Idolator

Facebook is the hot new social networking platform (of 2007), so it makes sense that Live Nation, which has been aggressively expanding its data-mining efforts online, would try and get in on some of the site's poke-filled action. But is the company's Facebook application really going to make non-employees of the company embrace the Live Nation "brand" and post on their friends' walls that they think hot-pink Web sites that are overly frame-laden are the best way to get totally pumped for that upcoming $100-a-seat show at the local arena?

My Live Nation is a robust suite of tools which enable fans to customize their Live Nation search pages to receive a personalized touring calendar tailored to their specific musical tastes. With just a few clicks, users are able to sync their music library with their My Live Nation account, enabling music fans to receive concert updates on their favorite artists automatically. By integrating with Facebook, Live Nation is taking concert information and online ticket box office directly to music fans where they live on the web.

Whoa there! That's a lot of assumptions for such a short paragraph in a press release. For one, are people really stampeding to sign up for My Live Nation accounts, given that the company's long-rumored ticketing application hasn't even launched yet. And have any of the developers or people who wrote the above bit of bloviation actually used Facebook? "A few clicks" when installing an application is one too many for even the most patient user (sorry, everyone who's tried to get me to install Lil' Green Patch). The application's userbase is somewhere in the 500s at present, while 81 people have so far declared themselves "fans" of the company.

I guess what "impresses" me most about this idea is the hubris on behalf of the company, the idea that normal everyday users will want to become fans of a brand that facilitates shows that are generally overpriced and unpleasant, that's merely an obstacle between the people and what they're really fans of—you know, the musicians? It's a very old-media idea ("you will take what we will give you, for we are the self-appointed keepers of the gate, and you will like it so much that you will become a fan of the company as a way of saying thanks") brought into the new-media world with a thud that's almost as loud as The Fillmore New York's dayglo awning.

Live Nation [Facebook]