The big trend across music and people and seemingly life itself is "social networking sites." You know, MySpace, Facebook, and a million others. The theory is that since you can't meet, find, or keep friends in real life, you need a way to do it virtually.
How refreshing! Now I don't have to actually have friends, I can just have cyberfriends. This way, I can have cyberfun, go on cyberdates, and maybe even get cyberlaid. Just want I always wanted!
On the music side of things, each of these sites are trying to find ways to lure bands and musicians in, and hopefully bring their fans with 'em. The endgame, as always, is money. Musicians and their fans represent eyeballs which translate to ad revenue.
This ad revenue isn't quite as big a deal as these sites want it to be though. But if they get the musicians to SELL their music online and take a bite at places like iTunes, then their own sense of self-importance can't be denied. Now they're making money on the backs of the musicians they're telling us they support.
One company in particular, SnoCap, tried to do this. They allowed artists on MySpace to start selling their music right off of their MySpace pages. The result: SnoCap just laid off 60% of its staff. Apparently no one really gives a shit about buying music on MySpace. Of course, anyone using Limewire, BitTorrent, or even Kazaa could've told you that. The delicious irony is that SnoCap was founded by Shawn Fanning. Remember Shawn? He started this little company called Napster. So, the guy who started us off stealing music is the same guy who says "oh, here, you should be paying for it." And no one did. Do you really think he was surprised?
Other sites are cool though. Pandora lets you tell 'em what you like, and they make suggestions while also offering you the tunes you know you want to hear. Good deal! Last.fm tracks or "scrobbles" what you play (and what exactly are they doing with this info?) and you can find others listening to the same (or close) stuff. OK, cool ... no pressure there.
But the best way to find new music remains tried and true: go out and see a band. There are clubs, bars, stadiums, theaters, and all kinds of places with live music playing. While you're out there, talk to people. Real people, doing real things will always be more satisfying than the cyber equivalent.
After all, when I'm hungry I don't go eat a cyberburger. It just wouldn't be the same...
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