You missed out TheSims! It's a bigger community than Harry Potter, much bigger, with Electronic Arts taking a much deeper community look. EA holds community events etc. for it's fans. Fans are what define TheSims too!
Jon O
· 4 months ago
If you are a Phish Head, or a musician, or both, check out this post: Phish's Secrets And More For Growing A Cult Following.
pretty cool article Josh! Communities perspective is in my point of view, the right path to discovery a proper approach to all these tools. thanks for sharing!
Art Rogue
· 4 months ago
Great post. #YEM
meh
· 4 months ago
Most memorable quote from Trey "We could piss in our fans ears and they would love it"
benphoster
· 4 months ago
That was famously misattributed to Trey...but he never said it. That was a reporter from an Indianapolis newspaper reviewing the 1997 Deer Creek show. Fishman can be seen reading the article on Bittersweet Motel.
Dave Senior
· 4 months ago
Wow. That was a great read. Being a deadhead and a phishead, I often think about how social media growth parallels the community growth of these bands. The unique thing about social networks, is that the experience you create enhances your personal interests. You choose who to follow and who is your friend, this has the effect of building your own community to be a part of. Same with the band communities, you choose who your friends are based on similar interests and geography. I find that twitter is especially powerful with "Event Centric" topics, Phish @ hampton blew up the trending topics on Twitter, CES does the same. Industries, niches anything that have a community can be highly empowered by social media.
Rich Pulvino
· 4 months ago
Yes! As a young Phish-head, a master's student, a young PR professional, and an enthusiast of social technologies, I applaud this article for giving credit to a wonderful community that helped paved the way for social media today. Particularly, the tape trading that began with The Dead and thrived with Phish, these communities organized across the U.S. and the world even. A Phish-head in Boston became able to communicate with a Phish-head in Seattle, trade a tape, complain about a sub-par performance, rave about a classic show, and unite people across the country around newer bands and social causes. Another great example of digital community pioneers were the underground indie/punk scenes of the mid-to-late 1990's that utilized message boards and web calendars to enage each other around local bands in the scene. Once again, great article! Can't wait for Phish to come to my town so I can party down, both in concert and then head on over to the Phantasy Tour boards to argue about which summer performance was the best! Cheers! : )
Rich Pulvino
· 4 months ago
Yes! As a young Phish-head, a master's student, a young PR professional, and an enthusiast of social technologies, I applaud this article for giving credit to a wonderful community that helped paved the way for social media today. Particularly, the tape trading that began with The Dead and thrived with Phish, these communities organized across the U.S. and the world even. A Phish-head in Boston became able to communicate with a Phish-head in Seattle, trade a tape, complain about a sub-par performance, rave about a classic show, and unite people across the country around newer bands and social causes. Another great example of digital community pioneers were the underground indie/punk scenes of the mid-to-late 1990's that utilized message boards and web calendars to enage each other around local bands in the scene. Once again, great article! Can't wait for Phish to come to my town so I can party down, both in concert and then head on over to the Phantasy Tour boards to argue about which summer performance was the best! Cheers! : )
benphoster
· 4 months ago
The Rec.Music.Phish newsgroup and Andy Gadiel's early Phish newspaper pioneered the merge between the real and virtual community.
However...dude...Waste? Of all the songs....Waste?
Josh Catone
· 4 months ago
That was my choice. Honestly, I just wanted to include one from YouTube that was of higher quality and didn't have too much crowd noise (so many of the cell phone vids from the current tour were out by that criteria).
Waste probably isn't a bad choice, imho, since it is also a fairly mainstream song -- and we do have a lot of non-Phish fan readers (though really, I can't imagine why anyone _doesn't_ love Phish! ;)).
Dave Senior
· 4 months ago
I would have loved see one of the HD multi-cam sbd-sync'd videos from Hampton on there.. show what crowd-sourcing is all about.
JoshSternberg
· 4 months ago
Ha! That wasn't my call, but I can understand how it fits, as the lyrics say "come waste your time with me" and I think we all have wasted significant time at Phish/Dead/Twitter/Facebook. But thanks for reading and hoped you liked the article!
benphoster
· 4 months ago
heh...sorry, wasn't trying to give you too hard of a time! It kind of reminded me of a Phish concert. You had a whole bunch of awesomeness (written words) leading up to "Waste", then Waste was played, so you could take a minute to catch a breather, then back into the awesomeness (written words)
It was a very creative post! I write about Social Media and Phish and wish I would have thought of it...
I especially liked this: "Fan Communities are About the Fans" I'm trying to spread that mantra to companies: "Customer Communities are About the Customers". Your detail supported your point, and I liked how you tied in PotterHeads.
See you at Toyota Park in Chicago? We have a couple extras if you need!
Pam Mark Hall
· 4 months ago
YES! "social networking, like rock and roll, is here to stay" However, as with any brand, be it the Phish, Dell, Wall Street Journal, or Twitter and FaceBook, the markets that consume what they supply are based on the needs expressed by any given community, and those needs are not static. Communities and their needs always change, because that's what humans do. In order to be sustainable, all brands must continue to listen to the needs of the audience/community/market they say they care about, and/or from those they wish to profit.
Craziest Gadgets
· 4 months ago
nice article- i'm surprised you made it all the way through without throwing in an "expanding exponentially" line. phish's popularity as a non-mainstream band keeps them from becoming mainstream simply because all the shows sell out quickly before a casual fan has time to decide to go check them out live. plus they genre hop which makes it hard to explain their sound to a non-fan. but the main point is that they spread via word of mouth.
PhishTwit
· 4 months ago
Nice post Josh! Great to see Phish getting some love on Mashable.
If you're looking for Phish / Twitter integration, head on over to PhishTwit...
It features real-time Phish Twitter updates, plus chat, audio streams, photos from Flickr, and of course embedded live video from the shows (when available) all on one page.
If you're not going to the shows, stop by to chat and watch the setlist roll in when the band kicks things off at Red Rocks tonight! Who knows, there might even be a stream or two...
TL
Charles
· 4 months ago
Awesome article. I have to 2nd what everyone else is saying about Phish's early presence in worlds like IRC - specifically the efforts of bassist Mike Gordon.
The very style of Phish's music fostered community. When you have a band founded in improvisation & musicianship, each show is more than playing the most popular songs you have in every city. Phish RARELY plays the same song two nights in a row, and in fact, each concert is it's own little circus. Missing something rare and amazing is what keeps people going to show after show, listening to recording after recording, and talking to one another. You can't do this well unless you're a real musician, and this sets Phish apart from "pop" bands on the radio, which by contrast are shallow marketing machines (like The Jonas Brothers).
Phish fans don't just like the band, they like honest musicianship, which is a much bigger thing to form a relationship over than a band.
SarahB
· 4 months ago
Hey Josh, you're friend Annie tweeted your post to me and I'm glad that she did--great read and well thought out. Look forward to more fan/user tech evolution influencing modern culture.
JoshSternberg
· 4 months ago
So...Steely Dan is playing a few nights at The Beacon and as Kai McMahon wrote "[t]hat for certain nights, including tonight, ticket holders for the show pick the set list. Anyone who bought a ticket in advance of the show had the opportunity to vote on what songs the band plays. Top choices made it in to the set list. Excellent, no? They might be old fogeys, but they’re moving with the times, crowdsourcing what they play."
You wrote "Imagine, for example, that Phish and their record company strategically placed high-def cameras around the stage and broadcast it over the Internet for $10 per show. How many fans would pay for the right to watch live, high-definition streaming concerts, instead of poor-quality, handheld, fan cams?"
The Allman Brothers did this for the Beacon Run this March. $100.00 got you 6 months and all 15 Beacon shows which could be taken from your computer thru HDMI cables to your Hi-Def tv.
All Comments
http://bit.ly/aPZhp
thanks for sharing!
However...dude...Waste? Of all the songs....Waste?
Waste probably isn't a bad choice, imho, since it is also a fairly mainstream song -- and we do have a lot of non-Phish fan readers (though really, I can't imagine why anyone _doesn't_ love Phish! ;)).
It was a very creative post! I write about Social Media and Phish and wish I would have thought of it...
I especially liked this: "Fan Communities are About the Fans" I'm trying to spread that mantra to companies: "Customer Communities are About the Customers". Your detail supported your point, and I liked how you tied in PotterHeads.
See you at Toyota Park in Chicago? We have a couple extras if you need!
If you're looking for Phish / Twitter integration, head on over to PhishTwit...
--> http://PhishTwit.com <--
It features real-time Phish Twitter updates, plus chat, audio streams, photos from Flickr, and of course embedded live video from the shows (when available) all on one page.
If you're not going to the shows, stop by to chat and watch the setlist roll in when the band kicks things off at Red Rocks tonight! Who knows, there might even be a stream or two...
TL
The very style of Phish's music fostered community. When you have a band founded in improvisation & musicianship, each show is more than playing the most popular songs you have in every city. Phish RARELY plays the same song two nights in a row, and in fact, each concert is it's own little circus. Missing something rare and amazing is what keeps people going to show after show, listening to recording after recording, and talking to one another. You can't do this well unless you're a real musician, and this sets Phish apart from "pop" bands on the radio, which by contrast are shallow marketing machines (like The Jonas Brothers).
Phish fans don't just like the band, they like honest musicianship, which is a much bigger thing to form a relationship over than a band.
http://kaimac.wordpress.com/2009/08/01/steely-d...
Talk about using the community!
The Allman Brothers did this for the Beacon Run this March. $100.00 got you 6 months and all 15 Beacon shows which could be taken from your computer thru HDMI cables to your Hi-Def tv.
http://www.moogis.com/