Bands, Social Networking & The Death of The Website

It's a well known fact I'm a music geek, I'm damn proud of that too! I spend a great deal of my time researching bands; when they're in the studio working on a record, touring near my area, what went into their songwriting etc. Over the last couple years I've noticed an increasing trend where bands will frequently update their Facebook or Twitter pages, but their actual website (in which they pay for the domain space on a yearly basis) goes idle, saved only for the really big things like "New Album is out on Tuesday" or "New Album is out now!"

But on Twitter you'll see pictures from the tour, funny comments about something that happened back stage, or (if the band is smart) tweets about how excited they are to be in whatever city they're in & interaction with their fans. More of the same on FB, sometimes you get video of last nights performance, longer praise for how great the crowd was. The website? Still says "Album is out now" and only has pics from the last tour a few months back.

I think we're witnessing the death of the practical website for bands/musicians/artists. To send things off to a webmaster, wait for it all to be processed & updated takes too long, plus there's little interaction from the band. The best twitter accounts/FB pages are the ones where the band responds to peoples comments and you know it's the band as they sign off in a certain way that you know it's their personality, rather then the cold/blunt response from a webmaster or band rep.

The Pack a.d. http://thepackad.com/

 

The Pack a.d., Hollerado & USS (ubiquitous synergy seeker) are Canadian bands that do an excellent job of interaction with their fans; retweeting fan tweets, responding to questions or just general joking around that makes it seem like the band is your good friend.

 Hollerado http://www.hollerado.com

Truthfully, I'm glad it's taken this direction, it brings a human element to the online world & makes a band seem down to earth as well as respectable. Gone are the rock star attitudes of the past, in this day & age it doesn't matter who you are, those attitudes are never warranted.

USS http://www.ussmusic.com/

Only downside is that there isn't a great deal for a custom look on a bands twitter/FB page like there is with a website, small price to pay and I would imagine there are plans in place to fix that (if not, there's some very skilled hackers out there).

Only question now, is there actually a need for a .com address?