The Day the Music Thrived on the Social Web

The music industry shone brightly Monday on the social web with a wide variety of highlights occurring simultaneously across a diverse set of social networking sites. Perhaps these events are indications of a change in tide for the oft-beleaguered industry.

It's been a full decade since Napster changed music distribution forever. That seems like a long time to wait for a good solution, but progress is happening. Just last week, industry leaders including Amazon, Apple, Nokia and Universal Music Group signed a potentially historic online distribution agreement with the 27-nation European Union.

Ultimately success for the music industry is reliant upon its ability to deliver quality content to consumers in compelling ways. This is precisely why it is great to see such a variety of innovative music momentum across the social web today.

U2 360 Concert Broadcast Worldwide via YouTube
Sunday night in Pasadena, California, U2 performed in front of a Rose Bowl packed with 96,000 fans. Also in the stadium were four dozen cameras and the latest in video technology used to broadcast the concert live to millions of fans worldwide via YouTube. A rebroadcast of the U2 Live from the Rose Bowl concert can be seen on YouTube.


Guitar Hero is the First Videogame with a Million Fans on Facebook
Activision announced an industry first today when Guitar Hero surpassed a million fans on Facebook. Considering that The Beatles: Rock Band recently topped the heavyweight, this was good cause for celebration. It's interesting to watch how entertainment such as music and gaming can be combined to drive success.

Alice In Chains Launches Black Gives Way To Blue iPhone App
I was quite impressed with the extent of content and diverse functionality featured in the iPhone application launching tomorrow in support of the new Alice In Chains release Black Gives Way To Blue. In addition to music, photos and video, the app lets you check out tour dates, buy concert tickets and merchandise, and share via Facebook, Twitter and email. There's a nice demo of the application on the Music Ally blog.

Meanwhile, iconic rockers Metallica release a not so innovative finger-tapping music app called "Tap Tap Revenge: Metallica" Tuesday. This is a game in the style of Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Developed by Tapulous, it is similar to apps previously released to promote Lady Gaga, Coldplay and Nine Inch Nails.

MySpace & Amazon used for Them Crooked Vultures Pre-Release Teaser
The much anticipated album by rock supergroup Them Crooked Vultures won't be released until mid November. The band features an impressive line up including John Paul Jones, Dave Grohl and Josh Homme.

DGC/Interscope gave fans a taste of what to expect by launching an exclusive single premiere of "New Fang" Monday on MySpace. The page includes a "Pre Order Now on Amazon.com" call to action in the main hero graphic. This pre-launch effort is presently supported with a simple web site, YouTube channel, Twitter account and Facebook page that already has over 50,000 fans.

#MusicMonday All Abuzz on Twitter
With music industry activity like the things discussed above, it's no wonder people are talking music on Twitter. The phrase #musicmonday trended in the top two spots all day long on the leading micro-blog site. People include the tag in Tweets about music they like. Some use it to identify what they are listening to at the moment, while others post links to songs or videos.

"If you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevance even less."
~ General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff, U.S. Army

Social Keeps Pushing Innovation in Music Distribution & Sharing
Online heavy hitters Google and Facebook are making moves to enhance online search, sharing and sampling of music. They're leveraging services like Lala, iLike and Imeen to power their offerings. Keep an eye on Lala's Facebook presence over the next few months. Brad Stone covered the story for the New York Times last week "Hot on Heels of Google, Facebook to Take First Step into Music." Facebook's own Will Chen recently offered a sneak peak of their approach to gifting music in a blog entry entitled "A New Tune for Facebook Gifts."

Considering how Facebook came out of nowhere to outplay everyone in the photo sharing game over the last two years, I'll certainly be keeping a close eye on how they integrate music into the world's leading social network.