As I briefly mentioned in my previous post, music fans today live on the Internet. Thus, artists must build themselves online. For all intents and purposes, a band is to listeners what it resembles in its web presence. Granted an artist should be judged by its sound, this is far from the only factor that affects the success of a band. The social scenes and festivals the band is lumped into pave a path to a target market.

Since radio and tv are no longer the media forms of choice for many consumers, the Internet has shrunk the world for musicians and dreams have become seemingly more attainable. The playing field is leveling as artists equally can make music available to anyone in the world in the same way any major record label can. With that comes the responsibility of making the artist’s image follow. The art of splashing free music across the web, linking to major events and players in the scene, slapping sharp-looking ads and highlighting tour and press releases on major genre-related sites and making it all spread like wildfire can truly build the success of an artist. Within tight genres such as jam and indie music, the reputation and popularity of an artist is often the result of the image that has been fabricated for that artist. In some respects, web presence has become the entire music business. Name recognition no longer is forged by radio play and American Bandstand appearances, the Internet is the true home of music and artists must take advantage of it to gain strength.

You don’t have to look far to find examples of such success. The jam and indie scenes are loaded with such bands. RAQ, a member of the jam community hailing from Burlington, VT, has taken leaps in the scene through great promotion and name recognition. The band’s unique logo is recognizable across the scene and is now easy to spot in ads and places of interest. RAQ’s live recordings can be easily found on Archive.org, merchandise and music can be found on hip sites such as Home Grown Music Network, and the band frequents many of the major festivals such as Bonnaroo, Wakarusa, and High Sierra. Of course it also helps to be on a major booking agency such as Madison House.

Ultimately the efficacy of the work put into creating a web presence will be evident in concert attendance and perhaps on a lesser scale, album or track sales. However, along the way the details of this process may be measured and monitored both qualitatively and quantitatively through online media tracking. Whether it is a small artist following its name, a record label following the spread of an album, or a management company covering every corner, the data is out there to figure out exactly how well the artist name and popularity is growing, which will, in turn, directly relate to the success of the artist.

Tags: Mass Media/Culture //