Five Minnesota Bands or Artists With Some Web 2.0 Savvy
The onset of the digital age has brought about profound changes in the ways people interact and do business in the music industry. As listeners increasingly flock to digital downloads and file sharing so too increases the volume of available music for consumers. This has left many artists and PR people scratching their heads and wondering just how, exactly, one can blast through the clutter and social barriers to get their music into the ears of those who are hungry to cram their mp3 players full of new music.
There are many examples out there of artists and bands who are effectively leveraging the Web 2.0 environment, but the reality is that they all do some things better than others, and no individual or band may boast of getting it all right. The reason – there is simply no Web 2.0 rosetta stone that can solve every social media problem (or otherwise). Successfully driving music forward in the digital age requires a lot of savvy, diversifying usage of online tools, and a ton of work. (And I mean a ton of work!)
The following are five Minnesota bands or artists that I think are doing something right. However, while I think all these bands and artists are accomplished and worthy of your attention, this is not a best of list. In fact, closer inspection may reveal that while these folks are doing some things right, they’re also doing some things wrong (everyone is!), but what they do right, they do extraordinarily so!
Ed Ackerson and Susstones
Ed Ackerson is the foundation of the local Twin Cities record label Susstones, and has for years now been a strong contributor to the local music scene. While the founding of Susstones post-dated Napster’s file sharing boom of the early 2000s, it pre-dated the Web 2.0 boom of the music industry that began with social networking sites such as Myspace, and continued with the proliferation of music bloggers. How did Ackerson and Susstones respond to movements and trends in Web 2.0?
They took their music directly to the makers of user-generated content (UGC), and even adopted a UGC blog platform for the Susstones site, WordPress! (Talk about greeting people with the familiar, eh?) What Ackerson does right is that he makes the music easily accessible to those who want it (via Susstones) and taps into those who can help get the music to online communities. When a new Susstones record is released, press people, music bloggers, and social media socialites can expect to get the information they need about it, and crucial to Ackerson’s success is that he seems to have a knack for not ignoring the little guy (that’s me). As the old saying goes, “you gotta give a little, to get a little,” and Ackerson tends to give a lot.
Link – Susstones
Social media is perhaps the greatest expression of widespread exhibitionism that our society has ever witnessed. Yet exhibitionism is not on the whole good. Being a good exhibitionist is a delicate task, and in the social media environment, one false move can mean image suicide. Remember that low resolution video you saw on Youtube of that band backstage acting silly, maybe even lighting their farts or playing frat party drinking games? Did you cringe and have your hairs stand on end? I know how you feel.
Ari Herstand has perfected the art of online video exhibitionism through his very own Ari TV. Herstand releases these videos incrementally, documenting the adventures of his touring and local gigs. The videos are self-made, but the resolution and sound quality are always stellar (relatively speaking), the splicing well calculated, and the commentary worth listening to despite Herstand’s self-deprecating tag line “Ari TV, A Waste of Your Life and Mine.” What Herstand does right is the creation of great video journals. Bad exhibitionism isn’t present in the Ari TV episodes, and as a bonus, one can always expect a bit of live concert footage!
Link – Ari TV
Just like a job interview, a band or artist only has one chance to make a good first impression to a website visitor. Nowadays every person who creates music has a Myspace page – but 99% of those have a crappy Myspace page. The unfortunate thing about this is that for many of these bands and artists, this is their only cyber-home and the only place people can go to stream their music and find unique information. The analogy here is that listeners are potential employers, employers of music! Myspace pages and websites should be decked out in a proverbial shirt and tie.
Local rock band Pictures of Then have one of the best Myspace pages I have ever visited. The site is clean, well-organized, and less all those darn overwhelming bells and whistles that detract from a site experience. The only thing that irks me more than a drab Myspace page is a Myspace page with way too much clutter. When people can’t read the text because it blends in with the background, they get irked. When a page takes way too much time to load because of the 50 million image files on it, people get annoyed. When all sorts of things start blinking and moving around on the page, inducing temporary hypnosis in the visitor – don’t expect them to ever return. What Pictures of Then does right is they use colors and textures that are easy on the eyes, they keep everything organized in a way that is true to the original Myspace format (and hence, familiar to visitors), and they have a theme that is unique to the band and unique to their record. They do all sorts of other things right on their Myspace page as well. Can you identify them?
Link – Pictures of Then’s Myspace Page
In the Web 2.0 environment “content is king.” In the past a band or artist could have an interview or article placed in a national magazine or periodical and expect that press to have legs for at least a month. But today, any piece of online content is lucky to have even one week of ideal visibility, leaving many scrambling to develop creative ways of constantly producing content that will keep their name or brand out there in front of everyone’s eyes. Jeremy Messersmith stands out as an artist who has consistently produced great online content for both his listeners and potential listeners.
While we don’t always broadcast every bit of content that Messersmith produces, a breeze through the Borangutan archives reveals the diversity in Messersmith’s content approach. What Messersmith does right is he diversifies his content creatively, and then works hard to put something out there on a regular basis. Some of his content approaches include music videos, the submission of songs for distributable online mix tapes, the creation of fun and viral DIY videos, and free mp3 give-aways. The diversity of Messersmith’s content offerings speak volumes about his commitment to being a whole artist, and it’s worth mentioning that the quality of his content is all in true form – “content is king.”
Link – jeremymessersmith.com – lots of good stuff there.
Back in the day, many of the artists and bands we loved were untouchable people surrounded by body guards and shielded by publicists and managers. If one tried to send them a letter in the mail, one might have expected to receive a fan photo in return, signed “To Heather, all the best” by a person from the artist’s camp, but most likely not by the artist herself. Now things have changed, and not only have social networking sites allowed everyone access to these once untouchables, but in many ways artist’s careers now depend upon their ability to effectively interact with their fans! Ignore your fans on Myspace and Facebook, and expect them to ignore you back.
Sick of Sarah have mastered the art of organizing their fan community online. This band regularly communicates with their fans via Myspace blogs and newsletters and have put together a more or less organized national street team to help them out when on tour. All members are also active Facebook interactors. Over time a fan group has grown around the band called Sick of Sarah Fans, and this group has both a Myspace page and website. Sick of Sarah caters regularly to this fan group and one can only imagine the incentives offered them behind the scenes. Recently Sick of Sarah announced an online social network campaign for their fans, offering free admission to concerts around the United States in return for regular plugs from fans via Myspace, Facebook, or Twitter. What Sick of Sarah does right is that they identify who their fans and potential listeners are online, create places for them to get involved with the band, and then cultivate relationships with them through those channels. They embrace the power of online communities.
Link – Sick of Sarah Fans and Sick of Sarah on Myspace
posted March 12th, 2010 at 9:02 am MN Rock
Pictures of then not only has a great myspace page, but great music too