Internet Artists Rising To The Top…
Posted January 13, 2008 — in Music News
A few years ago new artists generally got started by exposing their music on local radio stations and performing local shows. Program Directors at radio stations and promoters at local clubs were involved in discovering artists that had the goods and helped them along the way by promoting their music and the live show hoping it would connect to a larger audience. Unfortunately, new artists working for exposure were left fending for themselves when radio became too corporate.
For years we along with others have been claiming that the internet will be the new platform for exposure and now its happening. Its no longer an idea, its a reality. A recent column entitled ‘Internet Swingers‘ appeared in the NY Post that discusses new talent rising from the internet.
Both Colbie Caillat (Republic) and Sara Bareilles (Epic) have top 10 songs on the Billboard singles charts and both built their buzz on the internet, not local radio. They exposed their music on Myspace, Youtube and other mediums on the web that led them to the top of the pop music charts.
Colbie Caillat spent four months as Myspace’s most played unsigned artist before signing a major deal with Republic Records. Now, she is sitting pretty with 1.1 million albums sold and 2 million paid downloads with her song ‘Bubbly’.
Sara Bareilles shares a similar story. Her record ‘Little Voice’ sold 233k since its July release and topped the iTunes albums chart in her first week long before physical sales and airplay kicked in. Her single ‘Love Song’ which has sold 800k in downloads got its momentum from Myspace, YouTube, and a limited time iTunes giveaway.
Tom from Myspace just earned 5 Stars in music discovery!
I agree I look on myspace more than i listen to radio my favorite band ADELITAS WAY is a band i found on myspace they are sooo hott!!!!:) it makes people like me feel like i found artists first. other bands i love are panic! at the disco who i also found on myspace it rocks when you actually get a band who doesnt suck
Comment by alexandra — January 13, 2008 @ 10:04 pm
I found bubbly on myspace a while ago and now i hear it every day on radio!
Comment by rich — January 13, 2008 @ 10:18 pm
I’m a little confused with this post because a few weeks ago, you guys posted that the social networking sites were on their way down in 2008.
These sites are no where near on their way down and once Facebook figures out its music platform, I see it surpassing MySpace.
Purevolume and MySpace are my places to find new bands, for sure.
Comment by tim.towner — January 14, 2008 @ 4:19 am
“with 1.1 million albums sold and 2 million paid downloads ” could be we are starting to really see “the next generation” of music fans.
ok KOAR, how about some homework here.
1.1 million albums sold, physical? or downloaded
2.are we seeing more owners of i-pods than cd players?
3.any guest of the amount of songs stolen?
my grandson’s band is getting 300 plays a day and their average age is 17.instead of this being a trend…is now the “norm”.
maybe Myspace should look into it’s own “internet radio channels” and start playing bands from it’s members myspace pages. if this was to happen any band would be able sell a million tunes with no problems.
Comment by larry anderson — January 14, 2008 @ 6:31 am
Tim - I think you are a bit confused because KOAR never said that Myspace is on the way down.
Koar posted
“Social features will wend their way into all kinds of Web services, from search to news, but the gold rush in social networks themselves will begin to wane.”
Every minute and a half a new social networking site pops up with some fruity investor. the gold rush refers to rapid movement of people into an area where gold has been discovered…The gold rush in social networking sites will begin to wane.
Understand Tim?
Comment by tina — January 14, 2008 @ 8:15 am
The bigger picture here is the switch to the pull system from the push system. Kids especially would rather feel like they discovered a band than that someone is choosing a playlist for them. And everything from word of mouth to blog posts, etc lead straight to MySpace. As much as anything, it’s the aggregator of all this grassroots pull-promotion.
I always thought that (MySpace phenom) PlayRadioPlay sucked ass. But the new song on his myspace (Texas) is actually quite sweet. He’s not awful when he’s not biting Postal Service melodies, lyrics, & beats. And it features Ingrid Michaelson. An odd pairing, but it makes sense as they’re two of the biggest beneficiaries of this new system. I think that’s all quite telling. And I love that Ingrid has VH1 promotion & a link to cdbaby.com on her myspace.
Related to the shift, this is the best thing I’ve read on the internet in a long time.
Comment by Jon Cole — January 14, 2008 @ 10:23 am
myspace popularity is a symptom, not a cause
Comment by barrym — January 15, 2008 @ 6:25 pm