People often say to me that social media – eg FaceBook, Twitter has been bad for trad music. I don’t agree. Yes the way that everything disappears on social media is not exactly traditional and I suppose if traditional music had relied on social media there would be no traditional culture as it would have disappeared down someone’s wall and been forgotten.
The marketing possibilities are amazing though. A YouTube video of a session in a corner of Scotland can be seen worldwide in seconds, a song can be shared across the web and learnt by lots of different people. In terms of the Trad Awards folks can hear about bands and organisations through FaceBook, come along and vote and look up and down the category and learn about 3 other great acts in the category which are only a click away.
Over the years we’ve had votes from Alaska and Uruguay and I often wonder how these guys would have heard about Scottish traditional music without the web and social media. So please share away the Trad Awards link and get all your friends to share it too and let’s link up the social world with Scottish traditional music.