'We apologise for the inconvenience': How MySpace deleted everything uploaded to site between 2003 and 2015

Once the most popular website on the planet, MySpace saw its dawdling decline come crashing to a conclusion on Monday, after it admitted that 50 million songs from 14 million artists over 12 years had been wiped from its platform.

MySpace may have lost its battle with Facebook to be the world's most popular social network years ago – with Mark Zuckerberg's creation now holding a near-monopoly over its rivals – but MySpace had since pivoted to be a place for musicians to share and promote their work.

It helped launch a generation of performers, including Lily Allen and the Arctic Monkeys, but MySpace has now told its users that any music saved to its site between 2003 and 2015 would be impossible to recover.

Not only that, but any photos or videos were also lost in what it claimed was an accident.

"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," the company said in a statement. "We apologise for the inconvenience."

In recent years, even music has failed to revive MySpace's popularity, and the cost of storing the files inevitably led to suspicions that the loss of data may not have been entirely accidental.

"MySpace's admission of losing 12 years' worth of music uploads following a server migration is uncomfortable reading for anyone responsible for data," Barney Taylor, managing director of Cloud IT firm Ensono Europe, told The Independent.

"Migrating data from one server to another is always a nail-biting exercise. Even the simplest migration can run into hurdles and the consequences for the business can be severe, hampering customer experience, reputation and ultimately revenue."

Data migration is sometimes the only option, according to Mr Taylor, in order for a business to catch up with the rapid advancement of technology, though was unable to point to the exact reason for the migration.

It has led some to question MySpace's public narrative, with some suggesting the lost music is the result of trying to get rid of the cost of hosting the files.

"I'm deeply skeptical this was an accident," Andy Baio, the former chief technology officer of Kickstarter, tweeted. "Flagrant 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'."

MySpace did not respond to a request for comment from The Independent to give further details about how the music went missing.