TENS OF MILLIONS OF ACCOUNTS. HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF TWEETS, THE MAJORITY ABOUT MUSIC. FORGET #FOLLOWFRIDAYS AND SIMPLY BEGIN HERE
(SCROLL DOWN FOR THE FULL "TWITTER 140" HONOREE LIST, AND CLICK ON NAMES FOR A PROFILE OF EACH)
If the question is, Where do people go to talk about music?, one answer is certainly Twitter. The San Francisco-based micro-blogging service, launched in 2006 as a platform developed with so-called "dumb" phones in mind (which dictated the 140-character limit of all Twitter posts, or "tweets," as that was the maximum capacity of a standard single text message), now contains more than 140 million accounts, logging some 340 million tweets per day.
The most talked-about subject on the service, according to Twitter's own internal metrics? Music. Twitter's five most-followed accounts? Lady Gaga (27.5 million), Justin Bieber (25.6 million), Katy Perry (23.4 million), Rihanna (23.2 million) and Britney Spears (19 million). And five of the top 10 trending topics (as in, the most discussed at any one time) on Twitter for all of last year? All music-related.
For our second annual Twitter 140, we turned to a panel of industry experts, musicians, digital trailblazers and Billboard's own staff to find out who they followed. We were looking for the voices who steer the conversation about the music industry and digital culture, and also for music (and Twitter) obsessives who constantly share their discoveries.
The musicians included are not necessarily those with the most followers (we figure you already follow those), but those who have helped shape the way Twitter works, or who move it along in the current moment. To be considered for this list, accounts had to be at least relatively active at press time. Here, we present the 140 must-follow Twitter accounts in the music industry.
A-Trak Ryan AdamsDanny Aguayo Eric AlperOmid AshtariAureo Baqueiro Daryl Berg Big Boi Benny Blanco
Scooter BraunElizabeth BrooksJennifer BullJim Butcher Noah Callahan-Bever Mike Caren Steve-O Carless Rosanne Cash Bill Chasen
Karen CivilChristian ClancyJonathan Cohen
Ted Cohen
Andy Cohn Tom Conrad Tomas Cookman Jonathan Coulton Adam Curry
John DarnielleDeadmau5Dave DelaneyEmily Delmont Corey Denis Mike Dougherty Daniel Ek Justin Erdman Jay Frank
Lindsay GablerClive GardinerEric GarlandPepe Garza Mark Ghuneim Sean Glass Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald Steve Greenberg Benjy Grinberg
Perez HiltonJason HirschhornRoss HoffmanIan Hogarth Jeremy M Holley Alex Holz Nathan Hubbard Liana Huth Chris Seth Jackson
Shooter JenningsEthan KaplanSebastian KrysMike Kyser Bob Lefsetz Chris Lighty Alexander Ljung Marissa Lopez Kirk Love
Joie MandaLarry MarcusRon MillsMark Montgomery Brendan Moore Todd Moscowitz Mark Mulligan David Noel Brian O'Connell
Minya OhDon OmarGuy OsearyReggie Ossé David Pakman Amanda Palmer Julie Pilat Ann Powers Tim Quirk
Salaam RemiDave ReneJohn RichardsIan Rogers Paul Rosenberg Peter Rosenberg Pasquale Rotella Greg Sandoval Rob Santos
Ryan SeacrestMarisol SegalNikhil ShahJonathan Shecter Ben Sheffner Julianne Shepherd J Sider Judy Miller Silverman Tatiana Simonian
Kevin Smyth andJeremy JohnsonEric SnowdenBrian Solis
Rob Stone
Strut Records
Chris Swanson
Richard Tafoya
The Life FilesTouré
Toy SelectahDarius Van ArmanJon VanhalaScott Vener
David Viecelli
Alejandro Villalobos
Vive Latino Music Festival
Charlie Walk
DA WallachBruce Warren
Storme WarrenJeff WeissJeremy WeltTim Westergren
Emily White
Betsy Whitney
Elliot Wilson
Fred Wilson
Jon WursterAnton "Zedd" Zaslavski
Contributors:JUSTINO ÁGUILA, BRIAN BRAIKER, WILLIAM GRUGER, ANDREW HAMPP, JOE LEVY, JASON LIPSHUTZ, BENJAMIN MEADOWS-INGRAM, KATIE MORSE, GLENN PEOPLES, ERIKA RAMIREZ, DAN RYS, AND BILL WERDE. ILLUSTRATION BY KAI & SUNNY.
