Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Fan Culture: Do Musicians need anything more than the Internet?
Participatory media has become very important for musicians all over the world. Social networking sites on the internet allow artists to promote their music online to anyone across the globe. Musicians can put together trendy YouTube videos accompanied by their music that may attract thousands of hits and increase their popularity potentially leading to fame...or a person who likes the musician's song can put together their own video like the "Numa Numa" guy did. The song is actually called "Dragostea din tei" by O-Zone, and we all have danced to it at the bar before...guaranteed. If fans like what they see then a desire for something more develops and fans create their own adaptations of the song, which will increase it's popularity on the net. And fans will share with their friends...again increasing the artist's popularity. The ease of listening to new music online is much more accessible than going to a show or buying a CD. MySpace is a social networking site where artists can post songs, videos, and blogs about their music and upcoming concerts, and their popularity can soar depending on how many hits they attract. Networking plays an essential part in any musician's career, and I wonder if a Musician needs anything else other than the internet to promote themselves? Social networking on the Internet can lead to record label signings for musicians....I think it's definitely possible. The accessibility of music has increased drastically since the days before the Internet, and the way our technological society is moving now I wonder if fans will attend concerts by way of the internet rather than in person...rock on.!
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I totally agreed with you up until the Internet rock concert idea, I believe the atmosphere of a concert is the difference between live music and music listening in private. This idea of citizen media being the new wave for the music industry is exactly what I'm writing my essay on. YouTube has become a significant resource for those people that don't have the monetary resources to get a "demo tape" as the buzzword once was. The ability to link between myspace and YouTube and Facebook is changing the way the music industry is doing business, and I for one believe it is for the good of society. The big 4 record labels are finally not going to hold all the power!
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ReplyDeleteRight on...I'm doing my essay on fan culture and music as well. I agree that the atmosphere of a concert is unbelievable, I was just suggesting that people may decide to watch a concert from their computer chairs in the future. I would not, because I know how good concerts are, but with the over-consumption of devices and technological neccessities in our society today I would not be surprised if some people decided to stay home and watch online, rather than rocking their a**es off at a live show.I 100% agree with you on believing that social networking sites are for the good of society in terms of musicians. Without them, unsigned musicians would not be heard...who needs the big 4 anyways?
ReplyDeleteThe concept of myspace music and purevolume is a god-send for music, especially low budget indie music. The Internet is an amazing tool for musicians to quickly and easily export their sound to fan at a free cost.
ReplyDeleteSites like CBC radio3 is also highly recommend for people interested in less mainstream (Canadian) music, it definitely levels the playing field and allows less popular musicians to be noticed and recognized.
Also, it's interesting to note how radiohead used the Internet to distribute their last album "In Rainbows". Fans were allowed to download the album at their own price, some paid one cent, others paid thousands of dollars. Apparently distributing their music this way avoided giving funds to their record company and allowed the members of Radiohead to collect 100% of the money from sales, which they rightfully deserve.
Oh, and it produces less waste... ;)
I wrote a blog a few weeks ago that talked about the internet and music today; I argued the inverse, feeling like the overload of musicians over the internet has worked against the advancement of great music as it has overloaded the system with alot of poorly thought out music, ,aking it harder for people to navigate. I also feel like its harder for musicians to accomplish longevity with their careers as people are always looking for the next best thing.
ReplyDeleteOn the otherhand, I do agree that before the internet, major record labels were the gatekeepers of all popular music. Today, a group can find popularity playing music in their parents basement, that's a great freedom and accomplishment!