A Look Back at HOF7: Distributing Content in the Digital Age

At Hall of Fame 7, there was a lot of talk about using New Media to get your content out to the public, and making sure your hard work gets to your fans. One panel in particular “Making The Connection: New Media and Content Distribution” featured panelists talking about using different media platforms to connect to the public. The panelists were Stephanie Berlanga, Aaron Ford, Kristopher Nichols, and Bill Thompson. All four panelists work in the music industry and had plenty to share on the topic of New Media Distribution.

Stephanie Berlanga is a singer-songwriter who started out at age 16, and remembers the days of MySpace. MySpace was once the most popular way for up and coming artists to share their music with the rest of the world, nowadays we have more options. MySpace has become archaic, now artists are using YouTube, Spotify,TuneCore, and SoundCloud to share their music. The ever changing distribution methods can be exhausting for new artists, trying to keep up with all the latest platforms, but these are options that musicians did not have in the 1970s.

Bill Thompson, a course director for the Entertainment Business Program, spoke about how hard it was for artists to get their music heard back in the 1970s. It used to be unheard of for people to promote their music without a record company, now it is common practice for independent artists to promote their own music.

Looking back on this panel we see how much content distribution has changed in just the past year. This is an industry that changes daily, this means that artists have to be ahead of the curve. They always need to be ready for the next big thing. Who knows what this year will bring. One sure thing is there will be a panel on the latest technology and how to use it to your full advantage.

So we want to know if you’re an artist, what have you found is the best way to distribute your content? If you are a listener what is your favorite way to listen to new music? Tweet us your responses @wearemcbs using #howtobeheard.

Read the original article written by Melvin Vigo at last year's Hall Of Fame.

Written by: Amanda Holcomb