Quincy Jones III (QD3) on leveraging social networks

How do music artists rise above the online clutter and get noticed? Rather than focus so much on selling merchandise, make "organic connections with the fan base," said Quincy Jones III, also known as QD3, a producer of tracks for artists, such as LL Cool J, and a successful hip hop film documentarian. QD3 is also the son of Academy Award-winning film producer and multiple Grammy Award-winning Quincy Jones II.

QD3 makes a salient point regarding connections. Many creative people forget that their personality is as much a part of what they're selling. In an era when the walls have broken down between artist and fan, it's more important to connect. An artist has to "dialogue" with his/her fans because the audience wants to "support you as a whole," he said, in our interview prior to his panel. It's no wonder Quincy leverages social networks a lot. (Watch the interview to get his favorite social networks).

Digital strategies from connecting to fans to distributing music for free were the questions Quincy raised with his panelists later that day. I managed to catch up with a couple of his panelists, including rapper Chamillionaire and business manager Chaka Zulu.

Quincy also endorsed Kyte as a technology he recommends artists using to video blog on location using their mobile phones. Watch the interview for more of QD3's digital insights.