Music Fans and the Internet Converge
Saturday, November 19th, 2011Just about all established music artists maintain internet sites or their record company does it for them. Some use them as a private connection for fans, by providing continual blog entries. It is a tool to sell 1 or 2 CDs from past years, announce show dates and supply some connection for the fans.
There are hardcore fan sites, particularly for vet bands like the Rolling Stones and Aerosmith, who’ve assembled 25 or 30 years worth of fans. True also for musicians who’ve been gone for an extended period of time, you will find many sites for Elvis and others for groundbreaking rockers like Eddie Cochran and Chum Holly.
The most important online phenomenon in the business has been the rise of MySpace and, to a smaller extent, other networking sites like Pandora and Pure Volume. For some bands, MySpace has supplanted the necessity for an individual internet site. By the end of 2005 more than six hundred thousand bands were using MySpace to upload songs and videos, announce shows, promote albums and engage with fans. MySpace has acted on the extraordinary wedding of music, listeners and their site by beginning a record label. Established acts like 9 In.
Nails and Madonna, Wheezer and Depeche Mode have previewed albums and videos on the site, before releasing them. MySpace Music is a prime convergence point for bands and fans. The lead frontman for Dashboard Confessional believes that MySpace is what drove the band’s success, leading to their record contract. What sets MySpace and similar sites like Pure Volume aside from the online presence of established music powers like MTV.com and Rollingstone.com is the inclusiveness implicit in a social network website. All artists are welcome on MySpace, from Christian rockers to death metal thrashers. Also critical is the format : everything on the site is connected to something else. Keep clicking and you are sent to more profiles and search results. Jonathan Buck, guitar player and lead frontman of the group asserts his band’s profile on MySpace has drawn just about three hundred thousand visitors. With that network ready Coppermine doesn’t have to dedicate time and cash to flooding radio stations with CDs or plastering concert posters in town. Record labels understand the Web is the most useful promotional and communications device out there. Radio is more constricted, formats are less and the consolidation in the radio industry has reduced airplay to safe, established acts. When’s the last time you saw a video on MTV, or at a minimum a total one? The Web and its social networking websites became the source of choice for both music and music videos for millions of fans.
Source: One Direction