A few months ago I was poking around on Twitter. As I was checking out who the people I follow were otherwise connected to, I came across someone who had shared a link to Chatroulette (I’m not going to link there, due to all the naked weirdos).
The next couple days was a weird experience for me. I got sucked into a slight misuse of time, as I experimented with the service, contemplating whether or not it had any usefulness in the realm of promoting music-or if it was simply some time-wasting addiction for perverts (again, it’s disturbing the amount of strange naked men on this site) and underage teens, who’s parents need to restrict their internet access (parents-do you know what your kids are doing right now?) After a few days, I concluded that Chatroulette really had no use for music promotion.
Well, now the site has blown up. This month, I’ve seen multiple stories pop up on blogs about how artists are using Chatroulette.
The first one I heard about was Merton, who gained a lot of attention because of his Ben Folds similarities, and his witty improv ability: http://mashable.com/2010/03/23/exclusive-merton-the-chatroulette-piano-guy/
Then I came across a story about the band Holy F**k, and how they’re using Chatroulette to promote their new music: http://www.fastcompany.com/1586220/indie-band-holy-fk-debuts-new-album-on-chatroulette-of-all-places
Finally, today I saw via a post on Hypebot, that Ben Folds actually did show up in a joking response of sorts to Merton: http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2010/03/ben-folds-chatroulette-2000-fans-big-fun.html
Do I think this tactic is a legitimate new way to promote music and gain mass success? No, I don’t. But it is inspiring. It has worked on a certain level.
The point is not explicitly the use of Chatroulette to promote music, because on a mass level that is not going to work. The point is the development and use of creative tactics, which serve as small bits that bloggers and journalists can write about, helping to build the artist’s story.
//stinson
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I had my first Chatroulette experience this weekend and weirdos is an understatment.
How anyone can use this Website in a positive way is beyond me. That said, watching Merton (the improv piano guy) and his antics is hilarious and pretty cool. In the end, this type of Website/social media (if you can even call it that) is not going to change my world. I’ll go out on a limb and say it won’t change many others either. The only people who will spend meaningless hours on these sites (I checked out Omegle, too) are children or people with child-like brains, but with bad intentions (weirdos, pervs, etc.)
With a bottle of Canadian Club and some good friends, it did provide a couple of hours of hilarity. Polling each new stranger with, “What is your favorite band and song? I will YouTube it and judge you.” was a great social experiement. In the end, my idea that many people listen to terrible music was confirmed.