Online Music Is About To Experience Another Myspace Moment By Bas Grasmeyer

Before streaming services like Spotify, SoundCloud, and Pandora were part of the mainstream, MySpace had a solid hold on the online music-social media hybrid industry. But, as the social network began to decline in popularity, all the artists and users it had once consolidated into its platform left – and spread themselves across a multitude of new music streaming services. While this much unorganized talent may seem like a daunting task for social media-music startups to take on, Bas Grasmeyer, in his article “Online Music is About to Experience Another Myspace Moment,” thinks MySpace’s fall from grace is the perfect storm for young companies to do something profound in the music-social media hybrid industry. “From the ashes of MySpace, which never managed to recover, rose a new ecosystem of music startups."

A NEW MYSPACE

While the chance to create a "new ecosystem of music startups" has opened in the wake of MySpace's decline, no one company alone has yet to fill the void the social network has created. Grasmeyer notes SoundCloud came closest - but ultimately hasn't been successful in replicating the success of MySpace. "SoundCloud came closer to being the ‘next MySpace’ than any startup has." However, he continues, "...let’s be blunt: the company is not doing well."

What was once the go-to platform for small, amateur artists and Indies to get their music to the public has since moved into similar territory as Spotify, by offering music catalogs of established artists, and creating a paid tier (to which any artist, indie or mainstream, can belong). While a paid tier is surely great for artists on SoundCloud, and has been relatively successful for SoundCloud, it has also weaned the platform off the same spectrum of MySpace, which was completely