So, here's a surprise: the action on the MySpace music channel outpaces the other online music venues.
According to JupiterResearch, the rambunctious and infectious community action on MySpace
Music exceeds Yahoo Music, AOL Music, and MTV.com. In fact, Jupiter says that 48 percent of music fans find out about music from friends. This is most certainly true. This here Minute gets all her
music recommendations from friends and friends' iPods, and, well, you know how that goes.
The new Jupiter report "Music and Community: Low Cost, Authentic Promotion," finds that 53 percent of
consumers discover music through videos and 87 percent through radio. But word-of-mouth is the most powerful way to expose and influence musical tastes. So it stands to reason that sites incorporating
community features and functions can become influential music marketing platforms. Certainly the folks at MySpace have figured this out.
"Music marketers should leverage community sites, such
as MySpace, to recreate the feel of personal recommendations of friends," said David Card, vice president and senior analyst at JupiterResearch, in a statement.
The Jupiter report tracks how
much activity related to The Black Eyed Peas occurred on MySpace, Yahoo Music, AOL Music, and MTV.com. MySpace generated hundreds of thousands of "friends" of the band, and profile views and song
plays in the millions. In contrast, mainstream music media sites counted artist community members in the hundreds, at best.
"Using community sites as a marketing platform is inexpensive, but it
requires a do-it-yourself approach," said David Schatsky, president of JupiterKagan, in a statement. "MySpace, for example, does the Flash encoding for music streaming and enables e-mailing, but not
much more. Promoters should market actively on these sites and push new songs, albums, videos, or tours."
Sounds like music to our ears.