Note that this isn’t the same as digital maoism. Reznor and the rest are still focused on making music and being rock stars, not selling T-shirts and so forth. Masnick also makes the point that getting all the extra “business” stuff done is a useful job for an agent or even a label, and might help justify their existence.

The idea is that fans can collaborate with the band in their latest music video. You use your webcam to imitate a pose taken by a band member (e.g. arms out wide or sticking out your tongue). Then upload your snap to the site and it is then integrated – every hour, on the hour – into the video. It creates a phenomenal blurring effect as dozens of user photos follow every move of the band, in synchronisation.

More than 8500 people have already taken part. Not enormous numbers perhaps, by some people’s standards. But hey, it’s for a Dutch indie band I’ve never heard of.

To me, it illustrates a few great ideas about doing social media well:

• Don’t make your users do all the work. Send us your videos and we might turn it into an advert sounds so phony and exploitative nowadays.
• Reward your people instantly – or as close to that as you can.
• Make it something that makes your relationship closer. Something that’s really sharing, not paying lip service.
• Make it joyous if you possibly can. I don’t own a webcam, but I’m tempted to get one after seeing this!

photo credit: Michale

via Jez Kay

• 67% share music with their friends, with 15% sharing “a lot of it”
• 15% have swapped hard disks or iPod/MP3 hard disks to share music (rising to 17% of legal downloaders and 24% of illegal downloaders)
• 31% use Instant Messenger to share music with the majority downloading and sending
• 33% create compilations to share with friends
• 22% use email to share music
• 50% do at least one of the following activities to share music: use IM, use email, share hard disks or download illegally

Cost was cited as the main reason for sharing music, though most of those surveyed still value physical CD purchases more highly than digital formats, viewing it as the ‘complete package’. The impact of social networks like bebo and myspace on music discovery and consumption is also very high. Among those who were members of these sorts of sites:

• 23% state using these sites has a “massive” or “big” impact on their music purchases
• 49% regularly or occasionally recommend artists to others on these sites
• 57% have “discovered music that I love”
• 31% have purchased downloads or CDs of music discovered on these sites
• 12% regularly download music for free

I would suggest that most people underplay the idea that they are influenced by others in their music tastes. We like to think we form our tastes independently. Therefore, the influence of social networks could be even higher than these figures show.

Podcasts remain a minority activity, with 65% of the sample never having downloaded a podcast. Only one percent of the sample downloaded a podcast on a daily basis. The research also found that demand for mobile phones with a music player outstrips demand for iPods by a factor of almost 2:1.