listen. So I went after the biggies Steve Reich, John Adams, the Kronos Quartet, Hilary Hahn, Jon Brion, Ben Folds, Mike Andrews, etc. Well, technically I was one of them, hawking my wares in a relative vacuum.
And then I thought, well, that’s cool but they aren’t people that I know, people that would have a more personal relationship with me and my music. So I searched for old high school/college pals and to my surprise, almost none were there (okay there were a few but scattered wide).
So now my goal was to find friends who are cool, but didn’t necessarily know me. I chose the girl known now as Brookers, and she accepted me. If you haven’t caught her videos, they are hysterical. And now, I find myself looking for more cool friends who will hopefully create more views of my page and more listening to my music. So I check back every few hours just to make sure the page still works and that the numbers of listens is going up. And then I go look for more friends who may or may not know me. And then I think about whether my songs are the most representative of me….and back and forth.
I see now why schools want to ban it. The addictiveness is maddening. You can never do enough with the page. And just the simple fact that people may be looking at you gives you an incredible urge to look your Sunday’s best as far as web design and content goes. My motto is simplicity, but the more I fret, the more things I want to add.
So am I a Myspace junkie? No. But don’t tell that to me as I delete a song and then upload the same one with the intro edited out and with new ID3 tags and a new picture to represent it and then have to listen to it a few times to make sure it works and then a few more to make sure the number goes up as if people other than me are listening to it.
This is your brain. This is your brain on Myspace. Any questions?
