Uber Failure: The Listening Experiment

by Katie Morse

In light of my post explaining how to start listening across the social web, I thought I’d run a test to see which bands already were listening.  Plus, I really needed some new music.

It all started with this tweet:

I repeated the tweet a bit later on with the hashtag of the day (#musicmonday) to see if people were following the hashtag, rather than searching for the generic terms of “band” or “new music”.

I then posted variations of the tweets above that got the most response once a day for the next 6 days.

You know what was surprising? Aside from a band @ replying me because someone else @ replied them telling them to do so, not one single band, producer, singer/songwriter, guitarist, drummer, or any other kind of musician responded to my query.

I was pointed in the direction of numerous bands my friends liked, which was great… but that wasn’t the point.

The point was to see if any musicians were using even a basic Twitter search (like, oh, #musicmonday, or “looking for new music”, or “looking for new bands”).

There, now you have 4 searches you can subscribe to (get the RSS feeds in your Google Reader). You’re welcome!

Is anyone else as flabbergasted as I am that this failed on such a spectacular level?

Tagged as: listening, new music, Twitter

  • http://fryinginvein.com HubertGAM

    “I'd love to hear of some of the first things you remember discovering – what really made you realize that you had a lot to learn?”

    Once I was done with college, I started helping put on hip hop shows at a local venue where rock shows were usually held in town. At first, things went well. The novelty made for great attendance. It was a nice honeymoon, but alas, all good things came to an end and we had to figure out how to keep attendance up as the proprietors started to lose faith in the hip hop crowd.
    At the same time, I was actively getting my own music together and found out the value of having a strong network. My friends came out in droves to any show I did. It was then I realized that I needed to respect our bond and always provide something substantial to show appreciation.

    The two things I was missing from achieving any real success was an extended plan and an assistant/manager. Due to my short-term vision, when it came time to recording some serious material to sell commercially, I was so exhausted and uninspired. There was too much work to do and not enough time to get it done by myself. When I tried to write new music, it felt forced and cheap. That led to me bowing out and focusing on my life outside of music.

    It was at this point that I decided to learn more about business and found out how I was really close, but I was missing a few things in being successful at releasing a money-making product. Since then, I have been working my butt off to learn as much as I can in hopes that one day, I can be a part of a successful music-based product some day.

  • http://candidkatie.com Katie Morse

    Hubert – I think you hit on an important point – many people “don't know what they don't know” – and that's a really hard place to start from! Honestly, I write this blog to get my thoughts out of my head and on to “paper” (digitially speaking, anyway). Otherwise I annoy my friends to no end ;) . I enjoy it – plain and simple.

    I'd love to hear of some of the first things you remember discovering – what really made you realize that you had a lot to learn?

  • http://candidkatie.com Katie Morse

    Also a great tip – I may be a bit addicted to Pandora and LOVE to see who else likes the same music I do. Thanks for the comment!

  • http://www.dogwalkblog.com/ Rufus Dogg

    :-) Ok, then it has been MY EXPERIENCE that most musician tend to mask their ignorance and cynicism by “pretending” to be stubborn know-it-alls :-) Musicians falls into that category of “a lot of need” but no money, so I tend to not try real hard to convince them to change. If they seem interested in learning, then we perk up and help, but if they whack us down immediately like a mole at a carnival (usually the case) we smile and move on. Personally, I would love to help musicians as it is a cool field to be hob-nobbing in, but time and profit dictates help only to people who are willing and open to it. Sadly, a lot of musicians select themselves out of that pool too early and wind up working with charlatans (or their know-nothing brother-in-law or well-meaning-but-equally-clueless mom.) And they discover it far too late. Music is a very, very, very hard business. Few honest folks like Katie, you (I suspect) me (I know) here and can help. But, bills have to be paid. My music career efforts has long since been admitted into the weekend and evening hall of fame. :-)

  • http://twitter.com/SeamusCondron Seamus Condron

    Save a Twitter search for #pandora. If you're checking it one day and you find someone is listening to the same exact song as you at that very moment, maybe you've found your soulmate (at least your musical one).

  • http://fryinginvein.com HubertGAM

    Not sure I agree with musicians being “stubborn know-it-alls,” but I do think many of them are naturally cynical and clueless. There need to be more people like Katie here that are making themselves available to teach and not make such a pushy move to make money. Many creatives do not have enough capital to employ a digital consultant, so the best thing we can do is offer the advice free until someone takes it and becomes successful enough to hire one of us.

    I apply an “each one, teach one” message to my work. I got into music marketing by proxy of trying to push my own material and realized how much I didn't know. It was then I realized how hard it was as well. As soon as more people come to understand this, the better the new industry of music will be.

  • http://www.dogwalkblog.com/ Rufus Dogg

    I think most bands get their advice on social media, web sites, etc the same way they get all their other advice — on the streets. Early on, MySpace was a place where bands could post their music and get themselves heard. So, news like CNN and tech news raved about how MySpace was going to overtake traditional outlets, blah, blah, blah. The rest of the world has moved on, but “conventional” wisdom, once entrenched in an industry, is really, really hard to crow-bar out. Retail is the same way and education is clinging to their Listservs. Amazing when teachers emerge out of that cocoon through down-sizing or whatever and become unwilling entrepreneurs, they demand a Listserv in their marketing mix and fight tooth and nail when we tell them NOBODY, NOBODY uses Listservs anymore.. except teachers! Crazy, but true.

    Musicians are really stubborn know-it-alls or ignorant to a fault where they are easily led by unscrupulous “experts” who hear MySpace is the place for music. Not sure how to make anyone smarter about this.

  • http://fryinginvein.com HubertGAM

    It could be a brand issue. If you are not as well-known as a music professional, then folks may not pay attention for such things from you. I know I am constantly perplexed how many of people in my own music scene are unaware of my work. It's not like I keep it hidden.

    We may need to do a better job of making more noise about where we want people to focus their attention.

    To answer your big question though, I am not surprised, because I have done similar and gotten piss-poor results. The only people that respond are my friends, who I consult on the regular. Music acts need constant schooling it seems. We cannot let up or else our message will get lost in the sauce.

  • http://fryinginvein.com HubertGAM

    Rufus, where do you think artists are getting this advice? I don't see too many sites teaching artists to do anything that's terrible in scope.

  • http://candidkatie.com Katie Morse

    Aw, thanks neighbor! Really though, I agree about Twitter. I can't count the last time I looked at my entire stream of people I was following. I exclusively use lists, for better or for worse. Partially because of scale, partially because of noise.

    I also do follow other people's lists and peek in there sometimes, as I really miss the days when Twitter was useful for getting to know new people, instead of just keeping up with people I already know.

    A bit of a ramble, but oh well!

  • http://candidkatie.com Katie Morse

    It's not negative – and we see companies that are exactly the same. I think it's more a case of maturiy with using the tools rather than anything about being self-centered. Still – it goes to show the huge opportunity for bands that DO take that leap.

  • http://candidkatie.com Katie Morse

    I'd totally agree (and have a blog post coming up about that exact topic). Also, I think it goes to show how truly useless the #musicmonday hashtag has become. I used it and STILL only had my friends responding!

    Or – perhaps the problem is me? That could be it too, which I absolutely won't deny! I'm not anyone important by any stretch of the imagination.

  • http://www.dogwalkblog.com/ Rufus Dogg

    Nope. Bands are still stuck on MySpace. Musicians overall are getting some really, really bad advice regarding their online space.

  • http://twitter.com/zzramesses Corey Ellis

    Totally not surprised. 1) Most bands use twitter to broadcast messages. 2) I can honestly say I can't think of a single band that would have thought to set a twitter search beyond their name/branding. Artists are self-centered (no negative spin to be implied).

  • http://www.google.com/profiles/karrileawells Karri

    I feel like, in general, Twitter isn't as useful as it once was – precisely because of what you are describing in your post, people aren't listening. I just looked through my Twitter stream, and the majority of the people I follow are broadcasting messages rather than having two way conversations.

    This is a great nugget of advice – listen to Katie, she knows what she is talking about!

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