The newest and most popular music may be the bet or the most innovative, or it could be the result of an alluring Internet persona. With the increased use of social networking sites as promotional tools for musicians, musicians who enjoy relative popularity on the Internet more and more may have their social networking skills to thank. As with many other aspects of pop culture, music is shaping and being shaped by the way social networking sites are used.
Gerry Green, a solo musician in Athens who performs under the name of Green Gerry uses both MySpace and Facebook for different purposes to promote his music. Whereas he uses MySpace to share his music, he primarily uses Facebook to invite people to his shows. For Green, Facebook event pages provide an easy and free way to advertise his shows. “I usually see people that were confirmed [on the event page] at the show,” said Green. “It doesn’t take much work and it’s an easy way to get people versus word of mouth.”
Although Facebook and MySpace are the most heavily used social networking sites for aspiring musicians, Twitter, Tumblr, and various other networking sites have become popular for self-promotion. Allison Weiss, a senior at the University of Georgia and a solo performer around Athens keeps multiple online profiles for her music and has attained relatively widespread Internet fame by using them to promote her performances. She has built a fan base not only by promoting her music, but by promoting herself as an interesting individual who accompanies the music. As a result, her Twitter account has over 2,000 followers and her Tumblr, a hybrid of a blog and Twitter account, is updated multiple times daily with digital concert flyers as well as accounts of her travels and musicians she has encountered.
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Sydney's style is not that dissimilar to my own, but there are noted difference. She takes a great many notes but only includes around 20% of them in a given story. She tends to build up from a general idea and what her interviews have given, rather than meticulously planning and forcing everything into a preconceived framework. She tries to remain flexible enough to allow the story to grow. Her lead wasn't finalized at the time of my edits, but she has a clear goal in mind with how she wants to handle her article.
ReplyDeleteSydney has a lot of things she can explore in her aticle. She has a few bands that haven't gotten back to her she may follow up with. I also discussed the possibility of approaching an agent or a manager with how these sites have affected their business. Do people feel they can to it themselves in the age of social networking? She brought up a rather interesting idea of tying the social networking "package" into the growing narcissism associated with the social networking world. Whatever route she decides to take, I'm sure she has the materials she needs.