September 4th, 2009
D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Play)
MySpace disabled its autoplay feature last month to cut monthly costs by at least $10 million, resulting in a 32% drop in total plays the very next day, according to Next Big Sound data. In fact, the site’s monthly average for plays decreased 38% from July.
Though the goal may be to shrink expenses at MySpace, disabling auto-play has allowed us to paint a more accurate picture of an artist’s online activity for professionals in the music industry. The number of streams MySpace reports is no longer inflated by auto-play and is more directly impacted by true fans listening to their favorite songs.
Moreover, online streaming services at other sites now play a more significant role (read: A Band’s Guide to Surviving Online). Last.fm’s fraction of control in the online streaming world increased from 26% in July to 36% in August according to our data.
As we continue to add more services, it will be interesting to see what role MySpace plays in the online streaming world. For now, I’m glad I don’t have to press pause every time I visit a MySpace profile page. This is death of auto-play, moment of silence.