MySpace vs. YouTube

Which of the popular sites of MySpace & YouTube garner more listens for popular music? Recent data points to an almost 7 to 1 ratio in favor of MySpace. Now, the comparison is not exactly apples to apples as YouTube is in a video format and most of the MySpace listens occur in only an audible format. But still, this is important for artists to keep in mind for their online strategy.

One specific example to support this data was from the artist Lady Gaga. Her YouTube video for ‘Poker Face‘ was recently viewed 5 million times within a seven day period. Yet, another Gaga song “Just Dance” was streamed more than 5 million times in just one day on MySpace!

Nowo some obvious differences are in play here. For instance, on YouTube, those 5 million listens were directly searched for or were accessed via a link. On the other hand, ‘Just Dance’ is the song that comes up first when accessing Lady Gaga’s MySpace page. So, someone still needed to search for Lady Gaga, but they may not have been searching specifically for ‘Just Dance.’

On a broader scale, last week, the top 10 songs on YouTube had 24.5 million views over the week. On Monday alone, MySpace had 13.4 million listens for those same top 10 songs.

I would argue though that the visual component of a song on YouTube is more compelling and will stick with the consumer more than just the audible sensation. Therefore, YouTube is not to be thrown aside as 1/7th as good as MySpace, but a strategy of making compelling video content to accompany the songs should be a strong point for any band.

Stay tuned,
Erik
erikrostad.com