FFS Tom: MySpace Just Deleted 12 Years’ Worth Of Music
Put out your MP3s.
MySpace was a strange and not entirely successful social media experiment.
A precursor to Facebook, the site allowed customisation of its pages — which sounds nice in theory, but in practice just meant that clicking on someone’s profile chugged your computer down to a grinding halt, as your poor device struggled to load a glittery, animated Tweety Bird background and started autoplaying a Ben Lee song.
But, for all its flaws, MySpace was one of the first social media sites that encouraged the sharing of music. Users didn’t just use it to illegally spread ripped Tool songs, they also uploaded their own originals, and formed miniature online creative communities. It’s easy to forget that Lily Allen got her first big break on MySpace, and scrolling through unsigned artists and finding a new favourite became a deeply fulfilling online exercise.
Anyway, if ever a reminder of the impermanence of the internet was needed, site administrators over at MySpace have just quite casually announced that while migrating servers they managed to delete 12 whole years worth of music, photos and videos.
people seem to think I mean something mad or something but it's not like that. it's just that the loss of all this labor & history & creativity is, by itself, a very brutal commentary on the way we have chosen to live. it's not "MySpace did something wrong." Deeper than that. https://t.co/ClRpC3V2qh
— The Mountain Goats (@mountain_goats) March 18, 2019
Anything uploaded to the site prior to about 2016 has been lost, meaning that an entire chapter in the history of online music culture has been eradicated. Worse still, because the deletion was an error, users were denied a chance to back up their files ahead of time. According to some tech experts, an estimated 50 million songs have been lost.
“As a result of a server migration project, any photos, videos, and audio files you uploaded more than three years ago may no longer be available on or from Myspace,” a statement from MySpace confirmed to NME.
“We apologise for the inconvenience and suggest that you retain your back up copies. If you would like more information, please contact our Data Protection Officer, Dr. Jana Jentzsch at [email protected].”
Of course, it’s easy to make fun of MySpace as Facebook’s older, significantly less cool sibling — which it should be stressed it absolutely is. But this is still sad news, and more evidence that nothing truly exists digitally unless it has been saved in at least two places.
Shame on you MySpace Tom. You were meant to be our very first friend.