See http://helloblog.lp33.tv/?p=51 for more details.

Myspace had a great thing going but they sold out long ago, letting plays get inflated, kissing up to the majors and throwing the indie artist to the side, even though Indies made myspace

A major concern: Myawol is saying that they are going to model themselves unlike anything in the industry. But when the execs are formerly execs from the standard record industry, it’s hard to see how they can avoid doing things the same old ways. Even though they’ve got good intentions going in…we wonder if they can really bust out of all those years of intense on-the-job training in “How to Run a Record Industry.”

Is it possible to teach an old dog new tricks? Particularly with regard to treatment/payment of the artists.

Will Myawol really give the artist a fair deal…and not just xx% of NET earnings AFTER paying for all the shiny new websites, videos, AND after all of the Myawol exec and employee salaries have been paid First?

Usually, that nets the artist exactly xx% of NOTHING. Worse, sometimes the artist is left owing the company (for recoupment) and the feds (for taxes)!

Anyway, misgivings aside, we’ll be the first to admit it: So far…So good. At this stage, Myawol appears to be the real deal.

They’ve been telling the guys what will happen and have been doing their level best to make things work according to their promises. The first sort of “pre-debut” gig ran into some quite serious obstacles but the Myawol team jumped in and are working to set things straight. It’s not going to be the evening we expected (not exactly the A location we were looking for) but everyone is stoked and we all think it’s going to be great!

Any new business venture has it’s share of crazy, idealistic optimists and dour, fatalistic pessimists. Reality usually winds up somewhere in the middle. We’re excited for the future and send lots of love and good vibes to the Myawol team…and to our guys in the band.

Good luck and warmest regards to all of you!

But, it’s good to see companies like AWOL pop up, as they are for the unsigned/DIY artists who make up most of the industry. One thing I am not seeing here is a good way that AWOL will help artist profit from their works. Hopefully, they won’t drop the ball on this. Either way, seems like music companies are getting funded more and more now (topsin!), so its a good time for music!

Viva!

Good luck to the myAWOL team, looks like they get it!!

Not only that…but it’s so hard to find music on myspace these days, and of my friends that still use it, myspace disabled all the features that were useful (like being able to search friends after you have 5,000). The only thing MySpace is good for music wise is throwing the artists they want to throw in your face. I think myAWOL will bring something new to discovery, and maybe they’ll even bring the industry with their “imdb for the music industry.” If you can mix a site that combines a place for industry folk to hang out with a place for unsigned artists, you’ve got magic. Isn’t that what all unsigned bands want anyway?

Anyway…I think the logo is hard to stomach ’cause it’s something different. It’s not very conventional, but maybe that will give them an edge over sites like LastFM and others that are incredibly not user friendly. I remember when I first singed up for MySpace in like 2003 or 4, and I hated the interface. It sucked. The design sucked. But they were doing something different, and now it’s the standard.

I think whenever you try to do something incredibly different and you try to change the mindset of people, you’re going to get a lot of haters. If no one questions the business model, then how do things change?

Definitely something to keep your eyes on, though, methinks….

Horrible Logo.

Good luck on trying to get traffic - and good luck on trying to work with the smaller artists.

Hope they can quickly sell the smoke and mirrors for a return for investors.

Maybe AOL will buy them? lol….