deadmau5’s Manager Dean Wilson Cautions Artists: The Myspace Collapse Is Happening Again

Dean Wilson, longtime manager of deadmau5, is cautioning artists that history is repeating itself. In a recent LinkedIn post, Wilson drew direct parallels between the Myspace collapse and the current landscape of platform dependence.

In the mid-2000s, Myspace was the beating heart of the online music world. For a brief but influential period, it gave independent artists an unprecedented platform to build global fanbases without label backing. Acts like Lily Allen, Arctic Monkeys, and Soulja Boy turned their Myspace profiles into DIY launchpads, bypassing traditional industry gatekeepers. But when Myspace lost focus—attempting to compete with Facebook and overhauling its design—it alienated its core users. By the time it pivoted back to music, streaming services had taken over, and Myspace was a digital graveyard.

The platform’s death spiral reached its nadir in 2019, when a botched server migration erased over 50 million songs, wiping out years of music history overnight. For many artists, this wasn’t just a technical failure—it was the disappearance of their entire early catalog.

As TikTok faces mounting regulatory scrutiny and potential bans, Wilson cautions that artists relying on a single platform to build their careers are walking the same precarious path.

“Platforms come and go,” Wilson wrote. “If you don’t own your audience, you’re at the mercy of forces beyond your control.” His point is clear: artists who fail to establish direct-to-fan relationships are putting their careers in the hands of algorithms and corporate decision-making.

The Algorithm Trap

Today’s music industry is more platform-dependent than ever. TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts dictate visibility through proprietary algorithms, often with opaque and constantly shifting rules. An artist whose success hinges on trending soundbites or viral challenges is effectively renting their audience from the platform, with no guarantee of long-term sustainability.

Wilson’s warning echoes a growing sentiment among industry veterans: artists need to diversify their fan engagement strategies. This means building direct mailing lists, fostering community through platforms like Patreon or Discord, and leveraging Bandcamp or direct-to-fan storefronts for sales.

No Platform Is Too Big to Fail

The Myspace collapse is no longer just a cautionary tale—it is a living blueprint for how quickly platforms can become irrelevant. Wilson’s message is a clear call to action: artists who remain tethered to a single platform risk seeing their careers vanish with the next failed pivot or policy shift.

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