Social Media and Music - Ideal Partners?

Quiet Company - "It's Better To Spend Money Like There's No Tomorrow Than Spend Tonight Like There's No Money"

I recently became aware of TheSixtyOne, an online music community where "artists upload their work for review, but, rather than allow a stuffy suit in a boardroom to decide what's good, thousands of listeners do." Since I canceled my Last.fm account after they handed user data to the RIAA, I've found TheSixtyOne to be the best way to learn about new bands that you otherwise wouldn't hear about.

One band I've gotten into from TheSixtyOne is Quiet Company from Austin, TX. Their music is a kind of wonderful, melodic piano-pop with lyrics that are optimistic without feeling cheesy. With songs like "It's Better To Spend Money Like There's No Tomorrow Than Spend Tonight Like There's No Money" (above), you know they're not taking themselves too seriously.

After playing the track list multiple times, I just HAD to share them with my Twitter stream. The best way to share music on Twitter is Blip.fm. I searched, found the song, and sent this:

That was the last I thought of it, until this morning. When I opened TweetDeck, I found this reply from @quietcompanytx:

They followed up with another tweet saying I could share that link with anyone I think would like their music, so here you go.

I downloaded the sampler, happy to get free music, and played the three songs about four times over.

Then something funny happened.

I went to the Quiet Company site, and bought & downloaded their newest album, "Everyone You Love Will Be Happy Soon", directly from the band.

What's so funny about that? I almost never buy new music. With the plethora of online music sites - from Last.fm to Pandora, to Blip.fm to TheSixtyOne and more - I can stream just about anything I want. For free.

But because Quiet Company used the tools of the internet - first, to showcase their music; then, to find and reach out to those talking about it - they were able to gain a new fan, turn that fan into an evangelist, and see a return on the time and effort they've spent.

This isn't something that only applies to music. Whether you're a band, a business, or a nonprofit, how can you excite people with your offerings? How can you benefit from listening to online conversations and engaging with those that are talking about your product or service?

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Gradon Tripp is the founder of Social Media for Social Change, an organization that uses the tools of online media to raise awareness for nonprofits. He writes about ways organizations -- both non-profit and for-profit -- can benefit from using social media at GradonTripp.com.