Popular music site MuxTape was ordered to shut down by the RIAA back in August, but the site is coming back with a new concept, and that is to help bands get exposure. Ok, that was the goal the whole time, according to Founder, Justin Ouellette, but now it’s only going to be a service for bands.
The cool thing about it is that you will be able to embed a band’s player wherever you want, providing the user with entertainment, and the band with further promotion. You won’t be able to put together your own “mixtapes” out of songs from different artists like before though.
You can do something similar to that on MySpace Music, however, but Ouellette thinks MySpace Music sucks and is doomed to fail. “It will crumble because they aren’t offering anything new,” Ouellette told Rolling Stone. “It’s not well organized, it’s outdated and irrelevant. MySpace has a scummy feel. Bands tend to do it because other bands do it.” Bitter much? Time will tell if he’s right, but I think one thing MySpace Music has going for it is the fact that it has record labels behind it, and they stand to make money off it.
I think there are probably thousands of bands that would argue that MySpace is not irrelevant, as they have seen their exposure skyrocket as a result of the social network, while in strong competition with Facebook in terms of use, still has a huge user-base. MySpace Music’s launch will only enhance that exposure, not to mention the ad service they just launched to compliment it, where bands can make their own banner ads and target them at the demographics of their choosing.
Perhaps Ouellette should also realize that his MuxTape players will likely be embedded on MySpace pages (perhaps even by the bands that create them), and embrace the further exposure it could bring his service. That said, I still think the new Muxtape will be an intersting tool for bands to use and I wish Ouellette the best with it.
