Pop star wannabes hoping to follow in the footsteps of internet-spawned music sensations such as Lily Allen, the Arctic Monkeys and Kate Nash have been given a new window of opportunity by an enterprising London rock outfit.
The unsigned band RedBoxBlue have just completed a world first by broadcasting live gigs on the popular social networking site Facebook, finishing a five-night online residency yesterday, which attracted thousands of curious listeners.
Following their inaugural gigs, the rock-pop six- piece led by the singer songwriter Jonathan Haselden is about to secure a record label deal – a step the band believe is essential to make any headway in the music industry.
Haselden, 26, who lives in Wimbledon, south-west London, said that more than 10,000 people had watched their Facebook shows and that labels from countries as far away as Australia had been calling to speak to them. "It's been really, really successful," he said. "Bands have already starting contacting us asking how they can do the same thing – it looks like it is going to change Facebook quite quickly.
"On each gig we were getting around 2,000 people watching which from our point of view, as an unsigned band, that is fantastic. In comparison when we go out and play live in London we'd usually get a couple of hundred fans at a show.
"It was harder than I thought it would be to put this gig on, but we have had a really great response and are really proud of how it has gone."
Until now, MySpace has been the social networking website of choice for singers and bands, but RedBoxBlue's initiative could see a shift in the balance of power with other musicians lining up to promote themselves on Facebook.
To get the show online the band had to get permission from the website in the UK and have an entirely new programme developed for the site that would allow the gig to be streamed live. The application which Facebook users had to load on to their page was developed by the specialist American social networking technology company KyteTV.
Haselden said: "Some people didn't believe we were actually performing live, so to prove it we answered questions during that the shows that people had come online and asked us through Facebook.
"There have been online gigs before of course and you can do it through MySpace, but we thought doing it through Facebook would better target our fan base, which is generally 18-to 35-year-olds.
"MySpace generally has a little younger audience and is definitely more geared up for music and for fans to interact. Facebook has a long way to go, but is really useful for attracting new fans because of its strong networking element.
"If one person added the application to watch our gig, all their friends could see, and then they might also come and have a look at our profile or watch one of the shows which stayed on the site after we'd finished performing."
Haselden, who has been playing guitar since the age of 11 and has been in bands for nine years, fronts RedBoxBlue along with the drummer, Tom Marrow, the keyboardist, Sam Harrop, the bassist, Dominic Gianetta, and the guitarists, Rob Bohner and Tino Simpson, who also sing.
The band's musical influences are distinctly rock and include Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and Oasis.
Haselden has experience of online firsts. In 2006, he sold a lyric from one of his tracks for more than £11,000 on eBay after placing the song online in a desperate bid to get noticed.
He said: "When I sold that line I got good coverage and at that point I got the band together, it all kick-started from there. I don't have any more online stunts planned at the moment, but watch this space."
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