On August 7th, Facebook instituted updates to their policies that will have far-reaching effects on both up-and-coming and established producers. As of today, both Like to Download and Share to Download are dead. Facebook explain the changes as intended to "ensure quality connections and help businesses reach the people who matter to them," going on to say that they want people to like Pages in order to connect with a business or person and not because of artificial incentives. While many in the electronic community cried out against these changes, they're actually necessary, long-overdue steps in legitimizing musicians.With increased competition it's harder than ever to break through as a bedroom producer, and many musicians have viewed Facebook Likes for an mp3 as a willing trade-off for getting actual cash. Facebook Likes are the go-to benchmark for agents picking up artists, promoters booking them, and fans buying tickets. Likes mean bookings, which in turn mean money. Unfortunately, Likes that you coerce out of people and Likes that people deliberately give you have wildly different outcomes down the line.Here's an example: You find a decent artist on SoundCloud, see that he's coming to your town, and wonder why you should buy a ticket. "Will people even be there?" you wonder. He is quite new, after all. After checking his or her Facebook Page and seeing he or she have a reassuring number of likes, you buy a ticket. Arriving at peak time, you're surprised to find nobody in line outside. You walk into the club to find a pissed off promoter, a disappointed DJ, and six girls from the suburbs sobbing into their vodka tonics. If you go out once or twice a month, this has probably happened to you at some point in the past two years:While it's true that under-attended shows existed long before Facebook, an artist's Likes were intended to take the guesswork out of going to shows and inflated social footprints have rapidly decreased their utility. Producers, instead of thinking back on today with sadness, remember it with joy. Today is the day that the value of your Likes returns to your fans. If they don't mean what we think they mean, the whole system fails and a long trail of unhappy music lovers are left behind.Ziad Ramley is on Twitter: @ZiadRamley
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