Social music, oh my! (Original #2)

Listening to music is quite fun. Take, for example, this awesome live performance by Dizzy Gillespie and his big band filmed in the 1960s:

The rise of the Internet has fundamentally changed how people obtain and distribute music.  As you have likely noticed, the music industry is in an enormous transition phase. CDs are slowly but surely becoming forgotten relics, while Mp3 sales and downloads continue to rise. The corporate stranglehold over the music industry has significantly waned, as digital media provide cheap alternative avenues between artists and listeners. To better understand the direction in which the music business is heading, step back a moment and consider how drastically things have changed in recent times. Only 15 years ago, the very notion of watching free streaming video of Dizzy Gillespie seemed farfetched. But today, a quick and easy search on Youtube uncovers a laundry list of your favorite music.

I'm no economist, but it appears as though some sort of trend is taking shape.

But music's evolving relationship with the Internet goes far beyond Youtube videos. The Internet is now allowing music consumers to share their musical tastes with others and discuss their favorite artists and songs. On 8tracks.com people can contribute personal playlists and connect with other users that share similar tastes. Another website called Mog claims to allow users to "discover people through music and discover music through people."

The digital music revolution coincides with the rise of social media networks that are sprouting up around every corner of the Internet. Music consumers on the web are increasingly idiosyncratic, demanding comprehensive forums through which to consume music. People's tastes vary significantly so websites face the challenge of  developing a strong business model whilst simultaneously appealing to a diverging audience; The once-popular "Imeem" failed at this and eventually went under.   Successful social music sites  allow artists and listeners to interact, but also allow consumers to develop an online musical "identity."  All of these things are easier said than done, and require creative developers and programmers that can identify the needs of music listeners.

As I explore different social music networks, I am finding that there is more than one way to skin an mp3 (forgive me). Each of these sites tailor to different audiences and utilize a broad range of tools and functions. For a general recap of the most popular social music websites, check out THIS ARTICLE, which explains how different sites are tailored for specific uses. Some sites, like the extremely popular Pandora, focus more on music streaming, while others like Buzznet allow users to connect with each other and share their music-related ideas. Other popular sites include TheHypeMachine, Myspace, Purevolume and iLike. Each are considered social media sites, yet they all serve quite a range of different functions. TheHypeMachine, for example, is a blog aggregator, which indexes popular songs/artists circulating the blogosphere. It is essentially a mothership blog, where music seekers can branch out to new blogs and find the latest hip songs.

After perusing through several of these social music sites, thus far my personal favorite is Last.fm. Last.fm is excellent because it truly attempts to synthesize the act of listening to music with the concept of social media. The assortment of features the site offers is too expansive to completely cover. Instead lets focus on just a couple features which I find particularly appealing.

Last.fm members can add their favorite artists to their online 'library' which informs the site of one's music preferences. The website's "scrobbling" application makes this process quite easy by gathering all of the artists and songs recently played on your computer and/or mobile device. After building your music library, the site then offers musical recommendations based on your listening tendencies. Users can easily set up a profile page and connect with other members who can be found under the 'community' tab. Another kewl function the website offers is the 'neighbors' feature, which is a compiled list of musically compatible last.fm members. Users can "friend" people and subsequently "shout" on one another's profile page; the equivalent to writing on someone's Facebook wall.

Fans of particular bands can chat on forum pages that amass lists of the latest news and activity surrounding an artist. Take for example the page for the group Nirvana. Here you can see what members are listening to the group and what they are saying. Furthermore, thanks to the "scrobbling" feature, users can connect in real time with others whom are currently listening to the band. These and many other features are helping bring listeners (and to a lesser extent artists) into a forum in which they can share and discuss music.

The amount of music circling the web can seem overwhelming. However, sites like Last.fm, TheHypeMachine and many others are developing innovative ways of bringing it all together into an interactive and comprehensive forum.  The digital revolution is changing the face of music, in ways both good and bad.  In the years to come I expect that several of these music sites will consolidate, as a newer corpratist business model begins to form.  In any case, the future of music online seems bright, as long as it remains open and ubiquitous.