Musicians Utilizing Social Media

As we know, social media is a way of life these days, especially for digital marketing.  Just look at all the advertisements on Facebook.  Speaking of Facebook, the recent news of Facebook’s initial public offering (IPO) starting at $38 per share, has U2’s front man Bono in the news.  Bono bought into Facebook when it is fresh and word is that he may now be one of the richest musicians in the world (after Paul McCartney).  Bono has more than a two-percent stake in Facebook and it is worth $1.5 billion.  (Kaufman, 2012) This brings me to the topic of how musicians are utilizing social media to share their music with the world and interact with the fans.  How many musicians are utilizing this? I would say that if you are a musician and not on Facebook, Twitter, or other social media networks then you are in the dark ages.  I would guess that some utilize it more than others.  It’s not surprising that Bono is on board with social media and interacting because after all, it’s Bono! U2 uses social media to be connected with the fans during their live show.  Although U2’s tour is an enormous production, I’m sure there are other bands who use social media during the live show to connect with the fans. 

Recently I attended 2 concerts, Roger Waters and Coldplay.  While attending these concerts I was involved in social media, as were people sitting around me in the audience.  We were all taking pictures and I know that I was posting them on Facebook.  I would take a guess that others were doing the same.  In 2009 and 2011 I attended the U2 360 Tour.  A blog article in High Talk, 3 Social Media Lessons from U2, by George F. Snell III, talks about how it was difficult to avoid social media at a U2 live show (the article refers to the actual show I attended in Foxborough, Massachusetts).   Snell talks about how U2 used technology and social media throughout the show to interact with the fans.  It is well known that U2 care about world issues (e.g. One.org, Amnesty.org) and they used technology, social media and the web to create a strong bond with their fans and to get them on board with the causes they care about.  While U2 is entertaining their fans, they are also getting them connected and using the power of the web to tell stories, get people connected and sell their brands.  Most consumers want connection to the people behind the brand they are interested in buying, Bono creates a human face to U2 while he showcases his products and ideas to his fans.   So in this case what Bono is selling is a cause and he can sometimes get a bit political, but the way he interweaves it into an amazing show works.  He is also selling his music. 

In my last blog I said I was going to attend Roger Waters in San Francisco.  I also said I would give a review, as I had posted a blog about the difference between the arena and stadium shows.  But I don’t have much to report, the show was basically the same (fantastic) but just larger.  I will add a video of Roger Waters discussing how he uses social media.  

References:

Kaufman, G. (2012, May 18). Facebook IPO Could Smash Records, Spur New Tech Wave:  MTV News takes you behind the scenes of Facebook in a    2011 documentary that explores the company's unique non-corporate culture. Retrieved from: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1685335/facebook-ipo-diary.jhtml

Kaufman, G. (2012, May 18). Bono's Billion-Dollar Facebook IPO Haul: By The Numbers: You could buy nearly seven million pair of Bulgari Bono sunglasses the cash. Retrieved from: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1685414/bono-facebook-ipo-billion.jhtml

Snell, George F. III. (2012, September 2009). 3 Social Media Lessons from U2.  Retrieved from: http://hightalk.net/2009/09/21/3-social-media-lessons-from-u2/  

The 2012 Concert Season

Last year around this time I wrote about what the 2011 summer concert season looked like.  

Well, it is now 2012 and a whole new year of concert production on the road.  Last year may have been U2 but this year it’s Coldplay, at least for starters.  Other bands expected to tour in 2012 are Madonna, Lady Gaga, Van Halen (with David Lee Roth), Aerosmith, Fleetwood Mac, Phish, The Dave Matthews Band, Radiohead, Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw, Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, The Eagles, to name a few. 

Last week I attended my first concert of 2012, Coldplay.  The concert was at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, and the first Coldplay concert I have been too.  I’ve liked the band since the song “Yellow” came out in 2000.  I had tickets to Coldplay in 2009 but had an accident and broke my leg a few days before, gave the tickets away.  So I have been looking forward to them touring again.  I have to say, this concert was worth the wait.  Upon entering the concert, I was given a pink bracelet that said Coldplay on one side and Twitter on the other, and told to put the bracelet on; it was part of the show. 

When the lights went off and Coldplay came on stage my bracelet lit bright pink: and those around me did the same: a myriad of rainbow-colored lights: red, yellow, pink, blue, green. It was like nothing I’ve ever seen at a show before, sort of like glow sticks but high tech.  The stage was painted with black light florescent paint, and the lights were like black lights, there was also a lazar light show. It was fantastic!!  The show went on with a continuous array of lights and neon colors, along with confetti falling off at different times throughout the show.  At one time the singer, Chris Martin, was rolling around on stage in the confetti.  Not only was the light and confetti show cool, but Chris Martin’s singing, piano playing, and guitar was very impressive.  Stacy Scales of Spinning Platters.com gave a great review on April 30, 2012. 

I think what really impressed me was the audience interaction. Chris and the band really made a point to interact with the band, starting with the bracelets, and ending with the band appearing on a small platform, in the audience at the back of the arena for the first encore.  This show was worth every penny and I would see Coldplay again. 

It looks like the 2012 concert season is going to be a good one. 

Next week I will be attending Roger Waters, The Wall, at AT&T Park, San Francisco.  I will do a blog post for this concert as it connects to a blog post from November 2011.  In that blog post I talked about the difference between Roger Waters, The Wall arena tour vs. stadium tour. 

http://soundcheck.ocregister.com/files/2012/05/coldplay1.jpg

http://spinningplatters.com/2012/04/30/show-review-coldplay-with-the-pierces-and-metronomy-at-hp-pavilion-4282012/

Jeff Kravitz/WireImage/LEON NEAL/AFP/Getty Images/Kevin Mazur/Johannes Simon/Getty Images