I have about 20,567 friends on MySpace. 95% of them rap. I’ve heard of 4% of them, and personally know 1%.

None of them buy records.

^^ That’s literally over a span of an hour & 10 minutes.

Aside from that, the thing that irks me the most about MySpace is the simulated ‘grassroots community’ image they perpetuate – even after selling to News Corp for $580M – complete with fake-’Tom’ emails and bulletins.

The front page Featured Artist section is a complete fuckin sham.

We reached out to the heads @ their marketing department (Yes, actually CALLED them), inquiring about how to get Pack featured on the front (cause, hell…we see plenty of other cats getting featured…so why not Pack?). We were given a name and a random email address for the Music Editor, and sent emails that were never responded to. But, of course, they were quick to point me to the advertising department first.

Why do they even bother putting a link up for “Want to be a Featured Artist?”...when they never respond to inquiries, nor do they bother to actually look/listen to submissions? It’s yet another fake link to appease the countless “struggling musicians” that keep their site relevant. Point blank, it’s like anything else in the music business – if you don’t know the people in charge or have alot of bank… then it’s basically a pay-to-play situation.

I mean, they charge about $5,000 for a banner ad.

As with anything else, it seems as though the minute major labels/distributors hop on the train, there’s no room for anyone else to play. And the indie’s always lose out in the end because they’re on a much lower tax-bracket.

And considering the ratio of “real people” vs “musicians”...is marketing on MySpace even effective in 2006?

Discuss.