Myspace data loss: The reaction to former social media giant losing 12 years of content

One of the first online social networks has this month apologised to users, following a huge loss of data.

Myspace, founded in 2003, may have seen its popularity wane in recent times. However, seemingly much to the surprise of many, it’s still going and has recently been big news!

If you still are an avid Myspace fan, you may have been pretty annoyed on Monday March 18. After a server migration, it was confirmed that the site had suffered a severe data loss – 12 years’ worth of uploads, no less.

Myspace, a once popular platform for sharing new music, helped launch the careers of artists like Kate Nash, Lily Allen and the Arctic Monkeys.

At its height it was America’s most visited website, even ahead of the likes of Google! Now, it’s fallen behind the likes of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram when it comes to sharing media.

What has Myspace said?

So, a message on its website says that ‘any photos, videos, and audio files’ uploaded more than three years ago may no longer be available.

Yes, if you’ve uploaded something before 2015 there’s a good chance it’s no longer there.

The statement 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.

Myspace’s migration process resulted in huge data loss. Credit: Geralt/ Pixabay

“We apologise for the inconvenience and suggest that you retain your back up copies.”

The reaction

This means that around 50 million plus songs, uploaded between 2003-2015, are thought to have been lost. More than 15 million artists’ music has been lost, according to Sky News.

One Reddit user was not sympathetic. He wrote: “Why would anyone trust a free online social media platform to provide reliable backups? Totally your fault if you lost anything.”

Another said: “This should serve as a warning for anyone who thinks that anything they have on a cloud service is safe, it isn’t.”

Meanwhile the BBC shared the thoughts of Andy Baio, the man who helped build crowd-funding site Kickstarter.

Myspace accidentally lost all the music uploaded from its first 12 years in a server migration, losing over 50 million songs from 14 million artists. https://t.co/OyKB5Dxtw9

— Andy Baio (@waxpancake) March 18, 2019

MySpace has lost all content that was uploaded to the site before 2016.

Welp, that takes care of that problem I had being unable to log back into the account for my punk rock band from high school to delete all those embarrassing photos before anyone saw them.

😅

— Alana Mastrangelo (@ARmastrangelo) March 18, 2019

MySpace accidentally deletes everyone’s emo phase

— Pixelated Boat: The Junior Novelization (@pixelatedboat) March 18, 2019

so MySpace has lost all it's music, which means they have lost the weird and cringy songs I made in 2008, thank god let's pretend 2008 never happened

— Luke Stratford (@LukeStratford) March 18, 2019

He tweeted: “I’m deeply sceptical this was an accident. Fragrant 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’.”

Some people were just amused to see that Myspace was still a thing, let alone trending in 2019! And for some, who dreamt of being the next Fallout Boy, there was relief that their previous recordings will probably never see the light of day again!