Just when you thought MySpace couldn’t possibly get any worse, they went ahead and fucked up the last worthwhile function left in that digital wasteland.

This function was the ability to search for artists of different genres and narrow that search down to the country, state and even city they were from. You could also search for keywords in their profile. This was huge help for fans and bloggers like me looking to discover new artists from specific places in the world. On top of that, they killed off all of the sub-genre search they used to have.  No more crunk, lyrical, hyphy, house, drum and bass, etc…

They don’t even have classical music in their main search.  How can you completely neglect an entire genre of music?

I did three searches for unsigned hip hop artists and I got the same list of people every time I did it. This search seems to max out at only 200 artists by the way.

Why would they do this you ask? Well, it’s a sign that MySpace is completely in bed with the major labels. This was no accident. They don’t give a shit about you discovering new music from some independent artist who may dwell in some remote part of the world.  They want to now shove major label artists down your throat. As if you couldn’t get this anywhere else.

Really though, their service to indie artists was the only thing that gave them half a chance to survive in a internet social networking world dominated by  Facebook.   I really see no reason for artists to waste time there anymore. It’s dead as a  social networking tool, so why bother?

Most artists use MySpace as their online press kit, but why even do that when there are so many other websites that do a much better job. Bandcamp, ReverbNation and Sonicbids, just to name a few.

A representative claims that they didn’t expect the recent strong opposition to these changes, and that they’re working on bringing some of theses options back. Ha! By the time they do, there won’t be enough active users around to care.

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