MySpace possibly lost pretty much everything uploaded before 2015
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
MySpace's devastating revelation might actually be a blessing in disguise.
On Monday, the once-popular social media platform nonchalantly dropped some big news: "Any photos, videos and audio files" uploaded before 2015 may be gone for good. The loss happened because of a "server migration project," MySpace said in a statement, but reports suggest it may not have been an accident.
After its conception in 2003, MySpace became the web's premiere social media site until Facebook started taking over. It is — or was — home to about 50 million songs and helped launch careers for a slew of now-big-name artists, Kickstarter technologist Andy Baio estimated in a tweet. He also had another guess for just what happened to them all:
Article continues belowThe Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
MySpace may have been relatively inactive, but fans still noticed when links to previously uploaded music stopped working last year, BBC says. MySpace finally started publicly acknowledging that those links were gone, likely forever, within the last few days. The site also served as a storage spot for years' worth of photos and videos — though judging by its largely high school-aged fanbase, the memory wipe might be for the best.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
