Web 2.0 has hundreds of sites to help artists collaborate. Sites like Indaba and WeBooks host communities where artists can connect and work on creating music or writing the next great American novel. But without some marketing they're going nowhere.
Indaba was launched in 2007 and by early 2009 had grown to over 125,000 musicians. Indaba has been particularly successful with re-mix contests with artists including Mariah Carey, Yo-Yo Ma and Third Eye Blind.
WeBook was described in a recent Times article as “a venture-backed start-up in New York, that allows people to collaborate on writing books and is working on new ways to let readers give writers real-time feedback on their work.” Authors from over 170 countries have written, reviewed, and voted for hundreds of works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry on the site.
Despite the best efforts of these companies to help create the next generation of masterpieces, it appears that very few well-known works have come out of these ventures. Of course, these companies are relatively young, and time could be an issue. But I can’t help but think there is another issue at play: these companies focus only on the creation of work, not the marketing of it. An artistic creation may be brilliant, but it is not going to be noticed, have any impact, or make any money, if it is not marketed correctly.
Just consider Joshua Bell's example. As conveyed in Gene Weingarten’s terrific article in the Washington Post, Bell showed that even virtuoso violinist can play some of the most elegant pieces ever written on a $3.5 million dollar Stradivarius in a busy metro station in front of more than 1,000 commuters and hardly get noticed. Bell played for 43 minutes and only 7 people stopped to listen. Moreover, not counting $20 donated by a woman who recognized Bell, only 27 people together gave him a grand total of $32.17. Three days earlier he had sold out Boston’s Symphony Hall. If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? To make the next big thought leap with this old adage, artistically driven Web 2.0 communities are going to have to start help their members broadcast their work more effectively if they wish to survive.
Discuss
Orion Jones on May 15, 2009, 1:28 PM
Jack, just what are you proposing? Do you really want advertisers to plaster more publicity on the precious little advert-free public space left? The Internet? There isn’t enough advertising money out there to keep every website afloat.
Plus, social networking sites don’t really work – especially for artistic collaboration – because there is no human interaction, human relationships being a lot closer to the essence of art than marketing it! I’m a member of an artists association in a pretty community oriented place, and the best art is happening through real relationships, not take-it-when-you-want-it, leave-it-when-you-don’t internet ones.
Maybe, maaaybe, artists will use the Net to meet each other, but the idea of collaborating on a project with someone just because they’re on the same website as you is…unlikely to say the least, and from an artistic standpoint, really impractical.
Your Josh Bell example is weird. People didn’t stop and smell the violinist, or however that saying goes, because they were probably tired from working and on their way home. The metro station is nobody’s destination! The symphony hall is the destination for symphony fans, and that’s why he sold out at…the symphony.
You claim Indaba is successful, but you didn’t list ANY of the new artists the site is suppose to inform us of!
Jack Sallay on May 15, 2009, 4:16 PM
Orion, thank you for your comment. The Josh Bell example is a nice one as it shows that without proper marketing even suburb art does not receive the attention that it deserves. I disagree with your proposal that social networking sites don’t work. If used correctly – to help facilitate human interaction – they are a great way for artists to meet each other and then collaborate on works across great geographical distance. My concern is that these sites should take the next step and help these artists further their work through marketing assistance. If you are looking for examples of success, dig deeper in Indaba music – they’ve got some great posts of original music created through online collaboration.
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