Musicians using Google+

[marcustaylor]

Heya guys,

Is anyone here using Google+ to promote their music? Would be interested to know what people's general thoughts are. I can see both sides of the fence - on one hand, there isn't a large userbase actively using it at the moment (besides the tech community) so it's arguably not yet very relevant, but I imagine it will be soon. On the other hand, if it integrates further with YouTube I can see it having a pretty big impact on how music videos is shared. There's also not been any musicians doing anything innovative on it yet so possibly potential for 'the first band to use G+ to creatively reach new fans'.

Thoughts?

[Tarekith]

I like the layout and features so much better than Facebook, but sadly there's just not as many people using it, so it's still a second runner for me.

[beats me]

I read there's now something like 400 million users registered now (half of facebook's body count?)

I'm about a week away from killing my facebook account because it's more annoying than it is helpful to me. Granted I haven't been that active on it but I think at this point in the game it's a little late to go all in and I'd like to free myself of the illusion that my "friends" actually give a shit about anything I have to post.

I think social networking has had quite the opposite effect on "social". It makes people socially lazy and impersonal.

[simmerdown]

i started one when it came out, but then deleted...more email from the same people

like any forum , the more time you put in, the more...

but since i linked to souncloud anyway, ppl were probably just getting double mssgs from me

maybe ill re-up later when theres more going on

the setup was nice though, clean look and use...

[marcustaylor]

I remember reading that it had 62 million users, the only thing is there's a BIG difference between someone who's signed up out of confusion and never logged in again and an active user who spends on average 45 minutes on the social network daily. I think it's a pretty good opportunity for artists to get ahead of the gun and do some innovative stuff, but beyond that it's a bit of a ghost town.

That said, i'm going to *try* and create a bit of a community on G+ around my site for musicians (The Musicians Guide) so if anyone does fancy giving G+ a shot i'm going to be giving £30 worth of marketing supplies from Vistaprint to someone who 'circles' TMG in the next week. If interested here's the low down: http://www.themusiciansguide.co.uk/blog ... our-music/

I'll share any other insights I hear from musicians on here, will tweet about it tonight to see what others think.

Marcus

[Angstrom]

started one up when it launched, hoping for decent Musician-to-listener tools, and was quickly disappointed by what is essentially a lame Facebook+Twitter clone with no further benefits

The over-integration and appropriation of my online identity and the 'real names' policy, indicated that the whole Google business plan is to sell my behavioural data to corporations.

If they want to sell me as a product they need to cut me in on the rewards.

I deleted it, with explanation : they are now more evil than Facebook, but more inept at implementing it. Which is quite an achievement.

[beats me]

I recall reading around the time G+ opened to the public that there was some hope that Google would make it more musician friendly a la Myspace because since that took a dive and Facebook took over there has been a serious void in that department. Soundcloud doesn’t count because that’s mostly musicians connecting with other musicians. There needs to be a site connecting musicians to the general public, and a site the general public would actually frequent.

[simmerdown]

thing is, the general public does not generally give a general shit about music they can find on itunes or hear on the radio or tv..by far the main audience for home producers is other home producers, imo the web is not going to change that...on the contrary....

[Angstrom]

not true, not at all.

I know a lot of people in another performance industry (not music) and they all have Facebook "pages" with many thousands of actual real life 'friends/fans' on there. Fans who would really go to their performances and like to be in a social network with the performer.

These performers are not big-time TV folks, they are just small club-level entertainers that appeal to a certain scene. very equivalent to a low level musician. However, their scene is not music but image based so consequently there is no hindrance to them using Facebook to manage their promo and audience interaction. No copyright issues squashing the uploading of their content imposed by EMI, Sony or BMG.

It is perfectly possible that the people in my local area who like small-time local bands would like to listen to their recent tunes, buy songs and be reminded about their upcoming gigs. It is equally likely that they would appreciate a social web system that allows this.

MySpace actually did this stumblingly well, it formed a bridge between local artists and local punters.
Soundcloud meanwhile does this connection abysmally, it's absolutely got the wrong idea, it's only for producers with no space for normal people to hang out. It's not virtual nightclub it's a virtual studio where punters feel out-of-place.
Facebook, twitter, Google+ does it fine-enough for any performer who is non-musical (IE they are textual, or image based)

I fully believe therefore, based on the 'proof' I can see with my own eyes there is a good untapped market for a social network which includes both music makers and music listeners.
I'd make one, but the capitalisation is painful.

[simmerdown]

that all sounds reasonable...i was refering (in my mind) to non-performing bedroom producers, who just want to be heard and get feedback etc...

i can see how networking a live performance fanbase is helped by the social media...but not by G+ though (yet)...bc theres no one there(yet) lol

[Muzik 4 Machines]

i'm on it since it started, but i prefer facebook for sharing music cause it has a built in player taht g+ doesnt have yet
https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/113193428 ... 2293/posts