Hundreds of thousands of longtime social media users were left in grief over the weekend after it was revealed that Myspace — the once dominating social media platform — confirmed all music posted to its site prior to 2015 has been lost.
While the site quietly issued an alarming statement last July, the revelation that millions of files can never be recovered only began to circulate to the masses on Sunday.
Although the statement issued at the top of the Myspace’s music player page has since been deleted, it read:
“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.
Since Myspace’s inception in 2003, nearly 50 million songs, published by more than 14 million musicians, were once available for users’ listening pleasure. Now, they’re unobtainable, according to Rolling Stone.
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Initially, a number of users took to Reddit to express their concern in early 2018 after they experienced “issues” trying to access some of the digital relics from the dwindling social media platform.
Once Myspace’s statement went public, users — some of whom never decided to backup the songs themselves — were furious to discover their original MP3 files were never backed up.
A number of e-mails from official representatives responding to Myspace users confirmed the loss once again after they circulated on Twitter last week.
“Due to a server migration, files were corrupted and unable to be transferred over to our updated site,” they wrote. “There is no way to recover the lost data.”
This prompted another wave of controversy.
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A viral tweet shared by tech expert Andy Baio pointed the finger at the Tom Anderson/Chris DeWolfe-founded company.
“I’m deeply skeptical this was an accident,” he wrote. “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.'”
With its music player, Myspace managed to launch the careers of some of the biggest names in music in its prime — especially in the U.K.
From the Arctic Monkeys to Calvin Harris, or Panic! At the Disco to Sean Kingston, Myspace seemingly did a lot for the direction of music in the noughties.
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Whether they joined around the time of its launch in 2003 or sometime in 2009 to share their own pop punk or emo creations, a large amount of Myspace users were left in shock.
They took to social media to express sorrow in the wake of the mass-deletion.
Some claimed to be more emotionally affected after losing some important memories.
“My son recorded a song when he was 7-years-old,” wrote one Reddit user, “and his guitar instructor uploaded it to his Myspace page.”
“My son died two years ago at the age of 20,” he continued. “I would do anything to be able to hear that again.”
Others remained positive after learning their music may never see the light of day again.
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In its closing remarks, Myspace’s statement asked users to reach out to a sole employee.
“If you would like more information,” they wrote, “please contact our Data Protection Officer, Dr. Jana Jentzsch at DPO@myspace.com.”
As of this writing, no official Myspace representative has addressed the renewed backlash.
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