The Music Slut Editorial: Getting Stereofamous

It seems like every month (if not once a week) there crops up a new music website for bands to sign up for. With the old model of record label now becoming as antiquated as those bicycles with the comically large front wheel, some of these sites are actually helping bands take control of their recording by allowing them to build an undercurrent of a fan base. I mean hey, Tila Tequila did it on MySpace and now she's got that show... it's on VH1 or something... Actually I'm unclear on what she does but what I do know is she became famous by creating a movement of a million fans on a site nearly all of us web geeks use.

So as a musician, what do you do? You are signed, you are unsigned, whatever, you want to sell records but most importantly nowadays, you want people to get excited about your band and feel they are a part of it enough to sell them a t-shirt and get them out to a show and probably above all else, you want to get signed. When indie labels make up of the entire market share and EMI lags behind with 8.8%, it is time to sit-up and take notice that something is not quite right in the music industry... which isn't exactly a bad thing. So why even try to sign to a major when huge acts like Coldplay don't feel they work anymore?: “Being on a major label at the moment is like living in your grandparents’ house,” Chris Martin confessed to Reuters this week. “Everyone knows they need to move out, and they will eventually, but we kind of like our grandmother.” Coldplay is on EMI.

So again, WHAT DO YOU DO? You have a MySpace page, maybe even a Facebook account, but do people really discover new music on MySpace? And how affective is racking up more 'fans' on Facebook? Well out of the crop of new interactive music sites has come one that gets what major labels do not, that times, they are a-changing. Stereofame.com lets fans create their own, virtual, music label and sign bands that they would want to see more of rather than, say, another Ashlee Simpson clone. This then allows fans to hold a stake in your band's music and have them feel not like a passive listener, but a real participant in the process that makes music they love to hear. Why would someone wear a t-shirt of a band they feel no emotional connection with? And if they feel a real excitement that a band on their label is doing well (you earn points as a label on Stereofame when your band starts kicking ass), why wouldn't they tell their friends and go out to see a show? Another great aspect of the site is the song voting - fans give songs a thumbs up or down. It's like a free focus group. We here at The Music Slut are always trumpeting those who hit the mark with a catchy, hit song and groaning when we hear yet another unoriginal tune crop up in our inbox. Too many thumbs down on a song and you should consider that you may have a clunker on your hands and that you probably shouldn't send it to us.

So is Stereofame the saviour of music? No. But it helps to know that there are some out there thinking outside the box when it comes to music, and as a band, so should you. We as fans don't want to hear bad, unimpassioned music, we want to hear music made by groups that are all in. Heart, mind & soul. Don't just build a MySpace, build an interactive community and we might just buy a share in your band. Radiohead can tell you that much.