Privacy 2.0

In the early days of social media, social networks were walled-in gardens where you could connect with a select group of friends, and share your thoughts, links, videos and photos. You had full control over who could view these things, so you could maintain a certain level of privacy. Let's face it, this is no longer true! The entire world has access to your online life. If you want something to be secret, you might as well keep it off of your computer!

In today's job market, this is especially important. Make no mistake, prospective employers will peruse your online footprint if they are considering you for a job. In fact, your current employer may be watching you online as well. Given the recent changes many of the networks have made, particularly Facebook, your privacy controls may not keep you as safe as you think.

Here are some steps I would recommend:

1. Review your privacy settings - as I said, many of the networks have recently made major changes. However, you should also recognize that the garden wall is now very short, and even the things you think are safe may find their way over that wall.
2. Stay away from "Hot Topics" - It might be a good time to start following the old saying: "Never discuss religion and politics." If your online rhetoric is not particularly civil when it comes to those who disagree with you, a potential employer will most likely pass.
3. Keep your updates free of complaints - I see quite a few people complaining about their current job or boss, and even about their friends. The thinly-veiled complaint, where you make the complaint but don't name names, is really not much better. It all serves to paint you as a "complainer." A potential employer will be turned off by this, and you could even lose your current job if you're not careful!
4. Remove the incriminating pictures - You know the ones I mean: At the party, holding a beer, with a lampshade on your head. I would suggest you delete them immediately. If your friends have posted them, ask them to delete them. If they won't, remove any tags identifying you.
5. Above all, think before you type - The internet has given us a false sense of anonymity, where we feel like we can say anything without consequences. While this might have been true a few years ago, it is no longer the case. If you wouldn't say it in person, you probably shouldn't post it either.

In my opinion, there is no longer such a thing as privacy when it comes to life online. Assume that everything you say and do will be in the public record forever!

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10 Years That Changed Everything

As we near the end of the first decade of the 21st Century, we're seeing the typical year-end and decade-end lists that tend to make the rounds. As I think back on the last ten years, I see it as a time of major change for the music industry. Here is my list of some of the changes I have witnessed in the past ten years:

• Digital downloads surpassed CD sales
• Independent labels became major players
• Established artists like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails successfully opted to release their music independently, rather than sign a new record contract
• The ever-shrinking major labels lost their mojo, desperately clinging to outmoded ideas and suing children, the elderly, and dead people
• Numerous distribution avenues emerged, allowing independent artists to get their music directly to fans
• Social media emerged, allowing artists to interact directly with fans
• A new generation of music consumers emerged, ingrained with the belief that music should be free

I'm sure I could come up with many more examples, but we'll stop there. Feel free to post your additions and thoughts in the comments.

All of these changes have left musicians and music industry types wondering where we will be when the dust clears. How do we make a living? How do we "monetize" our product if the conventional means no longer work? In fact, what is our "product," if not our songs? Many have come to believe that the way forward is to think of the artist as the product or "brand."

Meanwhile, the major labels are floundering. Frankly, they have lasted longer than I would have anticipated. One lifeline for them has been the popularity of reality television. If you doubt that, just look at all the buzz around Susan Boyle with her recent album release.

At this point, it's anyone's guess what the future will hold. Judging by what has happened in the last ten years, though, I'm convinced it will still manage to take most of us by surprise!

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More New Songs, and Another Option for Indies

In case you've been curious as to why I haven't blogged much lately, I've got a whole batch of new songs recorded. I am also trying out a new service called "Gimmesound" (www.gimmesound.com.) Fans can download songs for free, and artists share in ad revenue. It's an intriguing model, and I'm interested in seeing how it pans out. I will let my faithful readers know!

You can find my page at http://www.gimmesound.com/MichaelJJohnson. Take a listen, and download what you like!

There is a batch of new songs, as well as higher-bitrate versions of songs I did earlier in the year. The last seven songs on the player are a series of prepared guitar pieces I recorded. I am still mixing several more, and will probably have them posted by next week.

I have decided to collectively call this new batch of songs "Manifesto," after the "Artist 2.0 Manifesto" I posted several months ago. All the files are high quality VBR mp3's, which means a bit longer download times.

I've always been curious as to the effectiveness of an ad-supported model. We'll see.

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Google Friend Connect

Google Friend Connect recently became available for Blogger blogs, so I just added it. I am interested to see how this service will enhance the blogging experience. If you are one of the 5 people who read my blog, please click the "follow" button in the sidebar to the right. Thanks in advance.

On a related note, I recently created a Facebook artist page. If you are on Facebook and you have a moment, please become a fan. (I promise I won't spam you - I don't even have any gigs lined up at the moment.) This is also a bit of an experiment. I am interested to see if this will be a viable platform for artists in the future. I think they still have a few bugs to work out, but it has potential. I think this will finally make Facebook a viable alternative to MySpace for musicians. We'll see!

Link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Michael-J-Johnson/57634653044

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How Do You Use the Internet & Social Media To Promote Your Music?

I am preparing for an upcoming presentation I am doing, and I wanted to poll my musician friends on the following:

How are you using social media to promote your music or your band?

What additional internet tools are you using, including distribution methods?

Please post your answers in the comments. I may incorporate some of these in my presentation, but I won't use your specific sites unless you give me permission. I look forward to your responses!

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Social Media and the 40-Something Male

(Note: I have been wanting to blog about social media for a while, but I wasn't sure where to start. Therefore, it will now be an ongoing series, possibly even stream-of-consciousness at times. Consider yourself warned:-)

Dr. J's Social Media Experiment Part 1: Introduction

I suppose I first entered the online world in the early 1990's when I joined my first BBS. I think it was called the Gold Coast Macintosh bbs, and I was living in Miami at the time. I was also an early adopter of AOL, but I dropped it in 1996, which was coincidentally about the time it became popular. Next, in the late 1990's, I taught myself HTML, and created my first website, which I called The Jazz Vocal Resource (check it out at the Wayback Machine)

For a number of reasons, I had to drop the website, ca. 2001. For the next five years, my online presence consisted of a single page on the Greenville College website with a photo and bio that I never updated after it was originally posted.

Then, one fateful day in June of 2006, I opened my first MySpace account. Sure, it was a little late, but at the time, hardly anybody my age was on MySpace. I initially did it to promote my music and the music of my band, but I soon created a second "personal" page, and began to search for anyone and everyone I have ever known! Before I knew it, I was fully immersed in the world of social media.

In no particular order, here are all the services I have signed up for. I continue to use some of them, but some I have either cancelled or neglected:

MySpace
Facebook
Friendster
Tagworld
PureVolume
Bandspace
IACMusic
MacJams
Bolt
Photobucket
Xomba
Xanga
Linkedin
Last.fm
Pandora
Twitter
Jaiku
Digg
StumbleUpon
Delicious
Slashdot
Macslash
YouTube
Vimeo
12seconds
Musebin
Blip.fm
Friendfeed
Geni
iCrew
Hulu
Joost
Popego
BlogTV
Plaxo
Several random Ning networks, including NetNewMusic

I'm sure there are a few I have forgotten about. Of course, last but not least, I started this blog. My intent with this was especially to help independent artists, and I hope I have helped at least a few of my dozen readers!

If I have come away from this experiment with one overarching theme that applies to musicians, it would be that the old methods no longer work. Social media is not about promoting your music in the traditional sense. It is about creating a connection or relationship with your listeners. In fact, I believe it has more in common with the traditional idea of signings and "meet and greets" than it does with promoting a specific product. I also believe this will translate into career longevity and a more entrenched fanbase. However, even the "experts" don't yet know how musicians will be able to pay their bills in this new world.

Well, folks, that's all for now. Thanks for listening. In my next installment, I will talk about Twitter, which has taken up quite a bit of my free time for the past six months.

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