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1. Introduction
I know we’ve never met but I just wanna say you are the most beautiful living thing on this planet and as far as I know, beyond. You’re so talented and captivating (“like a firework show”) […] So anyway, Valentine’s Day is coming up and I was hoping you could be my Valentine […] what do ya say? (Comment from a fan on Taylor Swift’s Facebook page, 4 February 2013).
Social network sites (SNS), such as Facebook, have changed the way millions of individuals interact with one another and with companies, brands and celebrities. SNS allow individuals to build an online presence, to comment, share, and interact with friends and strangers and to build a social network (Boyd and Ellison, 2007). In the USA SNS are used by 92 percent of internet users aged 18-29 (Pew Institute, 2012), and 74 percent of Australian internet users accessed Facebook in a 12-month period (Frost and Sullivan, 2012). Facebook alone has over 800 million active members (Dey et al., 2012). These statistics have not gone unnoticed by marketers or the music industry which invests heavily into maintaining SNS (IFPI, 2013). Musicians’ SNS invite fans to access timely information about their favourite musicians, to feel closer and more in touch with them, to build a tribal community around them, and even to share their innermost feelings with them (Beer, 2008; Hamilton and Hewer, 2010).
Research considering the concept of tie strength (Granovetter, 1973) within SNS has shown that ties between individuals may well be influenced via SNS (Gilbert and Karahalios, 2009). These ties affect what information, including online marketing communications, is shared with whom, and how the receiver responds (van Noort et al., 2012). If individuals on SNS may develop tie strength between one another, then, given the personal insight into musicians offered via SNS, it can be posited that individuals may also develop a sense of stronger ties to these musicians. The opening quote suggests this fan feels some tie to Ms Swift.
However, while SNS may facilitate a “relationship” with musicians, other digital technologies have made it easier to both purchase music electronically as well as to download and/or share music files illegally (Wang et al., 2009), using, for example torrents. Thus,...