Why it matters: Before Facebook, the social network scene was dominated by one name: MySpace. It's long been popular with musicians, especially in recent years, though that may no longer be the case after the site admitted to losing all music uploaded between 2003 and 2015.
The company says the massive loss of data was the result of a server migration. MySpace wrote on its website that "any photos, videos and audio files" uploaded more than three years ago may no longer be available. It apologized "for the inconvenience."
The announcement follows months of complaints from users who found issues when trying to access music uploaded between 2003 and 2015.
Many people are questioning whether this really was an accident on MySpace's part or if it was simply a way of saving time and money by not migrating over 50 million songs from 14 million artists, along with all the photos and videos.
I'm deeply skeptical this was an accident. Flagrant incompetence may be bad PR, but it still sounds better than "we can't be bothered with the effort and cost of migrating and hosting 50 million old MP3s."
--- Andy Baio (@waxpancake) March 18, 2019
The company was acquired by Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp for $580 million in 2005, but six years later, following the stratospheric rise of Facebook, it was sold for just $35 million. While it has tried to go back to its roots with a renewed focus on music, the news is likely to paint it in a negative light---even if it was an accident.
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