By Brian Kecskemety
2011 was a banner year in the world of music tech. New services like Spotify and turntable.fm dominated the headlines, while old guards like Napster finally saw their demise. We’re taking a look back via the social network that just surpassed 100 million active users: Twitter. The following are the tweets that best encapsulate this year in music and tech. While we stay pretty on top of things, there have literally been billions of tweets this year, so we may have not caught them all. Let us know which important tweets you think we missed in the comments.
January 10
@50cent -HNHI is the stock symbol for TVG there launching 15 different products. they are no joke get in now.
In January, 50 Cent tweeted about H&H Imports, the company that produced his line of headphones. Fiddy’s endoresement caused the value of the shares to skyrocket from 10 cents to 39 cents. Since he also owned a stake in the company, 50 netted millions, leading some to question the legality of the tip. He followed it up the next day with a tweet of a more cautionary tone: “HNHI is the right investment for me it may or may not be right for u! Do ur homework.” 50 Cent has been one of Twitter’s more prolific personalities, and his stock-hyping tweets illustrate the powerful affect social media can have on the masses.
February 2
@thirdmanrecords – All of us at TMR want to send all of our love and gratitude to Jack and Meg today. You guys made the world a better place. LOVE YOU.
After cancelling several dates on their most recent tour in 2007, and not playing any shows or releasing any new recordings since, The White Stripes officially called it quits in February by releasing a statement via their website. While many fans were disappointed, Jack White will still be plenty busy with his work with The Dead Weather, owning and operating his Nashville-based label Third Man Records, producing, and various other side projects.
February 7
@alyankovic – BTW, Christina Aguilera, nice job at the Super Bowl, but changing the words to songs is MY gig.
In front of a worldwide television audience of over 160 million, Christina Aguilera botched the words to “The Star-Spangled Banner” before Super Bowl XLV at Cowboys Stadium. Parody-king Wierd Al Yankovic took to Twitter for a friendly jab at the pop queen.
February 9
@lcdsoundsystem – ok… did ANYone get a ticket? shit. please tell me? #gotaticket
LCD Soundsystem created a stir when they announced that their last ever show would be at New York City’s Madison Square Garden in April. When tickets went on sale, they sold out in seconds, causing outrage from fans and the artist. Some speculated that most tickets were reserved for secondary ticketing channels like StubHub, and that the quick sell out was manufactured to create higher demand for a series of four club shows announced later. Whatever the case, the incident highlighted the need for increased transparency in the music industry, particularly with online ticketing.
February 13
@ArcadeFire: OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD. Thank you EVERYONE.
Arcade Fire’s 2010 album “The Suburbs” took home the Album of the Year prize at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards in February, becoming the first independently released record to do so.
February 13
@Rosie – album of the year ? ummm never heard of them ever
While Arcade Fire’s big win at the Grammys this year was seen as a victory by many in the independent music industry, it also created confusion amongst many who hadn’t heard of the indie rock band. Notably, Rosie O’Donnel tweeted that she had “never heard of them,” which drew the ire of some fans. Rosie wasn’t the only one who was confused though. The Who Is Arcade Fire Tumblr collected the internet’s funniest reactions from those unfamiliar with the Canadian band.
February 16
@ladygaga – ThankYou so much to Radio+Monsters for making Born This Way the 1000th #1 in Billboard History http://http://bit.ly/hcU95vThankYou for believing.
Lady Gaga made history this year by having the title track to her new album “Born This Way” become Billboard’s 1000th #1 single.
April 15
@RecordStoreDay: thanks to everyone for support of the stores. give employees a big hug tomorrow, @rsd11. They are smelly but worth it.
The 2011 incarnation of Record Store Day was the event’s most successful in its four-year history. Album sales at independent record stores increased over 39% the week of Record Store Day from the prior week
May 1
@Questlove: I hope those rejoicing can hear O’s words that to engage in anti Islam/Muslim rhetoric is missing the point
Twitter blew up the night of May 1, after word broke out that terrorist Osama bin Laden had been killed by coalition forces. The Roots drummer, Questlove, reminded his followers to keep proper perspective of the situation.
May 4
@Bread – Keep an eye on your inboxes! Bre.ad comes out of the oven next week, and you’re going to love what we’ve baked for you!
Startup Bre.ad launched their service earlier this year, and has already made a splash in a short time, particularly in the music industry. Bre.ad allows users to create customizable landing pages when sharing links, and has been used by major artists.
May 19
@seth – Am excited to share a new social music service we are soft-launching today, just about ready, stay tuned!
In May, Seth Goldstein and Billy Chasen launched Turntable.fm, a social music service that allows users to play songs for virtual rooms filled with other DJs and listeners. The service spread virally across the internet, and the buzz was significant enough to land financial investment from the likes of Lady Gaga and Kanye West. Turntable.fm went on to release an iPhone app in September.
June 7
@SoundCtrl – We are proud to be honoring @soundtracking @creatorsproject @soundcloud @echonest and Troy Carter tomorrow #FlashFWD #IWNY #innovate
Okay, we’re a little biased, but everyone honored at this year’s FlashFWD Awards made serious waves in the music tech industry in 2011. SoundTracking was the most shared music app this year, Creators Project continued their successful run of events that pushed the boundaries of the live music experience, SoundCloud became a household name, Troy Carter used innovative technologies to promote and advance his artists as CEO of Coalition Media Group, and Echo Nest spawned a plethora of exciting new apps for musicians, industry professionals, and fans alike.
June 20
@ICANN – #ICANN Approves Historic Change to Internet’s Domain System: Board Votes to Launch New Generic Top-Level Domains icann.org
This summer, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers approved a variety of Top-Level Domains to be created, most notably, the .music suffix.
July 14
@Spotify – Hello America. Spotify here. http://www.spotify.com/us/hello-america/
The popular free on-demand digital music streaming service had a banner year in 2011, and launched in the United States this July. Music and tech aficionados had been hyping the service, which previously had only been available in select European countries. The service currently boasts over 10 million monthly active users.
The tweeted link no longer goes to their intro video, but you can still watch it here.
July 14
@tobyd – How did Spotify US launch go? 85,198 blog mentions, 26,226 news mentions & 531k tweets…in just 1 day! Not bad, I’d say.
Spotify didn’t get its millions of users without generating a boatload of buzz in the process. Social Media Week’s Toby Daniels recaps the splash the service made in its first day of availability stateside.
August 3
@JMeneilly – It is not going to leak… www.watchthethrone.com
Jay-Z’s manager, John Meneilly, has only tweeted from his account three times, but his bold claim that the much-hyped eagerly-anticipated Jay-Z and Kanye West collaboration album would not leak before its street date made waves in the music community. Turned out he was right. The album never leaked – a sort of minor miracle in this day and age – and fans had to wait until midnight on the morning of August 8 to download the album exclusively on iTunes. The album went on to sell over 1.1 million copies.
August 30
@UsherRaymondIV – MAN BEYONCE IS PREGNANT! So happy for her!!! Congrats to B and Jay-Z!!!! It’s on now!! Ain’t no turnin’ back…Children are FOREVER! URIV
Beyonce set Twitter ablaze when she revealed her baby bump on MTV’s VMAs this August. The event set a record for most tweets per second (8,868), passing other major events from this year like the Women’s World Cup and Osama bin Laden’s death.
September 19
@radiohead – New York, New York http://rhd.cc/rnd8 #das
Anytime Radiohead makes an announcement, the music world stops and listens. In September, the band announced two shows at New York City’s Roseland Ballroom, a 3,000 capacity venue – intimate by their standards. The shows sold out in seconds. The band also inadvertently created a social media buzz a few days later when rumors quickly spread of a possible performance for Occupy Wall Street protesters at Zucotti Park. The performance never happened.
September 22
@facebook – Listen to music with your friends on @facebook with #spotify integration #f8
This year’s f8 summit saw the announcement of a lot of new features for the social networking giant including Timeline and Open Graph. Facebook also announced a partnership with Spotify, requiring all Spotify users to have a Facebook account. The deal has so far worked out well for the streaming service as they gained over two million daily active users within a day of the announcement.
October 3
@sparker – Sorry Zuck, I had to do it eventually. (Actually @scooterbraun made me do it.)
Internet mogul Sean Parker finally joined Twitter this October, quickly amassing hundreds of thousands of followers in the process.
October 14
@fucktyler – Damn Shit Just Got Real. Hope Ross Is Fine Damn.
Rapper Rick Ross suffered a series of seizures on a plane on October 14, prompting the Odd Future patriarch to send his well wishes.
October 19
@kanyewest – GOODMUSIC.THE ALBUM.SPRING2012
Anyone with 5 million followers can create a buzz with any tweet, but this being Ye’s first tweet in over a month, it really got peoples’ attention. The tweet offered no link and no further information, but none was really needed. Music fans can expect a new album from the G.O.O.D. Music crew next Spring… and hopefully a tour.
November 6
@google – Tune in to http://youtube.com/android today at 2pm PT for a rockin’ livestream. Make sure to turn up your volume to 11.
Google unveiled their Google Music service including their Artist Hub. The Artist Hub acts as a direct-to-consumer platform for artists to sell music directly to their fans, possibly eliminating the need for distribution middle men.
November 10
@aplusk – As of immediately I will stop tweeting until I find a way to properly manage this feed. I feel awful about this error. Won’t happen again.
In November, after former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno was fired amidst the sexual abuse allegations against former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, tweeted, “How do you fire Jo Pa? #insult #noclass as a hawkeye fan I find it in poor taste”. Kutcher claimed he was unaware of the allegations when he made the tweet and thought that Paterno had been fired for football-related reasons, and subsequently deleted the tweet. Soon after, Kutcher announced that he would no longer be directly tweeting via a post on his blog, and outsourced the management of his twitter feed to Katalyst Media, a company he started. Many saw this as an unwise move. Though Kutcher clearly made a gaffe, people using social media to interact with celebrities want to interact with the actual person, not their PR firms.
November 30
@rhapsody – It’s moving day!! @Napster will be offline, but we’re moving all your stuff over here & you’ll be able to sign in to Rhapsody tomorrow!
Napster, the brand that started with the pioneering peer-to-peer sharing service created by then-college student Shawn Fanning that turned the music industry upside down was acquired by Rhapsody, the largest American on-demand streaming company. All Napster accounts were converted into Rhapsody accounts.
Twitter Obituaries
2011 saw the loss of many significant figures in the music industry.
March 16
@SnoopDogg: I love u buddy luv. U will always b wit me 4ever n a day u put the g n g funk u put the 1 n 213 n u put yo stamp on evrybdy u ever didit wit
Long-time Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre collaborator Nate Dogg passed away at the age of 41 on March 15, 2011.
May 27
@Eminem : RIP Gil Scott-Heron. He influenced all of hip-hop.
The music world mourned at the passing of poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron. His style of poetry was influential throughout generations of hip-hop. After a sixteen-year hiatus marred by time spent in and out of prison, Scott-Heron returned to the public eye in 2010 with his LP “I’m New Here.”
June 19
@JanetJackson – Clarence Clemons was a wonderful talent. He will be on my mind tonight.
Clarence Clemons, the renowned saxophonist for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, passed away from stroke complications on June 18. The Big Man was 69. Bruce Springsteen delivered a touching eulogy at Clemons’s funeral.
June 24
@rustyrockets – For Amy bit.ly/q0ofr5
English singer Amy Winehouse passed away on July 23 at the age of 27. A eulogy from Russel Brand, himself a former addict, went viral soon after.
September 13
@steveaoki – rest in peace to my brother forever here and in the after life dj mehdi. i love u and miss u.
French producer DJ Mehdi passed away on September 13 from injuries sustained after the roof of his home collapsed. He was 34. Many in the electronic scene mourned his passing, including electro house producer Steve Aoki.
October 3
@BillGates – For those of us lucky enough to get to work with Steve, it’s been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely. b-gat.es/qHXDsU
When the news broke of the Apple co-founder and CEO’s passing, Twitter reacted feverishly, with Steve Jobs, Apple, and #iSad becoming trending topics worldwide. Jobs’s colleague and corporate rival released a statement:
I’m truly saddened to learn of Steve Jobs’ death. Melinda and I extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends, and to everyone Steve has touched through his work.
Steve and I first met nearly 30 years ago, and have been colleagues, competitors and friends over the course of more than half our lives.
The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come.
For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely.
November 8
@heavyd – BE INSPIRED!
This was rapper Heavy D’s last tweet before he passed away on November 8. He was 44.
Brian Kecskemety (@briankecskemety) is a Brooklyn-based music industry enthusiast and digital marketer. He graduated from Ohio University with a degree in audio production and is a member of the mashup group The Stereo Bomb.
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