How to Change Your Band’s MySpace URL with MySpace Email
MySpace finally created a way to change your band ’s MySpace URL — I just did it today.
Changing Band Names
Several years ago, I decided to make my ‘band’ name “DreamSpin”, and created a MySpace band profile with that name, as well the accompanying MySpace band URL www.myspace.com/DreamSpin. Later on, I decided to go with the band name ‘GarageSpin’ instead to match my blog name, after already having built up a friend network, a comment history, and song play history. Unfortunately, MySpace didn’t provide a way to change URLs, annoying a lot of bands and musicians in my situation…until recently.
Change MySpace URL for Your Band
NOTE: MySpace changes certain processes from time to time. It worked for me today (October 11, 2009), but if you’re read this in the future, I’d strongly recommend testing this process with two dummy account URLs to make sure the steps still work, and no unnecessary account-erasing takes place.
1. Make sure the band MySpace URL you want is available. Hopefully, no one’s claimed the URL. Or, maybe you reserved it yourself by creating an account with the new name. (I had snatched up www.myspace.com/GarageSpin just in case…not that I could imagine anyone else wanting that particular MySpace URL.)
2. Delete your “reserved” band MySpace URL, if you had reserved it at some point. If you own the new MySpace URL, and want to swap your old MySpace account to it, you’ll need to delete the new one first to make it “available”.
For example, in my case, I owned both www.myspace.com/DreamSpin, my active account, and www. myspace.com/GarageSpin, the one I reserved. I had used the DreamSpin account for years, but wanted to transfer all the account’s friends, comments, and plays to the new MySpace URL. So, I deleted the GarageSpin account.
To delete the “new” and “unused” account, go to “My Account” in the navigation bar, click on the “Account” link, and click on the “Cancel Account” link on that page. To emphasize, DO NOT DELETE YOUR MYSPACE URL ACCOUNT WITH COMMENTS, PLAYS, AND FRIENDS!
3. Set up an @MySpace.com email account to change your band’s MySpace URL. MySpace launched MySpace Mail in July of this year, giving bands the ability to have the email address BANDNAME@MySpace.com, which is cool. Even cooler, however, is that while creating the email address, bands simultaneously confirm or edit their URL using the same “BANDNAME”. In so doing, bands are given the chance to change their URL for the first time in a while. The new functionality created a new way for musicians to change their band’s MySpace URL. But, IT CAN ONLY BE DONE ONCE. So make sure you get it right.
To create your MySpace Mail address, click on “Inbox” in the navigation bar, then look for a link in the top right corner that says something like, “Create your @MySpace .com email address with MySpace Mail!” You will then be asked to enter a sequence of characters (probably your band’s name) that will become both your MySpace URL AND your email address. For me, they became “GARAGESPIN@myspace.com” and “www.myspace.com/GARAGESPIN”.
NOTE: When I did it, the process was a little wacky. I typed “garagespin” into the email address field, and MySpace told me, “Sorry, this MySpace URL and email address is not available.” I thought that was odd, since I’d recently deleted that very account. Then I noticed that MySpace presented four alternative MySpace URLs that were available…and “garagespin” was listed as one of them. I selected it, and now the message “available!” appeared. Weird. But at least it worked!
4. Finished! Your account now permanently has the new band MySpace URL. In addition, MySpace kindly redirects the old URL to the new one automatically. However, anyone can claim the old URL (I tested it, and yup, the old URL is up for grabs), so, I would recommend creating a new MySpace account using that old MySpace URL, and simply entering some redirection instructions in the “About Me” section of the page to your new band URL, in case anyone comes looking for you.
Good luck.
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I signed up for the new account I wanted, deleted it, now it is unavailable for change through the myspace email change. Note that they say they'll take 48 hrs. to process a cancellation request. I could have just checked for availability when signing up for the email. Now I have to wait. : (
Not sure, great question… When I first created mine, it said it was a permanent address, so I'm guessing not, at this point, unfortunately.
Accidently starting listening to the songs (on the right) after reading this post, and i must say i came back to listen to this music again! Sounds good!
So I deleted the Myspace page that I wanted to move the more "friend heavy" account into. When I go to the deleted page it tells me it's no longer there. Great!
However, when I try the above method or transplanting into the old name, it says that the name is already taken. I've waited a day and it's still doing it. What should I do??
Hector — Hey, thanks for checking out the song, and for the compliment! You can actually download the mp3 for free if you like…. :)
-Mike
Ryan: The same thing happened to me — did you see my "Note" in italics under step #3? I did the same thing…deleted the 'future' account, then when to the 'old' account, and tried to switch it, but MySpace said it wasn't available. HOWEVER, when I looked at the "suggested alternatives" MySpace presented, one of the choices was the exact URL I was trying to switch to!
Give that a shot, and see if it works… If it doesn't, hopefully it's just a delay in MySpace's URL clearing process. Good luck!
-Mike
Hey GarageSpin–
I did see that…unfortunately for me, Myspace is not giving me that as a suggestion. I have waited a couple days and continue to refresh but it has not worked. Ah well…I guess it's time to chose a new name. Thanks anyways.
That's really odd. What name did you try to use? I'm sorry the steps above didn't work for you, that's pretty frustrating.
Hi GarageSpin,
I also tried, and waited a week after canceling the first account. Do you think myspace got rid of this function? Is there any other way around it? Another band and I would like to trade URLs without trading accounts.
Thanks,
Patrick
Hi Patrick — that's really strange, I'm sorry it's not working for you. I currently know no other way of changing URLs….
If anyone else tries this, and it works, please let us all know, so we at least know the function is available!
So the function to create a myspace email doesn't even exist for me, it already made on automatically. Pretty bummed about that.
A quick update — there's been some question above as to whether the steps I outlined above still worked — apparently, it does. Ian, a musician, got it to work on March 17th, 2010. Here's his note:
"hey,
first of all thank you so much for the immediate response because i had all the tabs up in front of me just waiting to make the switch in anticipation. but every went smoothly. the old url transfers right to the new one. the new url works right away. AND most importantly, it kept all my stats such as profile views and total plays. much appreciated for your help. i will definitely make sure to recommend your website to anyone who needs help.
ian"
It's odd that it's not working for everyone…hopefully, those folks'll find a way to overcome any obstacles. If only MySpace we're a little more user friendly… :)
-Mike
Awesome, thanks for sharing, Freeshoxnz! It seems to be working for most artists, which is a good thing. :)
fuckin yes thank you