Could Flickr Become The Next Big Social Network For Musicians?

Yesterday's news that Yahoo is buying Tumblr is certainly big for musicians given the widespread usage of Tumblr for music blogs often as an adjunct to an official website. But it also overshadowed Yahoo's relaunch of Flickr, a fading giant making a comeback at a time that might be ideal for musicians who've taken to services like Instagram and/or who see the possiblities in content marketing via Creative Commons licensing.

Yahoo buying Tumblr is big news for those using quick content sharing to market their music and have a more personal, off-the-cuff presence on the web. It's a big music content purchase for Yahoo, in many ways, though its strength is in visual content, often purloined from the web.

This acquisition creates an interesting situation for Flickr which relaunched yesterday with a striking new design and a free TB of storage. Flickr has been considered one of those acquisitions Yahoo botched but has remained an active site including as a free source of photographs for reposting.

Network Effects of Tumblr x Flickr

Take a network of blogs popular among musicians, combine with a free photo-sharing site at a time when music marketing has become increasingly visual and you have the potential for a must-use social network for musicians.

If Flickr becomes a default option for Tumblr photo storage, for example, then more Tumblr users will be drawn to Flickr. That moves music blog audiences into that terrain and so creates a reason for musicians to become more active there as well especially if auto-posting from mobile devices works widely and easily.

Creative Commons Licensing and Content Marketing

Another fairly unique angle at Flickr is the option for content creators to choose among a variety of options including allowing for free usage for "content to use commercially" and "content to modify, adapt, or build upon." These options can be found via advanced search and are at the discretion of the creator.

If Flickr becomes more popular and fresh free content starts showing up that is available for legal reposting then not only can Tumblr networks be fed but blogging and media outlets can repost as well. Flickr's identity as a source for Creative Commons licensed content can help it regain prominence in that regard.

This status offers not only the chance for one's regular photo posts to be discovered via search but also the opportunity to create the equivalent of free stock photos tagged with common keywords. Reposting can include requiring a link back and so this approach would become a form of content marketing.

New Flickr Reviews:

Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (@fluxresearch/@crowdfundingm) also blogs at Flux Research and Crowdfunding For Musicians. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.

Guest Post on 05/21/2013 in D.I.Y. | Permalink | Comments (4)

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4 Comments

I like the idea of this but I feel that Pinterest is just doing so much cool things for the internet musician , and it just visually makes sense. Google seems to love these kind of content hubs were everything is neath and tidy like what Pinterest is doing.
Organizing all of your musical content in to content hubs like Pinterest can keep great engagement and the stream of social share more a flow than other tradition forms internet media , Just my 2cents

Do you work for Pinterest? I have never seen an artist do well with the platform as the site consists of women pinning recipes, wedding dresses and arts & crafts.

In fact the new Flickr display is a dynamic grid much like Pinterest. This is not really a good think for people who carefully create individual images since the format lumps images together indiscriminately. Visually, it’s not music it’s noise. Too busy.

I heard Yapmouth.com was better for Musicians?

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