It was an introduction to digital/social media with some practical tips and points for discussion.

Here are some notes which summarise my presentation and our discussion. These are mainly aimed at the musicians who attended but you might get benefit from this if you’re a musician who earns from your music.

Definitions

What do we mean by digital media?
“the creative convergence of digital arts, science, technology and business for human expression, communication, social interaction and education”
from Digital Media Alliance Florida / Wikipedia

I’ve purposefully used the umbrella term digital media, which covers social media, social networking and categories like live streaming. An expert may quibble with my definitions here but let’s say we’ll err on the side of the practical.

A useful metaphor is:
People having conversations online

This takes place with text, video, photo, audio, slides and other images. Because of the public nature of these conversations it’s important to note that it is:
People having multi-way conversations online

Examples of digital media

Technologies include:

Blogs, e.g. WordPress, Posterous, Tumblr
Social network services, e.g. Facebook, Myspace
Wikis, e.g. PBWorks
Link sharing, e.g. Delicious
Collaboration tools, e.g. Basecamp, Google Docs (a very important use of digital media)
RSS (allows you to subscribe to multiple blogs and other time-based feeds and read them all in one place)
Live streaming, e.g. Ustream.tv
Streaming/hosting services like YouTube for video and Flickr for photos

History of media and media revolutions
Printing press
Telegraph
Telephone
Photography
Film
Radio
Television
Internet and web

The main point here is to think about how society, culture and business changed as a result of these new technologies being widely adopted.

Characteristics of digital media

It is easier to form groups online, according to shared interests, campaigns, fans and so on, with all kinds of fascinating outcomes.
Recommended book: Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky – about the ease of forming groups online

People like to remix, re-use, re-create, re-version their culture, not just music. Go to YouTube and look at fan videos as just one example. Some musicians release their music under a licence which allows this to happen legitimately, within the normal legal framework of copyright.
Recommended book: Remix by Lawrence Lessig – about the culture of the remix and challenges to our traditional ideas of copyright

“Every company is a media company”
Rick Burnes, former NYTimes.com editor

Online tools every musician should know about

YouTube

I call it the most popular online music discovery service – because it can stream music in video form. Are you on it? If not, why not? There may be a legitimate case for not being on YouTube but you need to at least consider its potential reach.

When I mentioned this at the session several people complained about YouTube’s royalty rates. While true YouTube doesn’t pay much, the main advantage could be in people discovering your music and raising revenue from other sources. Video embedding is a key feature which helps bloggers to introduce their readers to your music.

Ideas: music videos, interviews, tour diaries, live performance footage

Flip have many affordable portable video cameras.

Your blog

A blog is a set of posts organised by time. Every artist and band online should probably have some sort of blog, even if it’s just a news feed of your latest gigs, releases and media appearances.

The way musicians express themselves through a blog varies wildly. Some like to post diary entries and reveal things about their life and work to various degrees, others do not. Both are fine. Some have elaborately designed blogs and others choose minimal design. Either way or something in between is fine. Be yourself. But don’t ignore it – having a blog is like having your own media channel that you control. This is pretty much vital.

Your website

A musician’s website and blog should be on the same domain – in most cases.

Adding a blog post or news item to your website should be painless. If updating your current website is a chore it may be worth spending some money to make it smoother. You’ll enjoy it, which is how things should be.

My favourite website software is WordPress. It was originally conceived as blogging software but has been extended and adapted to run full websites. Many websites around the world now run on WordPress.

Two main ways of running WordPress
wordpress.com
You get a free blog with the name yourbandname.wordpress.com
You can choose different themes.
You can pay fees for extra services, e.g. to have it redirected to yourbandname.com seamlessly

wordpress.org
WordPress is open source so you can download the software for free, run it on your own hosting and publicise yourbandname.com
You have total control over its behaviour and appearance. You can choose different themes or design your own. You can extend its functionality by installing plug-ins. In practice you’d probably ask a designer with the technical knowhow to install it and design/build the theme.

Other people’s blogs

Being featured on blogs can be a key way of growing buzz around your band. Use Hype Machine and Google Blog Search to find blogs already featuring similar artists or your genre. Start reading them and get in touch if you have something relevant.

Facebook

There are three kinds of presence on Facebook.
- individual user profile
- page
- group

The page is Facebook’s offering for brands, companies and organisations. Usually the page is the correct one for a band, artist, label or venue.

Do not get an individual user profile for a band. Facebook may take a dim view of a non-person having a user profile. Even if you’re a solo artist, it pre-supposes a two-way friend relationship which exists in the offline world. So consider having a profile for friends and a page for fans.

In general Facebook’s customers are its advertisers and you play in their garden and by their rules. Be careful about how much time you invest and be sure to evaluate if you are getting value back.

Myspace

In general its value for reaching fans is diminished because attention has gone elsewhere. It’s worth having a page for your music and photos because agents and other music industry people are in the habit of using it. Most bands should not spend too much time on it. Certain genres are stronger on Myspace than others. Know your genre!

Twitter

Some artists are good on Twitter and can use it to update fans.

It’s far more proven as an excellent place to keep up with news, including music industry news.

Don’t necessarily believe what anyone says about it – try it yourself.

Email lists

People still use email. Its value is diminishing, again because of fragmented attention. But it may be worth running one.

Make sure anything in the email address is also on your blog or elsewhere online. People want to search for it and link to it. Don’t limit the audience to the mailing list!

Recommendations: Your Mailing List Provider and MailChimp (both slightly different)

Don’t send email to people who haven’t opted in. Never spam people. Never ever.

Some thoughts about business models

Record business is not the music business

“Disruption” – technology companies like it, record companies don’t necessarily like it

In the 1980s certain parts of the record industry were extremely concerned about home taping – imperfect analogue copies. Now we have perfect digital copies. What now?

Copying is not the same as stealing – they are covered by different laws.

Throughout history, forms of copyright infringement have become licensed uses, e.g. public performance, radio. What we now think of as illegal may become licensed. Whether or not this is true, people WILL copy your music. They might use filesharing networks, they might use the web or they might use memory sticks. But only if your music is good enough.

What could you do if you knew 1,000,000 people had shared your music?

Some will still buy the CD or the vinyl. Some will attend your gigs and buy your merchandise.
Some will buy the digital files because they value the convenience or because they want to pay out of gratitude.

“Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy.”
Tim O’Reilly, technologist and publisher

Examples of perfect digital copies in other industries

Software companies make their source code available for free under open source licences and sell what can’t be copied – services, consultancy, customisation, support, advertising/sponsorship and premium paid features. Examples are IBM, Mozilla, Red Hat and Automattic/WordPress. You could go into competition with any of these companies using their own software.

Consultants and experts are blogging their advice for free. Again, you could go into competition with any of them using their own material and (what were formerly known as) trade secrets. But often these consultants and experts are accruing MORE reputation and MORE work through the ease of access and widespread distribution of their advice.

Despite copying of films, cinema has large screens, good sound and the experience – all of which are uncopyable. Compare watching a laugh-out-loud comedy at home to being in a big audience at the cinema. Recently cinema has been adding 3D to the large screen experience of many films.

2009 poll: people who admitted unlicensed downloading spend an average of £77 a year on music – £33 more than those who claimed NOT to download.
Poll by Ipsos Mori for Demos think tank

Kevin Kelly says “A creator needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.” (Discuss…)

These notes accompany the presentation I gave on Friday 25th September 2009 at Galeri, Caernarfon. This post is also available in PDF format.

My main emphasis was what relevance social media might have to musicians and music companies. I began with the context of online cultures before talking about examples of technologies and services and how they might be used.

Questions we’re trying to answer:
Why should anyone care about my band?
Where I can go to find or grow communities?
What tools can help me to find fans, but also to learn how to adapt my business in a changing environment?
How should I manage the time and resources I put into my online activity – to get a good return on my investment?

A range of companies attended representing different genres. Everyone had music, in the form of songwriters, performing artists or catalogue or all three. Some took revenue from live shows, others from CDs, downloads and subscription services and others from sync licensing.

What are we talking about?

The World Wide Web began in 1990 and is always evolving. In recent years one big theme has been online participation and conversation.

“Social media is an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction and the construction of text, pictures, videos and audio.”

“Social media is people having conversations online.”

Conversations is a metaphor. The conversations take place inside and outside companies or even across the company “firewall” – between companies and the outside world. Please note: not everything in social media is in pursuit of a “marketing” function. Social media involve fans, experts, amateurs, enthusiasts and yes, customers. But overall, people. They are about every topic possible, via video, text, pictures and audio.

Social media is about much more than social networking sites. There are thousands of places online which have embraced social media. Example: Amazon user reviews and tags, also Number10.gov.uk, even a company’s own website if it has a blog or other social features, for example.

Growth

There has been huge growth in adoption of certain social media, e.g. Wikipedia, YouTube, blogs, social networks and subscription to RSS. I spent some time talking about the statistics, just to underscore the point that it’s growing.

“It’s not a fad. It’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate.”

Observations about online culture

Before embarking on any “campaign” be aware of online cultures – across the web as a whole and also within individual communities. These are some of the common themes you often see. Not exhaustive, just themes you’ll see in the wild.

Human

Natural, open, honest, direct, human voices work best. Not the mission statement, brochure or telephone busy signal. The unnatural “corporate voice” is fading. People just tune out.

Read The Cluetrain Manifesto at http://www.cluetrain.com

As a general guideline if your website looks like a static brochure it’s probably not making the best use of what online can do.

Remix

By “remix” we mean that culture is adaptable. People in general have an impulse to participate and be creative.

It is a natural impulse and has existed for a long time, particularly in folk cultures and more recently in sampling. It can be easier to express through social media than it was through traditional media, there is a democratisation of media. This obviously covers music but not just music – everything.

In some ways it’s an acknowledgement of how ideas have always developed.

e.g.
Kutiman remixing YouTube http://www.thru-you.com
Sleeveface http://www.sleeveface.com
LOLcats http://icanhascheezburger.com
and other online memes.
We can actively encourage this, e.g. Radiohead releasing parts of their track for remix. Be creative.

Read “Remix” book by Lawrence Lessig

Sharing

In the music industry, if I say “sharing” we jump to thinking about unlicensed music sharing. We could have a big discussion about that.

But here I wanted to emphasise the more general nature of sharing culture – people sharing news, posting links, discoveries of new bands (and old bands). Also of course, sharing through blogs whether that be experiences, advice, links, lessons.

It’s human impulse. Increasingly this is happening in real-time too. People can share very quickly, sometimes by clicking “favourite”.

As music companies, are we giving people things they can share? If not how do we expect to be found online?

For music recommendations, we often trust our friends more than critics.

Everyone in the room has something they can share.

Be creative.

Be interesting.

An idea: why not ask your community of fans if they are sitting on their own archive photos and video of your artists? They might be grateful for recognition and links back.

Don’t be afraid of sharing niche things if that’s what you do. The web is big enough.

If things are tagged and titled properly they can be found. It helps if each item has its own unique URL. Things exist across the web, on different services. But for your own website, if you requires major restructuring to allow deep links, it may be worth the effort.

Definitely share from your back catalogue, people are ready to discover it today. Some people in the room have decades of great stuff!

Openness

This is linked to sharing and also to the human voice. There is a tendency towards openness online. If you are open, like-minded people will find you. They will also converse back.

Examples from the world that music companies inhabit – most fans would like to hear more about the process of recording, “behind the scenes” at gigs, inter-band conversation. Think about the things you take for granted which are interesting to some people.

(Openness also means being accountable for mistakes and human failings – back to the human voice again.)

This is normal now. It is rare to have a Kate Bush-type artist who needs to be totally mysterious. Don’t use this as an excuse not to open up. How will you be found?

General points about cultures

Every company is a media company. The companies who are patient and adaptable and who share will get the benefit of this. We can have our own media which are fundamentally different to traditional media “channels”. Social media don’t necessarily replace traditional media – but social media are interactive, cover more niches, they are more diverse.

As music companies, we are free to release a large amount of interesting content. There are ways to do this without annoying people as a big album launch swamping traditional media sometimes does (U2 for example). For example you can post 100 videos to YouTube. People can filter down to what they like. Read “The Long Tail” by Chris Anderson.

Traditional media are preoccupied with release dates and current things. Music marketing responds to this. But online this constraint does not exist. Look at your back catalogue.

A quick tour of some technologies

These are in broad sections with examples. There is overlap and a lot of hybrid services.

We couldn’t cover everything in the limited time, so I talked about technologies and services most relevant to a music company.

Video platforms

YouTube – the definitive video sharing platform, fans are there – use it!

Vimeo – better quality but not as many active users searching

Qik – live streaming of video, e.g. for interviewing a band or streaming from a gig

In general it’s a good idea to make your videos embeddable. Do this and people can post them on their own blogs and web pages, increasing the potential number of relevant viewers. Universal Music Group don’t allow this for their videos, for some reason known only to them.

Social networking sites

Facebook – fan pages can be good as long as they are maintained. You can pull in your RSS feed of news but avoid too much automation. Again, people like to interact with a human being. In general, a Facebook page or any social media presence is a promise you will be available. (This is why you should answer email from fans.) Be aware of the walled garden – you cannot take your Facebook fans elsewhere very easily. Facebook are in control – of the experience, of your pages, of your fans. (I was banned from Facebook recently while testing something. It could happen to you. They let me back though.)

Ning – people create their own social networks. It offers more customisation than Facebook. Creating a social network is not something you do every day – but useful when you want a distinct community with its own URL. Americymru is an example of a community on Ning which you can join to discuss Welsh matters, including music. http://americymru.ning.com

Myspace – there is still value in having a Myspace account as a band or label. For gig promoters and agents it can be the definitive place to check out your music. Have up-to-date music, photos and gig dates on there. Other than that, be careful how much time you spend on it. This will depend what kind of music you work with. It’s spammy.

Twitter – I sensed some scepticism about this one, possibly because of media hype and mis-representation. If you are dealing with excellent music, then you will be talked about on Twitter (and other places) whether or not you actually have an account. Try running a search. http://twitter.com It’s a hybrid of blogging and social network, often called “microblogging” because each post is 140 characters or less. It includes mobile access. As with most social networks, any form of blatant marketing is a turn-off for people. Why not try it and see for yourself? The web is highly experimental. If you see some hype, be curious and go and decide for yourself.
Twitter is excellent for monitoring music news and social media news. It’s also potentially good for being an influencer, if you are interesting enough.

Dedicated blogging platforms

A blog is not necessarily a diary! It’s just a website organised by time. Actually a highly creative medium.

Blog is a contraction of “web log”.

WordPress – my personal favourite. It’s open source so you can ask your web person to download the code and host it yourself, on your own domain name. Endless customisation is possible in design and features. Now in use by many companies including Telegraph for their blog and comment system and Number10. Go to http://wordpress.com for the easy hosted version or http://wordpress.org for the code (if you know someone technical who can set it up on your own hosting)

Blogger – long-running but possibly looking a little dated now, limited customisability

Tumblr – more like a blog scrapbook, e.g. singer from The Decemberists shares things he is interested in (not just his own music) http://colinmeloy.tumblr.com

Posterous – dead simple blog for small posts, worth a look

There are many others. It’s technically easy to start a blog but it can take time to master it and grow to something of value. If you want to know how easy it is to start a blog, here’s a fun experiment: send an email to post@posterous.com and you’ll get an email back telling you about your new blog.

Miscellaneous

Soundcloud – audio platform (becoming popular with music companies and artists, as an alternative to CD demos and promos)

Flickr – photo sharing and discussion

Slideshare – slideshows

Last.FM – radio station with music recommendation, has a community of hardcore music fans

RSS

RSS is a way of pulling content from a website. One very useful application is setting up a feed reader and subscribing to blogs and news sites you want to follow. Instead of manually visiting site1, site2, site3, you are automating this process.

My analogy is a custom newspaper which you put together yourself. Mine has hundreds of subscriptions which I scan.

If given the choice, I will always subscribe to RSS instead of choosing an email newsletter. I use email for getting things done and my feed reader like my newspaper – for my coffee break.

Google Reader is a popular example of a feed reader. http://www.google.com/reader

You can also subscribe to search feeds, e.g. for your name and names of your bands! Many sites offer search feeds. YouTube, Twitter, Google Blogsearch are just three. Don’t be slow to find out if you’re being talked about.

Sometimes sites offer Atom feeds, it’s a slightly different file format but exactly the same in practice.

We didn’t talk about

Mobile, location-based services, social bookmarking (e.g. Delicious), activity streams, comment systems (e.g. Disqus), wikis, “user-generated content”, collaborative documents (e.g. Google Docs), APIs

In other words, social media technologies are very diverse. There are lots of companies making a play to launch their own services.

Questions from music companies

I’ve tried to reproduce questions here as accurately as I could. In my answers I gave a lot more detail. Next time I’ll consider recording it!

This time, in line with the Chatham House rule, I’ll say what was said but not who said it. This document is online at http://nativehq.com so feel free to comment there.

Question: what’s the difference between the different blogging platforms? What’s the difference between, say, WordPress and Myspace? I already have a blog on Myspace. Why would I need a blog?

The different blogging platforms are service providers so it’s about personal preference and features.

Myspace has taken inspiration from blogging platforms for its own blog feature. If Myspace is working for you and for your fans in your style of music then of course carry on and re-assess in the future.

I would say that not everyone is using Myspace, so you will miss people. With WordPress (which is my personal favourite, especially when hosted on your own domain), your own blog would be far more customisable in every way, not just in design but features – and importantly be more visible (probably). Also, your own blog would probably be less susceptible to social network fashions, as certain users have deserted Myspace. It might be an idea to do a blog and copy the relevant posts to Myspace, for people who spend time there.

Question: what about the metrics on Myspace friend count and number of plays for each track? They can be gamed/boosted with certain software.

The people who care about these figures should know that they can be gamed. Therefore there is no value in doing this. This then backfires on the cheats, or people just ignore the figures entirely.

(Questioner then said that journalists are deciding whether to feature artists on the basis of phoney counts. I don’t know whether this is this case anymore.)

Maybe there is value in having an honest but low number of plays if your music has been freshly uploaded. Under-hyped can work!

Question: in the old days we would leaf through vinyl records. Bands could build a community in their local area. Now there is so much competition from other bands worldwide. Is all this a double edged sword?

Yes it’s a doubled-edged sword because people have finite attention spans. Online has been described as an “attention economy”. People have more access to all kinds of things, not just music. So your music has to be good of course.

On the plus-side it is potentially easier to find international audiences such as Japan and America – both of which probably have big demand for Welsh music!

Someone gave the example of a successful licensing deal for an advertising campaign in another territory. (I think the implication was this was achieved thanks to online).

Question: what about quality? There is so much crap online.

This would make a good pub argument. I personally think there has always been crap, it’s just more evenly distributed.

It is about having good filters – people and sources which you trust.

As for music companies looking for artists to work with, Geoff Travis of Rough Trade has an old quote which still holds: “always work with genius”. You can’t argue with that.

Question: what do you think of Spotify?

Spotify is a streaming music service. I love it.

It has advertising but their model seems to be based on paid subscription. The advertising is apparently there to annoy music fans into subscribing!

I’m not going to prescribe Spotify for every artist and label but many people like it. As with any deal, discuss it with your digital distributor and look at the figures.

In general subscription services could be an alternative to selling copies of albums, e.g. eMusic, Nokia Comes With Music. (Comment about whether somebody could set up infrastructure to get Welsh music on subscription services or have a Welsh subscription service. Other comments outside the scope of our discussion.)

(Comment about whether it hurts other revenue. Someone was looking at releasing one track instead of a full album.) I can’t answer that for you. It could be cannibalisation or it could be “found money”, depending on what you’re doing. It’s a business decision which, again, you make based on digital distributor’s advice and wisdom from elsewhere.

There is lots of online discussion about revenue for content, e.g. http://paidcontent.co.uk – I’m here to say you should subscribe to the RSS and get smart!

Question: earlier you mentioned The Guardian review of a band which is interesting

Yes, I knew about it because somebody had posted a link on Twitter!

(We had a discussion here about the comparative value of newspaper reviews and blogs.) I think if you are good and have good PR then you can get, say, a Guardian review per album or for a high-profile gig. I’m definitely not minimising the value of newspaper coverage when I talk about social media. As far as your efforts go, the two are not even in competition.

The potential value of good social media engagement is growing.

References

Social media definition – this is an unattributed quote taken from Wikipedia but works well enough.

Some other quotes (italicised) taken from What The F**k is Social Media by Marta Kagen http://www.slideshare.net/mzkagan/what-the-fk-social-media

Logos were the property of their respective companies.

Licence

The above notes are covered by Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported Licence.

If you want to share it, see the conditions at
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Mae’r nodiadau hyn yn cyd-fynd â’r cyflwyniad a roddais ar ddydd Gwener 25ed Medi 2009 yn Galeri, Caernarfon. Mae cyfieithiad PDF sydd ar gael.

Prif fyrdwn fy sgwrs oedd pa mor berthnasol y gallai cyfryngau cymdeithasol fod i gerddorion a chwmnïau cerddoriaeth. Dechreuais â chyd-destun diwylliannau arlein cyn trafod enghreifftiau o dechnolegau a gwasanaethau a sut y gellid eu defnyddio.

Cwestiynau yr ydym yn ceisio eu hateb:
Pam y dylai unrhyw un fod â diddordeb yn fy mand i?
Ble allaf i fynd i ddarganfod neu i ddatblygu cymunedau?
Pa offer all fy helpu i ddarganfod edmygwyr, ond hefyd i ddysgu sut i addasu fy musnes mewn awyrgylch sy’n newid?
Sut y dylwn i reoli’r amser a’r adnoddau ydw i’n eu rhoi yn fy ngweithgaredd arlein – i gael llogau da ar fy muddsoddiad?

Roedd amrywiaeth o gwmnïau yn bresennol, yn cynrychioli gwahanol genres. Roedd pawb yn gysylltiedig â cherddoriaeth, un ai ar ffurf ysgrifenwyr caneuon, artistiaid perfformio neu gatalog neu bob un o’r tri. Roedd rhai yn cael refeniw o sioeau ‘byw’, eraill o gryno ddisgiau, lawrlwythiadau a gwasanaethau tanysgrifio ac eraill o drwyddedu sync.

Am beth ydym ni’n sôn?

Dechreuodd y We Fyd-Eang ym 1990 ac mae’n datblygu drwy’r adeg. Yn ystod y blynyddoedd diwethaf mae cyfranogiad a sgwrsio arlein wedi bod yn un thema bwysig.

“Mae cyfryngau cymdeithasol yn derm ambarél sy’n diffinio’r gwahanol weithgareddau sy’n integreiddio technoleg, rhyngweithio cymdeithasol a llunio testun, lluniau, fideos ac awdio.”

“Cyfryngau cymdeithasol yw pobl yn sgwrsio arlein.”

Metaffor yw sgyrsiau. Mae’r sgyrsiau yn digwydd y tu mewn a thu allan i gwmnïau neu hyd yn oed drwy firewall y cwmni – rhwng cwmnïau a’r byd tu allan. Sylwer: nid yw popeth yn y cyfryngau cymdeithasol yn ymwneud â ‘marchnata’. Mae cyfryngau cymdeithasol yn ymwneud ag edmygwyr, arbenigwyr, amaturiaid, cefnogwyr brwdfrydig ac ie, cwsmeriaid. Ond, at ei gilydd, pobl. Maen nhw’n trafod pob pwnc posibl, drwy gyfrwng fideo, testun, lluniau ac awdio.

Mae a wnelo cyfryngau cymdeithasol â llawer iawn mwy na safleoedd rhwydweithio cymdeithasol. Mae miloedd o leoedd arlein sydd wedi croesawu cyfryngau cymdeithasol. Enghraifft: adolygiadau defnyddiwyr Amazon, a hefyd Number10.gov.uk, a hyd yn oed gwefan cwmni os oes ganddo flog neu nodweddion cymdeithasol eraill, er enghraifft.

Twf

Mae twf enfawr wedi bod mewn mabwysiadu rhai cyfryngau cymdeithasol, e.e. Wikipedia, YouTube, blogiau, rhwydweithiau cymdeithasol a thanysgrifiadau i RSS. Treuliais rywfaint o amser yn trafod yr ystadegau, a hynny’n unig er mwyn tanlinellu’r twf hwn.

“Nid ffasiwn yw hyn. Mae’n newid sylfaenol yn y ffordd yr ydym yn cyfathrebu.”

Sylwadau ar ddiwylliant arlein

Cyn cychwyn ar unrhyw “ymgyrch” byddwch yn ymwybodol o ddiwylliannau arlein – dros y we gyfan a hefyd o fewn cymunedau unigol. Dyma rai o’r themâu cyffredin a welir yn aml. Nid yw hon yn rhestr lawn, dim ond themâu a welech yn gyffredinol.

Dynol

Lleisiau dynol naturiol, agored, onest, uniongyrchol sy’n gweithio orau. Nid y datganiad o fwriad, y pamffled neu’r sain ‘ffôn yn brysur’. Mae’r “llais corfforaethol” annaturiol yn edwino.
Mae pobl yn blino gwrando.

Darllenwch The Cluetrain Manifesto yn http://www.cluetrain.com

Fel canllaw cyffredinol os yw eich gwefan yn edrych fel pamffled statig mae’n debyg nad yw’n gwneud y defnydd gorau o’r hyn gall ‘arlein’ ei wneud.

Ailgymysgu

Mae ailgymysgu yn dangos ei bod yn bosibl addasu diwylliant. Yn gyffredinol ysgogir pobl yn reddfol i gyfranogi a bod yn greadigol.

Mae’n ysgogiad naturiol sydd wedi bodoli ers amser maith, yn arbennig mewn diwylliannau gwerin ac yn fwy diweddar mewn samplu. Gall fod yn haws mynegi drwy gyfryngau cymdeithasol nag ydoedd drwy gyfryngau traddodiadol, mae cyfryngau’n cael eu democrateiddio. Mae hyn yn amlwg yn cynnwys cerddoriaeth ond nid cerddoriaeth yn unig – popeth.

Mewn rhai ffyrdd mae’n gydnabyddiaeth o sut y mae syniadau wedi datblygu erioed.

e.e. Kutiman yn ailgymysgu YouTube http://www.thru-you.com
Sleeveface http://www.sleeveface.com
LOLcats http://icanhascheezburger.com
a memes arlein eraill.
Gallwn fynd ati i annog hyn, e.e. Radiohead yn rhyddhau rhannau’u o’u trac i’w ailgymysgu. Byddwch yn greadigol.

Darllenwch y llyfr “Remix” gan Lawrence Lessig

Rhannu

Yn y diwydiant cerddoriaeth, os ydw i’n dweud “rhannu” rydym ni’n meddwl yn syth am rannu cerddoriaeth heb drwydded. Byddai’n bosibl inni gael trafodaeth faith am hynny.

Ond yma roeddwn i eisiau pwysleisio natur fwy cyffredinol rhannu diwylliant – pobl yn rhannu newyddion, postio cysylltiadau, darganfod bandiau newydd (a hen fandiau). A hefyd wrth gwrs, rhannu profiadau, cyngor, cysylltiadau a gwersi drwy gyfrwng blogiau.

Mae’n ysgogiad dynol. Mae hyn yn digwydd fwyfwy mewn amser real hefyd. Gall pobl rannu yn gyflym iawn, weithiau drwy glicio “favourite“.

Fel cwmnïau cerddoriaeth, ydym ni’n rhoi pethau y gallant eu rhannu i bobl? Os nad ydym, sut ydym yn disgwyl i rywun ein darganfod arlein?

O ran argymelliadau mewn cerddoriaeth, yn aml rydym yn ymddiried mwy yn ein cyfeillion nag mewn adolygwyr.

Mae gan bawb yn yr ystafell rywbeth y gallant ei rannu.

Byddwch yn greadigol.

Byddwch yn ddiddorol.

Syniad: beth am holi eich cymuned o edmygwyr a oes ganddynt ffotograffau archif a fideos eu hunain o’ch artistiaid? Efallai y byddent yn ddiolchgar o gael eu cydnabod a chael cysylltiadau yn ôl.

Peidiwch ag ofni rhannu pethau arbenigol os dyna ydych chi’n ei wneud. Mae’r we yn ddigon mawr.

Os yw pethau’n cael eu tagio a’u henwi’n gywir gellir dod o hyd iddynt. Mae’n ddefnyddiol os oes gan bob eitem ei URL arbennig ei hun. Mae pethau’n bodoli dros y we, ar wahanol wasanaethau. Ond yn achos eich gwefan eich hun, os oes angen gwaith ailstrwythuro sylweddol i ganiatáu cysylltiadau dyfnach, gallai fod yn werth yr ymdrech.

Yn sicr, rhannwch eitemau o’ch ôl-gatalog, mae pobl yn barod i’w ddarganfod heddiw. Mae gan rai o’r bobl sydd yn yr ystafell werth degawdau o ddeunydd ardderchog!

Diwylliant agor

Mae hyn yn gysylltiedig â rhannu a hefyd â’r llais dynol. Mae tueddiad i fod yn onest arlein. Os ydych chi’n onest, bydd pobl o’r un anian â chi yn eich darganfod. A byddant yn sgwrsio’n ôl hefyd.

Enghreifftiau o fyd y cwmnïau cerddoriaeth – byddai’r rhan fwyaf o edmygwyr yn hoffi clywed mwy am y broses o recordio, yr hyn sy’n digwydd “y tu ôl i’r llenni” mewn gigs, sgyrsiau rhwng bandiau. Ystyriwch y pethau ydych chi’n eu cymryd yn ganiataol sy’n ddiddorol i bobl eraill.

(Mae onestrwydd hefyd yn golygu bod yn atebol am gamgymeriadau a gwendidau dynol – dod yn ôl at y llais dynol eto.)

Mae hyn yn arferol erbyn hyn. Mae’n anghyffredin cael artist fel Kate Bush sy’n mynnu bod yn ddirgelwch llwyr. Peidiwch â defnyddio hyn fel esgus rhag peidio â bod yn agored. Sut y bydd pobl yn eich darganfod?

Pwyntiau cyffredinol am ddiwylliannau

Mae pob cwmni yn gwmni cyfryngau. Bydd y cwmnïau sy’n amyneddgar ac yn hyblyg ac sy’n rhannu yn manteisio ar hyn. Mae’n bosibl inni gael ein cyfryngau ein hunain sy’n sylfaenol wahanol i ’sianeli’ cyfryngau traddodiadol. Nid yw cyfryngau cymdeithasol o anghenraid yn cymryd lle cyfryngau traddodiadol – ond mae cyfryngau cymdeithasol yn rhyngweithiol, yn cwmpasu mwy o ‘gilfachau’. Maen nhw’n fwy amrywiol.

Fel cwmnïau cerddoriaeth, mae gennym y rhyddid i ryddhau cyfran fawr o gynnwys diddorol. Mae ffyrdd o wneud hyn heb gythruddo pobl fel y gwna cyfryngau traddodiadol weithiau wrth roi gormod o sylw i lansiad albym bwysig (e.e. U2). Er enghraifft gallwch bostio 100 fideo i YouTube. Gall pobl ffiltro i gadw’r hyn maen nhw’n ei hoffi. Darllenwch “The Long Tail” gan Chris Anderson.

Mae cyfryngau traddodiadol â’u holl fryd ar ddyddiadau rhyddhau a phethau cyfredol. Mae marchnata cerddoriaeth yn ymateb i hyn. Ond arlein nid yw hyn yn bodoli. Edrychwch ar eich ôl-gatalog.

Cipolwg sydyn ar rai technolegau

Mae’r rhain mewn adrannau eang gydag enghreifftiau. Mae rhai yn gorgyffwrdd ac mae llawer o wasanaethau hybrid.

Nid oedd yn bosibl inni drafod popeth yn yr amser cyfyngedig, felly siaradais am y technolegau a’r gwasanaethau a oedd fwyaf perthnasol i gwmni cerddoriaeth.

Platfformau fideo

YouTube – y platform rhannu fideos diffiniol, mae edmygwyr yno – defnyddiwch ef!

Vimeo – mae’r ansawdd yn well ond nid oes cymaint o ddefnyddwyr yn chwilio yma

Qik – ffrydio fideo yn fyw, e.e. ar gyfer cyfweld band neu ffrydio o gig

Fel arfer mae’n syniad da gwneud eich fideos yn fewnosodadwy. Drwy wneud hyn bydd pobl yn gallu eu postio ar eu blogiau a’u safleoedd gwe eu hunain, gan gynyddu nifer posibl y bobl sy’n eu gwylio. Nid yw Universal Music Group yn caniatáu hyn gyda’u fideos, am ryw reswm dirgel.

Safleoedd rhwydweithio cymdeithasol

Facebook – gall tudalennau edmygwyr fod yn dda os byddant yn cael eu cynnal. Gallwch dynnu eich porthiant RSS o newyddion ond dylech osgoi gormod o awtomatiaeth. Eto, mae pobl yn hoffi rhyngweithio â phobl. Yn gyffredinol, mae tudalen Facebook neu unrhyw bresenoldeb ar gyfryngau cymdeithasol yn addewid y byddwch chi ar gael. (Dyma pam y dylech chi ateb e-byst gan edmygwyr.) Cofiwch fod yn ymwybodol o’r ‘wal derfyn’ – ni allwch fynd â’ch edmygwyr Facebook i unrhyw le arall yn hawdd iawn. Facebook sy’n rheoli – rheoli’r profiad, rheoli eich tudalennau a rheoli eich edmygwyr. (Cefais fy ngwahardd o Facebook yn ddiweddar am geisio arbrofi. Gallai hynny ddigwydd i chithau. Gadawsant i mi ddychwelyd fodd bynnag.)

Ning – pobl yn creu eu rhwydweithiau cymdeithasol eu hunain. Mae’n cynnig mwy o addasiad na Facebook. Nid yw creu rhwydwaith gymdeithasol yn rhywbeth y mae rhywun yn ei wneud bob dydd – ond mae’n ddefnyddiol pan ydych eisiau cael cymuned bendant gyda’i URL ei hun. Mae Americymru yn enghraifft o gymuned ar Ning y gallwch ymuno â hi i drafod materion Cymreig, gan gynnwys cerddoriaeth. http://americymru.ning.com

Myspace – mae gwerth yn dal i fod mewn cael cyfrif Myspace fel band neu label. I hyrwyddwyr gigs ac asiantiaid gall hwn fod y lle diffiniol i glywed eich cerddoriaeth. Gofalwch fod gennych y gerddoriaeth, y ffotograffau a dyddiadau’r gigs diweddaraf yno. Fel arall, byddwch yn ofalus faint o amser ydych chi’n ei dreulio arno. Bydd hyn yn dibynnu ar ba fath o gerddoriaeth ydych chi’n gweithio. Mae’n cynhyrchu llawer o spam.

Twitter – Synhwyrais rywfaint o amheuaeth ynglyn â’r un yma, o bosibl oherwydd cyhoeddusrwydd y cyfryngau a’r ffaith fod hwn yn cael ei gam-gynrychioli. Os ydych yn delio â cherddoriaeth ardderchog, yna bydd pobl yn eich trafod ar Twitter (a lleoedd eraill) pa un ai oes gennych gyfrif neu beidio. Ceisiwch chwilio. http://twitter.com. Mae’n hybrid blogio a rhwydwaith gymdeithasol, a elwir yn aml yn microblogio oherwydd mae pob neges yn 140 llythyren neu lai. Mae’n cynnwys mynediad ffôn symudol. Yn debyg i’r rhan fwyaf o rwydweithiau cymdeithasol, mae unrhyw fath o farchnata digywilydd yn diflasu pobl. Beth am roi cynnig arno eich hunan? Mae’r we yn hynod o arbrofol. Os gwelwch ryw gyhoeddusrwydd, byddwch yn chwilfrydig ac ewch yno i benderfynu drosoch eich hun.
Mae Twitter yn ardderchog i fonitro newyddion cerddoriaeth a newyddion cyfryngau cymdeithasol. Mae hefyd o bosibl yn beth da er mwyn dylanwadu, os ydych yn ddigon diddorol.

Platfformau blogio un-pwrpas

Nid yw blog o anghenraid yn ddyddiadur! Gwefan wedi ei threfnu wrth amser. I ddweud y gwir mae’n gyfrwng hynod o greadigol.

Mae blog yn dalfyriad o’r geiriau web log.

WordPress – hwn yw fy ffefryn i. Mae’n ffynhonnell agored felly gallwch ofyn i’ch arbenigwr gwe lawrlwytho’r côd a’i letya eich hunan, ar eich enw parth eich hunan. Mae addasiad diddiwedd yn bosibl o ran cynllun a nodweddion. Erbyn hyn mae’n cael ei ddefnyddio gan lawer o gwmnïau gan gynnwys y Telegraph ar eu system sylwadau a Number10. Ewch i http://wordpress.com i gael y fersiwn letya hawdd neu i http://wordpress.org i gael y côd (os ydych yn adnabod rhywun technegol a all ei osod ar eich gwasanaeth lletya eich hun)

Blogger – wedi bodoli ers amser ond o bosibl ychydig yn hen ffasiwn erbyn hyn, addasiad cyfyngedig

Tumblr – tebycach i lyfr lloffion blogio, e.e. canwr The Decemberists yn rhannu ei ddiddordebau (nid dim ond ei gerddoriaeth ei hun) http://colinmeloy.tumblr.com

Posterous – blog hynod o syml ar gyfer postiadau bychain, gwerth cael cipolwg arno

Mae llawer mwy yn bodoli. Yn dechnegol mae’n hawdd cychwyn blog ond gall gymryd amser i’w feistroli a’i gael i dyfu’n rhywbeth o werth. Os hoffech wybod pa mor hawdd yw cychwyn blog dyma arbrawf difyr: anfonwch e-bost i post@posterous.com a chewch e-bost yn ôl yn rhoi gwybod ichi am eich blog newydd.

Amrywiol

Soundcloud – platfform awdio (dod yn boblogaidd ymhlith cwmnïau cerddoriaeth ac artistiaid, fel ateb arall yn lle cryno ddisgiau enghreifftiol a hyrwyddol)

Flickr – rhannu ffotograffau a thrafod

Slideshare – sleidiau

Last.FM – gorsaf radio ag argymhellion cerddorol, a chanddi gymuned o edmygwyr cerddoriaeth craidd caled

RSS

Mae RSS yn ffordd o dynnu cynnwys o wefan. Un cymhwysiad hynod o ddefnyddiol yw sefydlu darllenydd porthiant a thanysgrifio i flogiau a safleoedd newyddion ydych eisiau eu dilyn. Yn hytrach nag ymweld â safle1, safle 2, safle3 â llaw, rydych yn awtomeiddio’r broses hon.

Rwyf yn gweld hwn fel papur newydd wedi ei addasu yr ydych yn ei lunio eich hun.

Mae fy un i yn cynnwys cannoedd o danysgrifiadau yr wyf yn eu sganio. Petawn i’n cael y dewis, byddwn i bob amser yn tanysgrifio i RSS yn hytrach na dewis cylchlythyr e-bost. Rwyf yn defnyddio e-bost er mwyn gweithio ac yn defnyddio fy narllenydd porthiant yn union fel fy mhapur newydd – pan yw hi’n amser paned.

Mae Google Reader yn enghraifft boblogaidd o ddarllenydd porthiant. http://www.google.com/reader

Gallwch hefyd danysgrifio i chwilio am borthiannau, e.e. ar gyfer eich enw chi ac enwau eich bandiau! Mae llawer o safleoedd yn cynnig porthiannau chwilio. Tair enghraifft yn unig yw YouTube, Twitter, Google Blogsearch. Peidiwch â bod ar ei hôl hi os bydd pobl yn siarad amdanoch.

Weithiau mae safleoedd yn cynnig porthiannau Atom. Yma, mae fformat y ffeil ychydig yn wahanol ond yn union yr un fath yn ymarferol.

Ni fuom yn trafod

Gwasanaethau symudol, gwasanaethau lleoliad-seiliedig, llyfrnodi cymdeithasol (e.e. Delicious), ffrydiau gweithgaredd, systemau sylwadau (e.e. Disqus), wikis, “cynnwys a gynhyrchir gan ddefnyddwyr”, dogfennau cydweithiol (e.e. Google Docs), APIs

Mewn geiriau eraill, mae technolegau cyfryngau cymdeithasol yn amrywiol iawn. Mae llawer o gwmnïau yn ceisio lansio eu gwasanaethau eu hunain.

Cwestiynau gan gwmnïau cerddoriaeth

Yma rwyf wedi ceisio ailgynhyrchu cwestiynau mor gywir ag y gallwn. Roedd fy atebion yn llawer mwy manwl. Y tro nesaf rwyf yn ystyried recordio pethau!

Y tro hwn, yn unol â rheol Chatham House, byddaf yn dweud beth a ddywedwyd ond nid yn datgelu enw pwy a’u dywedodd.

Mae’r ddogfen hon arlein ar http://nativehq.com felly mae croeso ichi roi sylwadau yno.

Cwestiwn: beth yw’r gwahaniaeth rhwng y gwahanol blatfformau blogio? Beth yw’r gwahaniaeth rhwng, dyweder, WordPress a Myspace? Mae gen i flog eisoes ar Myspace. Pam fyddwn i angen blog?

Mae’r gwahanol blatfformau blogio yn ddarparwyr gwasanaeth felly mae’n fater o ddewisiadau a nodweddion personol.

Cafodd Myspace ei ysbrydoli gan blatfformau blogio ar gyfer ei nodwedd blogio ei hun. Os yw Myspace yn gweithio i chi a’ch edmygwyr ar gyfer eich math chi o gerddoriaeth, yna wrth gwrs, daliwch ati ac ailaseswch yn y dyfodol.

Byddwn yn dweud nad yw pawb yn defnyddio Myspace, felly byddwch yn colli pobl. Gyda WordPress (sef fy ffefryn personol i, yn arbennig pan yw’n cael ei letya ar eich parth personol), byddai eich blog yn llawer mwy addasadwy ym mhob ffordd, nid yn unig o ran cynllun ond o ran nodweddion yn ogystal – ac yn bwysig byddai hefyd yn fwy gweladwy (mae’n debyg). Hefyd, byddai eich blog chi yn debygol o fod yn llai ymatebol i ffasiynau rhwydweithiau cymdeithasol, gan fod rhai defnyddwyr wedi gadael Myspace. Efallai y byddai’n syniad gwneud blog a chopïo’r postiadau perthnasol i Myspace, i bobl sy’n treulio amser yno.

Cwestiwn: beth am y fydryddiaeth sy’n gysylltiedig â chyfrif ffrindiau a’r niferoedd o weithiau mae pob trac yn cael ei chwarae ar Myspace? Gellir eu ‘gemio’/hybu gyda meddalwedd arbennig.

Dylai’r bobl sy’n pryderu ynghylchy ffigurau hyn wybod eu bod yn bosibl eu gemio. Felly nid oes gwir werth mewn gwneud hyn. Yna mae hyn yn ôl-danio ar y twyllwyr, neu bobl sy’n anwybyddu’r ffigurau yn gyfan gwbl.

(Yna dywedodd y sawl a ofynnodd y cwestiwn fod newyddiadurwyr yn penderfynu a ddylid defnyddio’r artistiaid ar sail niferoedd ffug. Nid wyf yn gwybod ai yw hyn yn parhau i fod yn wir.)

Efallai ei bod yn werth cael nifer onest ond isel o ‘ddarllediadau’ os yw eich cerddoriaeth newydd gael ei llwytho i fyny. Gall pethau nad ydynt yn cael gormod o sylw weithio!

Cwestiwn: yn yr hen ddyddiau byddem yn chwilio drwy recordiau finyl. Gallai bandiau greu cymuned yn eu hardal leol. Nawr mae cymaint o gystadleuaeth gan fandiau eraill ledled y byd. Ai cleddyf dau finiog yw hyn?

Ydi mae’n gleddyf dau finiog gan fod cyfnodau canolbwyntio pobl yn gyfyngedig. Disgrifiwyd ‘arlein’ fel attention economy. Mae’n bosibl i bobl gyrchu pob math o bethau, nid cerddoriaeth yn unig. Felly mae’n rhaid i’ch cerddoriaeth fod yn dda wrth gwrs.

Y fantais, ar y llaw arall, yw ei bod o bosibl yn haws canfod cynulleidfaoedd rhyngwladol megis yn Japan ac America – lle mae galw mawr yn ôl pob tebyg am gerddoriaeth o Gymru!

Rhoddodd rywun yr enghraifft o fargen drwyddedu lwyddiannus ar gyfer ymgyrch hysbysebu mewn maes arall. (Credaf mai’r awgrym yma oedd bod hyn wedi ei gyflawni diolch i arlein).

Cwestiwn: beth am ansawdd? Mae cymaint o sothach arlein.

Byddai hyn yn destun dadl dda mewn tafarn. Yn bersonol rwyf yn meddwl fod sothach wedi bodoli erioed, ond ei fod wedi ei ddosbarthu’n fwy cyfartal yn yr achos hwn.

Yr hyn sy’n bwysig yw cael ffilteri da – pobl a ffynonellau ydych chi’n ymddiried ynddynt.

Ac yn achos cwmnïau cerddoriaeth sy’n chwilio am artistiaid i weithio â hwy, mae gan Geoff Travis, Rough Trade hen ddyfyniad sy’n dal yn berthnasol: “gweithiwch gydag athrylith bob amser”. Ni ellir dadlau â hynny.

Cwestiwn: beth yw eich barn chi am Spotify?

Mae Spotify yn wasanaeth ffrydio cerddoriaeth. Rwyf wrth fy modd gydag ef. Mae’n cynnwys hysbysebion ond ymddengys bod eu model yn seiliedig ar danysgrifiadau taledig. Pwrpas yr hysbysebion mae’n debyg yw cythruddo edmygwyr cerddoriaeth fel eu bod yn tanysgrifio! Nid wyf yn mynd i argymell Spotify i bob artist a label ond mae llawer o bobl yn ei hoffi. Fel gydag unrhyw fargen, trafodwch hi gyda’ch dosbarthwr digidol ac edrychwch ar y ffigurau. Ar y cyfan gallai gwasanaethau tanysgrifio fod yn ffordd arall o werthu copïau o albymau, e.e. eMusic, Nokia Comes With Music. (Sylw ynglyn â allai rhywun sefydlu rhwydwaith fewnol i gael cerddoriaeth Gymreig ar wasanaethau tanysgrifio neu gael gwasanaeth tanysgrifio Cymreig. Sylwadau eraill y tu allan i gwmpas ein trafodaeth.)

(Sylw yn gofyn a yw’n niweidio refeniw arall. Roedd rhywun yn edrych ar y posibilrwydd o ryddhau un trac yn hytrach nag albym gyfan.) Allaf i ddim ateb hyn’na i chi. Gallai fod yn ‘ganibaleiddio’ neu gallai fod yn “arian wedi ei ddarganfod”, yn dibynnu ar yr hyn yr ydych yn ei wneud. Mae’n benderfyniad busnes yr ydych, unwaith eto, yn ei wneud yn seiliedig ar gyngor dosbarthydd digidol a gwybodaeth o rywle arall.

Mae llawer o drafodaethau arlein ar refeniw am gynnwys, e.e. http://paidcontent.co.uk – Rwyf yma i ddweud wrthych y dylech danysgrifio i RSS a bod yn graff!

Cwestiwn: yn gynharach gwnaethoch grybwyll adolygiad The Guardian o fand – sy’n ddiddorol

Ie, roeddwn yn gwybod am hynny gan fod rhywun wedi postio cyswllt ar Twitter!

(Cawsom drafodaeth wedyn am werth cymharol adolygiadau papur newydd a blogiau.) Rydw i’n credu os ydych chi’n dda ac os oes gennych PR da yna mae’n bosibl ichi gael, dyweder, adolygiad gan y Guardian i bob albym neu ar gyfer gig amlwg. Yn sicr nid wyf yn dibrisio gwerth sylw gan bapurau newydd wrth siarad am gyfryngau cymdeithasol. Cyn belled ag y mae eich ymdrechion chi yn y cwestiwn, nid oes unrhyw gystadleuaeth rhwng y ddau.

Mae gwerth potensial ymrwymiad cyfryngau cymdeithasol da yn tyfu.

Cyfeiriadau

Diffiniad cyfryngau cymdeithasol – mae hwn yn ddyfyniad heb ei briodoli a gymerwyd o Wikipedia ond sy’n gweithio’n ddigon da.

Rhai dyfyniadau eraill (mewn llythrennau italig) wedi eu cymryd o What The F**k is Social Media gan Marta Kagen
http://www.slideshare.net/mzkagan/what-the-fk-social-media

Roedd y logos yn eiddo i’w cwmnïau priodol.

Trwydded

Diogelir y nodiadau uchod gan Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported Licence.

Os ydych eisiau eu rhannu, gweler yr amodau yn
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Today’s is thru-you.com which showcases the work of Kutiman. It’s fairly self-explanatory, he’s creating original tunes by splicing together YouTube videos of people jamming with solo instruments.

The execution is the kind for which we’d reserve the word “awesome”. If you click the credits button to navigate the source material, you’ll realise he’s:

• not cheating here
• probably an amazingly patient person

None of this is by permission of the source creators it would seem. But these are mostly hobbyist musicians who’ve posted up their material for the joy of it. And I don’t think they’d mind being subject to such a splendid treatment. I mean, would you?

(For the link, cheers to Lessig and Colin Consterdine – it appears this has been online for a few weeks now. Techcrunch think he’s the first music “star” to be born on Twitter. Hard to disagree.)

It’s a great conversation starter, especially if you’re in the news business or indeed any form of “content” business.

After reading such an insightful person put the following, your response could be one of fear or excitement. It may depend on what business you’re in.

So who covers all that news if some significant fraction of the currently employed newspaper people lose their jobs?

I don’t know. Nobody knows. We’re collectively living through 1500, when it’s easier to see what’s broken than what will replace it. The internet turns 40 this fall. Access by the general public is less than half that age. Web use, as a normal part of life for a majority of the developed world, is less than half that age. We just got here. Even the revolutionaries can’t predict what will happen.

If you have a spare weekend you could also:

- Watch a Shirky speech on video

- Plough through some analysis on pages that link to the Shirky piece

- Peek into Shirky’s research process via his Delicious bookmarks

Have fun. You never know, you might find a radical new model for a news service.

There are plenty of people saying this music streaming service is amazing, they’re all correct and you can read their writings. So I tried to give the blog post a record label perspective, as that’s my background and my distinctive.

Cover what you do best and link to the rest!

We are blog and news junkies here at Native. (We need to be.)

One thing that amuses me is when commentators emerge from the woodwork to direct their earnest advice towards the business and technology strategies of Google.

Google’s huge success in building an empire on search advertising is very well known. It’s enabled them to launch an entire suite of web-based applications.

(It’s likely you might be reading this blog post in Google Reader or Google Mail, for instance. If not, maybe you’re using their Google Chrome browser.)

But daily, hourly even, there is no shortage of people with some nugget of insight. Or withering putdown.

When you’re the best, you are at your most visible and you are the biggest target for ill-conceived challenges. Just ask any boxing champion who has to walk into a bar.

Admittedly Google’s recent 4th quarter financial results were down. But considering a tough market for advertising in general, they continue to do comparatively well – beating analysts’ forecasts with net profits of $382 million.

Media commentator Jeff Jarvis’ overall premise is different. While not without his own critics, Jarvis is not foolish enough to take cheap shots at the fastest growing company of recent times.

Jarvis has some good insights on his blog and Guardian newspaper pieces. I for one am looking forward to reading his new book What Would Google Do?.

His subject scope is large, judging from this book teaser:

It seems as if no company, executive, or institution truly understands how to survive and prosper in the internet age.

Except Google.

So, faced with most any challenge today, it makes sense to ask: WWGD? What would Google do? In management, commerce, news, media, manufacturing, marketing, service industries, investing, politics, government, and even education and religion, answering that question is a key to navigating a world that has changed radically and forever.

So, WWGD? (I’m looking forward to the bracelet and sandal franchises.)

Jarvis’ background is old school print journalism, so it helps to view his commentary as coming from that perspective. You might remember him from his Dell Hell online campaign in 2005 when he openly criticised the PC manufacturer via his blog and became responsible, in part, for the subsequent improvements to their customer service.

If you’re looking for more detail from Jarvis, read The Google Economy and The Imperatives of the Link Economy.

The book is out next week on Collins. (I wonder if News Corporation, their parent company, have anything to say about it.)

With the whole downloading thing I suppose it’s easier for people to have an opinion immediately after they’ve heard, like, half of a 128kbps vinyl rip or something like that. What are your views on leaks?

We take whatever minimal steps we can to prevent it, but we know records are going to leak. It’s not even about whether it’s free or not free, I mean the day you release it it’s free to the world anyway, what with the technology these days…

I have a lot of strong personal feelings about how people consume music these days, even myself. That’s why I have these feelings; because I can see how my own listening habits have degraded over the years with the advent of the internet.

Like, when people tell me about a new band that I should check out, before I would have gone and bought the record but now I go to Myspace and listen to 20 seconds of their song through my laptop speakers and I’m like ‘whatever’ – I think that’s disgusting on my part to form an opinion that way. I’m trying to break myself out of the habit. People ask, ‘why do you give a shit about a leak, it’s going to leak anyway, it’s such an outdated, antiquated way of approaching music’ and I guess that’s true, but I’m unapologetic about it, in a way, growing up in a time when the internet wasn’t around.

I always think back to when I discovered Will Oldham’s music… at first I bought the record because it was on Drag City and I was like, ‘Well, I don’t get this, is it country music or is it Americana music? It doesn’t sound like Pavement, I don’t get it’. Y’know, I was like 15 years old and if it had just been MP3s on my computer that I didn’t buy or have a physical copy of I’d probably just have deleted it and never listened again. But because it stayed on my shelf I put in effort to get into it, I kept going back to it. And there’s just one day, I don’t know if it’s because the weather is right or you’re just in a different mood, but it suddenly clicks for you.

Personally, I don’t have that many experiences like that anymore because I’ve been taken in by the accessibility of music and I’m disappointed by what that’s done to _my_ music. That’s why I’m not into the whole leak culture or digital music in general. I don’t want to take part in it by being, like, ‘Leak our record’ or whatever. Even streaming it before it’s released, that goes against my views on how music should be listened to. Doing that or putting it on iTunes first, it’s giving people another option from which they can hear your music for the first time. That’s my feeling, it’s very personal and it has nothing to do with the industry war that’s going on right now or anything like that.

Full interview at drownedinsound.com

If you’re unfamiliar with them, Animal Collective are perhaps best described as an avant garde psychedelic folk band. Although they are sounding a bit more polished these days. What does it matter? Hardcore fans will probably disagree with my descriptions.

You can judge for yourself by listening to their official Myspace page, presumably maintained by one of the other members, judging by Geologist’s views on music streaming.

I’m inclined to see his point here, but I disagree that this view holds in every case.

Certainly though, the fan’s experience is important.

What do you think?

You could also explore this debate in a video context. Which reminds me – Monty Python have a view on this issue. They recently launched a free and official streaming channel for Monty Python highlights on YouTube, partly out of disappointment with the poor quality of unofficial uploads. In their case, official DVD sales through their official site increased by 6,800 percent over the first three days, as a result.

His observations are astute. If you work in the creative industries, his recommendations for the future of copyright law may provoke, dismay, shock, delight or inspire you. It really depends on your point of view.

I’d like to mention Lessig here because, whether you like him or not, you cannot ignore the remix, mash-up and reappropriation mindset which totally pervades our culture right now.

If you’re a writer, artist, musician, photographer, record label, song publisher, book publisher, production company or TV channel, his work will in some way already intersect with what you do.

Here’s an interview between Lessig and presenter Stephen Colbert, originally broadcast on US television on 8th January 2009. If you’re not familiar with Colbert, his signature deadpan style can be an acquired taste. It’s better to view this whole clip as a stunt, for reasons I’ll describe below.

Certainly Lessig has a lot of insightful things to say but, in among the joking from Colbert, you won’t get the subtleties here. You get a mere taste of what’s in his new book, simply entitled Remix.

It’s somewhat ironic that an early copy of this video stream was removed at the request of Viacom, who – despite what Colbert or Lessig might say – are the actual owners of the footage. If you’ll recall, Viacom fought an expensive legal battle with YouTube to assert just that, with regard to hundreds of other clips.

So if it has been taken down by the time you read this, in the clip Colbert repeatedly tells us NOT to remix the clip.

Of course, in keeping with his affected comic personality, Colbert is in full knowledge that he’s baiting the bedroom video editors and remixers around the globe.

These are people familiar with music sampling (whether via hip-hop records, Fatboy Slim or Kylie), copying, parodies, re-edits, homages, music mash-ups, LOLcats, Banksy… and much more. Oh, and Sleeveface.

Original is best right? Well, not always.

Besides, what original version? Back in my schooldays I originally heard the tune Can I Kick It? by A Tribe Called Quest years before discovering the original source of the bassline, Take A Walk On The Wildside by Lou Reed. This was my first awareness that digital sampling was taking place in music – which blew my young mind. (I learned about the intricacies of copyright law much later.)

Back to Lessig and Colbert – and it wasn’t long before the remixes did appear.

Here’s one unofficial remix of the Colbert clip with Lessig. At the time of writing, YouTube alone has 17 search results for “colbert lessig remix”.

I can’t vouch for the quality or content of any of these DIY remixes. That’s a job for the vociferous YouTube commenters. But we do know that the remixes are reaching people who would never have seen the original programme. People who had never previously heard of Colbert or Lessig.

Marketing people, take note.

All this may explain why rap artists often put out acappella versions of their tracks, usually on the official release. Remix-friendly stuff! Let’s face it, hip-hop is a genre of excellent marketers and self-promoters.

We live in a world where a large section of the population feels that they “own” their favourite songs, books and shows. Of course, when copyright law is taken into consideration this is technically mistaken. And there are huge problems with this. Copyright is not only a legal structure which allows revenue generation but one which protects moral rights.

But what happens if we forget about the problems for a moment? There are opportunities here.

What if we could get the marketing department and the legal department to trade places? If only for one day?

Actually let’s forget about monetising, owning or controlling views of a particular piece of content. Again, this is just for a moment and just for a thought experiment. Let’s imagine one of the best items of work from your catalogue being deliberately released in a different way.

What if the ONLY thing we cared about was having people consume and spread that piece of content? And then to adapt it, re-appropriate it or engage with it? Imagine it. Colbert did, can you?

I have so many more intriguing examples to share. But let’s leave this open for now.