MySpace Bands & Artists - Good Advice, I Think

MySpace can be a lot of fun. As a band, we get a lot of friend requests, and I enjoy checking out new bands and solo artists, finding out where they live, listening to their music. I don't sign on to our MySpace account as often as I should, but when I do, it's always a pleasant surprise to see new friend requests.

My ONE BIG COMPLAINT about some of these MySpace pages, however, is that they take FOREVER TO LOAD. If I was on dial-up, I would go insane.

There are a lot of add-on options for personalizing one's page. That doesn't necessarily mean that one has to use them all.

I frankly have often given up on trying to listen to someone's music, simply because, after waiting for all four of the videos to load, and for all 50 pictures to materialize, I've lost interest.

My PC is operating at near max capacity as is, and therefore, a heavily loaded MySpace page will often freeze up my computer. This is extremely annoying.

Sometimes less is better.

I've been guilty of overloading our page in the past, too. But something that is helpful is actually clicking on one's official MySpace link to see how it loads (rather than just editing the page and leaving it at that).

Here's what I like to see when visiting someone's page:

1. A nice background (not the generic default background - that just looks cheap).

2. A picture of the band or artist.

3. SONGS - the most important component!

4. Blog entries - If I want to get to know a band or artist, their blog posts will tell me more about them than 100 videos on their home page (which I am not going to watch). The writing doesn't have to be fancy, just real.

(A note regarding blog posts - please try to use font sizes and colors that are easy to read. Sure, there are a lot of options - red text on a yellow background, for example, but that kind of stuff just gives me a headache. And I don't like squinting to try to read what someone has written.)

5. Videos are fine, but just add them to your video page - then if someone wants to watch them, they can click on the video link.

6. A bunch of press releases aren't really that impressive. The only people who are going to read them are your family.

7. Update your page now and then. Give people a reason to come back.*

*I should take my own advice, perhaps.

So, there you go. Some hints and tips from just an average MySpace peruser.

Oh, here's our link, by the way (thought it would be appropriate to put that here):

Red River On MySpace