Social Networking At GRAMMY Camp® By Alexandrea Kern

Social media has played a huge role in the music industry with social networks such as Facebook and Twitter having helped with the discovery and promotion of many unsigned artists and "gem" bands, as well as the advertisement of current signed artists.

During the Tuesday night panel, "Above The Noise," Campers got a first-hand lesson in the importance of social media and networking. The guest panelists included You Tube sensation VanJess, videographer Levi Maestro, Tatiana Simonian, Community Manager for the Disney Music Group, the Recording Academy's own Jaime Sarachit, and many more. All the panelists were living examples of how social media helped them make it to where they are today. For example, VanJess used You Tube to show their singing and songwriting skills, which have made them an internet sensation and closer to their dreams of a record label.

Campers were broken up into nine groups to work with the panelists on how to improve the media outlets musicians use. The group of campers that worked with Levi Maestro thought of ways to improve the outdated Myspace. The recent investment of $35 Million dollars into Myspace by a group including Justin Timberlake has sparked an interest in the forgotten about website. The group discussed ideas such as "improving the functionality" as well as having "free downloads" for users.

Other groups were given a prompt about a situation that could happen in the social media world and how it could be solved. One group discussed Steve Jobs shutting down iTunes because he was "tired of making money" (which is highly unlikely) and how they could create a new music downloader. They came up with the idea iTunes Indie. A music downloader where artists could put there music on for free even if you're unsigned. "We would promote on social platforms like Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Myspace, and blogs" said one of the group speakers, Tanner Grandstaff, of the Electronic Music Production track. "We would make partnerships with Pandora too." Though some of the events are a little unreal, it was a good exercise for the Campers to think of ways to help the music industry and maybe even their own career.