Email the Editor    Email a Friend    Print this Page 

Montreal-based musician David Usher is spearheading the development of a new social media application specifically tailored to help artists manage online communities and share or sell their work online.

Emblazoned on the right-hand column of DavidUsher.com sits an embedded Adobe AIR client. A stream of short messages next to user pictures is similar to Twitter, but there's more here.

Users can begin threaded discussions around any given message, or click on a tab and start streaming Usher's tracks, free of charge. Most notably, the whole application is branded to be distinctly about the solo musician.

Related Video: David Usher discusses Deqq, social media usage

“Social media is so splintered right now, and so fractured,” Usher says in an interview with ITBusiness.ca. “It's about trying to find a way artists can connect with their fan base in a simple way, while keeping that conversation personal and authentic.”

Deqq allows musicians to brand a channel of social media interaction.

Deqq is the application that will attempt to do just that.

It has been developed by Vancouver-based social media company Work at Play. It's inspiration came after founder David Gratton met Usher at the 2008 Mesh conference in Toronto. The duo were on the same panel discussing music and social media.

“David and I came from a very similar point of view and thinking on this,” Gratton says. “He saw what we were doing and saw some real holes in our approach, in fact.”

Work at Play has developed other social media applications related to music, including a project for MTV. But the company didn't have the benefit of a social media-savvy artist directing them on what other musicians needed from an application.

share: