Fans searching for new music is a totally different subject!

The reputation management is a very good point that everyone ought to read and consider. In the music biz there are two things that matter more than anything. Those are your reputation and the relationships you create along the journey.

Being polarized by opposing ideas or ideals on the subject of music is just counterintuitive to me. I do believe that large corporations and conglomerates want this business to be polarized. The thing none of us consider very often is we are talking about music, which comes from very deep emotional parts of many, many people.

I’ve worked with indies my entire career. The first project I ever worked on in 1984 was the most obscure indie label release you can imagine, but it was a concept (vinyl) album, that had legs and had a long shelf life. Some of the biggest mavericks in the biz are really good friends. They are David to the industry’s Goliath.

Hopefully I’ve cleared the air a bit, so you understand I am not a corporate junkie, actually pretty level headed when it comes to all this stuff. The late Daniel Patrick Moynihan is noted for saying “we are all entitled to our own opinions, but not our own facts.” Finding those facts is a mad scramble that did not used to exist in this business. More than anything we need leadership, and organizational infrastructure that does not become impounded by creative control.

Thanks for your reply to me. I appreciate it.
Janet Hansen
Scout66.com

I would argue that offering a free download is excellent use of Twitter and garnering new followers, as is announcing tour dates [obviously within a certain timescale.] I have to disagree with your idea of the music ‘biz’ as I think that is behind us now, especially with the advent of the Social Web. Facebook is part of the social web and I suggest that bands and musicians should use an app like Tweetdeck to dual post to both Twitter and Facebook simultaneously. Facebook and Twitter search will soon stand alongside, if not get ahead of, Google when it comes to searching in an ‘event-based’ way – i.e. when people trust their peers to let them know what’s going on and what’s best. Bands and musicians [and what I'm about to write may be hard to swallow for some] now have to embrace reputation management, if not they won’t own their own message online.

Yes, Twitter is great for making new contacts. You want to create new transparent relationships in the music biz here. Keep in touch with old friends and loved ones (Chris Cornell’s publicist) on FaceBook.

Love Twitter for brievity and info down new paths for discovery.
Janet Hansen
Scout66.com