Jamie Kristine Seerman: Organic Growth Or Astroturfing?
UPDATED: Building a real fans via the net or another example astroturfing? You be the judge.
Reuters is running a very complimentary piece on singer/songwriter Jamie Kristine Seerman (aka jaymay) who the wire service says is gathering a significant fan base via the net and resisting apparent efforts by both major and indie labels to sign her – except of course for some British labels who just happen to be approaching via a major UK music attorney who also reps Paul McCartney.
The writer’s proof of her organic growth? 75,00 MySpace friends (although MySpace today listed only 32,588 profile views), 1300 EP’s and 2500 songs sold via iTunes and 500 CD’s sold at gigs.
CORRECTION: The Reuters article actually used 75,000 MySpace song plays (which she has) as the measure; not 75,000 profile views as we stated. We apologize for the error, but we’ll stand by our premise that an artist with these numbers (including only 3747 people that have committed to become her friend) hardly qualifies as someone who appears to have "Word Of Mouth On Steroids" as the Reuters sub-headline implies.
And stating that you are determined to stay indie yet having Paul McCartney’s attorney rep you to labels in Europe seems quite a contradiction. We like what we hear of Jaymay, but that does that forgive the mis-use of hype? Thanks to our alert readers including Shiddiq, Jerimi, and Alan for bring this error to our attention.
Ok can someone help me with this one. Bruce is that number suposed to be 75,000 or 7,500? Either way when I look at their myspace page it says she has 3,686 thats no where near either number. How could Reuters get it so very wrong?
you are MISINTERPRETING the article. here is the quote:
“On her MySpace page, fans have listening more than 75,000 times to her songs, which feature her seductive voice, poetic lyrics and sparse, unusual musical arrangements.”
jaymay DOES have over 80,000 myspace PLAYS! they don’t mention the # of her myspace FRIENDS in the reuters article.
and who says the labels approached her via the attorney? labels are often interested way before ever being introdued to the artist’s lawyer.
jaymay has been a #1 seller in folk on itunes. that’s pretty impressive, especially since she doesn’t have a label pumping her marketing. reuters is complimenting her and the compliments are well-deserved.
In addition to the first comment, Plays can be much higher than profile views since people can add the song to their profile.. thus everytime that other persons profile is loaded, the song also plays.
So if I added her song to my profile and 1000 people viewed my profile, that would add 1000 plays to her number.
Thanks Alan and Jerimi
Very helpful comments. I listened to some of her music, its good stuff. I’d love to see how this one plays out.
Siddiq
Thanks to our alert readers including Shiddiq, Jerimi, and Alan for bring this error to our attention.
We have posted a correction.
From what I can see, Jaymay’s goal isn’t to stay independent. There’s a reason artists do showcases and have management and publicists, and it’s not to go sans label.
i dont think she actually went number one. they just had a banner for her up and she did well. #22 right now
For the record it’s Nicky’s company that reps McCartney not he himself. And the labels were approaching long before Nicky was involved.
I have absolutely no stake in defending her as she fired me as her manager, but if there is one thing that can be said about Jaymay it’s that she is independent in the truest sense. Also don’t confuse a desire to remain independent with a requirement to remain unknown. Independent artists have as much and often more desire to get their stuff out there. And thank God for that.
As far as I know, Jaymay actually was the #1 folk seller on iTunes for a while. In fact, she made it into the top 100 sellers of ALL genres. Write her on myspace and ask her for yourselves.
What does an article published in reuters have to do with Jaymay “astroturfing” anyway? It’s not like she wrote the article (which you didn’t even convey accurately in your original argument).
She’s receiving attention because she’s damn talented. All Jaymay has available right now is her EP. Why shouldn’t she want to put out more music by herself? She hasn’t even been performing for that long.