Modlife: The next MySpace for music?

The number one site for musicians and bands to promote themselves has to be MySpace. With over 100 million members, it is easy to see why it would be attractive: easy set-up, streaming music, large network of music fans, and ability to give instant blog updates.

But the MySpace brand is becoming tainted. It is spam heaven and is constantly mocked as a site for child predators. While it offers free promotion, the features are somewhat bland and don't offer bands a way to monetize their efforts.

Modlife is a revolutionary website for musicians.

It launched November 1st of 2007 with the online release of Angels & Airwaves album "I-Empire." Currently, the site boasts an impressive amount of features:

- Podcasting (Modcasts)
- Live chats/video chats with the bands (Modblast) and (Modcam)
- Tour videos
- Meet and Greet opportunities
- Streaming Music
- Video blogs
- News updates
- And a few other features

Below is a screenshot of the homepage.



How does it work?

The catch is that the content isn't free. The band that started Modlife.com (Angels & Airwaves) charge $6.99 a month for a subscription to their site. While this doesn't please some people, if a band you truly enjoy is on Modlife, the $6.99 is well worth it (it is 2 drinks at Starbucks a month).

I've been a member since the day the website launched and have had the privilege of: meeting AVA twice, enjoying daily content (either blog/videos/podcasts/video chats), and have watched Tom DeLonge take requests via "Modcam" and sing songs with his acoustic guitar.

Screen shot of blog below



The future of Modlife:

While only a few bands exist on Modlife at the moment, future plans are underway. According to blogs and Modcams, eventually Modlife will be open to the public. This means that anyone will be able to create a page and charge whatever they want for a subscription.

For the DIY bands, Modlife has to be very appealing. You have all the outlets for distribution right in front of you, condensed into one site. You control the content and set the prices; very appealing to bands.

While the launch of Modlife has been slow, keep in mind that all great brands and campaigns have had slow starts (Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Red Bull, etc.). The brands and campaigns that have been the most successful have taken off like an airplane, not a big bang (idea taken from Laura Ries).

Screenshot of Modblast below




Check out Modlife.com. At the moment, there is no other site like it.

Tom DeLonges introduction to Modlife:

Random Social Media Thoughts

A collection of my social media thoughts for the day:

- It is weird to think that we are engaged in the first election since YouTube's creation. It has been heavily utilized by most campaigns. Most video hits: probably Obama. Most YouTube comments: definitely Ron Paul. For a while it was almost impossible to look at any popular video without a Ron Paul supporter commenting on it.

- Facebook is going the way of MySpam...oops, I mean MySpace. Too many useless applications and now comes a complete revamp of the website along with a slew of spam. I see the temptation for Facebook to converge and become everything social media, but instead I wish they would follow the KISS principle (keep it simple stupid, as in we didn't really need all the 3rd party apps and all that junk).

- Another victim of spam - YouTube. I remember not too long ago when I would check the daily top videos on YouTube and find a collection of unique, creative, and often hilarious videos. Check the most viewed videos today and you will find about 50% of the titles aren't in English, a handful of videos are Japanese cartoons, and the rest are spam or ads for websites. Maybe 10 videos out of the top 100 are now worth watching.

- Pandora might get shut down soon. They are paying outrageous royalties and can't get out of the red. If they do get shut down by the RIAA, expect an uproar from the over 1 million daily users of Pandora.

- Apple still needs to get a better control of the App Store. Only a few applications are released every week and the ones that get publicized aren't that great. Btw, who gave the clearance for the I am Rich application?

- Something will replace MySpace as a music site soon. Currently, MySpace is repeatedly being pigeonholed as a site for 3 different types of people: musicians, spammers, and child predators. Whether it is true or not, it is repeated frequently enough to the point where people will believe it to be true. My prediction for MySpace's music predecessor? Modlife. I will give a review of the website later this week.