This is a guest post written by British writer Chris Wheatley, who runs a music blog at Indiescreet.com that focuses on the latest indie music news.

What Will It Take To Unite Artist, Industry and Fan?

Right now there is a divide between the industry, in particular record labels, and fans. Record labels need to understand what fans want. But what exactly is it that fans want?

Fans want to be able to interact with their favourite band or artist, to be able to have some kind of input into their idols somehow. Whether it be polls deciding upon the latest tour venues, a chance to decide the latest album tracklistings, the opportunity to submit album art for the next release or simply just the chance to hear directly from the artist, something which doesn’t mean much to an artist or the industry could mean the world to a fan. It doesn’t have to be anything groundbreaking; just some acknowledgement and recognition is all that can be required.

Artists and bands need to be more accessible to fans. With more and more bands now having their own blogs this has become more of a reality. Artists can give fans exclusive content quickly and easily through blogs, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites.

Generally, most artists and bands are up to date with the quickest and easiest ways to share their music online. Record labels should give their artists more of a free reign when it comes to self-promotion, they should cut out the middle-man between the fans and artists.

Ideas like these do not take up much time but mean a hell of a lot to fans who invest themselves, their free time and their hard-earned money into artists.

The industry has had to adapt to the dramatic changes in music and how it is accessed over the past few years. Granted,while most sectors have coped well and have embraced changes in technology such as streaming music online and downloadable content, there are still some sectors which are yet to evolve and are right now still living in the dark ages.

All in all, the more the lines are blurred between artists, industry and fans the more united these three fronts will become.

What Makes A Great Festival Blog?

A great festival blog requires a number of different components to ensure it complements the actual festival.

First of all, the blog should be kept as up to date as possible with all the news and previews of the festival itself. Blogs are often seen as one of the most up-to-date means of communication, often the latest news is broken on blogs and social media sites before anywhere else. A blog promoting a festival that is out of date with lineups, dates, times or any other important information will be seen as pretty useless by visitors.

Blogs should be able to offer something more than the festival’s website can offer. By having exclusive interviews and previews the blog can offer something unique to visitors which is not available anywhere else.

Running a blog is a great way for a festival to have a voice. By giving opinions, engaging readers in conversation and sharing exclusive media with readers, a blog is generating more in-depth interest in what the festival has to offer.

Once the actual festival is underway a blog can be one of the quickest and easiest ways to report news from the site. With the developments in technology posts can be written and published on-the-fly within minutes. Social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook are also a great way to share any pictures, videos or snippets of news quickly and easily, by linking back to posted items on the blog.

Chris Wheatley [pictured above right] runs Indiescreet, and can be contacted via email or Twitter.