Fans want to connect with musicians. Musicians want to connect with fans. Fans want to connect with other fans. How are they all connecting in 2009? Social platforms such as Twitter, Ustream, and Facebook allow artists to communicate and interact directly with their fans. Direct communication bridges the abyss dug by decades of record label domination.
Find the buzz.
Realtime buzz. Twitter makes it easy for fans to join in realtime conversations. By leveraging Twitter’s search operators, musicians are able to find their fans and contact them directly in realtime. Fans can also use the search to connect with other fans. Both musicians and fans are likely interested in other artists in the same genre. It is their music scene, and, from a bands perspective, it is their target market. Anyone in their music scene is a pretty likely potential fan to them.
Know your scene.
Even if you are new to a particular scene you can still easily discover similar artists as there are many applications that support this feature. Due to its wide use, last.fm is a one relatively accurate similarity indicator. The point here is that one can search conversations about multiple artists simultaneously, and focus on a specific niche or microgenre. By combining the search operators one can create extremely effective searches that target a specific scene in a specific location.
Search like this.
- “Happy Mondays” OR “Psychedelic Furs” OR “Psych Furs” near:SF within:100mi
- “Bombay Bicycle Club” OR “Maccabees” OR “Macabees” OR @bombaybicycle OR @themaccabees near:London within:100km
- Geocode variations: near:California near:”Los Angeles” near:LAX near:90210 near:Disneyland
Participate.
Finding the conversation is not enough. Participation is key. Genuine and honest participation. Musicians that can effectively use social platforms to build true relationships with their fans will deliver the most entertaining and valuable experience to them. What fan would not want to be able to contact their favorite bands as they come to their city? What band would not want to be in touch with their local fans? For touring musicians this local connection is invaluable. Twitter is your street team. Spark impromptu fan meet-ups and improvised gigs. Make true connections.
Happy Mondays in 2006. Photo by Stig Nygaard.
Happy Mondays are currently touring the U.S. with The Psychedelic Furs. The Maccabees and Bombay Bicycle Club are each on tour in the U.K.
