Not a whole lot of news on MySpace really. The limits and overall techniques from the book still apply. Of course, we have the new redesign and you may have noticed a couple of things relocated. Most notably, many of your networking links are under the main “More” button near the top.

There’s been a lot of hype that MySpace has been “dying,” usually from tech blogs and web stats…

Okay, what to take away from this graph (Alexa.com). We can see the blue line representing MySpace’s page views over the past year, and the other for Facebook. Now, you’ll notice MySpace has a drop in page views, one that would seem to be significant too. There are two reasons for this. To understand the first, we need to take a trip back one year…

Last year, MySpace was really flourishing, about at its peak most would say. What came with all this traffic was a huge surge of spam and MySpace began hard captcha tactics about the end of 2006 and really pushing captcha in 2007. What became of this was a significant decrease in spam, and ultimately page views (from spammers). Of course, you’ll still see spam on the network, but if you think back a year ago, you may remembering opening your mailbox and seeing 1-5 new messages a day!… a rare find now.

Secondly, how does Alexa.com (where the above data statistics are from) work? Glad you asked!

From Wiki:

Alexa ranks sites based on visits from users of its Alexa Toolbar for Internet Explorer and from integrated sidebars in Mozilla and Netscape.

Why is this significant? It’s important because Alexa gets most of its data from people that install its toolbar and or widgets. Most people that install these do it for a reason - to get their website up in the rankings on Alexa.com. People that have websites are very tech-oriented, and it’s been well known that the tech-oriented people favor Facebook over MySpace, which is precisely what this graph shows.

So at the end of the day, both networks are still very popular and excellent sources of networking. Neither should be left out of your campaign since they are both the two largest social networks and offer your brand huge growth potential if applied right.

It’s really simple to sign-up:

http://www.rockthevote.com/demrockracy/

When you sign-up, you put a widget on your profile and convince your fans to register to vote. The first 25 to sign-up and get 150 people to register will be featured on TouchTunes jukebox playlists (thousands of restaurants, clubs, bars, retail outlets, etc.). The top three finalists will be featured on Rock the Vote’s MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/rockthevote. And the winner will have a chance to win a pair of Gibson guitars and perform at the Rock the Vote Ballot Bash at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

The contest starts today, ends on August 14th, and the winners will be announced the following day.

To many this may sound difficult, but it’s really a matter of incentivizing (is that a word?) the registration to your fans. What can you do for or give to your fans? Why not play a concert, print lots of these forms out and give anyone who fills the registration form free admission? A private concert on the beach or in the woods or something… get creative! Good luck!

http://apps.myspace.com

Some MySpace Apps I found to be interesting to bands would be:

1. Playlist.com Music Video Playlists
2.  My Top Artists
3. Music (by Qloud)

Businesses won’t find too many useful Apps just yet since the number of users for any good networking application is low, however that does present some opportunities as well, you’ll just have to be creative. There are several random news applications in several different areas (sports, music, etc.). If you can find a news App that relates to your business’ area it would be a great idea to talk to the creator and try becoming a part of their news. Make friends while these App owners are small, notice the trends, who’s rising fastest, and when they get to the top, they’ll be more likely to listen to what you want!

We have developed our own App, and although it’s geared more towards the 14-year-old teen, some of you may find it useful for driving that personal touch to your users on your MySpace Profile. The App is a survey Application. It allows you to browse, add, and create questions that you answer. Your survey is proudly displayed on  your MySpace page. If you’ve been on MySpace for just a few weeks you’ve probably seen many of these - it’s very popular to send them as bulletins also.

The survey could be a great way to connect your about information to your user without looking so commercialized with a lengthy about paragraph where most users will read the first 5 words and move on. They think they’ll find something juicy in your survey, so make it funny, make it personal, and make it entertaining - they’ll enjoy it, and they’ll learn more about you - something that will help your brand ladder positioning without doubt.

http://www.myspace.com/survii

Let us know if you find some good Apps to use for  your band or business. Post them below!

The new Profile will be tabbed with separate pages for basic/personal information, the wall, photos, and other things you would like, such as applications. One of the most controversial right now seems to be the wall

The new wall will be integrated with the mini-feed. It’s obvious why Facebook is taking this step - to increase the average user activity and page views. If a user is forced to sift through other stories when looking for recent wall postings, or even leaving them, they will be more inclined to see stories that are interesting and read them, therefore increasing the overall activity on the network. It’s clever, but a lot of users are expressing their disagreement with the new wall/feed combination. On a side note, I’m assuming some ads will end up in this combination also, hence improving the click revenue for Facebook on cpc (cost-per-click) ads.

If you’re interested in reading more and seeing more pics, you can check check out their Page. If you become a fan, you can receive updates (with new screen shots) every week about the present state of the new Profile redesign.

http://www.facebook.com/FacebookPreviews

Ready to market on Facebook, get the Facebook Marketing Book, now available on Amazon.com for Kindle:

http://www.amazon.com/Facebook-Marketing-Effective-Techniques-Businesses/

http://www.myspace.com/garrettramquist

Garrett, only twenty years old, has recently released his first EP, “Twenty Thousand Dreams” containing 7 tracks, my personal favorite being “Storm.” His light, but catchy songs bring back the nostalgic and popular bands of the 90’s. The melodies are simple and inspiring - something that’s sure to have wide appeal.

Visitors to his MySpace profile will quickly realize how much talent this young song writer has and many will become instant fans. His pages are full of activity and dedicated listeners. If you’re a fan of Matchbox Twenty, Goo Goo Dolls, or Daughtry, do yourself a favor and pick-up his new EP for only $7.99, available on his MySpace profile.

—- Some Distribution Tips for Artists —-

A quick tip for those of you that are selling your music - use as many distribution channels as possible! The more channels, the better the chances of attracting new fans and customers.

Here are a few resources that should NOT be overlooked:

http://cdbaby.net/dd
http://cdbaby.net
http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/000668.php
http://www.musicbizacademy.com/knab/articles/sellonline1.htm
http://www.createspace.com/
http://www.ebay.com/

CreateSpace.com is actually affiliated with Amazon.com and offers on demand printing. On demand printing can be more beneficial (than the Advantage program) to artists who don’t have the time to deal with pressing CD’s from one manufacturer and shipping them to Amazon.com when requested. Somtimes this can even save money depending on the price of your CD.

Essentially, it was a combination of three factors:

1. MySpace attracted new users by keeping a users’ pictures viewable to members only. The MySpace pictures section is actually the most visited area on the website - more so than the profiles themselves!
2. Artists were able to auto-play their music when a user visited their page.
3. Artists and users alike were able to pick their very own URL (myspace.com/myband)

These three factors supported and enforced the growth of MySpace, but strangely enough, Facebook, which has only the competitive user base, is beginning to steal artists away from MySpace. Why? For two reasons…

1. Spam
2. Competition

Spam has driven away users from MySpace and the artists have followed - have to go where the sheep are. Competition is another factor to consider. The less competition, the more likely change of getting heard by new fans, or even “found” by record label execs. Either way Facebook has started to take in more and more artists and things are changing on the site to accommodate for this.

Facebook knows that it will soon have to support the masses of artists from around the world and it’s changed its platform significantly to adapt. Facebook Pages are now available to sign-up to for bands and businesses alike. In addition, what many users and artists have been asking for, is a personal URL (as MySpace offers) for their Facebook Profile or Page.

Facebook has made a deal with Sony to provide their artists with their own URL. Check it out for yourself, below are a list of three random Sony artists:

1. facebook.com/bowwow
2. facebook.com/threedaysgrace
3. facebook.com/britneyspears

To make sure it was just Sony artists being chosen and not popular artists, I took a look at some Universal artists:

1. facebook.com/bonjovi
2. facebook.com/akon

With the help of an artist whom took it upon themselves to contact Facebook about their own URL for a band, Facebook has revealed that in the upcoming months, personal URL’s will be available to all artists and users.

To make the Facebook platform complete for marketing music we should look into auto-play and what their plans are. If you look back in your MySpace profile account options, you’ll see that MySpace had included an option to never auto-play music on profiles you browse. The reason they implemented this option about a year ago was because they got so much heat for the auto-play feature by users. Users listen to their music on the computer, browse to a MySpace Artist Profile where a song is auto-played, and the world ends. Not only does Facebook not allow music to auto-play, it does not and will not allow any application, music, video, etc. to auto-play.

This decision was made exclusively for the users of Facebook and poses a large hurdle for bands. The auto-play functionality is what allowed so many bands to be heard. Having a user click play on a track is much, much more difficult. This isn’t to say it wasn’t the right decision by Facebook, and it isn’t to say it will have a negative impact on their music platform growth.

Facebook has been the king of creative strategies. Through their clean interface, external applications, and tight networking ties, Facebook has lead the way for true social networking and web2.0. Music marketing will be strong on Facebook, but it will occur in new, creative ways, as opposed to the currently bold, “check out my myspace page” techniques. Instead, you will be seeing “Your friend is going to the Aerosmith concert on Friday, are you going?” Will marketing on Facebook be easier than MySpace? Probably not, but it will provide more quality and real fans.

If you’re not on Facebook yet, I encourage you to get on there as soon as possible. Many artists have begun using Facebook now, but most are not using it to its full potential. There are many secrets on the site to be discovered, so get on and take advantage of them. If you’re looking for a guide to help you out, check out the Facebook Book.

It will be interesting how Facebook grows with its new artists, and I think we will begin to see many new opportunities arise for artists. Selling music, keeping fans informed on concerts, and maintaining a personal connection to fans will become easier and more effective than ever. Piracy will continue to fall and eventually independent artists will do very well for themselves. Facebook is definitely the future of online music marketing.

First of all, thanks to everyone for their participation! Stressing that the preliminary judging was difficult would be an understatement. There were HUNDREDS of participants, many of which were extremely talented musicians. I was impressed by the quality of a lot of the music I heard and wish you all the best success in 2008.

The winner receives the following:

1. The MySpace Marketing Book, Second Edition 116 pages
2. The Facebook Marketing Book (just released) 42 pages
3. Access to the exclusive marketing forums
4. Lots of exposure, plays, and new fans
5. A complete, positive review by Nick Jag and a premium spot on the NickJag.com homepage.

You can only vote once, choose wisely! You can link others (fans and friends) to this page as long as you’re not using any type of proxy system to increase votes (violators will be disqualified). Voting ends February 29th, 11:59pm!

Vote here:

After listening to hundreds of bands, I thought a lot of you could benefit from some free music advice to enhance your music and get the most out of it.

1. First and foremost, know your target audience. Know what they like, what they eat, what they breathe! Know them and cater your product/service to their needs.
2. The first 10 or so seconds of your music are the most important. I’ve listened to some songs that took about 30 seconds just to get started! By that time, most of your potential fans are long gone. You need to hook them fast and hard!
3. Put your best song first! If you’ve ever listened to any music gurus, they will all tell you this. Whether it’s your demo, MySpace, or PureVolume, you need to have your best song first. Some bands had some amazing songs hidden away in the middle. Potential fans will give you about 10 seconds of their time to listen to the first song that plays. If you don’t have your best song first, you’re losing a large percentage of conversions.
4. If your vocals aren’t good, use Auto-Tune. I mean, if they are not 100% perfect, you need to be using Auto-Tune. Let me put it this way… If you needed to send out press photos of someone with a little acne, wouldn’t you try and clean up the photos in Photoshop? If not, how would compete with the perfect photos of the Majors? You wouldn’t, and you wouldn’t get very far. Unfortunate, I know, but I’m just being honest with you! It works the exact same way with your music. This applies to drums also! Use Beat Detector if your drums aren’t right on.
5. Spend a few bucks or some time and have someone you know (that has a cool layout) do your MySpace layout. Aesthetics play a large part with people’s perception of your music quality, especially if you can appeal to your target market in a creative way. One of the best layouts I came across (there were many) was In the Bag Productions - http://www.myspace.com/inthebagprod.

So you would like to know what’s inside, of course! Here are some of the details of what’s inside without spoiling too much. Those of you that have read and enjoyed a few of the unknown marketing techniques in the MySpace Marketing book will be happy to know that the new Facebook Marketing Book contains plenty!

1. How to really set-up your business on Facebook. I will show you why this is so important and how to make the most of it unlike every other business and band on there right now.
2. We’ll go quickly through the main channels and what not to do. Facebook has many limits, and I’ve been through them all. I’ll give you a run-down of what to avoid and where not to waste your time.
3. You’ll also be checking out some techniques most users have never even heard about. I’ll throw in some extra steps from trial of how to make the most of these techniques.
4. What everyone wants to know - mass messaging, friending, etc. We’ve certainly got this one down! If you want to mass message all your friends, no problem! I’ve got multiple ways to do it, and safely too!
5. Some new top secret techniques no one will show you! I can’t even talk about these (this is where the black-op stuff on the cover comes from). Let’s just say many of you will be shocked to know you can even do these!
6. Some applications that will blow your brains away! I’ve browsed through the thousands and tested all of them. I have the results that you need and the applications to put your business at the top!
7. Some miscellaneous tricks that any band or business needs when promoting on Facebook. These are critical because of the nature of the site, and are never used in promotion. Steps like these take your promotional messages from being 5% effective to 50%.
8. So much more!

The book is available online for immediate download. It’s 42 pages long (partially because it’s less about finding your audience and more about how to promote to them). Most of you are well efficient enough to find people on Facebook, the issue is how to promote to them, to the masses, and how to establish a huge network on Facebook that practically works for you.

My goal with this book is to save you and your band/business time and money. After learning the methods in the new book, you’re sure to be more effective and efficient. With each book, I’m offering forum access to our exclusive marketing forums, as if the book isn’t awesome enough already. See you on the forums!

On Sale for $16.49! You won’t find tips like these anywhere else! Hardcopy coming soon to Amazon.com!

Here’s what’s new:

1. More Crazy and Awesome Searching Techniques you never thought of!
2. How to use bots, more specifically Friend Blaster Pro (with screen shots!)
3. How to get instant friends and have MySpace do the work for ya
4. How to really crank out the search engine positioning for your profile
5. More information on copyrights
6. Specific new limit numbers and information for promoting
7. New captcha information
8. Updated Resources
9. Which techniques are now the best to use (this has changed since)

The book is 116 pages now (previously 74) and is worth every penny! It will be available on Amazon.com within a week or two as a hard copy or you can buy the cheaper online version here:

http://www.nickjag.com/marketing

As an added bonus, you will still receive access to the NickJag Forums, allowing you to discuss techniques, share tools, etc. in secret! And also, if you want, I can throw in 150 free friends if you just e-mail me after you pick-up your copy.

Send any e-mails to cs(at)nickjag(dot)com

Facebook book to follow shortly!