Music Wars: Facebook vs. Twitter vs. Myspace vs. Ping
Curious as to how Ping adoption rates were doing, I compared several popular music artists on Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and Ping as of 10:45 am December 11, 2010. I also looked at the number of original updates posted on Friday (December 10) by each music artist.
Justin Bieber
Facebook: 16,672,233 fans (original updates: 7)
Twitter: 6,295,146 (updates: 17) (38% of FB fans)
Myspace: 1,118,446 (blog updates: 1) (7% of FB)
Ping: 0 (updates: 0) (0% of FB) - No Ping page
Lady Gaga
Facebook: 24,578,788 (updates: 1)
Twitter: 7,325,965 (updates: 1) (30% of FB)
Myspace: 1,420,540 (blog updates: 0) (6% of FB)
Ping: 635,799 (updates: 0) (3% of FB)
Michael Jackson
Facebook: 25,158,445 (updates: 2)
Twitter: 264,761 (updates: 4) (1% of FB)
Myspace: 1,008,716 (blog updates: 0) (4% of FB)
Ping: 76,826 (updates: 0) (<1% of FB)
Coldplay
Facebook: 8,401,093 (updates: 1)
Twitter: 3,287,929 (updates: 2) (39% of FB)
Myspace: 665,719 (blog updates 0) (8% of FB)
Ping: 427,010 (updates: 0) (5% of FB)
Atomic Tom (band playing song using iPhones on NYC subway)
Facebook: 37,799 (updates: 2)
Twitter: 2,674 (updates: 2) (7% of FB)
Myspace: 12,318 (blog updates: 0) (33% of FB)
Ping: 2,447 (updates: 0) (7% of FB)
Quick Observations:
1) Facebook pages are killing the compeititon. Pages are easy to navigate and include gift shops and song previews. Comment threads are packed.
2) Lady Gaga had the option to buy songs on Facebook through iLike (which has deep partnerships with Myspace and Facebook).
2) Twitter had around 30% the number of Facebook followers. Smaller bands have much smaller twitter follower lists. Combined, Myspace and Ping had, on average, less than 10% the number of Facebook followers. Atomic Tom had a much bigger representation on Myspace and Ping compared to Facebook and Twitter. Will lesser-known artists/independent musicians turn to Ping?
3) Music artists have more fans following their Myspace page compared to their Ping page, but Myspace pages seem very cluttered and slow.
4) Maintaining four different fan/music pages seems like a difficult task and very redundant. Original updates were minimal across the board with even twitter updates kept to the occasional promotional tweet (not fun to read).
5) From the music artist’s point of view, which page is most important? Whichever offers the best spot for music fans to interact and buy music.
Facebook is currently the best spot for fans to interact. Besides Lady Gaga having the option to buy music using iLike, every other artist mentioned in this post relied on Facebook fans going elsewhere to buy their digital music, with iTunes remaining the easiest option.
Facebook + iTunes integration - watch out. (Could this be the reason why Apple and Facebook can’t seem to agree on Ping?)
Two articles on the disagreement between Facebook and Apple on Ping:
This post was compiled while streaming Michael Jackson’s new album “Michael” through Facebook.