How Music Promotion Has Evolved With Social Media, part 2: Live Performances - Web 2.0 - Micro Blogging

<p>With the ever-changing environment of the music industry, performing artists are continually looking for other outlets to promote their music and engage with fans. Live performances are one way for musicians and DJs to reach out and create a bond with an audience. In the traditional setting of a performance, this could have been creating conversation in between songs during a set, but in the digital age there are many more opportunities. Surprisingly the micro-blogging platform, Twitter, has now become an outlet for music promotion through live performances.</p>

<p>In December 2011, Twitter began rolling enhanced capabilities for brand pages, enabling them to incorporate static banners that sit across the top of the page and the ability to 'pin' tweets. These 'pinned' tweets give the brand the flexibility to highlight specific media and information, whether videos or broadcast news. Intel and Hewlett Packard were one of the first brands to have this enhanced capability. </p>

<p>Using the new brand page format, they teamed up with international DJ, Tiesto to broadcast a live performance from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas - the first ever live performance via Twitter. The DJ set was hosted on UStream and 'pinned' at the top of the respective Twitter pages so when users arrived there, the video was the first thing they saw. HP and Intel executives live Tweeted during the performance answering questions and responding to comments from fans using the #TiestoLive hashtag. This live performance also launched a 10 part video series, which will be hosted on Tiesto's YouTube channel later in January. For fans that were not able to watch the performance as it happened, the video was still available on Intel and HP's Twitter pages 'pinned' at the top for two days after.</p>

<p>As the enhanced brand pages for Twitter roll out to everyone, this is an opportunity for performing artists to engage even more with their Twitter following. Artists can reach out to their fans to create bespoke set lists - asking fans to send in Tweets with their favourite song with a unique hashtag. Then the performance can be broadcast directly through Twitter and fans can Tweet with other fans about the performance, creating conversation around the performer generating more exposure, which could inevitably lead to increased album sales. </p>

<p>The digital age has been a trial for performing artists with piracy running rampant, but if the artist embraces all aspects of digital, especially social media, they can use it to their benefit. </p>

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