21
Nov

Who Should You Be Following?

Since January I have been working/contributing for BylineBeat, an online news site based out of New York City. We specialize in politics, technology and current events. Recently, we have been intensively covering #Election2012 and the latest happenings in the political world, along with the conflicts in the Middle East.

Our team at BylineBeat does a lot more than just work on the website though. Our team is extremely active on Twitter and I highly recommend following us all. All of us specialize in our own unique timeline, filled with original tweets plus re-tweets of reliable sources from around the world.

The BylineBeat editor-in-chief is Michael Rusch and goes by @weeddude online. His work on social media has been featured on CNN, Reuters, Fox News, NBC, etc. He is a former freelance photographer for the New York Times and has worked worldwide, including war-zones in the Middle East. He has been known for breaking news stories within minutes after them happening, beating the major news organizations by up to an hour.

Follow all of the BylineBeat team and check out our About Us page.

12
Nov

Illegal Downloads

Popularity of music is on the rise, but students in Bowling Green, Ohio, are choosing to download it illegally instead of purchasing it.

“I don’t download music through iTunes. I don’t see why anyone would. I use YouTube, or get music from other friends for free,” said Lance Dauch, an education major, from Wapakoneta, Ohio.

Music is now available through programs such as iTunes and also available free on sites such as YouTube, Spotify and Pandora. According to an article in the Rolling Stone, the fractions of cents that artists collect from streaming sites make it next to impossible to track how much they make.

According to the Rolling Stone, top artists receive approximately $1 for every 1,000 plays on YouTube and on Internet radio, artists get 25 percent of the company’s annual revenue, which comes out to be around $0.001 per stream of song.

Many music fans felt that sites such as YouTube and Pandora are actually helping musicians.

“It’s much easier for artists to gain fans these days with all of the online music sites,” said Jordan Deck, a medical technology major, from Toledo, Ohio. “Before, it was all word of mouth, and sometimes great bands were never even discovered.”

According to the Rolling Stone, compact-discs were once the main way of selling music, but have been faded out because of online downloads.

Several students on campus are happy with the direction music is going.

“CD’s just can’t compete with online downloads,” said Ariana Panagiota, a fashion major, from Pittsburgh. “It’s so much easier to carry around an iPod with thousands of songs instead of carrying around a CD with only 15 songs on it.”

Music is continuously evolving, and only time can tell what is in store for music fans in the future. Some students believe that illegal downloading is only a phase.

“I think eventually the government will step in and create a system to go after illegal downloading more than they do now,” said Josh Kelley, a sport management major, from Lima, Ohio. “The illegal downloading has got to come to an end. Musicians are getting cheated out of millions of dollars. It isn’t fair to anyone involved with the creation of music.”

 

05
Nov

Tim Pool’s Coverage of Hurricane Sandy

Tim Pool gained mainstream recognition in the fall of 2011 during the beginning of the Occupy Wall Street movement that was taking place in Zuccoti Park. An independent journalist, Pool has made his mark in the industry through the use of live stream video feeds of the event that he is covering. He

Tim Pool is an independent journalist from Chicago that gained mainstream attention in 2011 and on through his live coverage of Occupy Wall Street. For 21-hours straight, Pool documented the Zuccoti Park raid in which many protesters were abused and arrested by police. Tim Pool was featured in TIME magazine’s Persons of the Year 2011, TIME’s top 140 Twitter feeds of 2012 and is a TIME 100 nominee.

Tim Pool mainly broadcasts through the use of a smartphone and external battery. His footage is live streamed through UStream and on his website, timcast.com. He allows people to watch the stream and answer questions via a chat feature. He can read the questions, answer them on the live feed, and even point the camera to where people want to see.

His coverage of Hurricane Sandy in New York City last week was very brave and interesting, to say the least. A few days before the hurricane was to make landfall he was sending out tweets, asking his 50,000 followers where they would like him to be posted up for landfall. He and a partner made their way into a building in the middle of NYC, using the building as a home base during the incoming storm. They were located several stories up with supplies and a small generator. During the storm Pool was walking down the stairs of the building showing that the bottom floors were completely flooded, leaving them stranded on the upper floors for the time being.

He gained more mainstream attention in the mass media when CNN, Fox News, etc. reported that the New York Stock Exchange was under three feet of water due to the storm. Pool took matters into his own hands and visited the NYSE during the middle of the storm to find and report that the NYSE was not flooded and was completely fine during the storm.

From the end of the storm and until now, Pool has maintained his presence in NYC for the aftermath of the storm. He has been taking pictures and videos of looters, people rebuilding, etc. He has even documented on twitter how the aftermath of Sandy is turning people to begin price gouging for food, gas, and other supplies.

Tim Pool has built a large following of +50,000 followers on Twitter and his live stream channel reaching +5,000 views in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Pool has made it apparent that traditional journalism is not working and that the future is in the hands of independent journalists that aren’t afraid to go where the news is and report it as it’s happening.

20
Oct

Twenty-One Pilots and their rise to success

Last night, Twenty-One Pilots, a band that hasn’t even officially released their debut album from their first record company, sold out the 2,200 capacity LC Pavilion in Columbus, Ohio. The Columbus natives, Tyler Joesph and Josh Dun, have become widely popular online through the use of social media and letting the fans do the marketing for them. Both Joesph and Dun stay very active on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, with their YouTube videos receiving hundreds of thousands of clicks. They have begun to let fans do their marketing, not wanting to over promote themselves. The band has only sparingly played shows in their hometown of Columbus, choosing to play in clubs outside the state’s capital to make their Central Ohio fan base larger.

The band has used social media as a major marketing tool in their rise from playing empty basements to sold out night clubs. The duo hired a videographer to tour with them and stream the shows online, as well as uploading content all over the web for fans to gain access to. The videographer even joins them on stage to get close ups of the band’s acrobatic piano jumps and crowd diving. The duo has even went one step further and integrated social media into the band’s live performances. An official hashtag is set up for each show and fans are encouraged to tweet about the performance as tweets are scrolled across the video boards on stage.

Twenty One Pilots has shown that music marketing and promoting has changed drastically in recent years. No more are the days of releasing an album and promoting it only through constant touring. Now are the days that bands will use content from live shows and upload it all over the web via social media, giving fans the chance to reblog, retweet, and share videos with all of the fellow fans. Bands and record labels don’t have to worry about constantly promoting anymore because the fans are doing all the work for them.

 

06
Oct

Social Media in the Music Industry

Social media has been discussed in the business world, along with the news industy, but we have never really discussed what it is doing for the music industry. Youtube, Twitter and Facebook have changed the way artists are exposing themselves to the general public.

Although the top bands in the world still market themselves through publicity due to interviews, print, and music videos, there aren’t as many large bands that have the massive following like there used to be. More, and more bands are now looking to market themselves on social media platforms for a number of reasons. The most obvious reasons are that it’s free and very easy to gain a large following in a short amount of time. With one catchy tune, or well done music video, a small regional band can transform into a national success story…almost overnight.

Social media has transformed the way music has been shared as well. Just recently The XX released their new album to one person in and announced that they were tracking who they share it with and how it goes viral. The response was unbelievable and the stream released to the single fan was shared with millions of XX fans around the world, crashing the bands website after 24 hours. It wasn’t until the next morning and the major media outlets go ahold of it. This example shows the power of the underground community and how social media can create just a big event overnight without the mainstream media even noticing.

22
Sep

Social Media Blunders

The Olympics are one of the grandest stages of them all when it comes to sport. Athletes come from all over the world to participate in the global event. So when one athlete causes such an uproar via social media, it has to be taken seriously.

Voula Papachristou, a Greek triple jumper, was banned from this summer’s games and sent home after a social media blunder that included a racist tweet towards Africans in her home country of Greece. “With so many Africans in Greece, at least the West Nile mosquitoes will eat home made food,” the tweet read. She was immediately sent packing by her home country after the tweet caused a backlash that included such comments as “Xenophobic comments from a Greek athlete in the Olympic mission are unacceptable. We are ashamed.” The athlete later apologized for her comments, but the damage had already been done.

With so many professionals connected to the social media world, it’s only a matter of time before someone slips up and makes a mistake on a social media platform. Some blunders are small and are easily forgotten, but others such as this one are remembered for a while and are prime examples of what not to do with social media.

With more, and more social media blunders popping up everyday, many professional and college teams are taking action. Some college coaches have even banned players from using social media sites, such as twitter. I believe that this is a correct step in protecting the brand image of the team and players involved. Social media is a valuable tool, but it can also do serious damage to a brands reputation if not handled correctly.

15
Sep

Interns using social media

Their has been a lot of talk in recent years with who should be in charge of company’s social media. Many companies put their social media in the hands of communication experts, but some companies put interns in charge of their social media. Although many interns are quite qualified to run social media, others are not.

Social media is much more complicated than many people believe, especially when businesses use it as a means of communication with their customers/audience. Many college graduates have experience with social media due to their growing up with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. What they don’t understand is that social media in the business world is much more different than that on a person level. A business is one offensive, insulting, or abusive tweet away from completely ruining a brands reputation. Should businesses really trust an intern with their entire online brand?

Now although I believe that many interns are not qualified to be trusted with a company’s online brand, their are some out there that are qualified enough right out of college. Should they be discriminated against just because a few other young interns have screwed it up for the rest?

Although I am young, compared to other social media strategists in the industry, I do believe that if I was an intern I should be trusted with the reputation of an online brand. I have proven myself with my own online brand, along with the online brand of a local business. I maintain a professional feed on my own person social media accounts, that in itself is more than many college graduates can say.

It all comes down to a case-to-case basis. I believe trusting interns with social media accounts are like trusting interns with any other subject matter in the business field. The company has to be aware of what they are doing and make sure they know the risks of trusting interns with their online brand.

07
Sep

Social Media in the Small Business World

I am a firm believer that social media is one of the best marketing tools, aside from word-of-mouth that a small, local business can utilize. Social media has turned in recent years from a networking tool to one of the most powerful tools a business can use to market their brand.

Many small businesses have an extremely small budget for marketing and promotion. Small businesses can’t afford the flashy advertising that you seen corporate businesses using on the internet and television. Of course, radio and print advertising are both affordable options, but both of those options are in their dying days and don’t have the wide reach that they once did.

The majority of small businesses rely on word-of-mouth to expand their brand. But word-of-mouth can only go so far these days. Social media, once considered to be a fad, is here to stay and is playing a valuable role in the success of many self-start and small businesses. It lets local businesses reach people that they otherwise wouldn’t in the print advertising and radio market.

The Cookie Jar & More here in Bowling Green, Ohio, started from the ground-up six years ago. The business has flourished through word-of-mouth for the most part, but recently has just started to make an online appearance through the use of social media.

I was hired on at the Cookie Jar & More in September of 2011. I took over the curation of the Cookie Jar’s social media in April of 2012. I came took the position with a few main goals that I believed would help the Cookie Jar succeed as one of the most powerful local businesses in Bowling Green.

I wanted to make sure that we were targeting the correct audience. Bowling Green being a “college town,” I knew that our target audience had to be the university and its students. With a target audience between the ages of 18 and 24, my main goal was to be extremely active on Twitter.

Why not Facebook you ask? Well although Facebook has the largest audience of all social media, it doesn’t necessarily hold the best chances of reaching our target audience. Facebook has become very “watered down” in the past few years, much of that having to due with Facebook migrating to become the world’s largest photo sharing site. Even though Facebook is great for social conversation between friends, it’s not the best tool for creating social engagement between business and consumer.

Along with just being active on Twitter, I wanted to make sure the activity was worth it. My goal was to create engagement between our brand and the customers that follow us. My plan was to treat every tweet and question just as if a customer came into the store with the same situation. No phone call can go unanswered and the same fits with social media. Every question, comment, and concern must be treated like a phone call. Being honest, open, and upfront with customers is the best way to represent the brand.

Since April when I started, the response from the Bowling Green community has been phenomenal. Our following has increased substantially from ~250 followers to over 700 in just a few months. Our social media presence has transformed into one of the most followed and active local business accounts in Bowling Green, and it can only get better in the coming years.

30
Aug

Blog Assignment 1

With all of the new online social media popping up, employers are taking notice and beginning to investigate potential employees, along with employees that have been with the company for quite some time.

I do believe that it is O.K. for employers to do a little investigating and research on potential employees. The businesses and employers have the resources to do so, so why wouldn’t they? It then becomes future employee’s responsibility to be aware of the pros and cons of having social media accounts. For example, a person going out for a night on the town should keep the phone and camera in the pocket during the night instead of live tweeting and updating their facebook photos at 2 a.m.

People need to understand that in the business world these days, everyone represents their own “personal brand.” I have spent the last few years building my personal brand to where I am now. I take pride in my social media accounts, especially my twitter account. I would be comfortable presenting my twitter account to future employers and showing them the work that I have done in the past. I maintain a “clean” feed, produce online news, and keep my followers up to date with what is going on in my life. I am completely transparent with what I do and what is posted on my account.

To some, what I do would make them uncomfortable if the public was aware of what they were doing to that extent, but I see it a different way. By being completely transparent online, I am gaining the trust of my followers and my future employers. I believe that honesty is the best thing to have in this online digital age.

What it comes down to is that employers aren’t stalking their potential employees in the digital age just to find their dirty laundry. Some are looking to find what they’ve done in the real world and what kind of experience they have. This is the day and age where your resume is not only on paper, but represented through your online brand.

30
Aug

Blog Assignment 1

With all of the new online social media popping up, employers are taking notice and beginning to investigate potential employees, along with employees that have been with the company for quite some time.

I do believe that it is O.K. for employers to do a little investigating and research on potential employees. The businesses and employers have the resources to do so, so why wouldn’t they? It then becomes future employee’s responsibility to be aware of the pros and cons of having social media accounts. For example, a person going out for a night on the town should keep the phone and camera in the pocket during the night instead of live tweeting and updating their facebook photos at 2 a.m.

People need to understand that in the business world these days, everyone represents their own “personal brand.” I have spent the last few years building my personal brand to where I am now. I take pride in my social media accounts, especially my twitter account. I would be comfortable presenting my twitter account to future employers and showing them the work that I have done in the past. I maintain a “clean” feed, produce online news, and keep my followers up to date with what is going on in my life. I am completely transparent with what I do and what is posted on my account.

To some, what I do would make them uncomfortable if the public was aware of what they were doing to that extent, but I see it a different way. By being completely transparent online, I am gaining the trust of my followers and my future employers. I believe that honesty is the best thing to have in this online digital age.

What it comes down to is that employers aren’t stalking their potential employees in the digital age just to find their dirty laundry. Some are looking to find what they’ve done in the real world and what kind of experience they have. This is the day and age where your resume is not only on paper, but represented through your online brand.

06
Dec

The Black Keys: El Camnio

The Black Keys, featuring singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney, released their seventh studio album, El Camino, today, December 6th.

El Camino follows the Black Keys most successful, Grammy award-winning album, Brothers. Brothers sold over 70,000 copies in its first week and have since surpassed the one million mark worldwide.

Drummer, Patrick Carney, was quoted in a press release saying, “We’ve taken the long road to get where we are. It’s pretty cool to be in your early 30s making music with your best friend. We’ve experienced everything from driving a thousand miles to play for no one to winning Grammys.”

Auerbach explained in the press release that the biggest plus about the new album, El Camino, is going to be playing the album live. He said El Camino is back to the basics and more “straight ahead rock and roll.”

The Black Keys announced late last week that they will embark on a month long arena tour promoting the new album. The tour will make several stops around the homeland of the band, Akron, Ohio, including Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, and Detroit.

Listen to the hit single, “Lonely Boy”, as the Black Keys perform it on the latest episode of Saturday Night Live.

 

16
Nov

Are you a music pirate?

Popularity of music is on the rise, but students in Bowling Green, Ohio, are choosing to download it illegally instead of purchasing it.

“I don’t download music through iTunes. I don’t see why anyone would. I use YouTube, or get music from other friends for free,” said Lance Dauch, an education major, from Wapakoneta, Ohio.

Music is now available through programs such as iTunes and also available free on sites such as YouTube, Spotify and Pandora. According to an article in the Rolling Stone, the fractions of cents that artists collect from streaming sites make it next to impossible to track how much they make.

According to the Rolling Stone, top artists receive approximately $1 for every 1,000 plays on YouTube and on Internet radio, artists get 25 percent of the company’s annual revenue, which comes out to be around $0.001 per stream of song.

Many music fans felt that sites such as YouTube and Pandora are actually helping musicians.

“It’s much easier for artists to gain fans these days with all of the online music sites,” said Jordan Deck, a medical technology major, from Toledo, Ohio. “Before, it was all word of mouth, and sometimes great bands were never even discovered.”

According to the Rolling Stone, compact-discs were once the main way of selling music, but have been faded out because of online downloads.

Several students on campus are happy with the direction music is going.

“CD’s just can’t compete with online downloads,” said Ariana Panagiota, a fashion major, from Pittsburgh. “It’s so much easier to carry around an iPod with thousands of songs instead of carrying around a CD with only 15 songs on it.”

Music is continuously evolving, and only time can tell what is in store for music fans in the future. Some students believe that illegal downloading is only a phase.

“I think eventually the government will step in and create a system to go after illegal downloading more than they do now,” said Josh Kelley, a sport management major, from Lima, Ohio. “The illegal downloading has got to come to an end. Musicians are getting cheated out of millions of dollars. It isn’t fair to anyone involved with the creation of music.”

 

01
Nov

Metallica Fans Riot

Fans at a Metallica show in Gurgaon, India, destroyed the bands equipment after they were notified that the show had been canceled due to the front security barrier collapsing.

The four executives of DNA Entertainment Network that organized the show were arrested Sunday on fraud charges according to BBC News. Reports state that the police arrested the executives after complaints surfaced that the organizers refused to refund money for the show, leading fans to riot.

Metallica issued a statement after the cancellation saying they were “notified that there was a serious question as to whether the show could proceed with regard to the safety of the concert audience.” The band noted that their “first and foremost concern was for the safety of you, the fans.”

The canceled show would have been the first Metallica show ever in India.

This video shows the mayhem as the fans riot on the stage.

 

25
Oct

Oasis to Return?

Liam Gallagher, the former front-man and lead singer of Oasis, has recently admitted that he would consider reconciling with his brother Noel to tour their album, (What’s The Story) Morning Glory, for it’s 20th year anniversary in 2015. Liam was quoted by the Rolling Stone saying, “In 2015, if we can put our shit aside, we can tour and play the album in its entirety for the 20th anniversary. I’d be up for that, if it’s on our terms. There’s got to be two-way respect.”

The two brothers, Liam and Noel, haven’t spoken since Noel walked out on the band after an altercation, minutes before Oasis was supposed to headline a Paris music festival. Back in August, when the Rolling Stone asked Noel about a possible Oasis reunion he was quoted saying, “Liam has said that the idea makes him vomit and it would never happen. So I don’t need to add anything to that. I don’t need the fucking money, but I think it’s a shame that songs like ‘Champagne Supernova,’ ‘Rock and Roll Star, and ‘The Shock of the Lightning’ will never be played again.”

Both brothers have been busy with their own projects. Liam and his new band, Beady Eye, recently released their debut album titled Different Gear, Still Spinning. The album hit #3 on the U.K. charts in it’s first week and has received good reviews since then. Noel, on the other hand,is the star of his solo group, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. The group just released their debut album last week and have plans for a European tour later this year.

You can read the full bio of Oasis, including their history and past endeavors here.

 


18
Oct

Steve Jobs’ Music Revolution

What Steve Jobs did in his lifetime was revolutionary. He started with a high school degree, a few college classes and a dream. That dream was to change the World, and changing the World is exactly what he did.

It’s early 2002 and the illegal music downloading spree is in full swing. According to an article in the Rolling Stone, major record labels had responded to the digital revolution by filing lawsuits against services like Napster instead of making it easier for members of the public to access music. The music fans were outraged with what was going on and so was Steve Jobs.

So, what does Steve Jobs do? He does what any other great businessman would do. He finds a way to give the music fans exactly what they want. Jobs envisioned a product that would make customers want to pay for music online. This idea that Jobs had would eventually become what we all know as iTunes.

The music industry took a revolutionary turn after Apple released iTunes. Consumers were finally purchasing and downloading music legally. According to the Rolling Stone, eight years after the release of iTunes, Apple went on to sell over 300 million iPods and 10 billion music tracks via iTunes.

If you would like to read more about creation of iTunes and the revolutionary turn it took music on, the article can be found here.

 

 

12
Oct

About Me

My name is Austin Hunt and I am currently a junior here at Bowling Green State University. I am majoring in telecommunications with a minor in journalism. I’m very interested in music, sports and politics, and love to write about all of the subjects. After graduation I would like to move to a larger market, outside of Ohio. I look forward to blogging weekly.