No More Auto-Play

MySpace is known for its clutter. I think that is one reason many people moved to the ‘cleaner’ Facebook network. In addition to the advertising, the user is always bombarded with music the moment a page is entered into on MySpace.

Well, not anymore. You see, every time one of those songs starts to auto-play, MySpace is paying streaming royalties. By turning off auto-play, MySpace will immediately begin saving millions of dollars in royalty fees.

This should also offer a better picture of what users are actually listening to. It can be a bit deceiving to say a song was listened to 5 million times if it automatically starts playing when the page is opened. But if users are required to press the play button, that will be a better indication of the actual amount of times the song was streamed.

On the negative side, bands will need to rely more on their page layout now to grab the user’s attention. The distortion-filled opening chord of the hit song will no longer pull in potential fans.

Stay tuned,
Erik
erikrostad.com
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