In decades gone by, misunderstood teens with questionable personal hygiene would gather in cramped independent record stores to share excitement about new music, enthuse about rare singles and discover other lost souls with a passion for southern Californian cowpunk.
But with the number of independent record stores in terminal decline and the boundaries of the internet limitless, online music social networks have sprung up to meet the demands of gregarious music lovers who want to share ideas and loves.
Tuesday sees the launch of The Pic-Nic Village, a new social networking site created by Pete Lawrence, founder of the Big Chill festival, which will be funded and run entirely by its users – the most recent of a wave of music social networking sites that is revolutionising the way people discover music. The new social network Meanwhile Ping, launched last week and based on iTunes, has already attracted more than 1 million users, according to Apple. Ping, which focuses purely on music, lets users follow their friends and favourite artists to discover what music they're talking about, listening to and downloading. It is taking on established rivals such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.
Social networks were putting the power of discovery into the hands of fans, said Dave Haynes of Soundcloud, another social network where artists can share music. "In the past, there were just a few gatekeepers to music, and you had a powerful network of labels, A&R men, radio and TV executives and magazines who decided what you should be listening to. Now, it's so much easier to find out what your friends are listening to or what other people who like the same music on the other side of the world are recommending."
The traditional bearded men behind the counter of record stores, ready with dozens of new music recommendations, haven't gone, he said. "Lots of those men behind counters have just moved online now, broadcasting their tastes and acting as arbiters. Now they can reach a more specific and worldwide audience rather than just the people in their shop."
More artists are using social networking sites to bypass the traditional media. This weekend, rapper Kanye West took to Twitter to tell his side of the MTV Video Music awards controversy where he grabbed the microphone from country music sweetheart Taylor Swift and announced that his friend Beyoncé should have won.
On Saturday he apologised, saying as a result of the debacle he had to cancel his tour with Lady Gaga and lost employees. He wrote: "Man I love Twitter … I've always been at the mercy of the press but no more … The media tried to demonise me".
Music blogger Bob Lefsetz pointed out that historically in music there has been a buffer between star and audience, but thanks to social networking sites the barriers were coming down. "It was like everybody with a media profile had a coach. And if you disobeyed him, you were booted from the team," he wrote. "But now, through the magic of the web, through the magic of Twitter, a celebrity can speak directly to his audience, can tell his side of the story, sans the reinterpretation and the agenda of the media."
Sites enable smaller labels and less mainstream artists to spread the word about their talents, said David Emery of Beggars Group, a collection of independent record labels. "Word of mouth has always been incredibly important to us and now it's easier than ever to get the word out there," he said. Different networks play different roles, he added. "Twitter is great for artists interacting directly with fans, like MIA, who has millions of followers and will do things like make a video on her phone and post it on Twitter. That is so much more powerful than traditional marketing. But Facebook is a powerful method of direct marketing. It's less personal, but fans don't seem to mind that."
By collaborating with big record labels and corporate giants desperate to get hold of users' personal data, social networks risk alienating the people they are attempting to bring together, said Lawrence, whose social networking site for "creatives" launches tomorrow. Pic-Nic Village will be subscription-based but will have no sponsorship, no company with a turnover of more than £5m will be able to invest in it and no stakeholder will be able to own more than 20% of the shares – issues such as privacy, which has proved problematic on social networking sites, will be treated with great care, he said.
The Pic-Nic Village – which will be funded by its users – will try to recapture the community and village feel that was demonstrated in the early days of the Big Chill festival, where ideas were shared on the festivals forums. "Festivals are stuck in the mud, the costs are fixed and one or two companies control the whole business.
"The Pic-Nic village will help people in the community put on events for themselves."
People were becoming more concerned about data mining and heavy-handed marketing, he added. "What we are trying to do is put the heart and soul back into online music communities. People need a place where they can enthuse and discover and they are doing it for the love of it, rather than the profit factor. Music is too important to be left in the hands of the music business."
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