Another Post About Music & Marketing: Why Music Shouldn't Be One Way Communication

If you didn't catch my post about music commercialization, that's cool, but here comes another one in a similar vein.

Bands don't need to be a one-way vehicle of communication. Fifty years ago, that wasn't much of an option. Bands would play at huge venues and walk off the stage, not interacting with the crowd aside from the stereotypical "THANK YOU, BOSTON!" followed by crazed fans going wild. Yeah, technically there was a response there, but it's shallow and doesn't mean a whole lot.

And then the internet was born.

What did that do for bands? It could have potentially done a lot, but music has remained a pretty one-way street in terms of communicating to listeners, even after the rise of sites like MySpace and Facebook. Most bands will frequently post something on Facebook, but I hardly see any interaction on their end.

Twitter's proliferation has certainly reversed this cycle a bit. Some bands frequently respond to questions, post photos with an end goal of inciting a response, and retweeting comments. This is a vast improvement for communicating with listeners on a somewhat more personal level. I still have yet to see a response for something like "this album sucks," but it is still a good development. I have one complaint though: I hate bands that just retweet a string of positive things about them. Do you not have to say for yourself or are you really just that self absorbed (I'm talking to you Sam Adams, and no, you don't get a pass for being a half-baked college rapper).

Other than Twitter, I've seen one great attempt to reach out to listeners and get them involved in something I don't really think has ever been attempted before: production. Manchester Orchestra, an indie band with an epic sound that I love to death, went beyond the traditional Facebook and Twitter blitz surrounding their new-ish album Simple Math (though they did that too). 

Manchester Orchestra's
Simple Math

They created a microsite called webuiltthishouse.com where listeners can log on with their SoundCloud accounts and record themselves singing the chorus of the single "Virgin," which sounds like a children's choir in the official version, off the album. After an undisclosed period, Manchester Orchestra will collect all the recordings, mash them together, layer it into the song with the band, and then release it as a free download. Is that not cool or what? Listeners not only have an influence in how it turns out, they get to be a part of the recording!

This site was nominated for the 2012 Music Interactive Award at SXSW, which is pretty sweet. It definitely should have won, in my own semi-professional (I'm pursuing a career in advertising, but alas I'm still in college) opinion.

By giving diehard fans a special treat like this, Manchester Orchestra is creating an open environment for creativity and socialization, something largely absent from the music industry at this current time. More bands need to hop on this train. The possibilities go way beyond having a MySpace page that you never update anymore.

Here's a video of the original song. Keep an eye out for the free download and, if you're interested, you can still get your voice in it: