Today’s music fan interacts with a “community” that is much larger than anyone could have imagined before the widespread personal use of the Internet. This social network is changing the way people market and sell music, and it’s doing it on a global scale.
That is how:
A fan hears a song and “tells” it to a dozen people online. Each one, in turn, sends the information (and sometimes the entire song file) to another dozen people, and so on. If the song’s hook is catchy and universal enough, the artist can reach thousands of fans in a matter of seconds. It’s fast, it’s easy, it’s free, and it’s global.
Does this viral communication generate any income for that artist (or songwriter, publisher, manager, agent, distributor, or record label)? No. But does it provide vital publicity that has the potential to sell singles, albums, concert tickets and merchandise? Absolutely.
The new marketing media:
This is a quantum shift in marketing. It offers the possibility of circumventing traditional distribution, while severely restricting the barely legal forms of radio “promotion” that many in the industry openly call payola or extortion of commercial stations.
All of this is made possible by an ever-increasing variety of forms of online communication, including music sites, web portals, blogs (weblogs), music forums, and more. A new site called MySpace.com has brought all these elements together in one place. And because of his vision, MySpace is becoming an information destination for bands, fans, filmmakers, writers, artists, recording industry professionals and more.
MySpace Nation: “Where do you live?” it used to be a question that was said out loud; now it is written. The answer to that question used to simply mean what part of town you were from, with an accompanying suggestion of your socioeconomic status and a hint as to which mall might be your regular hangout; now it refers not only to your city, but also to your state, region or country.
Your virtual “scene” can involve people from anywhere in the world. My virtual community starts in Los Angeles and extends to Moscow, Big Bear, Amsterdam, San Francisco, London, New York, Miami, and various places where I haven’t learned to spell correctly yet. In fact, thanks to social networks like MySpace, one can interact with various scenes. People who like my gothic songs overlap slightly with the rave-trance songs on my remix album, but aren’t interested in the music I create for TV and radio commercials (in fact, they may be quite dismissive of it). But each social network welcomes news of new music in its own favorite styles.
MySpace: the future is now
With two million members (and growing), MySpace.com offers a multi-layered entertainment opportunity that includes blogging, instant messaging, classified ads, peer-to-peer voting, special interest groups, user forums, and user-created content. Is popular? You can bet: they have stats showing the site gets 35 million impressions per day with an average of one hour online per visit. So far, all of MySpace’s services are free, and the site is completely backed by advertisers who are eager to reach exactly the young, web-savvy, and web-social music fans that MySpace.com attracts.
Created by Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson, MySpace already has a level of success that has surprised many industry viewers. While the main MySpace site steers to pure social networking, the section of the site called MySpace Music is a revolutionary way to reach its built-in web audience of two million network users, and has the potential to rapidly expand beyond that already impressive figure. As a means of launching unsigned and emerging recording artists, MySpace Music is a formidable tool.
Inside the minds of the creators of MySpace:
“MySpace Music is what MP3.com should have been, but never was,” Anderson said. “Very few people go to a website looking for bands they’ve never heard of. MySpace Music allows people to find music online the same way they discover music in person: through their friends. Millions of Friends come to MySpace to socialize, and through that process — word of mouth and referrals from friends — bands get exposure to new fans and fans to new music.”
DeWolfe continues: “The most exciting use of MySpace Music is the way it changes the band-to-fan dynamic. A band can get on MySpace and find potential fans across the country simply by sending an email and saying ‘Hello.’ gangs are developing a following and finding street crews online.”
Offering downloads, band websites, and the ability to connect directly with artists is just part of the appeal of MySpace Music. Each site visitor can also participate through user testimonials and ratings. Artists can also access a wide variety of music business contacts.
DeWolfe details:
G-Man: What is the history of MySpace?
Chris DeWolfe: We launched the MySpace umbrella site in September 2003. Our vision was to create a portal where our users could mobilize and connect around shared interests, whether it was music, TV, dating, nightlife, politics, religion or anything else. the rest.
G-Man: How does music fit into the MySpace network?
Chris DeWolfe: Almost from the day we launched, music became one of the main interests of MySpace users. We believe that most people listen to and try new music based on recommendations from their friends. The network effect of our site (friends telling friends) allows new trends and music to spread very quickly. At the same time, bands began flocking to MySpace as a mechanism to promote themselves, find new fans, book showcases, and even secure label deals.
G-Man: What are the sources of income from MySpace?
Chris DeWolfe: MySpace is currently supported by online advertising and sponsorship. We may add premium services later, but any services we currently offer for free will remain free. We’ve been lucky enough to get top tier advertisers like Sony Music, Interscope, Warner Music, Dreamworks, Napster and others. The promotion works for these types of advertisers because most of our users are trendy influencers ages 18-34 who love music and go to the movies often on the first weekend.
G-Man: What are the advantages for artists using MySpace?
Chris DeWolfe: Artists can sell their CDs on our site. The main use so far has been for bands to mobilize new fans that they normally would not have met. A band from Iowa can quickly develop a following in New York or Los Angeles. Additionally, bands use the site to book tours and fill venues. The MySpace social network is international. Because MySpace is an online network, it makes geographic boundaries less relevant.
G-Man: Can you compare the MySpace entity to other networking sites?
Chris DeWolfe: Most sites are strictly focused on business networking, classified ads, or dating. MySpace is a portal that uses a social networking infrastructure. MySpace includes games, blogs, music, classifieds, forums, mail, instant messaging, and user ratings. Our model has led to an incredibly sticky site where the average user spends over an hour per session on the site. We’ve also had more page views than our main competitor in each of the last three months.
MySpace is simply extending functionality around existing crowd behavior. Most, if not all, of those other sites didn’t or didn’t have that luxury: they relied on the behavior to build around the functionality. To put it another way, we’re not building it waiting for people to come. People are already on the site sharing information about the bands; the bands are already recruiting fans and local help; users are already clamoring to download music; they are already classifying and rating the music; they are already showing up at our parties to listen to the music they learned on MySpace. MySpace music works because two million people are already doing what we’re making it easy for them now.
G-Man: What areas of marketing are involved (or plan to be involved) with MySpace?
Chris DeWolfe: Two of our main marketing partners are Warped Tour and Rock The Vote. The Warped Tour, in particular, is a perfect fit for us. We are sponsoring the Uproar Stage and MySpace bands will be playing the Warped Tour venues. This partnership provides great exposure for MySpace Music and participating MySpace Music bands.
Rock the Vote is also a great partner, as it fits with our mission of enabling our users to mobilize around shared interests. MySpace users can register to vote directly from our home page. We will also be participating in several of his musical shows.
Growing MySpace Phenomenon:
Strategic partnerships are developing almost as fast as bands meet fans on the site. The Los Angeles Music Network (www.lamn.com) will contribute its membership base and marketing force in a partnership agreement with MySpace.
Uniting listeners, reaching across borders, and uniting musicians with fans and industry professionals, the nation of MySpace is a phenomenon. Since a passport is free, everyone in music marketing had better pay a visit. It’s at http://www.myspace.com. I see you there.
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