Here’s a funny twist on responding to the limitations of MySpace (a topic which seems to be popping up a lot lately, including this piece in the Atlantic Monthly, my last blog post, and a piece in yesterday’s New York Times). No sooner do I argue that a band’s MySpace site should lead back to their own domain, than my friend Slivka points out that Swedish indie crooner Jens Lekman has taken this more than one step further by recreating his MySpace site on his own domain.

One subpage of his main website is a direct rip of his MySpace site. The two pages look nearly identical, except for that on the jenslekman.com one it says:

MySpace was never the way I wanted to communicate with you. So I’ve kidnapped the HTML code to my own domain and all the links here will lead you out of the labyrinth. I hope you enjoy a breath of fresh air as much as I do.

Much Love

// Jens

Very clever, I gotta say, and I am right behind him for seeking a means of communicating with fans outside the corporate garden. Although what good this particular strategy does beyond a joke that makes a statement I’m not sure, especially since the MySpace site does not contain any message to the effect that MySpace isn’t how he wants to communicate with his fans. But a joke that makes a statement isn’t such a bad thing.

I saw Lekman on tour about a year ago, and toward the end of the night he stepped away from the microphone and sang a couple of songs in front of it. And then in the encore he just walked out into the bar and found a spot he liked and sang his heart out at the top of his lungs. I’m not moved by his music, but it was neat to see someone who just wanted to sing for the people who love him. So given that, I’m not surprised to see him eschewing Murdoch Mediation.

Update: A lot of people land here because they searched “make your own myspace.” I feel kind of bad about that cuz you’re not going to find much help here. Maybe this site is more like what you were looking for.