Make it real !

Monday, September 21^st

8:30 AM – I wake up to the sweet sound of my alarm clock. I switch on my computer, I open Firefox and I go on Myspace.com to check my inbox and to see how many people have visited my profile in the last 10 hours.

12:30 PM – End of the morning class. I grab my iPhone and I click on the “Myspace” Icon. Wow ! “New Friend Requests”, “New Messages”, “New comments”. Oh yes, I have to tell you one thing : I’m a musician. I play the guitar, I sing, and I write songs. Consequently, I have a Myspace Music profile to share my music with people from all over the world.

“New message - from "The Last Morning Soundtrack" : Chloe, would you like to play at Les Cariatides in Paris on October 30^th?”.

Sure I would !

6:30 PM – I’m back home. I go on Facebook to check my “Page”. No big news. I’m kind of disappointed.

Disappointed ? But what was I expecting ? Actually, I do not really know. Maybe I would have liked some other people to message me about my music, or to propose me to play for a concert. As if it was logical. But is it, really ?

THE WEB MADE IT REAL ! (Well... I thought so)

Three years ago, when I decided to share my music with people, the internet was already seen as a useful and essential tool for artists, and especially musicians : Myspace was launched in 2003. I realized that I had no other option : I had to create a Myspace Music profile. A few minutes later, my name was written in capital letters on a website, my songs were available on a player, and people from all over world could become my friends. Myspace had made it real ! I was officially becoming a musician. At least, on the web.

Anyone can become someone by creating a profile on Myspace : you can build up your image through the internet, maybe a better image than your real one, and show what you want people to know about you. So you can become original and unique, even if you are the most common person in the world. But the gap between the web and reality is sometimes hard to cross. Anyway, how good it feels to be considered as an individual in our globalized world !

But globalization is also a good opportunity for artists, and the internet is a major tool in erasing frontiers and making people feel they belonged to a “worldwide community”, or to a “global village”. Brazilian, Argentinean, British, American, Canadian, Indian, Moroccan, Australian, Russian, Chinese people (and many more) have sent me “Friend Requests” and messages on Myspace. My music is listened to by people from all over the world !

It is hard to believe, but it feels so good.

Myspace, Facebook, YouTube, Dailymotion, Cqfd.com, and all those platforms give musicians the possibility to express themselves without any restrictions. The artist can customize his communication plan, and choose how to promote himself through the web. The idea that the artist starts from nothing – I did not exist on the web as a musician before creating a Myspace – is very important : the artist is free to decide WHO he wants to target, WHY, and HOW he plans to reach his target. To some extent, the artist becomes his own communication officer.

Yesterday, I booked a concert by using Myspace. Maybe tomorrow I will post a new video on YouTube and Facebook. And maybe some people will listen to my songs and like them, and they will feel like coming to see me performing on stage. I hope I will cross the gap between the web and reality. I hope the internet will make it real. And all the “Myspace artists” hope so.