Publicity over Performance

A new age has emerged in the last decade that has bands and businesses alike scrapping for popularity in what some are calling “the Like Economy”.

The Like Economy is the concept of measuring and marketing a product or space through the perspective of its ability to generate positive feedback and to be shared (through various social media platforms) by the consumer.

Has this latest shift made the music industry more accessible? Or could this generated popularity be a mere fascade of support for artists and their work?

 

Publicists Capatalise During Web Evolution

 

Professional Social Promotion, Rowan Casey offers a service to increase the social awareness and publicity of any artist; a job that wouldn’t have existed 10 years ago.

“Record companies and concert promoters often look at the amount of likes and followers a band has on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to gauge how much of a following they have, and even fans will look at those numbers and be influenced as well.”

- Rowan Casey

Casey Talks about the importance of having likes on a facebook page.

He states that a band may not even show up after a search if it doesn’t “look important” in the eyes of the Facebook engine.

 

(Pictured above: Social media promoter Rowan Casey is just one publicist that has his web social services on offer, for any band willing to pay for them.)

”I can get you 250 likes on your band or company Facebook page for ten dollars, or 1,000 for thirty five, 2,000 for sixty, and perhaps up to 5,000 likes for a hundred and twenty.” – Casey.

These likes Casey refers to are from random contacts who like your page in return for likes of their own.

One can only assume that Casey has developed a significant network of “likers” who are at his disposal.

A completely bizarre sounding concept, but as he points out “having a large following on social media could [even] make the difference between being signed to a major label or not.”

Trusting Rowan Casey and his ability to gain likes on your Facebook page would be something that you would treat with caution, where there is money there is sometimes a degree of dishonesty.

 

Liking: An Old Tradition

 

“The marketing field has long been obsessed with likeability, but Facebook may be inadvertently revealing how shallow our liking goes” - Robert W. Gehl

 

 

 

(Pictured: Artwork, Allegoria della Giustizia. Indicating (in my mind) the balance between likes and ethics, destined to tip in favor of like)

 

In Robert W. Gehl’s article A History of Like which featured in The New Enquiry he discusses the origins of ‘like’ making us realise that the like economy may not be as fresh a concept as some may believe.

Liking turns out to be the most universally acceptable way of getting people to engage in the web in a positive (possible more indicative) way, and perhaps to keep it angled towards a larger audience willing to engage in a ‘like’ button.

Facebook had apparently been considering an ‘awesome’ button instead of the ‘like’ but decided that ‘like’ had more universal appeal.

“We could have been talking now about an ‘economy of awesomes’ and we would sound more like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles than Valley Girls” - Gehl

He indicates that Facebook may have revealed too much of their advertising techniques and tools of emotional capitalism, “Keep liking, keep buying”.

By not having an option to ‘dislike’ Gehl believes the dislikers themselves will be ready to work hard for their outlets by simply bot being lulled into ‘slackivism’ or ‘clickivism’.

Perhaps this is the way out for musicians as well, a fight against likeability by working hard to find alternate routes which don’t require as much publicity.

(Click here to have a read of this very interesting background by Gehl on liking and the obsessions of advertising.)

 

The Like Economy

 

Anne Helmond and Caroline Gerlitz are two social media experts who explore the recent shift from the ‘hit’ and ‘link’ online economy to the now frenzied ‘like’ economy in their presentation, Social Media: Design or Decline.

Helmond and Gerlitz talk about the “like” button being the new value determination mechanism, with Facebook now having their integrated “Like” button on most websites.

“Webmasters are now able to integrate Facebook features (for instance, the “Like” button) onto their own web sites. The production, distribution and consumption of online content, thus, transform into a social activity as well as a value producing activity. The Like Economy is born.” – Caroline Gerlitz

(Helmond and Gerlitz speak of the ‘Like’ Economy and the growing ‘invisible’ fabric of the web in this presentation.)  

This article was the source of my interest in the world of ‘liking’ and what it means to us all individually not just as a musician.

What we learn from these sources is ‘like’ it or not the internet has welcomed the ‘like’ economy with open arms and we are the ones who have to master its uses and loop holes.

Our liking is shallow as Gehl suggests, advertising is taking over as Casey suggests and we are definitely in a new ‘like’ economy as Helmond and Gerlitz suggest.

Advertising is driving this ‘like’ economy and the perhaps the best (and only) thing to do is to be aware of it, and the shallowness it brings.

 

 

 

 

Palm in the Face

(Pictured above: a poster that a management company made which was described to us as a showcase with Sony BMG..... but relax; it wasn't)

Hello hello :)

I am back with another (post-gig) blog. My band The Winters and I had a gig on the Sunday just gone and in short it was a total fallacy, a crime, a washout, a vacant lot, an ill-made money maker or maybe just a waste of time and effort.

The man who had ‘organised’ this gig didn’t show until our first song started, he sat hunched in the camping chair with his dog awkwardly hunched in his lap like a bad omen. And it really was.

He stayed for three of our songs and later sent us a text explaining that due to some personal events taking place at his home he had had to make a quick getaway. But apparently he had loved the show and wanted to organise another meeting of which we have already had over a dozen.

  

 

 

(Pictured: the actual event, which was less flattering than this rather mediocre photo indicates.)

 

As a result of this awful gig and the angst I felt in the aftermath I decided to look further into the individual efforts I could be making which may in turn result in avoiding these terrible gigs.

I have been reading some interesting articles on how the work rate of a musician has changed in recent times, with much more effort surrounding social media and the hype that is conjured to create a fan base and ultimately attract enough attention that even record labels want a bit of what you have got going on. This is the new stage that musicians are playing on; and every little thing counts.

Brenna Ehrlich is an editor of an online music and entertainment site called Media & Amp and has some great tips which she shares in her article 10 Best Practices for Bands on Facebook. http://mashable.com/2011/07/11/bands-facebook/.

This is full of great ideas for emerging bands, giving us all lots of good ideas on how to create Hype. Making events exciting, Networking and posting about different bands with a ‘you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’ mentality. There are plenty of ideas and she clearly has an idea of where things are headed in the music industry. Music alone isn’t enough.

I also watched an interview with alternative rock outfit Mutemath’s lead singer Paul Meany  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMqAmlyGjX8 in which he talks about the role of a musician being more of a real job in the current climate. He talks about hustling online to create a buzz and to keep people interested in Mutemath and their music.

This is an established band, who have had tour regularly and have a huge following internationally, and yet they still have to keep their finger on the pulse of online networking to stay afloat.

 

Until next time :) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Melbourne's local music.

I have been playing music in melbourne for a few years now and the scene really isn't as grand as people tell me. Maybe when you are standing in the eye of a musician's social scene it is hard to see how big or small it actually is.

Nevertheless, the good times have been laced threefold with bad ones. Getting gear to a venue, lending and borrowing at the cost of friendships and reputations and of course making around $40-50 per show between 5 band members. It is something we do for the love of it, without passion the difficulty and competitive nature of it would make it a tiring experience indeed.

We were recently approached after a gig in St Kilda by a man who claimed he was something of an artist developer, who saw potential in the set which we had played earlier that night. He called us in for a meeting the following day and told us we had marketability but our songs were a bit too out there for the Australian radio stations. 'They are looking for chips and gravy, not seafood platters and colourful sides' he repeated several times.

This is a constant issue for musicians. They are reminded often of the need to sell their music not just create it. And to sell it you need to know whether or not people actually like it. In my opinion you can find a nice medium where you let a little go and take on some 'commercial' appeal for the sake of a career opportunity.

It is an interesting idea which I have heard many different opinions on and would love to hear more if you would like to add your comments :)

I also found this article pretty interesting, perhaps a tad bleak:

http://www.pedestrian.tv/features/music/australian-commerical-radio-we-dont-want-to-play-a/57728.htm

Dress to impress or just don't....

Clothing is a means to enhance or aid us in the projection of our identity into the public eye. 

The catch with this idea is that we judge new and different things very harshly until it is either forgotten or it has become a new trend. 

In these series of blogs I will be following a student and his journey through the world of happiness, university and social pressures, leading each time back to the impact of fashion on these areas.