Chamillionaire Is Succumbed By Adam Lambert Army At Grammy Social Media Event

The panel discussion with Adam Lambert, Chamillionaire took place today (Friday, February 11th) at the Conga Room at L.A. Live.

Chamillionaire: “You spill your guts in this music, and someone comes along and demeans it in 140 characters.” Sometimes you have to step away from it. It can desensitize you.

Other highlights from the discussion via On the Meaning of Adam Lambert

Pandora, the internet personalized radio service, announced plans to go public and raise $100 million in an initial public offering. That was the real news from the event. Now numbering 80 million listeners, Pandora’s audience is has grown large enough to let the company think about how it can impact an artist’s career, said Westergren. In other words, we ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Social media is changing the music industry by putting artists directly in touch with fans. Chamillionaire noted that when you’re an artist, “you become public property. If your fans feel vested in what you do, that’s a good thing. You can’t be mad at that. The future is going to be direct to consumer. No one in a suit and tie is going to stand in front of me telling me what to do.”

The economic impact on the music industry has been disastrous to date, with large losses of revenue to illegal downloading. Internet radio could change that. Artists collect royalties from internet play, unlike with broadcast radio. (OK, everyone, run to Pandora and create your Adam Lambert/Chamillionaire station.)

Interacting directly with the audience requires a balancing act. “I’m entertaining an audience. It’s for them. So their opinion and satisfaction is most important,” said Adam. “But part of the reason I’m an artist is that I’m the one making decisions about what I’m going to put out there.” Westergren observed, “The artists who survive are the ones who are really authentic.”

Twitter gives Adam “a sense of control, which I like.” But it comes with a warning label: don’t tweet under the influence. Chamillionaire shared his experience when he tweeted praise of the Black Eyed Peas performance at the Super Bowl and was blasted by his Twitter followers. But, he is unfazed: “I like to be authentic with my feelings.”

Social media provide artists with insight into how fans are reacting to their creative choices. “I lurk to see what people are saying,” said Adam. He said he has used suggestions from fans on Twitter, but wouldn’t specify. “I’m not going to tell you my secrets!” he said, to laughter. “The informative aspect is the best part of Twitter.”

Adam noted (yay!) that social media connects fans with one another.

Foursquare enables people to tag a geographic location, with the aim of getting people to visit favorite restaurants, concerts and other gathering places. This raised immediate flags about privacy and stalkers. Not sure we’ll find too many celebrities on Foursquare, although Adam said he would check it out. (OK, do NOT race to Foursquare so you can stan Adam…)

Pandora’s Music Genome Project is an algorithm to find new music that a listener would like based on their favorite artists. As listeners get older, they are less likely to discover new bands (yeah, life happens), so a service like Pandora might help people stay engaged with current music. I decided to test this. I created a Pandora station with Robyn, Adam Lambert, Goldfrapp and a few others, and Pandora came up with Anna Nalick, who I do like. So far so good. But I already have a very effective channel to get me to listen to music again: Adam’s tweets.

“At a concert, everyone’s got a camera and video,” Ethan Beard marveled. “That’s really powerful.” John Norris concurred, saying “I’m in favor of anything that gets people to be more aggressive in their discovery of music.” Asked how artists feel about the unrelenting recording, Adam expressed ambivalence. “It puts more pressure on the artist,” he said. And he also had more of a spiritual concern that with all the recording technology, audiences are cheating themselves of experiencing the moment. “There’s something to be said for putting your phone in your pocket and just watching.”

Mobile is the most important way people are going to be consuming social media. And I’m sorry Blackberry, but you just don’t cut it as a social media interface. By the time Adam embarks on his next tour, I’m going to have to upgrade to an iPhone.

From the blizzard of real-time tweets during the event, it appears that 99% of the viewers were Adam’s fans, as were the throngs that waited outside. Chamillionaire’s has 700K+ twitter followers. Where were they? On the bright side, Chamillionaire just gained a pocketful of Adam’s fans. He was insightful and charming, and the inner geek in me melted when he talked about analytics. He coined a great new word, “Twota” = daily quota of tweets, which I’m sure I exceed all the time.

Photo links from the event:
Wire Image