By my reckoning, it has been well over 12 months since I last visited ‘Myspace’, even longer since I posted anything there and longer still since I found anything new or made any sort of connection with other artists. Usually when I ended up on Myspace it was because I followed a link provided on Twitter or via a mailing list or web forum, I certainly rarely followed up on some of the blatant advertising posted on my page. I’ve been asking myself for quite some time why I still have a presence there and the answer has been some generic sound-bite from the back of my head, “because everyone’s on Myspace”.

Well, they’re not.

And as of today, even fewer are, with a group of musicians deciding that ‘un oeuf is enough’, leaving Myspace en-masse and making a statement that, whilst it was once, for a short time, a great way to find music, the world has moved on, leaving it far behind. Today has been designated “Quit Myspace Day”, so why not do what I’ve been considering for months now, but do it as part of a movement seeking to send a message to the powers that be: “Myspace is broken and it’s too late too fix it.”

For more information, take a look at New Music Strategies where the idea was spawned, and I would also recommend taking a look at Steve Lawson‘s blog.

Steve is a perfect example of a musician making a reasonable living (not a superstar, but really, who would honestly want all the nonsense that accompanies that lifestyle?) I first came across his music on Twitter, through a link that someone else had posted, about a year ago. He plays solo bass, speaks on the ‘new’ music industry, Tweets like crazy and comes across as a sensible and well thought-out spokesman against the traditional record company model. On top of all that, his albums are released online and generally available on a ‘pay what you want’ basis and are full of great music. I would recommend his latest live album as a taster of what he does.

Once this blog post goes live, the Mick Bordet Myspace page will be gone within a matter of minutes. I suspect nobody on Myspace will notice.