Social Media Gets Social

The New York Times reported this weekend on the trend for promoters to capitalize on the latest flashes in the pan, with live concert tours featuring youtube stars.  A group called Digitour Media sold 18,000 tickets last year and expects to exceed 250,000 by 2015.  Calling the surge of social media tours and festivals simultaneously predictable and counterintuitive, the Times points out that [all] “fan bases need tending.”

It also points out that many of the youtube celebrities (I would say most) have no experience whatever with performing for someone, let alone thousands of someones at a “concert.”  They make their videos alone, and often what they do — dispensing advice, for instance — does not carry well to the big stage.    Digitours has a global division, and there have been concerts in Singapore, Sydney and Mumbai.  The Times reports that about two thirds of the performers at DigiFest NYC were “hunky guys”  — basically standing there looking pretty.

These concerts are called “experiences” by one promoter.

Interesting isn’t it, that youtube and twitter brought about the Arab Spring, but in America they bring out thirteen year old girls who scream for 10 to 15 minutes just looking at a guy named Connor Franta “whose shirtless pictures have their own Tumblr account.”

Another promoter says “It’s all about bringing the Internet to life.”  And I thought the Internet was life.