Blogging the News

   Social media is something people in today’s society continuously use. Social media has replaced the paper in more than one way for people to catch up on current events, blogs and etc. With free instant access on a multitude of social networks such as twitter, facebook and instagram, news, people opinions and links to people knowledgeable in fields, people are more freely able to be informed. While some people do prefer paper such as the newspaper, paperback books, etc. over digital forms of these things, social media paves the way for people to see my blog in a faster way across many communities through people sharing links or by ads.

   I’ve put together a list of 15 sites that I came across, mostly big organizations in the music industry that take part in helping out or promoting street and subway musicians from all over the world themselves. blogs like Busk NY, The Busking Project, and the Busker Advocates Organization are three that I added to my list because they are all similar in ways of specifically directing the people to new musicians in the same way as what I’m doing in my blog. Not only do they promote them, but they also inform the people who follow them of the rights these musicians have, and ways to fight for their rights when it comes to a performance, which to me is always helpful to learn especially when It comes to my own interviews. More general sites that are more informative in the latest news that I found such as the Gothamist, The Rolling Stones Magazine, NPR Music Organization, Consequence of sound network, Short and Sweet NYC, and lastly Pitchfork, provides more categories to their readers, but at the same time stick to music related topics too. In addition some of these sites even go out of their way to add multi media like clips of new songs from some of the few street or subway musicians they come across. I personally think sites this informative with so much visual would be good to connect with in order to help promote my blog because it will spark an automatic interest to the followers and make them want to learn more about who is singing or where they can find them. I also think its useful how these sites have so many different categories, even though my blog is strictly based on musicians and their struggles and success in New York, they go out of their way to go beyond that and inform people of the latest news in other hot topics that catch their eye. By doing so, I think would be a good strategic move because it will make people of all ages, and places come to the site with at least one interest they come upon, but at the same time they might also come across a music related post similar to mines that they might want to read out of curiosity too. This will build up a fanbase, and make my blog more popular in time to people. Two other organizations that I added to my list are City Lore and Vocalist, in comparison they both present readers to the arts of music, and other talent. However, City Lore reaches out in various ways with introducing people to not just the arts, but the culture, tradition, and creativity too. Vocalist is an organization in the UK that introduces people to musicians and performers who are trying to make a living. This organization seeks out musicians and gives them a helping hand of getting a career started, and at the same time giving them lessons by teachers. I think this is useful to my blog because even though its in the UK they always accept recommendations to hear from new musicians. The last four that I added to my list are the Subway Music Blog, the Subway Diaries, Hype Machine, and WNYC are my favorites because I feel as if they most closely connect to what I’m doing in my blog, but at the same time they make it unique. To be more specific, the subway music blog and the subway diaries blog both provide people with information on subway performers just like I do, except they add a lot more audio, and visuals with longer posts and links to other sites that could do good in my favor. Hype Machine is the most interesting to me because this blog keeps track of other music related bloggers, while providing analysis and updates on what or who they talk about, this could be very useful to me since I am a music blogger myself right now and they could promote my blog and follow my posts so I gain more popularity. Lastly, WNYC is yet another organization I found that provides a lot of audio with one on one interviews with many musicians all over New York. Of course, I’d also love to connect with them because its also similar in many ways to what I’m trying to do in my own blog.

  Facebook is one good outlet for my blog, because I will be able to provide my followers with the latest updates of the musicians such as what they are up to now, where they will be touring, selling their latest CD’S, etc.. these updates would be posted every week daily to help spread the word too. Second, I’d like to use Twitter as another outlet because I’ll be able to make my own hashtags as a way for my followers to re-tweet any posts I make specifically for my blog, as another good source to promote and also share pictures of the musicians I come across at the same time. The last outlet I’d like to use for my blog is Youtube because many musicians I interview already have accounts on Youtube as a source to share their music with fans. It will be easy for me to create a YouTube account to share the musicians accounts by their personal links, and also post my own clips that I record of them to share with my blog followers and eventually making not only my blog more popular, but every musician I meet at the same time.

My Tweets and Headlines:

first post headline: Is Rock Really Dead or Just Evolving?

first tweet: Vanessa Vasquez@NessyV91 23 Nov 2014

Gene Simmons declared Rock and Roll dead, according to two street performers Rock is not dead, it’s very much alive but rare #BehindTheNotes

second post headline: Music is in the Blood

second tweet: Vanessa Vasquez@NessyV91 23 Nov 2014

Classical guitarist Maya Miele believes musical talent flows through her sons blood.#BehindTheNotes

third post headline: Karikatura, the Growing Sensation

third tweet: Vanessa Vasquez@NessyV91 23 Nov 2014

Multi-genre band Karikatura, takes the world by storm, performing in popular places around the globe. #BehindTheNotes

fourth post headline: ‘70s Musician Forest Apple Then and Now

fourth tweet: Vanessa Vasquez@NessyV91 23 Nov 2014

Forest Apple, a ’70s musician, entertains the crowds of people in the subway with his xylophone and harmonica. #BehindTheNotes