GetOut Magazine

Two years ago these guys launched a Web site - and made 21 million friends
By KELLY WILSON
GET OUT

Mike Tank starts his day on MySpace. He also ends his day on MySpace. And, in between, the 31-year-old Gilbert resident spends much of his day on MySpace.

An estimated 21 million people a month log on to the 2-year-old social-networking and music Web site. They create personal profiles, chat with old friends, make new friends, share photos, write blogs, listen to music, participate in discussion groups — and often become addicted to the whole experience.

“When I was a buyer at Virgin (Records), all of us in the back offices were total MySpace whores,” says Tank. “I noticed that we would all come into work in the morning, turn on our computers at our desks and log onto MySpace right away.

‘‘Even the employees who didn't have their own desks and PCs would come back to our offices and log on whenever we would step out for even a minute.''

Eventually, the store manager had to issue a memo asking employees to curtail their time on MySpace.

‘‘And he was one of the worst offenders!'' Tank says.

Like Tank, 26-year-old Carrie Stenzel of Tempe also spends several hours a day on the one-stop Web site.

“The band pages not only list their upcoming shows, but they have their music and their descriptions all on the same page,'' says Stenzel, a marketing coordinator at a Scottsdale resort. “You don't have to go to a separate Web site to see your friend's blog. You can easily upload different pictures and update your profile.

‘‘I'm too easily distracted to have to go hunting around the Internet to find all of that information anywhere else.''

Zack McDowell, 25, of Phoenix signs onto MySpace a dozen times a day.
“I enjoy using the blog to post my ideas on things,'' says McDowell, a marketing manager for a commercial construction management firm. ‘‘I try to spark discussion that fosters new thinking or participate in discussion that is attempting to do the same. . . .

‘‘Imagine (MySpace) as a room with [21] million people that are all saying different things and you get to tune into the ones you find interesting.''

IN THE BEGINNING

MySpace debuted in September 2003 and adds about 110,000 new users a day, according to co-founder Tom Anderson.

Anderson, who is 29 and lives in Los Angeles, says that he created MySpace after he noticed a trend in Web sites.

“It seemed like more and more young people were online and using the computer to meet each other,'' he says. “They weren't necessarily dating sites. They were blogging sites, forums and message boards, music sites, rating sites and the friend sites.

‘‘These were becoming so popular that I wanted to try as well. I wanted to see all these different features combined into one site.''

So Anderson incorporated characteristics from sites such as Friendster (a friend-linking Web site), Live Journal (an online diary Web site) and Hot or Not (a rating site on physical appearance) and created MySpace.

“MySpace is so much more,'' he says, referring to the competing social networking Web sites. “You have your own Web page. You can listen to music, blog, IM, talk on message boards, forums.''

MySpace features a variety of options, such as sending event invitations, posting bulletins (mass e-mails to your friends), instant messaging, a classifieds section, games and an address book.

THE BEAT GOES ON

More than 370,000 bands and solo artists have set up pages on the Web site to let people sample music and check tour dates. Bands including Queens of the Stone Age, Weezer and Black Eyed Peas have streamed new albums on the site a week before their CDs hit stores.

Topher Bradshaw, bass player for East Valley band Ticker Tape Parade, says his group uses the site to promote out-of-state shows.

“You can pretty much narrow down specific markets and locations,'' says Bradshaw, 26, of Tempe. “Let's say you're playing a show in Anaheim at the Chain Reaction. You can e-flier those kids there. It's awesome. It has helped us gain fans (and) friends all over the world.''

Anderson says the site is changing the face of music.

“Bands are getting signed from MySpace,'' he says. “A&R people use it to scout for bands because it's so much easier than listening to demo tapes.''

Also, bands' music is reaching new ears.

‘‘It's better than a straight music site because those sites are primarily filled with musicians and die-hard music fans. MySpace is filled with the regular folks who all like music on some level. The bands are getting exposure to an audience they could never reach on an MP3.com-type site.''

ON THE BANDWAGON

Bands aren't the only artists utilizing MySpace. Valley independent filmmaker Zachary Yoshioka of Ballistic Entertainment uses the site as a way to attract attention to his movie premieres.

“The best feature we like to use is the invitation/event feature,'' says Yoshioka, 24, of Tempe. “It allows us to send out event information to all of our friends.''

Bars and clubs have also jumped on the MySpace bandwagon. Take north Scottsdale's San Felipe's Cantina, for example.

Charles Eisenstein, the bar's general manager, says he heard about the Web site from one of the cantina's employees.

“One of our bouncers used it,'' says Eisenstein, who has been on MySpace for about eight months. “He was a part-time pro wrestler and he used it to promote himself, so I looked at it one day and said, ‘Oh my God, this is a gold mine.'

‘‘He showed me how he used it to network with people and how to meet girls, so I created the character San Felipe's Cantina and never really exposed myself to being behind it and answered as the character of (the bar).''

Eisenstein hosted a reveal party at the bar last November to introduce himself, and ‘‘191 out of 300 of people from my friends list showed up,'' he says.

NOTHING PERSONAL

Anderson says that MySpace — which makes money from advertisers — is on the road to becoming a portal like Yahoo or MSN, which are the only two Web sites that have more online ads than MySpace, according to research firm Nielsen/NetRatings.

“We want this to be the place where you'd spend most of your time online, and we're adding more and more features every day,'' Anderson says.

Ballistic's Yoshioka says he thinks MySpace — which is a part of Intermix Media, a company that recently was acquired by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. for approximately $580 million — will continue to grow.

“Technology is getting to the point where meeting people, networking and communicating has become extremely impersonal,'' he says. “Nobody calls me anymore. They just text.

‘‘Why go to a bar and meet someone when you can go to MySpace and send them a message, look at their photos and — bam — you have a date for the weekend? It's just such an easier way for people to interact rather than in person.''

Creating your MySpace profile

1. Log on to and click on ‘‘sign up.''

2. Fill out basic information such as your name, e-mail address, gender and date of birth and create a password.

3. If you have a photo to share, click on ‘‘browse'' to select a photo from your desktop and then click on ‘‘upload.'' MySpace will let you post up to 12 photos, depending on file size.

4. Invite your friends to join MySpace, or select ‘‘skip for now.''

5. The Web site will bring you to your main page. From here, click ‘‘edit my profile'' to add information about your favorite bands, books and movies and what kind of people you would like to meet.

Who's on our MySpace?

A sampling of who's on Get Out's friends list:

The Format: Valley musicians Nate Ruess and Sam Means could hit it big with their new CD in 2006.

Ballistic Entertainment: Zach Yoshioka's Tempe company makes independent films and music videos.

Ashton Moore: Dobson High School in Mesa and Scottsdale Community College grad is a star in adult film industry.

Last Exit: Tempe bar is one of the few keeping city's live-music scene going.

Modest Proposal: Humor magazine put out by ex-Valley comedians Ron Babcock and Ryan McKee.

The Edge (103.9 FM): The Valley's best independent radio station.

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