Pay attention, musicians, because we like you and want to support you, but forcing us to go to a glitter-vomit MySpace page to find out about you is like making us to go deep into the grundle of Times Square for a morning coffee. As as a way to help kill the lingering MySpace generation, MTV (which used to stand for “music” television, kids) has just launched its own free artists’ profile service called MTV Artists, where you can put up songs, band photos, interviews, tour dates, news and links to albums and merch. The service even teases that you could “get your video on air” (aw, that’s cute MTV) or submit a song to be used in a show (more likely). They even offer you ways to make money off the page.
On making money off the page, MTV says:
Yes, and there are a few different ways to make money!
First, with the artist banner, we’ve given you the power to send your fans wherever you make the most money – iTunes, Amazon, your official site, it’s up to you. Second, stay tuned for artist opportunities like syncs in shows, sponsor opportunities, and competitions that allow you to get exposure and money. Third, with our partner, Topspin, you can sell merch directly on your page for a monthly fee (optional).
Finally, MTV will be sharing revenue from ads that run against your content when we come out of beta. More to come on this soon, but pro tip – the more views you drive to your page/content, the more money you make.
The design of the pages is mercifully clean and fairly easy to navigate, so that’s a win already. It’s just in beta version now, so more changes will come before the full version is ready. So will anyone use this thing? If not, what do you prefer (Facebook, BandCamp, etc?) Hey, Cloud Nothings is on there, at least.
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"Grandpa," the little boy sat on the log and looked up at the old man, "tell me the story again."
The old man was whittling an iPhone case out of a block of injection-molded plastic. "Which one, Billy?"
Billy watched as the expert hands scraped and carved, sending twists of plastic tumbling to the floor. "The social networking one."
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Billy's eyes snapped to the old man "No, not that one! Before that..."
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The old man let out a sigh. "You remember during the hungry times when your mom ate all that glitter?"