Continuing our exploration of sites, apps, tools, other cool stuf for concert fans, we’ve been experimenting with the new social media bookmarking site Pinterest. It’s a great site and we’ve posted several boards for you to enjoy.

Here’s our Pinterest Live Fix collection of boards. So far we’ve created boards for concert infographics, ticket stubs, cool stuff for concert fans, live show shots and more.

But, as always,  we’d like to know what pins and boards you would create. Post your ideas in the comments below and we’ll share them on a future episode of Live Fix Radio.

Continuing our new exploration into community management and social business, I wanted to pass along info about two local events that I’ll be checking out the next couple of days.

The first one is Thursday night as Social Media Club Chicago hosts a discussion about The Future of Community Management at Google’s Chicago offices. They’ll be answering questions like: What exactly is a community manager? What does it take to become one?

I’ve enjoyed and learned a lot from previous SMC events and I’m looking forward to hearing what my fellow community managers have to say about their roles today and what lies ahead as our communities continue to evolve. You can learn more and register for the event here.

Community Management UNconference

Having recently launched the pilot program for our social intranet at Walgreens I’m looking forward to swapping ideas and participating in the Community Management UNconference on Friday 2/24.

Back in January I had the pleasure of being a part of an UNconference in Dallas at the Socialmedia.org Orange Council meeting. We really packed a lot learning and sharing in to one day and I have to say the UNconference format is very effective for getting right to the point and discussing the topics and brainstorming issues that matter most. If you haven’t done something like this before I highly suggest checking one out.

That said, I’m looking forward to Friday because one of the things I love the most about UNconferences is that the participants choose the topics and you have the opportunity collaborate in ways you don’t normally get to at other conferences.

It’s important to remember that the point of an UNconference isn’t to have all the answers, but be willing to listening, ask questions and share your experiences, because the truth is that everybody else is probably thinking and struggling with the same issues and the sooner you can identify the problems the faster you can find solutions.   Sure you can just sit back and listen but like social media in general, the more share, ask questions and contribute at an UNconference the more you get out of it.

And looking at the list for tomorrow, I’m sure we’ll be diving into a bunch of relevant and timely topics for CMs.

Here’s the topic that I submitted since it’s near and dear to my heart and central to the CM work I do at Walgreens.

“With the rise of social business and next gen intranets, what strategies do you use to engage, grow and demonstrate the business value of collaborative and connected employee communities?”

That’s all for now. And I hope you can make both events. If you’re there, be sure to say hello, I’d love to hang out and chat with you. I’ll be tweeting some CM nuggets and you can follow along via @chriscatania using the hashtag #cmgrun

telling stories about concert fans has taught me a lot about how live music changes our lives forever.

And my curiosity about live music communities has led me on a journey to explore many other types of emerging communities.

For starters, in our brand explorations, I’ve applied what we’ve learned about concert fan communities to help grow, nurture and engage several internal and external social communities for companies and big brands.

And because of everything I’ve learned during our psychological, sociological and emotional explorations, I’ve decided that it’s time to stir the pot, mix in a couple more ingredients and cook up a new meal to sink our teeth into.

How Do You Merge Live Music, Community Management and Social Business?

I believe concert fan communities and employee communities are related. And there’s a lot to learn by merging ideas about the two communities. Which is why I want to start exploring the questions below to see what kind of answers we can come up with.

How do you begin to write about the crossover between communities for concert fans AND internal employee communities for big brands? And are the two even related?  And if they are related, how do you apply what you learn in one community to develop another?

How We Got Here, Where We’re Headed

Like I said, this is a new path for Live Fix, so I thought it would make sense to tell you a quick story first to explain how we got here and why we’re going to talk about community management and social business more on Live Fix.

One of the things that has made Live Fix such a blast from the beginning is that I didn’t have the answers. I only had a growing curiosity to know more about what made concert fan communities and our live music experiences so addictive, unique, memorable and life-changing.

Back when I first started Live Fix no one else was writing about this kind of stuff so there were no rules.

And if you ask most bloggers they will tell you that one of the best things about blogs, and social media in general, is that if you have topic that you want to read about but there’s no one writing about it, you can go blaze the trail yourself.  It’s very easy to set up shop yourself and go create the content you want to read.

So that’s what I did.

I took that seed of curiosity, planted it and watered it. I was guided by the simple notion that each post I wrote was an experiment. I began to write about what I saw, felt and discovered at live shows.

And after writing each post the road map become more clear.

I began to see where our explorations needed to go.

As I wrote each post I realized more and more how important it was to understand why bands, fans and brands are addicted to live music.  And the result were successful experiments like:

• The Dancing Guy Reveals His Swarming-Starting Secrets,

• Bon Iver and The Power of The Little Things,

• A Black Eyed Peas Oprah Flash Mob Interview,

• The Wall Street Journal Says We Rock,

• Concert Fan Radio

• and these these all-time Reader Favorites

And five years later, by doing lots of testing and experimentation, Live Fix is now a growing community of live music fans that I hoped it would be.

How One Inspires The Other

Up until this post I haven’t really talked about my non-Live Fix world, but now I’ll be sharing with you what I’ve learned and will continue to discover as a community manager leading internal employee communities at Walgreens. Why share this stuff with you?

Well, it’s simple.

I have always seen Live Fix as a dynamic laboratory to test new ideas, meet amazing people and learn many new things about how online and off-line communities engage and evolve. And all those things I discover in the Live Fix laboratory continue to be a source of inspiration for the employee communities at Walgreens.

I’ll wrap up by saying this.

It’s obvious that what I learned about live music communities, what goes on in internal employee communities at Walgreens and the future of social business are all linked together. And I’m excited to see what happens when we start collaborating and swapping ideas about all three topics.

So to all you loyal Live Fix readers, I thank you for faithfully following along all these years and I hope you enjoy this new thread of discussion and experimentation. And if you’re new to the Live Fix community, I welcome you and hope that you join in and share your live music stories and community management insights too.

What’s Coming Down The Pipeline?

As this new exploration gets rolling you can expect posts about social business, intranets, community management trends and links to my favorite community manager blogs. Again, some posts might be just about those topics and some might mix in my live music experiences.  Either way, it’ll be fun to see where the journey takes us.

What do you think about our new exploration? What similarities do you see between concert fan communities and social business communities? What would you like to see us explore about this topic?

Thanks again for following along and let’s continue the conversation in the comments below, on Twitter @livefixmedia, on Facebook or call the concert fan hotline at 773-609-4341, and we’ll include them in a future episode of Live Fix Radio.

Social media and concert history were made this week as Tiesto, Twitter and HP teamed up at CES 2012 to deliver a live stream of the Dutch DJ rocking the a VIP crowd from the booth. And the event was a great opportunity to continue or live concert brand exploration.

As Billboard reports,

The private, invite-only set also marked the launch of another social media initiative for the man his friends call Tijs: “In The Booth,” a 10-part video series meant to document Tiësto’s fast-paced, globetrotting life, is set to premiere on the artist’s YouTube channel on January 17. Produced by Believe Entertainment Group – the digital content company behind Lebron James’ animated Web series “The Lebrons” – the documentary was also underwritten by HP and Intel, and features Tiësto prominently using the brands’ products.

As Mashable reports, the folks at Twitter were excited about the opportunity and the possibilites that it presents beyond 140 characters:

“We have offered streaming on the site before, but this is the first-time ever that the site will feature a live concert,” Rob Pietsch, Twitter’s director of West Coast sales, told Mashable. “HP came to us with the idea and we couldn’t be more excited to hear how the company and Intel will be using their Twitter brand pages to reach out to the public and become destination sites.

And What About The Fans?

This is all very exciting and boundary-pushing, but we must ask: what’s in it for the fans?

We must ask if the fan experience is really be considered, or if the fans are just playing the role of social media marketing targets?

As we’ve seen with our other brand experiments and explorations, telling or celebrating the fan experience isn’t always the first priority or a priority at all.

And with this new HP/Tiesto partnership it still remains to be seen how much of the fan experience HP is interested in celebrating.

Is This Really Anything New?

Not really. We know that using DJs, hip hop producers and the increasingly popular mainstream live dance music trend is nothing new for marketers to capitalize on. For example, Diplo has been the spokesman for Blackberry and Dr Dre has been used by HP in the past.

And, unfortunately, the list is short when it comes to brands that actually deliver on creative fan-centric social media marketing campaigns that don’t even feel like marketing at all.

In case you’re looking for evidence, these Rolling Stone/Dr. Martens, Scion, Sennheiser, and Pitchfork Don Q Rum experiences are some recent examples of brands doing it right or at least headed in the right direction.

That said, we’ll have to wait and see how the “In the Booth” videos turn out before we officially decide if HP has genuinely  integrated and celebrated the fan experience.

Will HP & Tiesto Innovate and Document the Real Stories?

Like we explored in the wake of Lollapalooza, there’s a lot of possibility for brands to deliver truly groundbreaking experiences while telling the brand AND the fan story at the same time.

I know I’m looking forward to seeing how HP’s does it this time and if they will creatively weave in amazing Tiesto fan stories like this one.

Tiesto has also been at the center of several ongoing controversial stories and it’ll be interesting to see how much HP documents those.

The history-making 2012 CES concert steaming footage was only available for 48 hours after the show, but it’ll be available on the HP Facebook page Tiesto tab after January 17th.

What’s Your Tiesto Concert Story?

Is this HP partnership cultivating a genuine sub-community of Tiesto fans, or is this just another timely marketing opportunity for HP? How would you make the fan experience a creative part of the “In the Booth” videos?

What did you think of the Tiesto Twitter concert? Got a Tiesto live show story? Share your concert experiences and thoughts in the comments below, on Twitter @livefixmedia, on Facebook or call the concert fan hotline at 773-609-4341, and we’ll include them in a future episode of Live Fix Radio.

We’ve been cruising along with the new Live Fix Radio podcast and every time I talk with a fellow concert fan for a new episode I’m always so pumped after our chat. I freakin’ love hearing about all your live music stories!

That said, we recently met up with Eric “Nihilist” Kolkey who’s in the film You Weren’t There, one of our favorite rock docs about the early punk scene in Chicago. We talked with Eric about his experiences as a promoter and tour manager during the early punk scene in the 80′s, what he feels and does during Vivian Girl concerts and what was so scary and exhilarating about seeing Lady Gaga live in 2007 and then in 2010 at Lollapalooza.

We’ll be sharing our chat with Eric very soon on an upcoming episode, but I just wanted to share this moment with you because if I didn’t I leak a little bit of excitement out of the podcast pressure valve I feel as if I might burst.

I also wanted to share this preview with you because I want to encourage you to swap stories with us and the other concert fans you know.  It’s so powerful and fun to hear what you’re all experiencing at shows and I hope we can do more of this in 2012.

That said, we invite you to join us on the new Live Fix Google Plus page because we’ll be hosting live Hangouts in January and we’d love to have you join us to talk about some of your favorite shows of 2011 and what you’re looking forward to in 2012. You can also follow us on our Twitter page @livefixmedia too for experiments, the latest news, interviews, concert contests and stuff.

Until then, drop a comment below and stay tuned for more!

As you know, we’ve been exploring how Google Plus and Hangouts are allowing fans and bands to connect in new and intimate ways to revolutionize the virtual concert experience.

Now, we’d like to share with you a very interesting story we’ve been following about singer-songwriter Daria Musk who’s been using her Google Plus page and marathon Hangout Concerts to “change her life” and quickly become a rising star on the web.

As you can see by the fan map above and the snippet from Musk’s post about How Google Plus changed her life, the new social network, and it’s ability to create an instant virtual community of live music fans, is completely changing what a concert is, how it’s experienced online, and how the shared experience of a concert can spread virally across the world.

As night turned to day for viewers in Europe, evening into the wee hours of the morning for me, and morning shifted to afternoon in Australia… I kept playing to see as many of their beautiful faces as I could. We played for 7.5 hours straight.

We played for guys in Sweden, ladies in London, a girl in the Dominican Republic, people in Argentina and Ghana and a mother and son in China. A hospital in Portugal fed the live-stream of the concert onto the screens in their ER room to cheer up patients and nurses. I saw little girls dance to my music on an Australian Sunday morning when it was Saturday night for me. I watched the sunrise in Norway through a new fan’s screen while I played my song called “Foreign Cities”. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

Musk is a very savvy musician and she’s released the Hangout Concerts online. And I had the pleasure of watching her ask fans what the Hangout Concert album should be called and it wad great to see the community rally around her and most importantly see her connect and interact with her fans directly.

What’s also interesting about Musk’s story is that it’s very similar to how Kate Diaz, another singer-songwriter who has successfully used YouTube to showcase her songwriting skills, develop her talent and get gigs playing with K’NAAN.

Who Else Is Using Google Plus?

Here’s a long list of other artists and musicians who are using Google Plus to connect with fans. The fan engagement level and style varies for all of them. For example, I didn’t see a whole lot of Hangout’s or two-way dialogue from Madonna, Snoop Dogg or Britney Spears, just a lot of the standard tour updates, slice-of-life posts and promotional stuff. But my personal favorites on the list are Blink 182′s Mark Hoppus, and Fallout Boy’s Pete Wentz all of whom have hosted several hangouts with fans.

We’ll continue to follow Musk’s story we’d like to hear what you think about artist using Google Plus to re-invent the meaning of live music. What artists have you enjoyed connecting with and following? Let us know and share your thoughts in the comments below and we’ll include them in a future episode of Live Fix Radio.

We’re also putting together our first Concert Fan Hangout, so connect with us on the Live Fix Google Plus page.

That’s a question I’ve been wondering about this week as I think about the collective impact of our previous Michael Jackson mourning, social media and virtual concert Experiments. And it’s fascinating to think how all those experiments have somehow merged into one for this Michael Jackson Tribute Concert.

So here’s details on how our MJ emotions will be getting stirred up today in the UK.

According to Billboard, the tribute to the late King of Pop will be co-hosted by Jamie Foxx and BBC Radio-1 presenter Fearne Cotton. Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, and Smokey Robinson will perform live at the event, among others, while Beyonce will perform via live video stream. Profits will raise money for charities, including the AIDS Project and the Prince’s Trust. The show will be broadcast online worldwide.

Unfortunately the Black Eyed Peas, who were both originally scheduled to perform, had to pull out at the last minute due to “unavoidable circumstances.” And sadly it doesn’t look like the BEP will be having a Google Plus Hangout or a Flash Mob either.

Billboard also reports that the tribute has fallen short of sell-out by 10,000 tickets.

But those numbers don’t include the virtual tickets.

Yes, as I mentioned at the start, there’s a social media element to the concert.

If you can’t make the show in-person, you will be able to tune in virtually courtesy of Milyoni and Ridgeline Entertainment and Facebook.

Billboard says this will be the first ever live Pay-Per-View event available to the social networking site’s global audience. And you can purchase access to the broadcast from Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales for 40 Facebook credits ($3.99) prior to the Oct. 8 show, or for 50 Facebook credits ($4.99) on the day of the event.

Furthering the social experience, viewers will be able to like, comment, chat and share the concert experience with fellow fans around the world. Merchandise will also be made available through a shopping cart application embedded within the Michael Forever: The Tribute Concert Facebook page.

Will You Be Tuning In and Getting Emotional?

Have you had an emotional experience at concert that was MJ-related? Do you plan on tuning in to the Facebook concert? Were you at the live show in the UK? Let us know in the comments below and we’ll share your MJ story during a future episode of Live Fix Radio.

Last night we had a great time continuing our Google Plus Experiment by hosting and joining in a Hangout. And I have to say that I’m even more pumped and excited as I was before about using the social network to share concert stories and connect with you, my fellow live music fans.

Steven’s Gate Crashing Story

As we told you during our Lollapalooza podcast episode and concert fan tribute, we had the pleasure of meeting Steven and discovering a few of the details about his gate-crashing story as we headed into Lollapalooza this year.

And last night during a Google Plus video Hangout we had the chance find out more of the inspiring and creative back story of what happened before and after Lollapalooza, and more about Steven’s concert experiences which involved seeing and being in a Flaming Lips video and seeking in to see the Wu-Tang Clan at SXSW 2011.

We’ll be sharing Steven’s full story on a future episode of Live Fix Radio so keep your eye out for that episode because what he told me had me smiling and shaking my head in amazement and I have a feeling you’re going to really enjoy Steven’s story too.

I always get excited when I have the opportunity to talk with other fans about their experiences and I have to say this Hangout test run that included me, Steven and Colleen was a perfect primer for our plan to have regular Hangouts with concerts fan where we talk about our live music stories and other concert topics. And I’ll tell you how you can join us in a moment.

But first, let me tell you what else happened last night.

Spontaneous “Open Mic” Hangout

Immediately after our time with Steven we jumped right into a other “open mic” Hangout hosted by musicians Heather Fay and Cat Beach.  This experience still has been buzzing this morning because it allowed us to continue our virtual concert experiments.

And what I love the most about this open mic Hangout (photo above) was that it was intimate, friendly, communal and totally spontaneous, which are all qualities I’ve enjoyed about most of the concert-focused Hangouts I’ve been a part of. You can find out more about Fay’s virtual “open mics” nights at Hangoutparty.com.

It’s in these types of intimate online live music settings that I think bands have the greatest opportunity to create powerful connections with fans before, during and after the show.

And these types of virtual mini-concert experiences are also great for creating valuable connections with other bands and promoters to build a strong support system, especially when it comes time to tour and collaborate on future albums.

Right now it appears that Hangouts are limited to about 10 people, but it seems that some Hangouts can hold more people or they be configured differently for larger audiences, especially when it involves a band or musician. I say this because the Black Eyed Peas recently hosted the largest pre-show Hangout to date with their NYC concert on Sept 1st, that raised over 4 million dollars for charity.

According to Google Plus news here’s what Will.i.am said about the Hangout and connecting with fans:

lets have fun at the backstage hangout…we even have a hangout onstage as well…
i want to re-define backstage interaction with fans who can not make the show…i think this will be the very first online backstage onstage web cam session…
“i like doing things 1st”

And here’s a 3hr plus video that captures the event.

After our Oprah Flash Mob Experiment we’re not surprised that the BEP’s are early adopters on Google Plus and we’re looking forward to seeing what they and other bands will offer fans i n the future.

How Can You Join Our Experiment with Google Plus?

As we mentioned before, we’ll be hosting more Hangouts about Emotions, complaints, Dancing Guys and other popular Experiments we’ve done, and we’d love to have you join us.

Google Plus is now open to everyone and all you need to do is sign up here. Once you’re set up go ahead and find me on Google Plus, and then add me to your circle. Be sure to drop me quick note letting me know you’d like to be involved in the next Live Fix Hangout.

Until then, I’d love to hear what you’ve been experiencing on Google Plus so let me know what you think in the comments below and we’ll share your story on future episode of Live Fix Radio.

After we began our tour tour rider experiment last week, I’m excited to tell you I have some excellent evidence to share that we discovered at the Hideout Block Party on Sunday just before Mavis Staples’ set.

As you can see by the picture above there was a large throne waiting for Mavis Staples. It was created by the folks at the Hideout as they wanted to do everything she requested in her tour rider.

And I was able to capture a piece of the action for you below in the Soundcloud player as Tim Tuten from the Hideout shares the funny tour rider story with the crowd explaining why they felt The Queen deserved her very own throne.

I also have to say that it’s been a great last two months of shows, especially when it comes to experiencing ageless wonders like Staples and Tony Bennett. These two artist have really shown how they are rare gems and STILL have the power to show up today’s artist who are not even half their age!

Why Did Mavis Staples Move Me?

I couldn’t help but marvel at Staples during her set. There was so much soul, grace & righteous power flowing from her heart and into ours that I just stood there and soaked it up in utter glory.

One of my favorite moments was during “You’re Not Alone,” the title track from her Grammy-winning album that was produce by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy.

It was the first time that I had heard the song live, or experienced Mavis Staples live, and I will never forget was it was like to watch her perform the song with fellow Chicagoan Nora O’Connor.

It was as if Staples was revealing a deep part of her soul and life with us as the song unfolded.

And the moment moved me so much so that I could help but continue our Twitter Experiment and tweet this message below because so many of my own thoughts and emotions that we buried down deep all of sudden came shooting up to the surface of my mind and heart. And there was so way I could push them back down or denied them.

Again, only a handful of artists have every done this to me during a show and Staples is certainly on that very short list.

Were You There?

Were you at the Hideout Block Party? Have you ever felt like this at concert? How has a artist moved you emotionally during a show? Let us know what you think and we’ll share your story during a future episode of Live Fix Radio.

Mavis Staples Intro – Hideout Block Party at Hideout Block Party by livefixchris

So the other day I saw this tweet that Roger Ebert tweeted and I replied back to him asking him what he thought about a today’s female pop stars handling the very rowdy situation at Altamont.

Well, I was really hoping to hear back from Roger. But I haven’t yet.

So I thought I pass along my question to you, my fellow concert fan.

And to help you answer my question, you can read this about Katy Perry. This about Lady Gaga. This about Rihanna. And this about Beyonce.

Oh, and you can also watch the video below that inspired Roger’s original tweet. (There’s a wee bit of concert skin in the video, this is 1968 after all. So watch with caution.)

I really look forward to what you have to say (especially you Roger).

And stay tuned as we continue to explore how pop stars of different generations would respond to different live concert situations. Yes, it will get emotional.