Published
Mon, Mar 18, 2019, 09:25
- Over 50 million songs are gone.
A large chunk of the Myspace archive has been lost.
Reports have been circulating on Reddit, blogs and social media that 12 years worth of data uploaded between 2003 and 2015 is no longer accessible due to a "server migration project." At least 50 million songs were uploaded by 14 million artists over the period.
A grey bar at the top of Myspace's music pages reads, "As a result of a server migration project, any photos, videos and audio files you uploaded more than three years ago may no longer be available on or from Myspace. We apologize for the inconvenience and suggest that you retain your back up copies."
Myspace was the dominant social media platform in the late 2000s and became a de facto music hosting platform for many artists and labels. After being purchased by News Corporation and losing ground to emerging services like Facebook, its value and user base plummeted, leading to a joint purchase from Specific Media Group and Justin Timberlake in 2011. Another period of struggle lead to another sale to Time Inc. in 2016, which itself was acquired by Meredith Corporation last year.