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Broadband & Mobile Featured Article
March 24, 2008
Music fans prefer Wikipedia to MySpace
By Raju Shanbhag TMCnet Contributing Editor
When we think of social networking Web sites like MySpace (News - Alert) and Facebook, which have created a phenomenon of sorts over the years, we think their traditional competitors have no chance against them. With the younger generation finding its identity in these web 2.0 applications, one can easily think that they define and shape the thoughts of the users in every way.
Not necessarily; the youngsters still prefer to use Wikipedia over MySpace when they want to search about their favorite music or band. While the artists and the bands think that a major share of their online popularity should be attributed to MySpace, there is another traditional web site, which is providing great services, probably even a tad better than that of MySpace.
And its name is Wikipedia. Recently, Billboard from Yahoo provides some data which provided interesting insights into this matter. Wikipedia is the second-most popular search engine on the Web after Google (News - Alert). Also, they chose Wikipedia over the famed artists' MySpace pages by a factor of more than 2-to-1. The Wikipedia entries are also more popular than artists' Web sites.
Jason Feinberg, president of On Target Media Group, a Web promotions consultancy, said: “Wikipedia is a fantastic landing page. It's so clear, so concise, and it's standardized. That's something I think is a draw over MySpace, where you never quite know the experience you're going to get. Is it going to be a horrible jumble of images and video and text that's difficult to read? Also, (Wikipedia is) rooted in fact. It's not promotional. Especially these days when the Internet is full of artists trying to essentially ram their message down your throat, I think a fan is a lot more receptive to a simple, no-hype approach.”
But yet, the artists and their managers largely remain ignorant about Wikipedia probably due to the company’s low profile. While, MySpace claims 3 million artist profiles, Wikipedia estimates that it's in the “tens of thousands.”
Raju Shanbhag is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
Not necessarily; the youngsters still prefer to use Wikipedia over MySpace when they want to search about their favorite music or band. While the artists and the bands think that a major share of their online popularity should be attributed to MySpace, there is another traditional web site, which is providing great services, probably even a tad better than that of MySpace.
And its name is Wikipedia. Recently, Billboard from Yahoo provides some data which provided interesting insights into this matter. Wikipedia is the second-most popular search engine on the Web after Google (News - Alert). Also, they chose Wikipedia over the famed artists' MySpace pages by a factor of more than 2-to-1. The Wikipedia entries are also more popular than artists' Web sites.
Jason Feinberg, president of On Target Media Group, a Web promotions consultancy, said: “Wikipedia is a fantastic landing page. It's so clear, so concise, and it's standardized. That's something I think is a draw over MySpace, where you never quite know the experience you're going to get. Is it going to be a horrible jumble of images and video and text that's difficult to read? Also, (Wikipedia is) rooted in fact. It's not promotional. Especially these days when the Internet is full of artists trying to essentially ram their message down your throat, I think a fan is a lot more receptive to a simple, no-hype approach.”
But yet, the artists and their managers largely remain ignorant about Wikipedia probably due to the company’s low profile. While, MySpace claims 3 million artist profiles, Wikipedia estimates that it's in the “tens of thousands.”
Raju Shanbhag is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
