An online presence is vital for groups, but what – and how much – should a site reveal? Graeme Thomson talks to Ash, Stereophonics and others about their online artistry [excerpt:]
In the mid-noughties, Northern Irish power-poppers Ash were signed to a major label and had the website to prove it. "We had a fancy flash site that looked great," says singer/guitarist Tim Wheeler. "It was set up to launch an album, but there was no way of maintaining it or updating it regularly ourselves. It was frustrating because we had to go through webmasters. It was one of those sites you look at once and think, 'Oh, very good, but why am I here?'"
Anyone who has ever negotiated the official site of an arena-scale rock band or micro-managed pop star will recognise Wheeler's description: behind the digital dazzle lie meagre, bland, corporate-branded pickings offering very little incentive to return. That was just about acceptable when a website was simply a box to tick on the promotional round. Now, though, the web has become the frontline not only in the battle for sales, but also ideas. Artists across the board are having to sharpen up their acts.
