Phish dominates the real time web

March 6th, 7th and 8th marked the return of the American Jam Band Phish to the stage after hanging up the strings in August 2004.  Phish was never known for radio hits or album sales, they were a band who made their bread and butter on the road.  By touring relentlessly in the early 90s, this foursome fostered a devout community of followers who affectionately call themselves Phishheads.  Much like the Deadheads, this extended network of phans quickly adopted the latest technologies to spread the bands freely recorded and traded shows.

Like a lot of todays indie bands, Phish made their living by communicating directly to fans, embracing emergent trends.  rec..music.phish sprung to life, to mirror the Grateful Dead’s rec.music.gd, tape trades and show reviews were posted and relationships formed.  This was a community centered on information, events and media.  It was a natural fit for the internet.

Fast forward to last weekend.  Hundreds of thousands of fans later and this info-media centric community becomes the #1 trend on Twitter for the better part of 72 hours.  The hashtag #phish was littering people’s feed, questions sprung up, online phish message boards directed users to twitter for real time updates of the events. Twitter became the tool to share information.    Live pictures and setlists updates were provided by this loose community of users taking to the latest tool to enhance their experience.  Unlike a message board, these updates were short blasts, not long winded conversations that had to be constantly refreshed. Credibility could be established quickly because of pictures and community consensus.  Twitter adds tremendous value to real time events, and communities whose events are information and media centric quickly organize themselves around it.  SXSW a few years back was when the technorati discovered the utility of Twitter.  March 09 is when the Phish community discovered it’s value.

The real time web is valuable when:

• It provides coverage of community events
• These events are media and information centric
• The community it serves is driven by sharing of this information

Phish matches this criteria.  This weekend’s reunion was a high demand event.  Many were left ticketless phans trying to keep up to date, clamoring for information, and those in attendance tried to keep all there friends informed. #phish sure was fun for all those weren’t at the concerts because of it.

Testing out this internet stuff on the new blahg.. Sweet