[jja-announce] a Twitter campaign promoting live jazz

[howard Mandel]

Hi all --

A campaign has been launched on Twitter to prove there IS a large,  
vigorous audience for live jazz. It's not a promotional effort for  
upcoming events, but rather a shout-out about jazz people have just  
heard, WHO and WHERE with the hashtag #jazzlives (all within Twitter's  
140 character limit). This is somewhat in response to the NEA's 2008  
data about diminishing and aging audiences at live jazz events (and  
all other arts events), which I believe undercounted a significant  
segment of the populace, probably including those who use social  
networking media to stay in touch and energize each other around their  
entertainment preferences. It's also an experiment about the use of  
Twitter for jazz, whether such a campaign can go viral, maybe move to  
other social networking platforms, and whatever else may result.

So: If you Tweet (and Twitter accounts are free), please send a  
message that jazz lives! Tell the world WHO you heard, WHERE, and  
include #jazzlives in the message. We ought to be able to work up a  
new metric (though it won't be a certifiable statistic) demonstrating  
the energy and breadth of jazz listeners, especially in the US over  
the weeks starting with the Charlie Parker Jazz Fest in NYC this  
weekend, including Labor Day weekend's jazz fests at Tanglewood, in  
Detroit, Chicago, LA (both the Angel City and Sweet & Hot Music Fest),  
Philly (Tony Williams Scholarship fest), Jazz Aspen Snowmass, Vail  
Jazz Party, Bumbershoot in Seattle, Getdown fest and campout, leading  
to the Monterey and Beantown (Boston) fests. It's not ONLY about  
audiences at fests, though -- Tweet about jazz heard in stand-alone  
concerts, in clubs, in the streets and subways, anywhere jazz lives.  
Jazz heard in live-broadcast on the radio or online counts!

The hashtag, by the way, is essential -- it's what enables us to see  
all the campaign's Tweets together, to count them up.
A widget has been created to show the Tweets scrolling as they come  
out in real time -- you can see this widget on my website www.HowardMandel.com 
, and I hope soon at Jazzhouse.org -- you can also embed this widget  
on your own website -- get the code from Darcy James Argue's Secret  
Society vkif, http://secretsociety.typepad.com/

If you aren't on Twitter, you can advance this effort by mentioning it  
in blog postings, on broadcasts, to friends, through email. I wonder  
if there are as many listeners who will tweet they've heard live jazz  
in the next few weeks as there were people at Woodstock.

Write to tweetjazzlives at gmail.com for further info --

best, Howard


Howard Mandel
jazzmandel at earthlink.net
phone 212 533 9495
mobile 212 533 4952

see my blog:
www.HowardMandel.com
www.ArtsJournal.com/jazzbeyondjazz