Today really is the end of an era.
Myspace Australia is set to officially close its doors at the end of the month - January 31^st 2011 to be precise. Until then, staff are sending out those final emails, tidying up those desks and easing the photos and posters off the walls. And whilst I no longer work for them and haven’t for 4 months – I still feel sad at hearing this news, especially after spending 4 years of my life there.

Make no mistake, it has been an incredible ride, not just for me but for the vast majority of individuals involved in the company. For all the external Myspace-bashing, there was an attitude and tangible sense of belief internally that everyone was part of something innovative and ground-breaking, a genuine pioneer in the digital realm. And from 2006-2008 that was actually very true. I would actually have people in the street offer me money to buy any Myspace merch I had, a bag, hat or hoodie – it was that popular!

Initially, there were three of us Rebekah Horne, Alexandra Fletcher and myself, the 3 amigos, 3 people in the right place, at the right time – the very foundation of Myspace in Australia. I even remember my first day in the job, making a phone call and introducing myself as “Alex from Myspace” and the response was “Sorry…from where?”

8 months later 3.5 million Australians were using the site on a weekly basis.

In the preceding 4 years, I had the opportunity to work out of Los Angeles, Texas, Auckland, Adelaide and Melbourne – I saw parts of the world, I probably would never have seen or experienced in any other circumstance. They empowered me by giving me the freedom to grow as an individual, to take risks, to be proactive and really challenge the conventional way of thinking within the Australian media landscape.

It’s those valuable lessons that I learnt during those early years, that have had a tremendous influence on my career since, and most likely always will. A true baptism of fire into a challenging, fast-paced, controversial and dynamic environment driven by sheer mass hysteria and bankrolled by Rupert Murdoch. And it’s those memories and moments, which will always allow me to look back on those formative years at Myspace with fondness and affection.

It was like a little family in a lot of ways, peaking in mid 2008 at around 50 people – long hours, parties, music blaring all the time, no dress code, VIP invites, secret shows, celebrity interviews, launch events…everything you would expect from an entertainment site, except that everyone who worked for the company, literally lived and breath it. I’ve made some genuine friends for life through the Myspace Family, for me, that really says it all about the team dynamic in those early days.

We all believed and knew we were part of something truly special. Young upstarts, empowered, ready to take on the traditional forms of media armed with internet acronyms & jargon, that famous US swagger and army of emo kids chanting our name as we walked out onto the big stage.

And then in early 2009, Facebook happened.

For all the talk of the arrogance of upper management, the greed of FOX (and it’s insistence of plastering every page with ads) through to the utter lack of vision by the key stakeholders – the real reason Facebook won, wasn’t because Myspace made errors, it was because it didn’t feel the need to adapt.

Look at the odds against Facebook, Myspace had music, videos, local partnerships, mobile integration, millions of bands, four times as many users, the marketing sway of the FOX media empire, 22 international offices and $900 million in cash from Google.

And Facebook still won out. You can’t deny that is impressive.

But how did they do it? How did they set the sun on what had up until that point been the golden era for MySpace?

They did so in 5 ways and not surprisingly, all of them are product related:

1. The Stream – All your friends activity in one continuous stream, updated every minute.

2. Real Names – Facebook forced you to sign up using your own name, which made it much easier to find people you knew, rather than guess their online nickname.

3. Email Verification - They made you verify your email address, this way you got constant alerts and notifications driving you back to the site.

4. Address Book Importer – Rather than searching for friends, you could import your Hotmail, Yahoo or Gmail contacts and instantly be paired with them, in effect shifting your entire network across. If you weren’t registered, they sent you an email alerting you to the fact I’d joined and you should too.

5. Built To Scale – It was designed with one central theme, to be a functional stable social network that would rival all others.

Myspace on the other hand, had no real-time stream. It allowed anyone with a fake name or email address to sign up and the only way you can find your friends on the network, was by manually typing their name in. If they had used the name ‘DanTheMan’ rather than ‘Dan Brown’ there was no way to find them. By the time Myspace had duplicated all the features of Facebook, they’d already lost ¾ of the battle.

The rest then came down to design, usability and marketing. No surprises for who won there.

Myspace was never built to have 110 million users at its peak, purely because founders Tom Anderson & Chris DeWolfe never envisaged it growing so rapidly. Amusingly enough, the ability to actually customize your page was a coding loophole that a user exploited originally. The company then decided to use it as the point of difference in the market. It was that very same ability to customize your profile, which would later become their downfall as millions upon millions of hideous fluro profiles, loaded with dozens of animated gifs crashed browsers around the world.

As Myspace’s audience grew to phenomenal levels after breaking into the mainstream (it was at one point the biggest website in the US), it then began the ill-fated attempt to appeal to all the different demographics using the site. A mile wide and an inch deep was the internal mantra. It morphed into a music site, a video channel, a blogging platform, an email client, a place to share photos, a forum, an instant messaging client, even a toolbar in your browser – hundreds of communities within communities from horoscopes to art, fashion through to surfing advice all housed on the one domain.

Everyone had something to play with.

The reality though, was a clunky, buggy, bloated, complex and incoherent mash up of poorly designed products without any tangible theme to hold it together. They thought they were untouchable and in the process, stopped innovating and started stagnating instead.

Facebook were the polar opposite, laser focused on one thing – enabling you to discover and stay up to date with your family and friends.

It’s similar to comparing Apple and the simplicity of their iPod verses Windows and their pointless feature-packed Windows Media Player that always crashes.

And then one day, (as predicted by just about everyone who didn’t work at Myspace) it happened – Facebook overtook in terms of traffic and users, first internationally and then in the US.

You would never hear this in the press, for all the talk of declining audiences, poor design and spam bots crippling the site – working in that environment in 2009 during the rise of Facebook, everyone was genuinely ready for the fight. We had a signed sealed and delivered contract from the 4 major record labels to host their entire music catalogues, they didn’t. We put on free concerts & movie screenings for our users, they didn’t. We helped Kevin Rudd launch his election campaign, they didn’t. We told you what bands were going to make it, they didn’t.

But Facebook literally never looked back. They had won through sheer simplicity.

Fast-forward another year and it is here where we end up today – with mass redundancies, skeleton staff and a site a mere shadow of its former glory. A team who’s motivation faded some time ago, a site re-launch meant to inspire in October 2010, but which has been so underwhelming and dismal that it’s resulted in 50% of staff being laid off. All that remains, is a very uncertain future and talk of a fire sale. It has been a dramatic fall from grace, with different CEO’s, leaders, views, visions and politics all playing their part in the past 2 years decline.

But in the end, if you look at it objectively, innovation and product won. And whilst that’s not necessarily a good thing if you’re a Myspace employee right now – it’s a good thing for the web as whole.

Myspace was a moment in time, it literally changed the way the world communicated. It changed the way you and I discovered music and above all, it brought the whole world just that little bit closer together.

I will always enjoy and be eternally grateful for having played a very small role in that.

Follow @alexwain

Nothing quite like the “full force of nature” is there….

I do wonder what the artist was thinking, when they decided to draw that image – but you have to admit, they have got the expressions spot on. Everytime I see it, it still gives me a chuckle. Brings a whole new meaning to the term “Team Jacob” don’t you think?

So WHY and HOW did I come across such a finely illustrated image?

Well, over the past few months (and mainly because I’m subjected to it endlessly by my peers at work) there has been a wealth of indie bands springing up every 2 hours on various pretentious “tastemaker” blogs. It turns out though, that they have quite a bit more in common than simply playing a similar style of music.

After a little research, imagine my surprise at these 8 discoveries!

1. They all have an animal related name.
2. They have at least one song with an animal in the title.
3. They all look like tedious Uni students.
4. They all sing about the changing of seasons and usually the various activities conducted by animals during said seasons.
5. They are all branded the next big thing, by the likes of Pitchfork and Hype Machine.
6. Their artwork has a very specific aesthetic, based around yep you’ve guess it, animals, collage and primitive illustrations.
6. 95% of them suck.
7.  Hipsters love them.
8. A least one member in the band has a beard.

Now before you think I’m making all of this up, I’ve actually put together a playlist, comprised ENTIRELY of indie bands with animal names – just so you can fully grasp how ridiculous the whole thing has become. (To date I have 91, I’m trying to get to 100.)

Have a listen to my official indie bands with animal names playlist here.

Frightening isn’t it….

And the deeper I researched, the scarier it became. As I stumbled across such shockingly bad names as – Summer Cats, Sue And The Unicorn, Seabear, Owl + Moth, Freelance Whales, Bear Hands, Collections Of Colonies of Bees, Ultra Dolphins, Avery Tear And Panda Bear, Brown Bear Black Bear, Grizzly Bear, Frightened Rabbits, White Rabbits, Fleet Foxes and without a doubt, the worst of all Part Wild Horses Mane On Both Sides.

It is utterly bizarre to me, that a genre of music can be so limp-wristed and cliched. I’m well aware of the fact, that death metal bands for instance have utterly ridiculous names – but that specific genre has been around for over 20 years. These indie bands have literally only been around since the start of maybe 2004 onwards. I can’t understand, why they all have to look the same, sound the same and then give themselves the same name – it’s like this odd indie checklist they all go through prior to releasing anything.

Here’s a video from “Seabear” complete with random montages of the woods, inoffensive bland vocals that could be anyone and someone who looks pretty much like those tedious Uni students I was mentioning before.

But thankfully, help is at hand.

There is one band, one indie artist, one genuine talent, one great hope – that stands tall, looming large over them all.

Yes BEARHAWK.

Who’s music sends you into such a state, you almost forget to use adjectives. Almost.

And really, I don’t need to say anything else about them – because you should already know how amazing they are. If you don’t, please don’t embarrass yourself by telling your friends you’ve not yet heard them – that would be tragic and cause you to appear musically and culturally bankrupt.

Instead, educate yourself by visiting their official site and experiencing the creme de la creme of everything indie.

Oh and for all you hipster kids, with your touch-type-net-speak  - please abbreviate to BRHWK  - that’s mandatory for any indie loving “I think I’m a professional photographer because I’ve installed the Lomo camera app on my iPhone” fan.

Much appreciated.

Follow @alexwain

p.s. Disclaimer: I may or may not be involved with BRHWK.

Giving a demo at the MySpace Music press conference October 1st 2009

It’s been a hectic few days, in fact the last couple of weeks have been somewhat of a blur. This is largely due to spending excessive hours @ work, in preparation for the launch of MySpace Music in Australia and New Zealand.

On October 1st, key media players across Australia were invited to come down for the great unveiling and celebrate it’s arrival at the press conference. From the major record labels (who have equity in the venture) through to established news outlets such as SMH, News Ltd, to industry coverage from the Music Network and support from the ever dependable ABC, everyone, who is anyone in Australian media, was there.

As you’d expect, there was a tremendous amount of excitement, fanfare and relief on the day. The product had been in development for over a year, with on-going rumors raising the expectation levels each and every day, however, I’m delighted to say they’ve been met & even exceeded with it’s launch. It really is a fantastic avenue for musicians and there’s little doubt in my mind, that it’s a massive step-forward for individuals who are fans of music and want free, quick and easy access to it.

As a result, Australian and New Zealand MySpace users can listen to songs & albums from over 5 MILLION artists on the site, including their extensive back catalogues.

It’s mind-boggling trying to even begin to comprehend that isn’t it

To give you an example,  Elvis Presley alone has 121 albums available on MySpace all of which you can stream in their entirety, unlimited, legally and for free.

(I’ve been listening to Daft Punk’s 2007 Alive album religiously recently).

Plus you can create your own playlists and share them with friends – just like you did with those old-skool mixtapes back in the 80′s & 90′s. Even Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has put together his own personal playlist on the site, respect!

Those two quick examples alone, should demonstrate the reach, influence, impact and potential MySpace Music has. It truly is instant and free access for everyone who is a fan of music. Come and try it out.

Exciting times ahead

Speaking of exciting times, in under a week, I’m heading down to Melbourne to go and see Marilyn Manson play two shows there, how is that for dedication hehe, I seriously can’t wait, my version of a mini-holiday.

I’m actually seeing him twice in Sydney, so all up 4 times in 5 days, and if I’m really lucky who knows, I might even get to meet him again. If I do, rest assured I’m going to send the world the photos! His new record ‘The High End Of Low’ just keeps getting better and better with each listen.

I’ll be updating and using Twitter whilst I’m down there, so please do stay in touch if you don’t already. It blows my mind that I can take a photo from my Blackberry, send it to Twitter, which then syncs with my MySpace and Facebook accounts, allowing you guys to all view it.

I used it today actually.

I found this chap, around the back of Oxford Street, left for dead on the side of the curb, after a big night out. So I took it upon myself to prop him up and arrange him in a manner the locals would approve of….

I left him there like that, so here’s hoping he gets lucky tonight.

It’s true, I rarely fail in finding ways to amuse myself haha!

Follow @alexwain

p.s. Today I watched my beloved Sydney FC return to the top the league, Arsenal hammered Blackburn 6-2 and EVEN Norwich City won 5-1. Talk about a great weekend of football!

I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness

I was lucky enough to see these guys play at SXSW Festival in Texas a few years ago. Not many people have heard of these guys, but they are seriously under-rated in my opinion. If you’re a fan of the likes of The Cure, The Church, Interpol, New Order etc you’ll find something to enjoy in ‘I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness’

You can listen to more of them here

Check out the clip below (click here if you can’t see it), 

I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness – According To Plan

Hope you like,
Alex

Hey Everyone,

I’ve just updated MySpace Arts & Culture with some new artwork – honestly the imagination and creativity I see each week from people on the site utterly blows my mind.

This week I chose to feature a guy called Joshua Clay, who is just immense – I wish I could have 1/10th of his talent. You can view his artwork here.

Check out more artists & view brand new artwork on myspace right here.

Alex