Last year, a publicist set up a Facebook fan page for me but I didn’t get involved in it myself initially. Until January 6th this year that is, when I decided to kick start it by becoming active updating the page.

Here’s the link: Frederik Magle Music

A Facebook Fan Page differs from a Myspace musician’s profile in several ways. Put simply, Facebook “fans” cannot be compared to myspace “friends”.

First of all, you cannot add “fans” in the same way you can add myspace friends (that can even be done in bulk). The Facebook users have to find and add your page by themselves as a conscious choice (You can, however, send out invitations to your existing facebook friends, but if you’re like me you’ll have much fewer facebook friends than myspace friends and most of them are “real life” friends, family, and acquaintances).

When people become a fan of you on facebook they display that on their profile and in their news feed. Hence becoming a fan of something on facebook is significant thing – a statement for all your real friends and family to see, whereas becoming a myspace friend doesn’t necessarily signify any particular “approval” or interest in the new “friend”.

To make a long story short, a myspace “friend” is not necessarily a fan or even someone remotely interested in your music, but a facebook “fan” is most likely a real fan or at least someone genuinely interested in you and/or your music.

To me that makes the Facebook fan page more relevant than a Myspace page as a way of getting the word out and connecting with online listeners, even with far fewer “fans” than myspace “friends”. I’m not abandoning Myspace, but I will focus the time I spend of “social networks” on the Facebook page from now on (though of course I will always spend the most time and give highest priority to my own website.)