The DIY ethos of the past decade, in contrast to that of the major label recording industry, has been one of constant change.

If we look at the emergence of Napster as the beginning of the current era of popular music, the indy community and the major labels have been on polar opposite ends with regards to how they see the internet. Major labels have fought tooth and nail to prevent music from reaching people free of charge while independent labels and artists have embraced the possibilities (and realities) of music downloading as well as how the internet can be used as a tool.

Much has changed since Lars Ulrich vs. Napster and while the majors have been consistently losing money, independents have flourished because of their ability to accept the trends of the internet.

For bands, it was about the easiest way to get your name out there. You create a profile that includes your name, where you’re from, contact information, influences, and most importantly your songs are right there. Surfing Myspace was a great way to find bands as a listener as well as a great way for bands to be discovered.

Most famously, within hours of posting demos on Myspace, Vampire Weekend had thousands of people flooding their page. Before they were signed, before they had released anything, they were darlings of the blogging world and were quickly snatched up by XL Recordings.

Seemingly all the difficulties of DIY music became easily handled within one website. Houses and smaller venues began making pages and suddenly entire tours were being booked through Myspace.

Within a few years, Myspace had become enough of a powerhouse that even bands of considerable profile like The Lawrence Arms and Dillinger Four didn’t even have a website anymore. It didn’t make sense to spend money on a domain name when Myspace gave everything you would ever need.

However, over the past couple years, especially since it was surpassed by (and eventually sold to) Facebook as the leading social network site, Myspace has become increasingly less user-friendly.

The website is convoluted with a mess of new useless features, an interface which is much more difficult to navigate, and a different, somehow more complicated music player which no longer gives the option of downloading songs. Plain and simple the once easy site has become difficult and apparently, many bands have decided that Myspace isn’t worth it.

Other avenues have come into fruition lately that provide the same benefits of Myspace without the convoluted hassle. Bandcamp is an online record store which provides artists with customizable microsites for their songs, albums, or demos. 

The idiot-proof site contains a music player which allows all tracks to be streamed for free and purchased for download on pretty much any audio format imaginable at a price set by the artist. Recently, punknews.org announced that Bandcamp would soon start displaying tour dates.

Many bands have also taken to using websites such as Blogger and Tumblr as a home page and Twitter and Facebook as a way to keep in touch with the world of social networking. Facebook obviously allows for a chance of exposure due the massive number of users (and the cool new feature from that Chevy ad that allows you to check status updates from your car! Seriously, that’s gross) and Twitter’s interactive experience allows fans to feel closer to bands.

On their Tumblr, Everyone Everywhere referred to Myspace as “the worst website on the internet. I shouldn’t even have to say that, it’s pretty apparent.”

The headline on the Myspace of Tallahassee’s Little League reads, “Bye MySpace.”

Myspace has gone from internet juggernaut to a site that many bands are only setting up in an effort to forward people to their real sites. Expect this to continue because the internet only moves forward.

Take care, Myspace, it’s been real real. Say hi to Angelfire for me.