By Melissa Jun Rowley, Monday, Feb. 1 2010 @ 11:00AM
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| Melissa Jun Rowley |
| Social Media Rock Stars: Digg's Kevin Rose and Mashable's Pete Cashmore |
For more than half a century the Grammy Awards have been the pinnacle institution of American music. (But that doesn't mean the tone of the show and the brand itself have to be institutional.) While the Grammys showcase a smorgasbord of chart-topping tweens, pop sensations, musical legends, and iconic performances, the award ceremony has for the most part projected an ostensibly parochial air -- one difficult for even the most die-hard music fans to penetrate in order to feel included.
This year, the people behind the Grammys wanted to set the record straight by spreading the message that "We're All Fans." Determined to prove the Grammys really are hipper than your grandparents, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which administers the Grammys, launched a major push in social media outreach, including a sleek new open source Web site, community blogging, live streamed red carpet footage, a Grammy iPhone app, and a destination site for user-generated content called WereAllFans.com.
On Friday, the Academy parlayed the online buzz into offline dialogue and hosted the first Social Media Rock Stars Summit, a panel discussion on the convergence of music and the social Web. Moderated by CNN's Rick Sanchez, the panel featured actor/musician Jared Leto, Mashable CEO Pete Cashmore, Digg founder Kevin Rose, Senior Project Manager for YouTube Music Nikhil Chandhok, and Tumblr Founder David Karp.
Just as the recording industry learned to accept the Internet's omniscient power after a bloody tug-of-war match with the juggernaut file-sharing service Napster a decade ago, music moguls and artists are discovering that social media isn't going anywhere. With major artists such as Lady GaGa, John Mayor, Wyclef Jean, Alicia Keyes, and others using social media to communicate directly with their fans, the music industry can either dive into the Twitter stream and swim, or stand still and stagnant offline.
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