By Antony Bruno
DENVER (Billboard) -
Search for an artist on any of the
popular search engines, and the top three results are
practically guaranteed: the artist's official Web site,
Wikipedia entry and MySpace
But while artists and their handlers devote massive
attention to the Web site and MySpace, the Wikipedia page is
often overlooked. Recent data suggests they may want to
reconsider their priorities.
"The interest that people had to go to MySpace to find out
more about their favorite band is waning in favor of going to
Wikipedia," Yahoo head of programming and label relations John
Lenac says. "In the last six months, it's surpassed it."
Yet when compared with the number of artist profiles on
MySpace, Wikipedia entries are noticeably fewer. MySpace claims
3 million artist profiles. Wikipedia does not have an exact
count of artist entries, but estimates that it's in the "tens
of thousands," according to Wikipedia Foundation head of
communications Jay Walsh.
MISSED OPPORTUNITY
What's more, because of Wikipedia's low profile relative to
the MySpace hype machine, many artists and their managers
remain ignorant of the resources available to them.
"There's been many people I've talked to that didn't even
know they could upload a Wikipedia page," Lenac says. "There's
been some managers that didn't even know what it was."
For those in the latter category, Wikipedia is a free
online encyclopedia that relies on everyday users to submit the
information listed about a given topic, using a collaborative
software system known as "wiki." It contains more than 7
million articles in 200 languages and receives some 300 million
page views per day. Anyone can contribute to a given article,
BUT they must first past muster from a team of volunteer
editors with a particular passion about the subject before the
text appears live.
The result is a rather tight, focused and vetted overview
of the subject, which some online marketing experts feel is why
fans are selecting Wikipedia over other options.
"Wikipedia is a fantastic landing page," says Jason
Feinberg, owner/president of On Target Media Group, a Web
promotions consultancy. "It's so clear, so concise, and it's
standardized. That's something I think is a draw over MySpace,
where you never quite know the experience you're going to get.
Is it going to be a horrible jumble of images and video and
text that's difficult to read? Also, (Wikipedia is) rooted in
fact. It's not promotional. Especially these days when the
Internet is full of artists trying to essentially ram their
message down your throat, I think a fan is a lot more receptive
to a simple, no-hype approach."
But don't expect to see Wikipedia offering full-song
streams or links to buy digital songs anytime soon.
"That's not what we're about," Walsh says. "We're about
knowledge. We're about bringing the reader to other free
content ... content they can use and enjoy without worrying
about violating any copyrights."
Reuters/Billboard
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