01 July 2010
Social Skills
By Dave Allen
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The concert had received scant press attention—a tiny listing in the New York Times, a passing mention in Opera News. But when bass-baritone Eric Owens made his 2009 New York recital debut at Weill Hall, the house was virtually sold out. Owens strode out on stage, looked out at the crowd and said, "I guess you Facebook people really do exist." Owens was referring to his Facebook page—a personal tool that had produced this unexpected minor phenomenon. Although he had originally signed up for Facebook just to keep up with people he knows, his personal page had morphed into a hub for a circle of fans 1,200 strong. A group of them made up a large part of the audience for the recital; some stayed after the concert to meet their Facebook "friend" in person.
Facebook's role in the concert's success is truly a story for our time. In a few short years, social-networking sites Facebook and Twitter have become cultural forces, changing the way people use the Internet and even conduct their daily affairs. "It's a part of the modern world," explains jazz trumpeter Brian Lynch, an enthusiastic user of both services. Part marketing tactic, part networking tool, part diary, social- networking media provide a remarkably direct way for musicians to participate in an ongoing conversation with fans, colleagues and the music community.
Amanda Ameer, a publicist for classical musicians (and a consultant for Chamber Music America), emphasizes that social- networking media aren't replacements for traditional publicity outlets, but rather just more weapons in the arsenal. "No PR hit is a silver bullet," she says. "Just because a person has a Facebook page doesn't mean I'm not pitching the New York Times like a crazy person."
But the uses of social-networking sites go far beyond traditional publicity. In fact, to Brian Lynch, thinking of Facebook and Twitter merely as publicity channels is to misunderstand why they have been so widely adopted. "The tendency is to think, 'Oh yeah, we want to publicize that gig,'" says Brian Lynch. "But Twitter works if you're furnishing people interest- ing information—not just promoting yourself or announcing what you had for breakfast." He cites Questlove, the drummer on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, who uses Twitter to link to compelling articles and pieces of music. "You can make people your fans," says Lynch, "if they're getting something out of the relationship."
Social-networking media also put musicians in touch with valuable resources for developing themselves professionally. "It's a conversation opportunity—a chance to talk about what you're working on and the challenges you're facing," says Christina Jensen, a publicist with several new-music groups among her clients. Tim Munro, flutist for the new-music group eighth blackbird, says that Twitter has helped him connect, while on tour, with fellow Australians. And the social- networking activities of jazz pianist/ composer Vijay Iyer have kept him in touch with other musicians; his Tweets have helped him reconnect with old colleagues, even planting the seeds for some future projects.
Perhaps most important of all is how Twitter and Facebook have changed the relationship between artists and their enthusiasts. "The interesting thing to me is the lack of walls between artists and their fans," says Amanda Ameer. "Even five years ago, to get [a sense of] an artist, you had to read an interview in a newspaper. But now we have a straight line to the artist." The fans themselves hope to gain infor- mation, insight and a sense of an artist's personality. "The people I follow have interesting, timely things to say," says Adam Wasserman, a music journalist who follows Twitter authors ranging from Plácido Domingo to food writer Ruth Reichl ("she tweets in the form of haikus"). One of his favorites is WNYC, New York City's NPR station. "Today they sent one about pension managers, related to their personal-finance show, and another about the new amusement park at Coney Island," he says. "They're all over the place—but they're all relevant to me." Vijay Iyer uses social media primarily as platforms for personal expression. He initially set up his "personal" Facebook page to share his viewpoints. "I'm interested in advancing my own personality," he says. "I have pretty strong leftist, anti-racist political views. If people are going to be dealing with my music, I want them to understand that [my politics] are insepa- rable from that." Iyer now has a "fan" page as well, along with a Twitter account; these he uses for news bulletins on his gigs and press coverage. "I put the same infor- mation on my 'personal' page as well, but with a more personal touch," Iyer says.
Pianist Stephen Hough joined Twitter in January as an outgrowth of blogging. In his blog for England's Telegraph website, he covers a lot of intellectual ground, ranging from religion to politics to his favorite restaurants, as well as strictly musical matters. He is now covering an equally wide territory in his tweets. "I'm enjoying it as a kind of online notebook— a place to jot down ideas, thoughts, poems which before I would write on the back of hotel envelopes," he says. "I don't want it to be a networking tool—it's something private which I allow people to look at. And it's a remarkable way to get to know an audience."
Tim Munro became eighth blackbird's official blogger when he joined the group in 2006. But like Hough, he has turned to Twitter; in fact, these days Twitter has largely supplanted his blog posts. (Dedicated applications on his iPhone make the process especially easy.) Munro's tweets cover a wide range of cultural ter- rain, including links to news articles and reviews; he has even linked to bad reviews. But it all helps to keep the public conver- sation going. Munro has live-tweeted several of the ensemble's concerts ("not while we were playing, but immediately before and after," he quickly notes) and joined with his colleagues in assigning grades to their performances. In January Munro posted a link on Twitter to a video of a rehearsal for a new work written for the group by Jennifer Higdon. "By bringing to atten- tion the roughness in some of the things we're doing, and the struggles we have, we'll be able to show to people [that] to us it is absolutely crucial that we bring them a top-quality performance," Munro says.
Of course, by opening a two-way street for communication, social media also serve up unsolicited feedback, both negative and constructive. When eighth blackbird launched a composer competition in January, it soon came under fire for its application process and fees. Incensed composers and others in the new-music community used Twitter to protest en masse. The group eventually backed away from its plans and postponed the competition until later this year. Munro posted an apology on eighth blackbird's blog— and linked to it via Twitter.
One Facebook pitfall is that anybody can set up a "fan page" for anything. Lawrence Dutton, violist with the Emerson Quartet, joined Facebook to keep track of his teenage son's online activities, but soon discovered an Emerson "fan page"— set up not by the quartet itself but by an admirer. Since the Emersons don't have control over the page, they can't post photos, videos, notices of their concerts or any interactive elements. Instead of fostering outreach and attracting fans, the current page is, in many ways, a dead end—blank except for a few photos uploaded by others. Even if an ensemble has control over its social-networking media, those sites can die through stagnation and lack of attention. Thousands of Twitter pages sit inactive, many of them set up by music organiza- tions. Gaps of several months between posts identify organizations that didn't have a strategy for social media or didn't grasp the instant connections the medium promotes. But used correctly and attentively, social networking can be a vital tool for forging a relationship with the public. Brian Lynch sees it as a part of "Music Business 2.0"—a niche-marketing economic model for musicians (and a concept that has its own Facebook page). "For jazz and classi- cal musicians, it's a matter of identifying your core constituencies and making strong bonds with those people," he says. "If you can find a thousand or 2,000 or 5,000 people who really like what you do and support what you throw out there, you can make a viable career. Social media can be good at closing in on those folks— if you're smart."
Dave Allen is a writer and musician based in Philadelphia
