WAV: the new kid on the block

        
          First, there was Facebook. Then YouTube and Twitter were created. But as technology improved, these online platforms became apps. Social media at your fingertips. With other social media networks like Instagram, Snapchat, and more joining the party in the past few years, there are an infinite amount of ways to update the world on the world of you - your likes, dislikes, favorites, hobbies, daily routines, thoughts and whatever else your heart desires.

Social media is not just a place to post and share, but to interact - each network has created a special community, a channel of interactions. These communities tend to be very broad because most of these social networks are geared around the type of communication, rather than what the actual topic of communication is. Yes, each network tries to divide into smaller communities or sections for topics, but there is still so much information about, well.... literally everything.....

So let's take a second to focus on a part of that everything, and think about something we all happen to love  

(yes there is actually something that we could all agree on)

We all love music. 
Yes, different genres and artists and songs are preferred by different people - but in general it is still one of the only things out there that we can really all share an interest in. Different opinions are EXPECTED of us - we are going to share our views and debate about the things we love. 

So, for music... where would you go to share your favorite song? Facebook? Twitter? Sending a link to a friend? Yes, it's possible to do all of these things, but it could be incredibly annoying for people who just don't give a shi*t about that 1 (or 50) new song(s) you discovered on Soundcloud while you procrastinated studying. 

That's why I am so happy to announce the newest member to the social network family - WAV. 

WAV is the FIRST ever social network for music. 

JUST music. 

That's it. 

It's one big, awesome, collective space to just 

"MUSIC TOGETHER"

This new startup company is based out of Orange County, California and just launched the app 3 days ago on Saturday April 16th, 2016. 

WAV is where your songs are AND where your friends are. WAV users can create "waves", or basically posts, that contain a shared song paired with commentary by the user. WAV is strictly a social media outlet for music discovery and discussion. It is not a place for streaming or downloading music, It has partnered with Spotify and SoundCloud's APIs, so users can use their existing libraries on these sites to share on this social music network. The company plans to add in Apple Music, Tidal, Google Play and other existing streaming services as soon as possible. 

"We’re changing the way we all listen to music by giving you more control over the songs in your libraries. You’re welcome."

Wav has a news feed similar to Twitter and Instagram, where friends and followers can also comment, like and re-share posts they like. Another cool feature is called "Journey", where you can see the trending music in different cities around the world.

The app is still in the very beginning stages, but it seems to show hope for a long life and great success. I'll definitely be watching the updates for this new social networking app, and follow WAV. Inc's personal journey. 

Jenner Chapman, founder and CEO of WAV, Inc shares where he sees WAV in the music industry. 

“My biggest hope is that WAV and the existing streaming services can work together. WAV is only as powerful as the music streaming services behind it. We do not want to compete in providing music to the consumer, we just want to bring people together by helping them share and discuss the music from the existing streaming services. In fact, we believe that WAV will drive more people to get a premium streaming service if they do not already have one, positively impacting the industry."

Find out more on the website and consider downloading the app!
http://wavmusicapp.com/

Magnolia Miracle; Putting An End To Ticket Scalping, One Miracle At A Time

So back in 2013 I found out about the greatest Facebook group and organization in the music community (or at least I think so!). One of my best friends wanted to see Pretty Lights for the first time, and wanted tickets to the sold out show in Atlanta the following week. Tickets sold out in about 5 minutes, and were only $50 with fees at the time. We were looking everywhere for tickets for her but could only find a $150 ticket on StubHub. As a broke college student, she didn't have $150 to just drop on one ticket and she definitely wasn't about to help a scalper make $100. Honestly, she didn't really feel comfortable spending even $50 and although unlikely, was looking for a cheaper ticket. All hope seemed lost until I posted in the 'Pretty Lights Family' group on Facebook and someone commented, "Have you ever heard about Magnolia Miracle? You should look in there! I'll add you so you can see what it's all about" After being accepted to this secret Facebook group, I was able to easily find someone selling a ticket, and for only $25! They conveniently lived in Athens and she met up with them to do a trade for the hard copy ticket. 

Photo Taken By Music Metamorphosis; Magnolia Miracle Interview

Kylie McGregor started the Facebook Group 
'Magnolia Miracle' in January 2010.
As of April 11, 2016, the Magnolia Miracle private Facebook group has 23,323 members - many new members are added daily. 

The organization is headquartered in Atlanta, so many of the posts for tickets are within the Southern region - obviously a huge portion in Atlanta and Athens. Although, when summer festival season rolls around, the locations of members looking for tickets are spread across the entire country.

Kylie's vision has always been to help people find tickets at FACE VALUE or LESS. There are a lot of rules you must abide by, but that is to protect all of the members, and the integrity of this community.

Not only are people allowed to post about selling tickets, but people also regularly make an "ISO" (In Search Of) post, when they're looking  and in need of a ticket. 

Facebook has recently updated to create a "For Sale" tab in groups, making this entire process even easier on users. This section looks like the screenshot below:

Magnolia Miracle is trying to stop illegal scalping for good.  

Scalping is such a huge problem now, and many people regularly pay twice as much, to sometimes even 10x the actual price for a ticket. This disgusts me. I really hate scalpers. People who love music and just want to see their favorite artists shouldn't have to be spending all this money. It's just not fair - which is obviously why it's illegal. The problem is, it is SO hard to police. 

As New York Daily News shows, the highest priced band from ticket resellers was the Grateful Dead in 2015, with tickets costing $1016.20 on average (face value: $71.17). Madonna trailed in second at nearly half the cost, with tickets approximating $496.82.

Another problem is online ticket fraud. 

According to new research:

"Online ticket fraud leapt by 55% in 2015 as criminals increasingly made use of social media to rip off music and sports fans, according to new research. More than a fifth of the crimes were instigated via Facebook, with Twitter accounting for a further 6%. "

Purchasers of tickets sometimes post pictures of them on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Scammers search sites for such posts and are able to create fake tickets by copying the barcode. It means that when the genuine holder arrives at the event, he or she could find that someone who bought one of the fakes has already used it to get in.

The figures come in the wake of warnings that some fans are putting themselves at risk by sharing images of event tickets on social media sites that can then be used by scammers to create fakes. 

This is where Magnolia Miracle comes in and does its REAL job, 

other than helping people just find or sell tickets. 

The phrase "Keep it in the Family" is often used by Magnolia members - it refers to keeping the tickets amongst people without profit as their primary intention, because we are all family. 

One of the most useful things Magnolia does to help its members is that the admins have created a file for all of the people banned from the group and people you should BEWARE OF and not trust under any circumstances. There is a huge list of people known in the music community to have scammed MANY people out of a lot of money - for fake tickets. 

Also, People wanting to be added have to be approved by the admins, and have a statement from at least 1 other member (but this has been increasing to ensure the overall safety of Magnolia members).

Below I copied the guidelines everyone must follow before posting in the Facebook group - if you break a rule, you're kicked out - "Magnolia Miracle is not the place for you."

"Putting An End To Ticket Scalping, 

One Miracle At A Time"

music meshed with politics

This 2016 presidential election is revving up and getting heated. The political spectrum is extremely wide with Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders being on the complete opposite ends. From what I gathered online and on social media, people have very strong opinions regarding each of the candidates. It's interesting how in this day-and-age, we have social media to spread news and share our personal views on everything that's going on. It is crucial for candidates to be aware of and use these resources and see what the people are talking about. 

Yes, people share pictures, videos, articles and create communities to share in common views. But they're are some important people that need extra attention. These are the rich and famous, these are the people that have a huge following on social media and that following usually know everything about these people's lives. They live vicariously through them. But specifically, I want to talk about musicians.

Think about an artists fanbase: Fans look up to the artists and bands they love. They pay attention to what they're saying about the world and what others in that community are thinking. Candidates campaigns could really strengthen by gaining the support of these idols... but they also could feel the back end of it all. 

It seems to me like a lot of these artists are #feelingthebern. 

In Septempber, 128 "artists and cultural leaders" endorsed Sanders new vision for America and signed a letter which is displayed online on his website (https://berniesanders.com/artists/). 

The names range from rapper Killer Mike, to Chris Shiflett of the Foo Fighters. The Red Hot Chili Peppers have also gotten involved and hosted a fundraiser concert for him in Los Angeles. As months passed, even more musicians have come out and told their fans they're all about Bernie. 

A huge influence in the electronic dance music community is Bassnectar, who has almost 1,460,000 followers on Facebook, and 249,000 on Twitter. Bassnectar's community can be compared to that of the Grateful Dead. "Bassheads" compared to "Deadheads." 

I feel like most people wouldn't consider all these music lovers to be so interested, involved or knowledgable with politics. But I would completely disagree. I see it on social media. These 'bassheads' have created the Facebook group, "Bassheads for Bernie" with 11,444 extremely opinionated, passionate members.

I want to reiterate that they have 11,444 members... 11,444 people who love Bassnectar and his music, just as much as they love Bernie Sanders and his vision.

They created a Twitter account for the group as well. 

Recently with the primary elections, they have been posting pictures of the #bassheadsforbernie who voted in the election. 

They have also been seen wandering music festivals and attending concerts, promoting this group; convincing people to vote, sharing their ideas and then posting pictures of it all online. 

Okeechobee Music and Arts Festival - "HeadCount" Register to Vote Tent

As for Trump, he is definitely getting a lot of attention online from musicians, and to explain it as nicely as possible - I would say a majority do not like that he is running for the President of the United States. Their indecent language, and EXCESSIVE WRITING IN CAPS online on social media networks is what leads me to believe it. 

Bassnectar not only backs Bernie Sanders, but also strongly opposes Donald Trump. His fans, as many would agree with him, can really relate tweets like the one below about wanting to stop the horrible racism and aggressive attitude trump promotes at his rally's:

Diplo, popular DJ worldwide, has similar feelings.

Then the other day, rapper Mac Miller went on the Nightly Show with Larry Williams to explain his dislike for the candidate. Most people know he doesn't like him considering his song called "Donald Trump" made Trump so angry he tried to sue him.

 It didn't work though.

This video is quickly going viral, I think I saw about 7 of my friend's share it on Facebook yesterday, which is how I saw it, and using it in my blog post right now. And that is why social media is so important for the candidates, and for businesses. Once something is shared, it is shared and shared again, used as part of blogs, articles are written on it, and the news creates conversation. 

I bet, with the right person and the right content and the right fanbase, a viral post could seriously impact this election and change the game entirely. Curious to see what else happens in the coming months. 

Twittersphere

SuperBowl 50 was unbelievable... and yes i'm talking about the halftime show. (Happy the Broncos won, but wish it was a more interesting game...) The show's lineup included Coldplay back2back with Bruno Mars b2b Beyonce. WOW is right. It was a mix of extremely talented artists, but who share common interests in social issues - like the "believe in love" statement that was made by the crowd. It was vibrant and incredible to see on live television. The message spread like wildfire, as did numerous pictures, videos, and tweets about the event. 

Twitter has really become a marketers best friend. 

It is quick, simple and an effective strategy to share content. 

Beyoncé has 14.2 followers, but has only tweeted 8 times. She was a trending topic on twitter, but doesn't really engage. She actually is STILL #7/10 on the Trends list! Beyonce is somewhat of an exception though, because she is Beyonce and doesn't

need to do anything to be known and loved.  That's why she is Queen B.

Bruno Mars is a bit more active on Twitter.
One thing i noticed from stalking him on Twitter is that he sends his Instagram's to Twitter as well. It provides his followers with a link to the photo and the caption he used. Linking your different social media platforms is a #majorkey. 

Here are the two pictures he Instagram'd from the Superbowl. 

He also used some hashtags in his post to let people know he was playing at this years halftime show #SB50 #Halftime #Coldplay

And then there was Coldplay.

Coldplay did the best job at using Twitter to their advantage. They are definitely the most active out of the three, and used all sorts of tactics.

1. Their background photo is a colorful, splatter-painted band. Their profile picture is a football helmet with a rainbow paint-job. This helps the consumer make the easy connection of Coldplay to the SuperBowl. The rainbow also shows their stand on gay rights - good morals/values/views make people like you more!

2. They put "New album. A head Full of Dreams, out now worldwide." in their Twitter profile description. Every time someone clicks on their profile, they'll most likely see this. Smart.

3.  Not only did they post about their album in their bio, but they tweeted about it. They actually 'Pinned' the tweet to their profile. This means it always stays at the top of the page. So whenever you click on Coldplay, you'll see the information about the new album. You have a link to purchase it on iTunes and Google Play. This marketing effort makes users click-to-sale fast and easy. The album cover goes along with the rest of the colorful theme and important message.











4. They even posted a picture of their setlist on twitter! Followers can now I.D. all those songs they couldn't remember during the show. Followed with the #SB50 and #PepsiHalftime they marketed for the Super Bowl and Pepsi. Making money left and right.

LEARN HOW TO USE TWITTER. IT IS THE NEW FACEBOOK.

let them do the work

A music festival is a two, three or four day-long event with multiple stages, and multiple artists performing. There could be 1000 people at a smaller festival, but some of the larger festivals have over 100,000 in attendance. A ticket, for a larger festival, costs anywhere from $99 to $400. I have been to around fourteen large festivals since I started college in Fall of 2012. So if you do the math, I've spent thousands of dollars. Yes, I know, it's a lot of money. You probably think I'm crazy. But am I?

I wouldn't think so. I'm definitely not alone. I like to spend my money on experiences, not materialistic things. When you buy something tangible, a materialistic item, you want to be unique and the only one that has it. With a music festival or concert, you want to enjoy it with others so you can talk about your experience together. That experience is something that only you, and whoever attended the event, could truly understand. We love music, and we love all different genres and artists, so why not see them all at once?

A concert costs anywhere from $10 for a smaller artist, but for one of the headlining huge artists you could be paying upwards of $300 for nose-bleed seats. At a $300 music festival you could see 10, 20 or even 30 artists play. So spending $300 on one ticket for a festival doesn't really amount to so much.

Producers of large festivals spend millions of dollars for a reason. They're is a huge market and people will pay generously to attend. They're are so many channels for marketing that they should at least break even, but have the chance to really earn some profits.

How did a festival like Woodstock, who planned on 100,000 attendees, get over 500,000 to show up? That free price-tag was probably a big factor, but word-of-mouth was HUGE for Woodstock. People talked and marketed the event for the organizers. They told all of their friends, who told their friends, and so on; it spread like wildfire. This is why, today, the use of social media is so crucial for music festivals, and the music industry in general.

Producers are using word-of-mouth in a clever way. They do less of the work, and get others to do the work for them. They create a community of music lovers. These people want to share their love for music with the world,  and hope others will share in the experience of live shows. I know I share posts by music festivals and artists all the time on Facebook and Twitter. I want others to see and understand the experience i've had, and a lot of the photos and videos can help do that justice. I share the amazing lineups announced, so that my "festival friends" can stay in the loop.

We all listen in to each-other on social media, and music festivals producers have really started to strategize and listen in to their fans on social media. Hopefully my blog can continue to really listen in and gain insight on ways music festivals, concerts and artists promote themselves on social media.