[hank777]

Myspace is indeed effective in getting artists signed. The internet is a primary tool today for labels to find artists to sign. It is the primary A&R mechanism. That said, the definition of success here is "getting signed". They did not sell much of anything until they were signed. After they were signed they went to #1 in UK. I can tell you I never heard of the Arctic Monkeys in 2004 for example.

Also you may not have said the arctic monkeys give away their music, but you were refuting my article, and my point is about giving away music on the internet. So if we are not discussing giving away music, then you are not really being responsive to the subject of the article and your disagreement is seemingly misguided.

specifically, the relevant paragraph is as follows:

"Second, there is no evidence at all that free music on the Internet is an effective (i.e. successful career building) marketing tool. There have been no blockbuster successes that have come from, for example Garageband availability. I don't think you could even count more than a handful – if that – Internet-based artists making a living from music."

The arctic monkeys are not "internet based" and they certainly are not giving away their music.

[sanswork]

Also from their wiki page(and sourced).

With a limited number of CDs available, fans began to rip the music back onto their computers and share it amongst themselves. The group did not mind, saying "we never made those demos to make money or anything. We were giving them away free anyway — that was a better way for people to hear them. And it made the gigs better, because people knew the words and came and sang along."

[sanswork]

The Arctic monkeys gave away their music in the form of the Myspace player. I think your view of success in music is very narrow indeed hence where our disagreement comes from. For you a band is only successful when it sells a lot of records. Well by that standard of course the removal of the record industry will make you think no band can be successful but thats not the only measure of success.

[hank777]

Yes. You are absolutely right. I view everything through the lens of economics. My view of success is making money. I don't think anyone has yet been able to make money without first selling records. That may come, but it has not yet.

[sanswork]

It's not even that because you can be economically successful as a band without selling a single record.

Plenty of bands make a decent wage just by touring lots. To say no one does implies that you think of the music industry as only the top 0.01% of megabands. Unless you're a megaband negotiating an awesome contact odds are you will make most of your money from touring not CDs.

[hank777]

"you can be economically successful as a band without selling a single record."

hmmm... good luck with that.