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Social media and music in general have been changing so fast. You can go on Twitter and go from one artist to another. What I really like about it is the opportunity to communicate directly with your fans.

Because it's so easy to medicate our need for self-worth by pandering to win followers, 'likes' and view counts, social media have become the metier of choice for many people who might otherwise channel that energy into books, music or art - or even into their own Web ventures.

When people are making the decision to put a piece of content online, they really do truly want to get it in front of the largest audience.

The Internet is far more engaging as an interactive medium than broadcast. Barriers to creating content are going away; they're almost gone. People are taking control of their entertainment. People are Tweeting, posting on Facebook and YouTube.

I know very little about the viral, electronic world, but I use Twitter to communicate not only information that I think some of the fans want to hear about but also ideas.

The Internet is the ultimate vanity-publishing medium, and therefore, the ultimate place for those of us who like to watch. The Internet can reach an audience at lower cost than any medium before it.

I have 1.4 million followers on Twitter. I get very interesting, sometimes very diverse input from my followers. So it's sort of like this water cooler, digital water cooler, if you want to think about it, where you go and you listen to conversations that are happening that perhaps will shape your thinking.

If your music is great, you will have fans, not because you have spent time chatting on social media.

Oh God, it's such a big world right now for artists. There are as many possibilities as you can have time for, getting your music out there with the internet, and Youtube, Vimeo, Facebook, and everything that you have, there is a way to spread the word. To me, the first thing you have to have is substance and content and real depth.

On YouTube, when you have a big viral success with a song that isn't your own, the natural inclination for most YouTubers is to keep doing that. What you really should do is show people that you actually have substance and can write your own music.