I love Twitter. There, I admitted it. No, I don't really know what it is for, or why anything that I post actually matters to anyone but me. But does everything we do have to always have a point?
A couple of issues back, Word magazine charted the best and worst tweeters of the pop/rock world and surprisingly being a member of the MySpace generation doesn't automatically make you a hit in the twittersphere. But apart from a direct link to your fan club - which any social networking site can offer you - why would a band want to enter into a site which only provides you with 140 characters and no scope to post songs?
On a recent blog post in the States, the writer put an understanding of social media as the second most important thing after practice for any up and coming band. We are in the throes of a digital revolution - as a trainee journalist I have been grilled constantly on the importance of the internet, social media and the likes. With budgets stretched to bursting, it's a case of adapt or die!
But back to Twitter. While at first glance it doesn't hold anything for musicians, over the past few months I have noticed more and more bands appearing in amongst the 'normal' users, along with the trending topics #musicmonday and #faibw (follow an indie band Wednesday). While the big bands may not take part in such blatent publicising of their tweets, these search terms have become like gold-dust to the myriad of lesser known or unsigned bands who have embraced the twittersphere with open arms. @To_The_Moon is one such example - they are even organising their own twitter concert featuring bands who have made their name on the social networking site.
So for all those Twitter-sceptics out there I offer you this. At a glance twitter may seem to be a waste of perfectly good bandwidth. (Yes, I'll admit there is a huge amount of rubbish, spam and viral marketing out there.) But if it levels the musical playing field even slightly and allows lesser known bands to extend their fan-base surely that makes it a diamond in the rough?