Facebook isn't free and always won't be.

I'm quite averse to the whole "Hey you guys, like this post and/or comment on this thing I just wrote" thing that Facebook seems to demand of us as musicians these days.  It's not that I don't want to communicate with our fans - actually, I love sharing stuff and hearing what they think about things.  The problem for me is the constant requirement of musicians to pump out endless status updates about the next single going to a particular radio station, or the next video being played for the first time on a tv channel, or the next tour even though it's three months away, just to keep your band "top of mind".  

I've read a few bits and pieces about how getting lots of likes for a particular update means that the next update you post will be seen by more fans, so in theory you're best to post something every single day and aim to keep increasing that number, and thus exposing your band to more and more people.  While I understand Facebook's motivation (basically, keep people using facebook as much as possible), I think that this approach, and social media in general results in average musicians who are good at facebook getting more attention than good musicians who are good at making music.

I feel like it's an insult to our fans as well - surely they would prefer that I just kept my head down and kept working on new songs, kept learning new stuff we can incorporate into our music, kept listening to other bands - doing things that ultimately mean I will (hopefully) write better music.  I'm not a marketing expert, and nor do I want to be.  I'd rather just focus on making the best music I can make, and when I have something really good to tell you about, I will do that.  That won't be several times a day, or even once a day.

I really liked how Gotye's song "Somebody that I used to know" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY) spread through people hearing the song and sharing it with their friends.  There was no "campaign".  There was no intentional "leveraging of social media" for this particular song.  He was just a regular musician who, after several albums and years of developing a fanbase, put out a new song that connected.  Those existing fans took it and ran with it, spreading the word to their friends, who shared it with theirs, and eventually he was #1 all over the world.  The link above has been viewed more than 300 million times.  This, in the face of artists such as Nicki Minaj and Rihanna, with million dollar marketing budgets and teams of songwriters and producers churning out hits for the masses, warms my heart.  I'm not particularly against either of the aforementioned artists (considering the talent they employ it's no surprise they are extremely successful) but the odds are so stacked in their favour, it means the Gotyes of this world never used to get heard.  Now, the internet means if we, as independent musicians, make something that is REALLY good, it has a much better chance of being heard.  If we make an incredible video, it is more likely to get seen.  As a New Zealand based musician, it's inspiring to see a band like The Naked and Famous blow up all over the world thanks to a great song (Young Blood) teamed with a video that perfectly encapsulates what the song is putting across.  The video has had 17m views and the band have successfully toured the world, often to sold out venues.  If you haven't already seen it, here is the video and the song.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdO85Qf4Poc

As we work on our second album, these things are what I am thinking about as we write.  It's a fantastic time to be a musician - there's no "angle" other than make the best stuff you can make, and hope that the world gets it.  Obviously we want the music to be good, and we always have.  The difference this time around is we are not at all concerned about whether radio will play our stuff.  While we appreciate that radio has given us an incredible platform through which to reach fans, what really matters for us now is making music that we love, and that we think listeners will love.  If a chorus doesn't come in til 1.45, but the song kills and we like it, that's fine.  If we have some album tracks that are just sonic textures that build and dissipate, and aren't really "songs" with choruses and traditional structures, that's ok too - not everything has to be a perfect 3.5 minute pop song.  That's a paradigm from before the internet.  Musicians and artists around the world have come to the same conclusion, and as the traditional gatekeepers (labels, radio, TV, magazines) lose their grip on what the world hears, sees and loves, artists are able to communicate directly with fans, with no interference, no marketing campaign, no bullshit.  Just people making art and people experiencing that art....

......and then.....

Since I started writing this post (I started it a couple of months ago, then forgot about it, then did some more, and then decided to finish it today), Facebook has become quite a bit more crap, now restricting posts to approximately 10% of your fans unless you pay to promote.  I'm not going to pay to promote posts and I guess neither are 99% of bands and pages on FB - instead we'll all just sit tight and wait for the next thing (almost definitely Google Plus, if they get their shit together and capitalise on FB's greed/dick moves), as Facebook slowly but surely slides into the same oblivion as Myspace did 3 or 4 years ago.  As usual, "the market" (Facebook's shareholders/dicks) wants more profit, and fuck the people that are trying to do something cool or rely on Facebook to reach the people that actually want to hear from them.  It's a wake up call (and not for the first time, it has to be said) that we can't rely on social networking sites to always exist in a benign and mostly helpful capacity - eventually they will be overrun with ads and bullshit and cease to be fun to interact with.  Facebook is in unknown territory as by far the biggest of its kind, and maybe they will turn this around and go back to how things were before in the face of massive outcry and disgust, but I doubt it - I'd say they're committed to their own demise by way of charging us for something they gave us for free for so long that we all assumed that's how things would always be.

It's a real shame.  I had originally planned to end this post on a positive note, but even with their promise of Facebook being "free, and always will be" (which is all too similar to Google's commitment "Don't be evil" which they subsequently ignored when required to by the Chinese government), they have opted instead to fuck us all in their quest for shareholder returns.  So at this point, there is hope, but we haven't quite reached the point where the barriers are gone and artists and their fans can communicate freely, directly and in an unlimited way.  We were there for just a moment and it was great.  Hopefully we'll get back there soon.