Social Media and Learning

It has really never been easier to teach yourself to play an instrument, or learn how to make your own hip hop beats, or become really good at mastering your own music. That's really scary for a lot of musicians, and in a lot of ways it is making the industry more oversaturated than ever. I think it's also making music more diverse and interesting, even if it comes at the cost of the demise of music as we've known it for the past 70 years.

Any question you might have about music (or anything, really) has probably been answered on a blog or video tutorial. This means that people like me can become knowledgable about music at our own pace, and fueled by our own interest, which is really the best way to learn something. Youtube has become the go to place to get instructional videos on how to play songs, and in my personal experience, it's a great place to learn production tricks. Some vloggers exclusively make videos explaining how to produce music that took professionals years of practice to achieve, all while these techniques become obsolete aesthetically because of overuse. Even so, producers are constantly pushing the envelope when it comes technique, and this has resulted in one of the most vibrant musical cultures that the world has ever seen.

So many perspectives and few opportunities for success mean that musicians are fighting tooth and nail to be the best. While I don't think this is necessarily good for the status quo, I am interested (and terrified) to see how this influx of music will play out.

Facebook and Influence

   Oh, Facebook. As if I didn't already have enough weird anticipatory insecurity leading up to the Solar Estates debut show this weekend. I've checked the band page at least twenty times a day since launching our single, and I'm in constant state of uncertainty about whether I'm posting too much? Or maybe not enough? And why haven't we gotten more likes this week? And is this thing even working right? 

   My personal Facebook page I really don't care too much about. At this point, I don't know that many people my age that really care about their Facebook. But we keep them because what would happen if we didn't have one? I don't know? I'm sure we would miss something, right? That's really the power that Zuckerberg has over us though: things are still happening on Facebook, and it's the simplest way to make sure that mass amounts of people know about your event or project, and that connection with potentially thousands of people is the cornerstone of maintaining influence online. I really believe that Facebook is still around because people know that it is the source of a lot of information, and they want to be plugged directly into that source. And when it isn't the source of information, it is still a collection of information. All of the news and music blogs that I follow have Facebook pages that they link their articles to every day, and that is the main way that I receive music news. I follow at least a few of those blogs because one of my friends shared a FB post that the blog made, and from there it's really simple to just click on the page link and hit "follow." 

   It goes without saying that having a well manicured Facebook page, and making it clear that your page is the place to go for up to date information about your music will cause your influence to spread exponentially. It's why every major politician, business, and band has one. It is central. It is the first site everyone visits when they get onto their computer. At this point, it isn't something we choose to do, it's something we need to do. The content may not always matter to people, but if you get enough of them "liking" and commenting on something that you've posted, then others will pay attention too. 

   Unfortunately, my Facebook page is still in that awkward growing up phase, because no one puts much stock into something that hasn't proven itself yet. That will hopefully change this Saturday.