Sociabilité en ligne, notoriété virtuelle et carrière artistique: Les usages de MySpace par les musiciens autoproduits

By small musical artists Based on a series of interviews with self-produced musical artists who use MySpace as a communication tool, this article examines the mechanisms of online reputation building, and the conversion rate of online fame into reallife career opportunities. First, the author notes that, even though the technical set-up of MySpace induces people to maximize their online audience figures, users differ vastly in their practice of self-promotion; every user has to draw his or her own line between acceptable sociability and spam. He then shows that the intensive use of MySpace, and a few tricks of success, can earn artists a significant capital of online reputation. This capital can be turned into opportunities on multiple local scenes: concerts, collaborations, or edition on micro-labels. But MySpace does not allow artists to bypass the obstacles on the way to the music industry.