It’s hard to imagine the ways in which bands had to work to get their music out before MySpace.com. Even if you’re not into the whole social-networking aspect of MySpace, its power as a distributor of new and old music, known and unknown bands is seismic. It’s a marketing tool that even penniless bands can afford (re: it’s free) and it’s helped make superstars out of relatively unknown bands. One such example is Lily Allen. Allen already had a recording contract pre-MySpace, but after posting demos to her page, she began acquiring thousands of new fans. The Observer Music Monthly took notice of her online success and wrote about the trend. By the end of 2006, Entertainment Weekly named Alright, Still as one of the top albums of the year, and by January 2007, Allen had cracked the top 20 Billboard album charts stateside.

There are currently hundreds of thousands of bands and musicians on MySpace, and not all of them — very few, in fact — will achieve the kind of mass notoriety that Lily Allen experienced (and a strong argument can be made that not all of them should: MySpace is also littered with plenty of talentless, if earnest, artists). But the site continues to create music offerings for fans and artists that help get the word out: They let users upload up to four songs on their artist pages; they’ve launched a digital sales for bands; started releasing compilation CDs of the site’s acts; and have begun putting together concerts and tours of MySpace artists. They even started MySpace Records in 2005 to sign artists who appear on the site. The MySpace Tribute To The Smashing Pumpkins album was available only in the July 2007 issue of Spin Magazine.

Tom Anderson MySpace’s Co-Founder’s Profile