Concert photos have always been an essential marketing tool for musical artists to promote themselves. People will always crave pictures and video of their favorite musical artists. Social Media has only fueled this fire and made photo and video sharing more accessible and easier than ever. One type of photo sharing in particular is starting to become a hit on social media sites such as Facebook.
This phenomena is called concert family photos and it is starting to gain some momentum on Facebook. Concert family photos are basically pictures of the crowd taken by musical artists from the stage during concerts. These photos are then uploaded to the artists Facebook page and shared with their fans. Anyone who “likes” the artists page on Facebook has the opportunity to tag themselves in the picture. Once someone tags themselves in the concert photo all of their friends will see the tagged picture on their Facebook newsfeed and word of the artist will spread substantially throughout that person’s social network. This is also a great incentive for casual fans to “like” the artist on Facebook as well so they can tag themselves in the concert photo, thus growing their fan base on Facebook.
One artist in particular that has utilized this social media tool rather well is the Dubstep extraordinaire Bassnectar. At the beginning or end of a concert, he will announce to the crowd that they are taking the family photo and encourages them to all tag themselves on Facebook once the picture is posted and follow him on Facebook. While this may seem like a desperate marketing ploy, his fans follow suit and tag themselves on a consistent basis at all of his shows. As the increased success of Bassnectar illustrates, concert family photos are a very simple and effective way of marketing your music that should not be passed up by any aspiring musical act looking to gain followers and increase the size of their fan base.