All posts tagged with: Social Media

Carole Pope is no stranger to the music scene. For four decades she’s been pumping out the hits, shocking the world with her avant-guard style and vocalizing her political opinions. Most importantly, Carole recognizes that the way musicians do business today has dramatically changed since she started her career.

“It’s a nightmare trying to get out there,” Carole said, describing her challenges as a solo artist. “Not everyone is out there [on the internet]. People who are under 18, who are older, or love retro music just aren’t online. It’s so time consuming.”

While today’s up-and-coming artists struggle with being found, many use social media to try to gain traction for their music. Sites like YouTube, Facebook Twitter and mySpace are all being used.

“That’s the good thing about the Internet, you can reach world-wide,” Carole said, explaining how she’s leveraging social media to promote her new work. “You can be on iTunes too. Everything is just out there.”

But Carole also quickly notes, as good as the technology is, it also has its downfalls.

“Anyone can make a video,” Carole said in disgust. “They aren’t good. That’s annoying. The internet is a great way to get your music out, most people can’t perform live.”

While Carole has a long history of being a rock star, she finds traditional media, like radio, doesn’t play her music. She’s found it to be extremely frustrating and limiting. Instead, she’s turned to social media to get her music out.

“I have a PR person, but I still go on,” Carole said as she described her love / hate relationship with social media. “I like Twitter. It’s like a little sound byte. But I need to find more time to get on stuff like Facebook.”

Even experienced artists struggle with getting their music heard. It takes a lot of time and dedication.

“I have a duet with Rufus Wainwright that people don’t even know about!” Carole said.

Carole leaves these words of advice for upcoming LGBT artists, “Perform at Prides. Many will try to stuff LGBT artists, but play wherever you can. Be true to yourself as an artist. It’s very competitive.”

This could quite possibly be the coolest thing this year at any road running race in British Columbia in 2012. It’s a game-changer and it sets the bar for other races to embrace technology and how they need to apply social media, not with just on-the-ground teams, but actively engage running participants.

Participants in the TC10K will be the first participants of any road running race held in British Columbia to have their time and placing posted live on Twitter and Facebook during the Sunday, April 29, 2012 race.

The TC10K social media tracking service has officially launched and participants can sign-up to transmit their standings live as they cross special timing mats at the 5km, 8km and finish lines. Victoria-based Race Day Timing is providing the free service.

“In addition to having your 5km, 8km, and finish time shared live on your Facebook or Twitter account during the race, friends and family will be able to track a participants progress on our live leader board and athlete tracker,” says Mark Nelson, Owner, Race Day Timing.

The live social sharing requires each participant to register for the service after they have registered for the TC10K event. Participants registering to run after April 16 will need to wait 48 hours before they can register for the social feeds.