Potential fans today are more fragmented than ever. At Oniracom we believe that great content in as many places online as possible is important to provide little friction to any fans out there looking.
If there is anyone that could change my mind about this it is John Vanderslice. Mr. Vanderslice had an Mp3 blog back when pitchfork was still a tool used on a farms. As he puts it himself his eviscerated myspace is probably my favorite designed myspace page out there.
This got me thinking about two things. The first being that the official website should be the main hub for bands, not their social network pages. The level of control it brings to every aspect from design to content is important to bring a clear consistent artistic message. This is starting to happen more, but needs to be said.
The second and more debatable topic is whether it is necessary for a band to be on every social network. Seeing John Vanderslice’s myspace makes me wonder if it will be as important in the future. All these added points of contact to an artist dilutes the message, and also makes it harder to listen to fans.
Possible solutions are to continue to use most social networks, but only for their strengths and nothing else, like John Vanderslice’s myspace. Or my favorite, use only a few, but focus heavily on being as engaged as possible in those communities.
