My friend and a bunch of his friends have set up a site that is 100% independent and NZ and reliable, because they all have their own music on it so they of course want it to succeed.

[ http://www.emp3.co.nz/emp3.php ]

Um, I should say that I wrote those posts in a spirit of snarkiness more than anything more intelligent. :)

The bit about amplifier staff being dicks was sarcastic, following on from my praise for Murdoch - when compared to Murdoch it seemed funny to call someone else a dick. Someone else emailed me with the same question, though, so chalk this up as another far-too-obscure comment on the internet. :)

If I was writing in a more upfront fashion I would've said something like: This is nothing new. This kind of service has been available for a long time, in a variety of forms. I'd choose another option that left less of a bad taste in my mouth before I chose myspace.

As for my reasons, I don't really have anything intelligent to add to what's been said in that Dissensus thread about myspace. I'm disappointed at what I see is increasing consolidation of capital and control in the realms of new media. I don't think that will bring long-term benefits to "the little guy" anywhere.

As for better designed services, I thought Orkut was a better looking, more fully-featured social networking application and I think last.fm is a more focused, less 'How To Win Friends & Influence People' approach to punters finding music and artists promoting it. I'm pretty sure it has much better features in every respect than myspace, with the exception of this new turn of events. Regarding MP3 shops, I think emusic.com, beatport.com and bleep.com are some great businesses.

Fuckin A Michael , thats a great post.