With the pace of innovation increasing weekly, it's pretty hard for anyone to really catch up or be cutting edge for more than a month or so. One of my favorite bands, 3 Days Grace, is out and about on a national tour and I wanted to see when they were playing New York City as I'd love to go and see them.
Unfortunately, I didn't see a NYC tourdate on their website, but I did see an amazing page [for a band] that has a bunch of "web 2.0" type mashups. Check it out for yourself. The page includes a map that fans can click on and enter their information regarding which show they'll be attending, a social network around who is going to each show (with pictures on the main tour date page), and other elements of interactivity.
Zomba (record label) has done a great job of providing this service to 3 Days Grace - this is one of the first times I've seen any band do anything that allows fans to interact with their website that is not on a message board or chat room.
On a side note: I was on the way back from a 4 hour journey one afternoon and was listening to XM Satellite Radio. It happend to be a talk show and 3 Days Grace were discussing their upcoming self titled debut album (2003). I had never heard of the band before nor heard their hit song(s) but the interview was really intriguing. I decided to listen to all 45 minutes of the interview and then listen to the tracks that they played after their segment was over. Turns out, not only did I like the style of the band during the interview, but totally dug their music. I then went to the nearest store when I arrived back home in Saratoga Springs and bought their album in the local Borders. Turns out that radio promotion works.... who would have thought?
The social aspects of seeing what other users going to a concert are pretty amazing. Integrating that into a full online music community would be.. oh wait.. uh ... haystack :-)
Posted by: bill | August 22, 2006 at 06:02 PM