Who knows it might be awesome, but I’m not holding my breath. And in related news, here’s the follow-up Twitter Movie Trailer which, if it were only real, I’d probably wait in line to see.

Twitter Movie Trailer is a post from: Brody Harper

I know these Music You’ve Never Heard posts are few and far between recently, but I wanted to let you know of a band I heard about recently called HoneyChild. It pains me to see that their “main” website is a freaking Myspace, but maybe they will see this post and give me a call for some new web stuff. Anyway, one amazing thing they are doing is ‘selling’ their record ‘Nearer The Earth’ on Facebook for FREE.

Seriously, go check it out and let me know what you think.  And lets start the MYNH train up again.  Let me know in the comments what Music I’ve Never Heard.

Ready?  Go.

MYNH – HoneyChild is a post from: Brody Harper

Now, I’m no ‘Social Networking’ expert by a long shot, and everyone knows all you need to do is Google those words to find a thousand people out there that claim they are, but today I stumbled onto this article by Steven Overly for the Washington Post that absolutely everyone trying to have a business or music career online should read.  In fact, I’ve already emailed this link to every artist and manager that I work with.  Now sure, some of it has nothing to do with the music industry, but if you look at an artist as a ‘brand’ or a ‘small business’ and in that context some of these things are great.  Here are three of the ten ‘mistakes’ pointed out in the article that jumped out to me.  I added the bold.

Giving It To The Intern
Too often, social media responsibilities will be piled on the most inexperienced staff members, or worse, someone who abhors social media. Debbie Weil, a local corporate social media consultant, said proper use of social media requires someone who is not only communication savvy, but comfortable with exposure to the public. You can’t hide behind a brand, Weil said. Social media needs a personal touch.

Only Using The Freebies
Free social network and media Web sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube may be easy to activate, but they don’t give an organization much control. Weil, who also authored “The Corporate Blogging Book,” warns that companies that rely solely on external networks relinquish a certain degree of autonomy. She recommends that organizations and companies using social media have a hub on their primary Web site where users can find links or feeds to blogs, Flickr photo galleries and other third-party Web sites. This also gives customers or constituents a single go-to URL.

Making It About Money, Money, Money
Most nonprofits and other donation-driven organizations recognize the potential to raise funds through social media, but Fair said it is too often viewed as a funnel to the organization’s coffers. She said nonprofits stand to collect more money from a community that participates, through social media or otherwise, in an organization’s cause. You can’t initiate social media as part of a fundraising effort, she said; it has to happen beforehand.

Oh my goodness.  Is this saying that it’s (once again) not about the numbers?  It’s about community and quality over quantity?  Is it saying that ‘Social Networking’ is an important part of today’s society and should be addressed as such?

I love the idea of bringing people together for a cause or a goal more than just selling things.  It’s something we’ve have been trying to do for almost three years now with SkörInc, and I think it’s amazing to see the relationships and connections that have been achieved through these artists interacting online more.  So obviously I’m on board.  Anyone have any other thoughts on this article?  Read the rest here.

Social Networking is a post from: Brody Harper

So, I got this message on Facebook the other day from a friend of mine in high school.  We were on the same baseball team, had some of the same classes.  You know.  Normal stuff.  Last I heard he went to the military, but literally hadn’t spoken to him in over ten years.  Ten years.

So I get this message from him that was super nice and short.  Sort of a “Hey man, heard you were married and might have some kids.  What have you been up to?” kind of message…. In the last ten years?!?

Hmmm.  Well, I’ve been up to a lot in the last ten years, and so have you.  It’d be awesome to sit down over a meal or two and chat about our wives, kids, careers, and, you know, the last ten years.

I don’t know.  Maybe that just throw me off and not other people, but how on earth to I respond to the last ten years of my life in a Facebook message?  Do people really connect this way?

But my weirded-out-ness doesn’t stop with just connecting with people I haven’t talked to in ten years.  Another part that weirds me out about it is when people throw up a status update pouring their heart out for the world to see.  Their depression, their divorce, their issues with their kids, their issues with their parents… on Facebook.  Really?

I guess what it all comes down to is it feels like “connecting” on something like Facebook or Twitter seems like it might be disconnecting us from actual relationships.  And I’m sure there’s someone else who has written about this far more eloquent that I have.  Heck, they probably even have a list of ten things do to keep this from happening or something.  But that’s what’s weirding me out today.

What do we think?

The Problem With Facebook is a post from: Brody Harper

So, according to this article Facebook has finally dethroned MySpace.  But we all knew that was going to happen right? Now here’s the funny thing to me.  The only two Social Networking sites that are shrinking are MySpace and AOL Community.  Hmmm.  MySpace and something I’ve never heard of.  Now, I’m not saying that MySpace is going away forever.  I mean, sure, they have millions of dollars and researching and all that, so I’m sure they will be around for a while, but it’s interesting that it’s actually shrinking.  Going down.  Loosing ground.  I love it.

As someone who has never liked the cheap, trashy, Windows feel of MySpace I’m glad to see that there might be a time soon where people don’t ask me if having a MySpace can replace them having a ‘real’ website.  In fact, according to that same article, the only thing that MySpace is “winning” at is showing more ads.  Makes you really want to go there doesn’t it?  I’m excited to see what MySpace pulls out to actually compete with the competition, but really I’m excited to begin to have to think less and less about it.

Now, I know what most of your answers are going to be, but is there anyone out there still using MySpace?  Anyone who goes to it daily and says hi to all of your indie hip-hop artist and amateur porn star “friends”?  I don’t.

+

Sinking Ship is a post from: Brody Harper

Well I can tell you why. I did it so I could use them to point people here. I did it so I could learn how to use them to point people here. And I did it because I need to know how to use that stuff. So there you have it folks. Yes, I have a MySpace. No, there is nothing on it. Yes, I have a Facebook. No, there is nothing on it. Yes I have a Virb. You guessed it… nothing on it. I also have a Twitter account, that I have used a couple times, but, no there’s not much there. Aren’t you impressed?

So now comes the fun part of digging through all the weird code and verifications to make sure I know how to work these things. After all, everyone has them right? Now I do to.

Seriously, what really spurred this on was the announcement of this, and my quest to know more about the different things concerning artists and online presence. Who knows maybe someday we can all work together as a big happy world wide web social networking family.

I Am Jacks Social Network is a post from: Brody Harper

If we all agree that it sucks, but has to be there, why not have that point to something that doesn’t suck. Shaun made some great points in the comment section about spreading yourself out there enough that no matter what avenue people are on there is a way to find you. That’s an obvious good call. Tim also made some good points about the reach of Myspace over anything else out there. But again, why spend the time, where there could be a giant button that directs the reader to something more personal and that, again, doesn’t suck?

Dale over at IdeaDen is neck deep in artists online presence and rebutted with this post, which also states that while Myspace sucks, it also may “rule”. Dale writes:

It allows people to modify….er eh…destroy their profiles and make their site look more like a drunken programmers product after a Mountain Dew shortage. Despite all of its shortcomings, one thing remains true…if you want to find out about music and connect to the bazzzillllions of people looking for it…then Myspace is king.

Well written and true. As sad as that is. I think my big question is, What Next? What happens when Facebook is the “kind of sucks, kind of rules” thing and we are on to bigger and better? How many artists are leaving behind too many un-updated sites that are causing more confusion for their career than it is helping it? Do they need to hire someone full-time simply to make sure all of these social networking things are consistent? Or do all of these places simply point to one consistent place, and that being the “.com”?

Just thoughts. Thanks for all the input. What do you guys think?

MySpace Debate (Part Two) is a post from: Brody Harper