Medium Difficulty

Statement of research topic
I will take an in depth look at how fans judge and view a given band’s MySpace page, focusing on independent bands.

Research question:
How can bands optimize their MySpace pages to maximize their fanbase? What kind of interface would be best suited to helping those bands? How do fans judge a band’s page? Does a potential fan base his/her opinion entirely on the sound of the music, or do other factors count such as: # of song plays, # of profile views, # of song plays today, nature of comments left on comment board, arrangement of widgets, and graphic design?

Why is this important?
In light of technological developments over the last decade or two, many bands are trying become professional purely by “independent” means, that is without the help of a record label. Many of those bands, while perhaps talented, may have trouble acquiring new fans only due to a lack of marketing knowledge.
This research assumes that MySpace is at the forefront of a band’s potential for marketing success or failure. This assumption was based on conversations with numerous industry professionals and the conclusions of a number of articles that will be used as references. More and more bands treat MySpace as a critical tool for their marketing strategies, and would benefit from an easily implemented set of prescriptions for optimizing their page.
Although this research will be limited to the L.A. area, it promises to be applicable to many other geographic areas in the United States.

Research methods for preliminary field research
Ethnographic Research
To answer my research question I will need to conduct immersive ethnographic research on fans. Attending a show is a social event, and so performing research that is social by nature seems more likely to produce meaningful results. Also, one intended consequence of this research would be to learn what led current fans to become fans in the first place, and also explore the possibility of broad bias in the way users encounter a band, and so it seems appropriate to get an idea of what attracts show-goers. To do this I will attend several music shows and talk to fans waiting in line before the show, during the show, and after the show to discuss their use of MySpace. One goal of the research is to find a way for bands to discover and maintain an active fan base. That includes maintaining relationships with fans inclined to attend shows. Thus, this aspect of the research is intended to find people who are interested in live music and see if and how MySpace plays a part in attracting them to come out to a show.

Observation and User Input
I plan on observing a few users in their interaction with MySpace music pages. Since my presence is likely to modify the user’s behavior, in some cases I intend to employ other methods to encourage natural participation. If a user seems comfortable I will simply talk with them about what they are doing and encourage them to explain their actions and decision-making process as they scout for new music they find interesting.

In some situations I intend to ask the user to go to MySpace and listen to a series of bands of his/her determination. Then I will request that at some point, the user generate some sort of artwork in the medium of their choosing (paint, poetry, multi-media, etc…) that reflects the way the experience made them feel and later relate what aspects of the artwork reflected what emotions from which bands. The artwork can then be compared to the pages to see if any consistencies exist between selected bands or unselected bands. Also, I might observe the user through the experience at random to see at which point in the listening experience generates the most response from him/her.

This method will likely generate the most candid look into a user’s MySpace experience since the user will feel most free and comfortable to engage a band on his/her own terms. Also, since the experience of music is indeed so subjective, a subjective medium of expression is an appropriate method to realize this experience into an analyzable piece of work.

Blog
I will harness the power of MySpace Blogs to posit hypothesis, offer insight, and try to generate controversy. This method is organic to the MySpace experience, as shown by the very existence of the MySpace blog. Social forums are a great way to gather information in a social setting, and this method will allow users to give their opinions in a public space. The blog will allow users to argue or collaborate, giving me a better sense of the dynamics at work. I will encourage users to talk about the styles of music they appreciate, and see if any correlations emerge regarding the band’s discussed, what niches appreciate what culture, and how individual fans regard their own identity as “fans.”
The goal of this part of the research process is to get the perspective of another type of fan: the Internet user. Since products such as iTunes give bands a direct platform to sell their music online, this user is potentially very meaningful to a band even though they may never attend a show. Also, this user may be, or has the potential to become a show-goer, and hence become even more meaningful to a band’s fanbase and potential for success.

Foundational readings, research, and assumptions
The idea of how a band can “make it” is a largely elusive concept. But what has become clear to anyone that has downloaded a song is that the industry landscape has irrevocably changed. This change was largely unanticipated by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) which left them pursuing litigation against those allegedly pirating music and thus infringing on their copyrights. Regardless of their efforts, the new digital distribution model has flourished and record sales have fallen. Converse to that decline, attendance at live shows has actually increased steadily, according to one foundational resource for my research, The Future of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution, by David Kuseck and Gerd Leonard.
This new reality reflects what is, quite simply, a new economy. In this new economy, widespread distribution methods are available to anyone with a personal computer. In addition to that, broad social networking technologies have given broad marketing power to individual musicians and bands, making music available to users on a scale never before known. Consequently, the market is flooded with music that is undesirable to users, generating what could be considered “noise.” This “noise” is now the main competition to bands instead of previous industry barriers. How bands can stand out is a question argued many ways and interpreted just as broadly. Kuseck/Leonard’s book focuses in on the new landscape, and is particularly important to gain stable footing in the rocky terrain of the music industry.
One de facto solution has been the social networking space called “MySpace.” The site has given bands a platform that acts as a storefront for their product: themselves. However, as many bands signed up for the platform, the same problem of “noise” surfaced, with seemingly no meaningful solutions. This research intends to address that problem.
To begin to understand the research however, I encourage my audience to read several books to understand the conversation about bands, MySpace, the digital marketing landscape, and the new music economy. One such crucial reading is a must-read by most internet marketing enthusiasts called The Long Tail, by Chris Anderson.
The Long Tail addresses the new economy that all retailers are now subject to. I recommend the entire book for a deep understanding of the economics of our digital age, but note chapter 7 and 11 as particularly relevant to my research. Chapter 7 considers the careers of several musicians as they have taken separate routes to stardom. One takes a more mainstream approach, one an organic uprising to finally becoming signed by a record label, and one entirely independent.
Many of the assumptions and arguments Anderson makes are complimentary to the discussion of internet marketing and music. However, he makes one comparison that is particularly interesting, relevant, and current to my research. To show the success of one band over another, he states, “On MySpace, My Chemical Romance has nearly 450,000 friends; McKee has 9,000. Word of mouth makes all the difference” (Anderson 104).
Using MySpace as a metric for success is not a concept lost on most serious musicians. A good looking MySpace page can attract more fans, attract more industry people, and put bands higher on search queries. One question that arises, though, is out of all of the possible benefits of a MySpace page: what is its goal for a band, and how can that goal be more fully realized through design? How can bands avoid being lost in “the long tail”? My research will attempt to answer those questions.

The third foundational resource for my research is titled Ethnicity, Identity and Music, written by Martin Stokes. This book mostly focuses on music as a broad entity in shaping national and tribal identities in other countries. It seems distant to my own research, which will be largely local. The core discussion of the book, however, focuses on the relationship of music to ethnicity and identity.
This relationship will be rather central to my research, and this book gives great insight into methods of approaching the topic of music and identity, and how culture and music interact. It is an anthropological work, and as such speaks to the anthropological nature of my research, which considers show-goers and internet-users in what could be considered their “enclaves,” and will attempt to decipher how music interacts with them in that respect. The work is conceived in the physical realm while mine will be held in a hybrid of physical and digital. This reading gives legs to my assumption that music is intricately tied in with culture, and that bands must immerse themselves in the culture of a niche to appeal to a niche. I will merely be attempted to answer if that appeal can be nurtured by design.