Viral video

Lately in my Music Industry Broadcast forum, we've been discussing this concept of viral video. Music and video have been passed person to person over the internet with the aid of social networks like Myspace and Youtube. It has become easier than ever for the young, tech savvy generation to post music and videos they make, as well as show their avid support for other musicians and amateur film-makers. Such sites give ordinary kids around the country the ability to market and publicize themselves in a global way - something previous generations could never have dreamed of doing.

My little brother has always been influenced by my older brother and me. He's a Caps fanatic because my older brother played travel hockey when he was young and always used to take my little brother to pro games on the weekends. He's always seeking out new music - classical and popular - to share with me because he knows I have dedicated my life to becoming a better musician. For me, it's been a really, really great thing that he is. He is of this up and coming generation that is so affected by "viral" video and music. Other than Myspace, one such site he has shared with me is betterPropaganda.com. While not all his recommendations are compelling (for example, the "Shoes" or "Muffins" videos on Youtube), betterPropaganda is quite noteworthy.

The site was founded in San Francisco by Kenneth Manning, of Radiant Interactive, Inc.. He advertises the site as the premiere music discovery site for over 400,000 fans and prominently claims that it is "dedicated to providing independent labels and artists an opportunity to be heard." Also quite interesting is that immediately following this is a note to labels and artists that unsolicited email attachment submissions will be ignored -- rather, these potential clients must email the site a link to their Myspace page. betterPropaganda solely uses this social network to discover and select their clients.

It offers readers numerous ways to discover new bands (albeit electronica, hip-hop and rock... basically indie pop music). The homepage lists new releases, top recent downloads, podcasts of recent interviews, as well as written transcriptions of site bloggers' interviews with various bands. It's a veritable haven for indie bands and consumers sick of mainstream radio. Because most of the bands on the site are unsigned and virtually undiscovered, fans can download mp3 recordings for free without threat of an RIAA lawsuit. Additionally, the site lists recommendations from its staff -- band name, genre, description and pictures included. If that's not enough, one can also receive daily emails about new bands or stream live from the website to sample what they want. All one has to do to begin is create an account. From there they can download tracks and create personalized playlists.

Across the board, betterPropaganda has been receiving rave reviews. It boasts fans in NPR, BBC, PC World and Earthlink and is able to provide one of the largest online music catalogs of new, fresh music. Additionally, it has license agreements with 450 major and indie labels. Therefore, in comparison with Lastfm or Pandora, listeners can actually download their music and keep it, as opposed to only being able to stream live or rent their music.

For my little brother, it has been one of his most prized discoveries. He heard about betterPropaganda from his friend who learned about it from her friend who learned about it from her friend... It seems that word of mouth is the latest forum for learning about new music, not mainstream radio. He and his friends are constantly downloading new tracks to share with each other and trying to one-up the other with a more obscure, kick-ass band. So far, I'm a fan. No longer sneakily ripping the tracks off of his new betterPropaganda CDs, I'm a betterPropaganda addict. And pretty excited about it.