Net, Blogs and Rock'n'Roll

Fans write their own history

We're getting used to the idea that fans create some of the most authoritative accounts of the objects of their fascination. I've cited Andy Aldridge's work as one example of this, and the They Might Be Giants wiki as another. Recently it was reported that fans are more likely to refer to Wikipedia than MySpace as first port of call to find out about a band or artist.

But earlier this month Laura Hale drew my attention to another twist on this, in the shape of a wiki site she oversees, fanhistory.com. If you check the Nine Inch Nails page on this site, you'll get only the briefest history of NIN themselves, but this is followed by a much more detailed historical account of all the fan-led sites, forums, fan fictions and other initiatives that relate to NIN over the last ten years.

I asked Nancy Baym for her take on it, and she told me that this kind of meta-fandom is quite common. Apparently the fanfic people have a highly developed self-reflexive culture that includes a lot of generating databases/analyses as well as a sense of ownership of the term 'fandom'. Nancy herself, I found via this page on Henry Jenkins, is a 'fancademic'… For an introduction to online fan communities, I recommend her account of the Swedish indie fan scene.

Fan History covers not just music, but movies, TV, actors, cartoons, games and sports. The music section is patchy, to say the least, but, as Nancy pointed out to me, these things take a lot of time and work to build. As a small gesture, I've added details of a fan site I created. A couple of days ago, the Fan History site added a blog.

Songkick combines recommendations and buzz measures

Earlier today I recorded some comments about Songkick — who have just announced some new features and funding — for PM, BBC Radio 4's main afternoon news programme. You can listen to the three-minute broadcast feature, including my edited comments, below.

Songkick could be described as Last.fm for gigs. There are important differences between gigs and recorded music, however. Gigs are one-off events; they aren't available on-demand 24 hours a day. You can't try them out with a 30-second sample to see if you might like them. Crucially, the timing of recommendations can be critical for popular gigs. Previously I gave the example of Bandsintown.com recommending the Led Zeppelin reunion show to me on the same day that it was due to happen — not much use when all tickets had been allocated by a complex registration process months before.

Another feature that has attracted comment is Songkick's measure of the 'buzz' for each band, giving a means of comparing who's on the way up and who's star is on the wane.

Discovery, dating and profiles

A couple of weeks ago I got an email from Lynne Sandler, creator of the A Sound Match dating site, following up Paul Lamere citing my categorisation of music listeners at the SanFran MusicTech Summit. As her site explains, Lynne "stumbled upon her music-matchmaking theory over 15 years ago after a painful first date with a man who listened exclusively to 80's hair bands". Ouch.

A Sound Match profiles its users on the basis of questions about their music listening habits and then classifies them as either a Diamond in the Rough, a Heart of Gold, a Shining Star or an Unchained Melody. As you can see from the graphic, I came out as a Diamond in the Rough — "devotee, fan, music lover, you've heard it all…" — which seems more or less equivalent to the 'Savant' category in the Project Phoenix classification that I use. Lynne does not claim to have used rigorous scientific methods (and I don't know how the Project Phoenix methodology would stand up to serious scrutiny), but there seems to be a reasonable mapping between the two classifications.

Let's not get hung up over whether there is a proven link between music taste/listening and emotional compatibility between two people. (My view: the two areas are not independent of each other, but the exact nature of the link depends heavily on context, making it hard to predict.) The main point of A Sound Match, as I see it, is extending the role of music as an ice-breaker and help, errr, lubricate the first exchanges between strangers. If music be the food of love… and all that.

Short notice: speaking about Digital Discovery at EuroBlog 2008

Next week I'll be speaking at the EuroBlog 2008 Symposium in Brussels. The full programme runs from 13-15 March, and I'll be discussing the future of digital discovery on Friday afternoon (though the programme doesn't yet mention my name at the time of writing).

The Symposium is organised by the European Public Relations Education and Research Association and other speakers include David Weinberger, Philip Young, Neville Hobson and Steve Rubel.

Recommender systems meet festivals

In the first of my scenarios from the "cutting room floor" I described a festival where friends clustered around their interests and discussed what they would go and see. Part of this was a portable recommender system that already knew your cultural preferences and matched them against what was on at the festival. Now, with its Last.fm goes to Austin feature, there's exactly that kind of service for the South by SouthWest festival next week.

Does anyone know of other applications of recommender systems for festivals?

As a regular gig goer Last.fm's mapping of events to my listening habits and friends is one of the most valuable and truly social functions that it provides. It's about connecting with culture through people and connecting with people through culture.