Do a Google search on any band or individual artist. Go ahead. I’ll wait.
The top three search results turned out to be an official web site, a Wikipedia page, and a MySpace page, right?
If you want to know more about a band or individual artist — where they’re from, how long they’ve been together, discographies, biographies of each member, etc. — Wikipedia usually is the better choice. Unlike MySpace pages, Wikipedia is mostly text. It’s easier on the eyes than crowded, bulky MySpace pages. The downside/upside of Wikipedia is that anyone – fan or foe, amateur or pro – can edit it.
According to a new study, people searching for information on artists choose to view Wikipedia pages over MySpace pages two to one. An excerpt of the story:
“The interest that people had to go to MySpace to find out more about their favorite band is waning in favor of going to Wikipedia,” Yahoo head of programming and label relations John Lenac says. “In the last six months, it’s surpassed it.”
Yet when compared with the number of artist profiles on MySpace, Wikipedia entries are noticeably fewer. MySpace claims 3 million artist profiles. Wikipedia does not have an exact count of artist entries, but estimates that it’s in the “tens of thousands,” according to Wikipedia Foundation head of communications Jay Walsh.
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What’s more, because of Wikipedia’s low profile relative to the MySpace hype machine, many artists and their managers remain ignorant of the resources available to them.“There’s been many people I’ve talked to that didn’t even know they could upload a Wikipedia page,” Lenac says. “There’s been some managers that didn’t even know what it was.”
Having a page on MySpace is still important for musicians, but love it or hate it, you can’t ignore Wikipedia. It’s here to stay. It comes up high in search engine results, so anyone who’s got an entry listed should pay attention to the page’s content. Because Wikipedia can be edited by anyone (though editors supposedly keep a close watch), even someone who has no idea what he’s talking about, it’s important to check pages now and then for accuracy, signs of bias, etc.
Takeaway for bands and individual artists: If you have a Wikipedia page, don’t ignore it. Check it periodically. If you don’t have one, don’t create one yourself. Eventually, a fan will do it for you.
