Facebook or MySpace

Sounds more like a title from a Tech site,doesn’t it?Well,honestly these two sites are doing quite a lot to the music industry.I read more than  15 heavy metal blogs a day and three other music related blogs.I also have my own heavy metal blog.The reason for me to mention that is,if it was not for MySpace,many of these blogs will not be updated at least once a month,let alone their existence.

As I mentioned in my previous post,it’s always a good idea to start a band by creating a little online page for it.My reasons were;they keep you motivated,gives the extra publicity the band needs and it adds that somewhat professional touch to the band even before you  jam togetherfor the first time.To read the full post click here.But there are many social networking sites,and where should you start?Ok,you can narrow down many to two because I’ve never seen a band creating a link to their bebo page from their homepage.It’s always facebook or MySpace.So what’s good for your band?Ah,I know the answer that’s easy to get away with.“Depends!!!”.

Well,if by any means you can do both,please do so.But different bands need different approaches.If you are looking for something that will send the message about your band,but you are not very fond of colourful themes and fonts that rock I think facebook is the answer for you.

But if you honestly ask for my opinion,I will have to say,when it comes musician pages MySpace is a tad bit ahead of facebook.Like I said earlier,MySpace allows you to meddle with different skins,fonts and other customizable content.Whereas facebook will offer you a preset setting and you have to be happy with that.But what is easier?facebook of course.

Well,say you created your MySpace page with all the trouble.Considering the amount of time and energy you allocated for it,I don’t see why you should stop there without trying facebook.I think the simplicity is what makes facebook tick.Assuming that you will copy/ paste your MySpace text content to facebook,it shouldn’t take you more than 15 minutes to set up a facebook page or a group.

That reminds,facebook group or facebook page?That is a tough one.Here’s what you can do and can’t do with facebook pages and groups.You can decide.

With a facebook musician’s page you can upload music for streaming/downloading,but it’s not very popular among facebook users like MySpace musician’s pages.facebook groups are however much popular,but you do not get the music player facebook pages offer.So if you really want to get the message out,I suggest a group.But,here’s a good rule of thumb that I’ve often failed to follow,facebook GROUP+PAGE….NEVER!!!Well,here’s why.You set up a group and start inviting people.They join,you interact,everything starts to flow smoothly.Then you start a page and start sending messages asking them to become fans of the page.Does this sound at all professional?Hell NO!!!

So,all in all I would say,think on what you are really looking for,but no matter what setup at least one of those.