Page 75 - Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2013

Sharing

Loosely defined, “sharing” implies giving something as an
outright gift. When it comes to sharing music, we distinguish
two categories – first and foremost, the musicians’ desire to
promote and get their music in the hands of potential fans.
Musicians take advantage of programs like SoundCloud,
Spotify or AirPlay Direct to send tracks directly to radio DJs
and promoters. They also utilize social media outlets to reach
out and provide free downloads of teaser tracks to fans in an
effort to get them to buy the album from Amazon, CD Baby
or any of the other purveyors of electronic media. Another
tool in file sharing is the QR code. This is a fancy barcode
that holds a boatload of information on the promotional
download card.
Secondly, there is the rest of us: the closet DJ, the personal
music guru (you know the folks who have to share their latest
discovery – the best song ever), or your BFF who knows
what you like better than anyone. We post our minute-to-
minute favorites on Facebook, Twitter or the social media
du jour. We invite folks to our personal listening “rooms”
with programs like Soundrop and MixCloud. We email zip
files and tweet songs via Tinysong.com. We reach out to the
entire world instantly, filling in the imagined cultural cracks
with the salve of our healing, audio ear putty. We share our
live music experiences in little videos we send each other
prolifically.
Then there’s your phone. With Siri and other personal
assistant programs, your phone can even suggest songs you
may like. Are these smartphones talking to one another?
Oh yeah! I’m sure you’ve seen the commercial where one
smartphone transfers its playlist to another when their bodies
gently touch each other! Hmm, maybe tactile is not so
archaic after all.
The coolest thing about these fully loaded, smartphone
juke boxes we carry around is that they easily interface with
audio systems in the car, home or office to provide that Hi-Fi
boost and wall-shaking subwoofer we need to interject our
personal play list into others’ space. I love introducing my
perfect playlist to folks at high decibels. Mama always said
sharing makes you feel good!

John “Blueshammer” Hammer is a writer/photographer based in
Minnesota. He publishes Blue Monday Monthly, which is distributed
in seven states and on line at www.bluemondaymonthly.com.
John is also a promoter of live events and producer/host of the
Hammered by The Blues weekly radio show on KRUE 100.9fm
/ 1170am as well as streaming on his website. To contact John
about photos, subscriptions to Blue Monday, or just to shoot the
breeze: blueshammer@bluemondaymonthly.com

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