How will fame be exposed the coming century? That is the underlying question for this paper, written in respect to the course 'participatory culture'. Existing music artists use Internet to expand their reach; furthermore websites and fancommunities enable them to improve the relation with and among their fans. Of course the artists hope that this will stimulate their fame, which implicates the positive help Internet could offer to the artists. However, according to the major record companies, contemporary developments on Internet have less positive effects on the music industry. For example, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) argues that free downloads are destroying the music industry. This has large consequences, like conflicts about copyright and lawsuits against file sharing. These conflicts raise questions about the definition of copyright in relation to Internet, p2p networks and the rights of artists in the music industry. When taking a broader perspective on the current developments on the Internet, other questions come to mind: is the Internet actually destroying the music industry? How could Internet be used in a different way to avoid that it could destroy the industry? What are the possibilities for music artists to achieve fame by using the Internet and its features instead of signing up to record companies?

Unfortunately, the questions above are almost impossible to answer. Not only will it involve more research and time than there is offered in respect to writing this nota. It also is impossible to predict whether a specific artist will achieve fame, since this depends on many factors. Some of these factors are defined or 'standardized', like the marketing aspects of boybands. However, most are unknown at forehand of fame and can only be analyzed afterwards; even then it is rather speculative if it were these specific factors that have lead to the fame of a specific artist.

To avoid these problems, this nota will be an explorative research. It will examine the websites of two Dutch dance acts, namely the site of Junkie XL and the site of C-mon & Kypski. The first makes 'progressive dance music that can cross over between different genres'. Among people who do not know a lot about his music, Junkie XL is probably still known from the worldwide number one hit A little less conversation, the remix of Elvis' song that was made in 2002. C-mon & Kypski is a duo who is gaining popularity in the Netherlands and produce music that is described as 'freaked out booming skratchadelic funk dance'.

In the first chapter a brief background of both acts will be given in relation to the concept of fame. Afterwards, the websites of Junkie XL and C-mon & Kypski will be analyzed. This will be done while bearing in mind two current developments on the Internet: the shift from a transformation model into a network model and the blurring of boundaries between production, distribution and consumption in regard to participatory culture. It will be examined how both websites use these current developments to stimulate their fame. With the help of this explorative research a future scenario will be discussed surrounding the core issue 'fame in relation to the Internet'. Hopefully this discussion will provide a basis for further questions and additional research about this topic.

Although the title of this first chapter is arguable, its it for certain that disco, or more specific, dance is very popular at the moment. Especially, the Netherlands is known from their famous dance scene. Therefore, this chapter will discuss the concept of fame and bring this into contact with two experimental Dutch dance acts.

Junkie XL is a group surrounding Tom Holkenborg as the main musician and other varying guest musicians. The group is the most important act promoting the triphop-genre in the Netherlands. Its debut cd appears in 1997, which is received very positively within the international music scene; Junkie XL is then often compared with The Prodigy. Consequently, at the end of 1997 the group joined The Prodigy for a rollercoaster tour in Germany. In 1998 the group travels to the United States to go on their first tour, successfully. Afterwards, Junkie XL is going through some changes. First of all, DJ Frankie D has to leave the group, because of personal differences with Holkenborg. A while after that the rapper of the group, Rudeboy, decides to leave, since he thinks Junkie XL is heading too much in the direction of dance music. As a result, Holkenborg decides to work with other guest singers from then on. In the following years Junkie XL cooperates with various international artists, like Ayumidi Hamasaki, DJ Tiësto, Mimizine, Delerium and Sasha. In 2002, Junkie XL creates the music for a commercial of Nike, a remix of the Elvis song A little less conversation. This is broadcasted world-wide, which leads to a immense hit for Junkie XL and of course more live performances. For example, the hit single is performed at the British edition of Top of the Pops and the show of David Letterman. RadioJXL, the long expected third album of Junkie XL is released in june 2003. On this album Junkie XL, again, cooperates with many famous artists. Peter Tosh, Gary Numan, Chuck D (Public Enemy), Solomon Burke and Dave Gahan (Depeche Mode) are just some of the names who helped to create RadioJXL. Futhermore, Junkie XL makes a remix for the movies The Matrix Reloaded and The Animatrix. To promote the first movie, the song has a very limited edition on 12 vinyl. Another promotion stunt of Junkie XL itself is an illegal set of a half hour in Amsterdam at the 31 of May in 2003, which also functions as a protest against the laws at that moment of the city of Amsterdam regarding bars and clubs. Around four to five thousand people attended to listen to this set. During the years Junkie XL has won various prices; among them are the Heineken Crossover Award, a Dutch 'Silver Harp',  the Dutch Popaward and the Lucky Strike Dance Award. Nowadays, Junkie XL has moved to the United States to produce music for commercials of various companies.

C-mon & Kypski know each other from elementary school. Since they share the same interest in skateboarding and hip-hop, they decide to work together and start making beats for many local hip-hop groups in Utrecht (the Netherlands). Soon they notice that they want to experiment more with music, but the raps of the hip-hop are restricting them to do this. Consequently, they start to focus more on instrumental tracks. Meanwhile, Kypski has grown to one of the most famous scratchers in the Netherlands. In 2001 C-mon and Kypski have recorded music for film, theater and commercials, but they have not released their own cd yet. At that time, there are plans to release an EP at the record company V2, but the record company decides to cancel this at the last moment. Therefore, C-mon & Kypski release their 12 Junkie HC/Giants of Jazz themselves under the name of Dexdexter Records. In 2002 a theater in Utrecht asks Kypski to accumulate a test case for them. Together with C-mon he decides to take this challenge, which means that the duo starts performing live without the help of computers. They attract attention of the Dutch label Supertracks and sign a contract with this label. As a result, the cd Vinyl Voodoo is released in November 2002. Of course, C-mon & Kypski continue with their live performances to promote this album. Furthermore, C-mon recently released an album called C-mon Cereal. This album consists of remixed made by C-mon for Dutch acts like Senna, Raymzter en Opgezwolle. On the sixth of June 2004, the second cd of C-mon & Kypski also appears. At the moment, the duo is touring in the Netherlands. For example, they have attended the Rotterdam Import festival, where also the well-known Black Eyed Peas performed. Besides, they have had an interview at MTV. Both stimulate their popularity in the Netherlands for the time being.

When entering the site, a layout associated with a sampling table appears. For example, there is a speaker and there are two meters, etceteras. The main colors used are black, green and blue; the forms used are mostly squares. The first link to notice is the link that enables visitors to buy the new album, 7 AM. Through exploring the site via the content and interactive menu on the left, it becomes reasonable that the site is targeted at fans of Junkie XL, especially fans that are mixing dance music themselves. The site offers many links to news topics, which are switching on and off. Furthermore, its main links resemble advertisements. Therefore, the foremost impression of radiojxl.com is a crossover between an advertising site and a more considerate report of information.

The content menu of the site involves the core elements consumers expect when visiting a website of a music artist. These include a biography, discography, pictures, tourdates, and etceteras. One of the first activities consumers can make within this menu is listening to radiojxl. This is a streaming station, which offers music of Junkie XL and his collaborators that is not released (yet); music additional to the albums. Furthermore, for example telephone conversations between Junkie XL and Sasha can be heard. The first page offers two links to radiojxl and various links are offered to obtain the appropriate software to listen to it, which is makes it easier to utilize the service. It is worth noting that although the radio terms like 'broadcasting' are used, the audio streams are not live broadcasted. This makes the interaction between the consumer and production side of radiojxl.com less immediate.

Secondly, consumers can download and buy products on radiojxl.com. A division should be made between free or paid downloads and products that are delivered at home. The latter involve goods like t-shirts and dvd's. However, more relevant are the products that can be obtained immediately. Only video streams, audio samples and album covers can be downloaded for free. Full audio streams include the albums of Junkie XL, both released albums as albums that are only available online. Consumers have to pay to obtain these streams. Holkenborg reports the following on this topic:

Within the interactive menu consumers can join the discussion forum and contests. To join both a membership is needed; consumers can subscribe for free. Fans mostly use the discussion forum, which means that Junkie XL does not post any messages here. However, once in a while a live chat session with Holkenborg is organized. Contests involve wining products that are related to other topics on the website, for example to other artists. Furthermore, contests offer the ability to consumers to make their own remix that will be made available online.

Probably the most participatory element of the interactive menu is the producers corner. Although this does not include interactivity in the immediate sense, it does aim at the participation of fans making music comparable to the products of Junkie XL. With this production corner, Junkie XL would like to "shed some light on how his music is made and share some ideas with consumers about making music and the way he works" (Holkenborg; 2004). In other words, the production corner enables fans of Junkie XL to participate in making music in the same way as Junkie XL, through links like 'studio equipment', 'hardware-software links' and 'tips & tricks'.

The previous paragraph shows that radiojxl.com contains many possibilities for participation. However, there are also some participatory elements missing, which would expect to be on the site considering the target market. Radiojxl.com is aimed at listeners of triphop music; music that is also often used in computergames. Therefore, it would be logical if the site would offer some games to entertain its consumers, but this is not the case.

However, the production corner is another method to attract the consumers and stimulate their participation. One of the contests offers an ability to do expose the music created by fans. Nevertheless, the site tells that the specific contest is already over. In other words, fans do not have a chance anymore to expose their remix on the site. Probably, the participation by fans could be even more if the fans have more opportunities to expose their created music on the site or links to fancommunities or weblogs would be submitted.

Radiojxl.com builds a community based on the same interest, namely the music of Junkie XL. More specific, it builds a community surrounding the main component of Junkie XL, Tom Holkenborg, to support his international fame. As discussed during the course, a sense of community can be constituted by creating feelings of membership, feelings of having influence and being influenced by the community, integration and fulfillment of needs and a shared emotion experience (Uricchio & van der Graaf; 2004). At radiojxl.com creating a forum and providing contest for which a consumer has to be a member does this. Besides, additional to the forum there is a page that shows selected 'messages of fans'. The most important element that contributes to the sense of community is the personal approach to its consumers of Holkenborg. He leaves messages to his fans in a first person perspective and often ends these with his first name, Tom. Additionally, he organizes chats sessions with his fans. This approach increases the commitment of the fans with Junkie XL; Junkie XL becomes less a commodity and obtains its fame. As a result, the sense of participation in a shared community makes the fans support the music they care about. In other words, fans become willing to support Junkie XL's fame and compensate for obtaining its music (Condry; 2004).

Although the Junkie XL becomes less a commodity at radiojxl.com, is does express itself as a brand. There are three types of brands, namely functional brands, image brands and experience brands (Tybout & Carpenter). Via games and entertainment Internet enables every type of brand to become an experience. However, Radiojxl.com does not use this ability. Junkie XL can be seen as an image brand and the site tries to sustain this image, instead of turning it into an online experience. This expresses itself for example in the lack of games and the high amount of news or information related links. Consequently, Junkie XL does not use online experiences to stimulate its fame. Moreover, Junkie XL creates a shared offline experience of making triphop music through the link 'production corner'. This contributes to the sense of community as described above. It gives the consumers the feeling that they are not solely consumers of triphop music, but also producers. As a result, the fame of this music and Junkie XL is supported.

In the same way as in the previous chapter, the site of C-mon & Kypski will be analyzed here. Again the chapter starts with a first impression of the site, followed by an examination of the characteristics in relation to participatory culture. Afterwards, the focus will be on the missing participatory elements. The chapter will end with a conclusion on how the present and missing aspects of participation at C-mon & Kypski's website are related to their possible fame.

The first thing consumers see when entering the site of C-mon & Kypski is an advertisement of the recently released album of C-mon, namely C-mon Cereal. This gives a funny impression, since what is seen is a cereal box and the names of the artists in a lot of bright colors. After clicking at the cereal box, the consumers enter the homepage of C-mon & Kypski, where C-mon Cereal is promoted again. Also the homepage looks funny, because of a running voodoo doll at the left and the use of round graphics. There is no menu presented, but most consumers will soon discover that stabbing the voodoo doll with a needle does browsing through the site. This implicates that the site is aimed at fans of C-mon & Kypski, which want to discover things by themselves or through entertainment. The overall impression is simple, but entertaining; the games played with the names of the albums in relation to the visuals contribute to this.

Likewise as at the site of Junkie XL, the core elements of a music artist website are also presented at c-monandkypski.nl. Music samples of the duo start playing when consumers enter the site; with the gramophone at the corner in the right bottom consumers can stop, rewind, forward and pause this music. More music can be downloaded through the link 'multimedia'. Additionally, video streams are also available via this link; for example live performances and documentaries of C-mon & Kypski. All downloads are for free, though the amount is much less than at the site of Junkie XL.

Although c-monandkypski.nl looks nice, as a consumer you have soon seen and heard it all. On this site C-mon and Kypski are trying to entertain their consumers. However, the effect is very little, because the site is relatively small.

At the moment, some participatory elements are missing, which could enlarge the site. Examples are the extension of the network possibilities. Noticeable on the guestbook, C-mon & Kypski seem to have some very supportive fans. However, the lay-out of the guestbook makes it uncomfortable to read. Consequently, the guestbook could be reformed in order to make it more comfortable to use. Furthermore, links to weblogs or fancommunities could be made to stimulate fans in participating to enlarge the fame of C-mon & Kypski. Another possibility to do this is to create a link in which fans can give their reviews on performances by C-mon & Kypski. More broadly, a missing element is the use of mobile phones. C-mon & Kypski's target market are young people and their music is mostly instrumental. Therefore, the use of mobile phones, for example downloads of ringtones, could be a manner of offering consumers entertainment and participation.

Besides, the site does not offer much news on C-mon & Kypski. There is only a link to the release party of their newest album, of which the date has already past. More news about upcoming events, interviews, performances, albums, etceteras could stimulate fans to return to the website.

"As the community enlarges and as reaction time shortens, fandom becomes much more effective as a platform for consumer activism" (Jenkins; 2002). At c-monandkypski.nl a community is present and active; an enlargement of this community could stimulate and expand their fame. A possibility to do this is making more full use of the network architecture and the immediacy of the Internet and related communication devices, such as mobile phones. One can think of including links to weblogs, fancommunities, newsletters, p2p networks and ringtones. Futhermore, C-mon & Kypski do promote other artists via the album C-mon cereal, but they not promote themselves in the same way. They have created neither an image nor an entertainment brand. The creation of one and/or both could help them promote themselves more and become more famous.

The analyses from the site of Junkie XL and C-mon & Kypski show that the sense of community plays an important role in the gaining and upholding of fame on the Internet. Either by using the community to create an affiliation by means of a shared experience or by using the network of a community to expand the artist's uniqueness and popularity. In other words, "the complex relationships between technologies and the social and interactional circumstances in which they exist and through which they attain their meaning", seem to result in social alliances on the Internet that contribute to the fame of artists.

The above describes the social-technological dynamics from the consumers side. However, it should also be taken into account that the connections between the producers of music empower artists to become famous. Looking at the site of Junkie XL, it can be noticed that a lot of famous artists are named and even microsites with links to these artists are created. The collaboration among famous artists and their 'viral marketing' at websites contribute to each others fame.

Furthermore, some light should be shed on the relationship between Internet, other media and reallife performances. Most of the video streams at radiojxl.com and c-monandkypski.nl are digital copies of television or radio broadcasts. More apparently, the name of Junkie XL's website and its use of radiojxl tend to show the tight relationship between Internet and the radio. Reallife performances also have an important role at the websites. At the forum and guestbook on both sites fans often refer to the performances. Probably, the interaction between the immediacy of the live performances and the personal contact on the websites create an perfect atmosphere for supporting fame.

Last, but not least, the factors of economics returns. In order start to perform and achieve popularity, an artist needs money. As can be seen from the site of Junkie XL, artist would like to have some compensation for their effort put in their music and recordings. Internet offers the ability to obtain this compensating through downloading in combination with a personal bonding with the fans.

Returning back to the question how fame in relation the music industry will be exposed in the coming century, of course nobody can tell…. It becomes clear from this nota that certain aspects need further examination, like more research surrounding the role of consumer communities. What is the role of contemporary mass media in contributing to fame on the Internet? Will mobile phones get a more important role in the future? What is the contribution of globalization and collaboration between global artists in relation to fame? A lot more questions are thinkable. Hopefully, readers of this paper will be the creators of these...

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