In the world of colossal technology and corporate mistakes: Myspace lost all the media uploaded to its website prior to 2015. That’s 12 years of photos, videos, and music that have simply ceased to exist, due to technological error.
The company made a statement earlier this week detailing the loss of over 50 million songs by 14 million different artists, blaming the error (or deletion) of the work as an issue that occurred during data migration to new servers. If you’ve seen Silicon Valley, this may seem like a similar plot line. Whoops!
The error was realized as slowly but surely artists and bands attempted to download their music from the past and were unable to regain access to their work. As there was no corporate backup performed by Myspace, the files that are lost have been deleted for forever. That is, of course, unless artists had a backup of their work.
While now referred to as the social media platform replaced by Facebook, Myspace was once the largest platform for self expression, personal outlet, and yes, a music streaming service.
As many may also remember: Myspace served as a musical platform for several years, serving as a base for the rise to fame for many internationally acclaimed artists, including Lily Allen, Kate Nash, and the Arctic Monkeys.
While the giant loss of music is unfortunate and negligent, Myspace never promised to be an end all be all database of all media in the 2000s. If anything, let Myspace’s error be a lesson to all and emphasize the importance of backups and safekeeping of all things digital in the current era.
