My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?

Subject: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: greg stephens
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 09:06 AM

My Myspace has gone peculiar this morning. The list of music tracks looks different, and the number of plays recorded has gone wrong. Claims 1174 views today, which I find unlikely as we normally get 10-20. Something about Adobe reader flashes up momentarily when you open it up, too. So, anybody experiencing this too? Any advice?

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: greg stephens
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 09:09 AM

By the way, you can have a look here to see what I'm talking about.

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: DebC
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 09:13 AM

I found a note from "tom" saying that they have a new music player and are working on the bugs.

Debra Cowan

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: GUEST,Tom Bliss
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 09:18 AM

I've complained about it. Apart from the bugs, which are major, it required the latest flash player etc, so it will not work at all on a lot of older machines.

As the chief advantage of myspace was their bomb-proof universal player, it looks to me like they've just fixed something that wasn't broken and killed the goose.

I suggest everyone writes in and tells them to go beck to the old one, which didn't need improving.

Tom

8,625 plays today? I wish!

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: theleveller
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 09:23 AM

Hmmm, sadly it hasn't made us sound any better!

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: Banjiman
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 09:24 AM

"8,625 plays today? I wish!"

Tom, I thought that would be about average for you!

Paul

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: Jeri
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 09:40 AM

I don't look at MySpace pages much, and I know not to return if they don't give me a choice whether to load music. Sadly that means Bruce Murdoch's is now off limits. I don't know if that's the new player or whether it's a change his webmaster made.

Jayto's (which worked fine last week) wants me to install software.

Sorry, but I believe it's STILL about accessibility. If I can't get the page AND it pisses me off, you've lost me.

I hope they fix the problem(s), and I hope somebody tells us.

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 10:51 AM

Hi Kids: DON'T FREEEEK! Try this...Go to Adobe's website. Get the Media Player that suits your computer. The, SHUT DOWN YOUR BROWSER...Install Adobe 9.0.124.0(the "model" for my Mac as an example). You will be redirected to Adobe's site to confirm that the software has been installed. You are now good to go...

Then go to MySpace and the new music player will be installed on your page in a few seconds...

Here's my site so you can check it out...Sounds fine...
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=46552921

Happy MySpace...
bob

p.s. The other tekkie issues are being worked on at MySpace's end(SEE: CONTACT MYSPACE) at the bottom of your main page...

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: GUEST,Jonny Sunshine
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 10:55 AM

Why fix it when it ain't broke? Myspace pages are bad enough for slow loading as it is. I can't even log in to mine today.
Still, nice to see that I've, apparently had 1363 listens today!

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 11:02 AM

Yeah, the old player was just fine for me too. Apple tried this with iMovie '08 which was not necessarily BETTER than '06 which allowed for editing in a comfortable manner. I went back to '06...

Guess the developers gotta develop...
bob

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: GUEST,Tom Bliss
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 11:14 AM

For a site that offers a free service and then makes its money from ad revenue based on traffic volume it's bad business to do anything that will reduce the numbers - such as making people go away to install software, which most of us would prefer not to have to do just to browse some music.

When will they ever learn?

Tom

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: Jayto
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 11:24 AM

I was looking at mine and a commercial popped up blocking my player wanting me to click on some other bands page. Now that is really bad in my book. If someone is on your page to hear your music it is not cool at all to try to lead them away from your music to someone else's. It's probably one of the bands on that pay page thingy. I hope it doesn't stay like that.


I can't help but kinda laugh because that joke that was on the joke thread comes to mind. How many folk singers does it take to change a lightbult? 10. One to change it and nine to sing about how good the old one was lol.
cya
JT

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: Surreysinger
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 11:29 AM

Interesting - our Myspace had 1,127 hits today, with only 6 visitors to the site .... they must have been having a whale of a time. Am I being unreasonable in being concerned that there is no "Stop" Button anywhere in sight? I managed to have two tracks playing at the same time and no means of turning them both off (not a happy situation, as I, like most people, really don't like listening to my own stuff!!)And it's reduced the size of the pretty pictures alongside ... why ???

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: Jayto
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 11:40 AM

Mine had 1147 listen today as well. I wish that was buys lol. Has anyone else had a commercial for another group pop up or am I the only one?

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: BusyBee Paul
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 11:48 AM

When I went onto my Myspace and then tried to check out a friend's page, it just kicked me out altogether.

Haven't been bothered to try again since.

Deirdre

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: Jeri
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 11:48 AM

How many music industry people does it take?
Takes 11.
1 marketing weenie to convince people that the current (haha) bulb is old and needs to be changed even if it still works
1 musician to change it
9 music lovers to complain that there was nothing wrong with the old one

Perhaps it's a good thing if MySpace pages are too bloated for me to see them because it saves me from downloading unneeded programs.

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: dwditty
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 11:59 AM

I think MySpace wanted to get complaints up to the level of Facebook, which recentaly changed their look...

Still, even with some problems, requirements to load whatever, etc., I still believe that I reach more people than I would in a non-virtual world. It just isn't worth my time and energy to get all hissy about it.

dw

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: Surreysinger
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 12:01 PM

Speaking of which, is anyone else having troubles with Facebook ?? It keeps freezing up on me.

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: Vic Smith
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 12:02 PM

Tom Bliss said

8,625 plays today? I wish!

Wow! Just beat you - 8721 for the Royal Oak, Lewes !

Can't get any of the tracks to play at the moment , though they were playing earlier today.

Noticed the following though before the whole thing seized up:-
* The track totals plays for each song are less than they were under the previous system
* The track totals don't appear to advance at all at the moment.
* The tracks play sequentially 1 to 6 rather than randomly as previously.
* The new thumbnail photos assume that the illustration is going to be an album cover and allows the same number of pixels horizontally as vertically. If the illustration is not the same number of pixels in both directions (and none of mine are) then the photo will be stretched or squeezed to give an odd "Hall of Mirrors" effect.

In my days as a programmer, we had to debug all the glitches and mistakes BEFORE a program went live to the customer, not as we went along.

*>*>*>*>*>*>*<*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>

Just checked our Myspace before pressing "Submit message" and found that
* The "plays today" total has zeroed itself
* The tracks are playing again (Sequentiallly not randomly)
* The other mistakes still apply.

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 12:06 PM

1,164 plays for me! The new music player looks ghastly - & the image is too small... Still, it's all free (apart from selling our souls to Murdoch) so why complain?

Subject: RE: My has gone funny,how about you?
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 03:22 PM

Mine shows 0 plays, total and today. I went on using my wife's page and listened to my tunes, but it still says "0".

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: GUEST,Howard Jones
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 03:42 PM

Why complain? Because they've taken something which was working perfectly well and buggered it up. If yet to see a single positive comment abut the new player. Myspace haven't even explained why they've done it or what wonderful advantages there will be when (if) it's working properly.

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: dwditty
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 04:17 PM

Today no move is made in business for simply altruistic reasons, nor was it ever. While there is no doubt some pitch that explains how this move will "improve the user experience" or whatever, there is some financial benefit to MySpace to switch players, or they would not have done so. This is the driving force behind everything that takes place in business - both in US and globally. Just look at how efficiently that stuff they sell as "food" has become.

dw

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 04:30 PM

Mine says no plays today, so it must be right ;)

JM

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: Peace
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 05:56 PM

Myspace and Google have been screwed up for a helluva lot longer than a few days. Also, neither deign to respond to questions.

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: Dave (Bridge)
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 05:56 PM

Just been onto my three sites. One worked but looked awful the other two would not play song list or videos. Popped into some friends and some worked some did not

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: Peace
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 07:03 PM

Gee. Too complicated to let people who use the sites know they're having difficulties? Arrogant bastards.

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 08:04 PM

"Today no move is made in business for simply altruistic reasons, nor was it ever. While there is no doubt some pitch that explains how this move will "improve the user experience" or whatever, there is some financial benefit to MySpace to switch players, or they would not have done so. This is the driving force behind everything that takes place in business"

I would LOVE to believe that. But I survived the "Webring" catastrophe - a major US 'enterprise' (Yahoo) took it over and quickly broke it so thoroughly with their unwanted spontaneous 'improvements', that they actually GAVE IT AWAY for free - and the competent supporters rapidly fixed it.

"Arrogant bastards."
Why should they care? 'Money inflow' equates to 'Love'...

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 08:06 PM

Usually "Tom" shows up with a flashlight on the left side of your page to tell you what's up...
This time they just changed the player...A few words the night before would have been nice.

Anyhooch, most people who are "power MySpace users" know that you go to the bottom of your main page and click on "Contact MySpace" and they fill you in on wassup...

Yeah, I would liked to have seen something like, "this is our spiffy new player you're going to love and it does everything except make you a coffee..." but Hey, it's free, and gets you in front of millions of people, soooo Thanks MySpace with an attitude of gratitude...bob

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 08:12 PM

Oh yeah, if it's like some times in the past, the plays count should self-correct in the next few days or so...I've been through wacky friends counts before...Things should be O.K, soon...BR

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 08:36 PM

Mine worked today, but every site I went to yesterday was not working. I agree with the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" side.

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: Vic Smith
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 07:01 AM

I have been having problems with the three Myspace sites that I maintain and would subscribe to the If it ain't broke, don't fix it opinions.
Rather worried by the postings of dwditty and Foolestroupe, I wonder with them about the motives for the change.


So why has it been changed? Could it be related to what is happening at Myspace as reported in today's The Guardian where it says:-


Indie labels cry foul at MySpace Music launch

    * Owen Gibson, media correspondent
    * The Guardian,
    * Friday September 26 2008
    * Article history

MySpace, the social networking site, last night launched its long-awaited music service, which offers millions of streaming tracks on demand in the US, and revealed plans to launch it worldwide. But it provoked a furious reaction from the largest independent record labels, which accused it of leaving them out in the cold.

They claim that having built a user base of 120 million largely off the back of its reputation as a place to discover new music, it was "disappointing and astonishing" that the Newscorp-owned company had not offered them comparable terms to their major-label rivals.

Among the artists that will be missing from the service at launch will be Arctic Monkeys, Radiohead, the White Stripes, Basement Jaxx, Arcade Fire, Dizzee Rascal and Vampire Weekend.

The four majors that have signed up to the new service - Sony, Universal, Warner and EMI - have all received an equity stake in the venture, which in addition to advert-supported streaming tracks offers users the chance to buy downloads through Amazon.

"It is both disappointing and astonishing that MySpace, built on the music of independent artists and labels, should, now it has the majors as partners, choose to launch without those that have been at its heart, and whilst treating independents as second class-citizens," said Martin Mills, chairman of Beggars Group, the largest independent in the UK.
This is online at http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/sep/26/myspace.digitalmusic

I'm afraid that I don't know the technology well enough to comment on whether this is related to the Myspace format changes but I would welcome the thoughts and opinions of those who do.

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: GUEST,The Dirty Youth
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 09:19 AM

Yesterday we had 123,000 plays we usually get about 300-400 now today the counter is zero!!!

Sort it out Tom!!!

www.myspace.com/thedirtyyouth

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 09:50 AM

Hi Kids: Ya know, it wouldn't be too hard to cut and paste this thread and send it to MySpace...or the powers that be...It might create a "meeting" of the minds...Opinions? bob

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: GUEST,Tom Bliss
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 10:04 AM

There's been plenty of complaints on the MySpace forums, and I've written to them from both my sites - but I think Vic's quote from the Guardian explains what's going on. I assume the new player is necessary to allow the massive amounts of streaming that MySpace are planning - probably to compete with iTunes. The company seems to be moving away from its original funtion as a social networking site, and by accident a fantastic shop window for small players like us, to a download provider - so I suspect they don't actually care what we think.

I've now put all my mp3 on my proper website, where they play fine (I think), no-one has to download any new software, and I can have as many flies as I want, where I want them.

Tom

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: GUEST,Cane
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 10:13 AM

All 4000 plays went missing !
***********************************
No plays, yeah right.

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: Rasener
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 10:18 AM

Just been onto mine and it works fine with the new player. Didn't have to do anything.

Faldingworth Live Myspace

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: Rasener
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 10:29 AM

Spoke too soon. It played four songs and then stopped showing Error

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: treewind
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 10:38 AM

I've noticed it looks different, but the player still works, even on my 64 bit Linux system where getting the Flash Player to work in the first place was an exciting voyage of discovery and exploration... glad I haven't got to go though that again!

Anahata

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: open mike
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 12:08 PM

tom is everybodies' friend??!!

i havenot figured out how to get audio files to play..
but have a couple video clips..will check these out.

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: Rasener
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 02:48 PM

Ah I know the problem now. I rejected Tom as a freind and he is getting back at me :-)

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 05:08 PM

If you sign on to your myspace account you'll get this message from Tom:

Latest Update:
Sep 25, 6:00am PDT

Yesterday we rolled out a new music player for artist profiles and users. There are some bugs I want all the artists to know we are working on them--namely, inaccurate song play counts, some missing songs, and bands can no longer order their songs. We are comitted to fixing these bugs soon. We know your plays were hard-earned and you'll get them back. :-) Thanks for your patience while we work out these new features. Please know that we have a lot more features coming that will help you promote your band and will help MySpace users enjoy your music. Thanks so much for your patience while we fix these new features!

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny, how about you?
From: Peace
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 05:18 PM

Is there something else besides Myspace that does essentially the same thing? I am fed up with shit from Google and their offshoots that completely ignore the people they 'serve'. They may be providing a free service, but it comes with lots of ads. Pardon me, but fuck 'em!

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: GUEST,Tom Bliss
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 05:46 PM

Well it's the existence of the ads which allows the service to be free. MySpace costs a fortune to run - it simply couldn't exist if it had to be privately funded.

You could always try the Billboard at The Music Well . When we set it up (as RadioBritfolk) we decided not to have ads, but the servers etc all cost money, so we had to charge.

Facebook offers music/band pages which allow you to upload tracks - but I deleted my membership because it soon emerged that it was just too gossipy and prurient - FAR too much information in my opinion, and the music was lost in a spew of nonsense about people's clubbing habits.

Reverb Nation is ok, though there's not too many folk acts there. Spin-off benefits include geo-targeting for gigs.

There are lots of others, but nothing as focused and targeted as MySpace.

Tom

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: Peace
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 06:10 PM

Thank you, Tom.

I dislike places like Myspace that offer one thing then do another. I'll look at other sites. I do appreciate you writing alternatives here. Looks like the big kids have shown the little kids where we stand in their estimation.

Bruce

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: GUEST,Silent Descent
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 06:29 PM

It seems that everyone's plays yesterday was a couple of hundred times more than normal and about 10 times less today. We had over 40,000 yesterday!

Our total is now 26.. we better get our other 80,000 back!

http://www.myspace.com/silentdescent1

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 09:00 PM

Hi Kids: Well, HALF my player is SOMEWHAT accurate. I had something like 20,600 plays and WOOF...now it's 2 plays for one song and 8556 for the other, But hey, who's counting...?

Then I checked out the friend/plays adders via Google(A SERIOUS NO-NO in MySpace's eyes...They WILL delete you)
The people who have used these must be in a mindset akin to Wall Street right now...I still think it will get worked out. But who needs the aggravation?

Then Mudcat could bake it's own bread...Find some student programmers: allow members to upload 1 photo and provide a simple 2-song MP3 player. Yeah, yeah, I know what yer thinking, it's all about this...$$$$$$$. But, where there's a will there's a way.

Ya know, what if there was a THREAD. Say, "The Members Thread", and it's permanent...You put in your name and a blue clicky that takes you to your official page? Like this...
http://www.ouestech.com/bob
I tell yas, the wheels DO NOT STOP TURNING over here. Step back and kiss myself...I will now shut up...BR

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 09:12 PM

Hi Kids: Back again...I just came up with a name for the thread......MudSpace!!!!

Huh, BOFFO right?! How is it possifus that ONE MAN can have a mind like this? The hand of God fer sure...BR

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 09:15 PM

As you've probably figured out by now, I have no shame...<;0) bob

Subject: RE: My Myspace has gone funny,how about you?
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Sep 08 - 08:21 AM

MP3 streams from Mudcat would indeed cost a huge amount.
Mudcat survives through being strictly text only. Either MP3 (streaming or downloads) would create a huge increase in the bandwidth that Max pays for, or proper streaming server space would be really expensive to rent.

The cheap and cheerful option would be for mudcat to host a page of links to MP3s on members' OWN websites.

Anahata