Twitter is the social network service that has taken the world by storm but it can also be useful for jazz lovers and musicians.

For those of you who haven’t yet heard or used Twitter, it is a website that allows you to post 140-character status updates which can then be seen by fellow users (or ‘followers’).

You can also follow a wide variety of very interesting people, such as Barack Obama, Stephen Fry and and Evan Williams (co-founder of Twitter), who post what they are doing (or in some cases have people post for them).

Twitter is increasingly playing an important role in our wired culture, often having important political and social significance, especially when events are happening in real time.

It has even made the cover of Time magazine, seen its founders appear on Oprah, helped capture an image of the US Airways plane that landed in the Hudson river and played a part in the recent Iranian elections.

But what does it mean for jazz fans and musicians?

With many individuals and organisations now having their won Twitter feeds perhaps the most obvious and lasting benefit of Twitter is that it allows you to keep in touch with what you are interested in.

Jazz FM’s twitter feed can be found at www.twitter.com/jazzfm and there you can find information about our different shows and updates on competitions.

But there are also other jazz musicians and organizations worth following.

Here is a short list we’ve compiled that may be of interest to new and experienced users.

MUSICIANS

Wynton Marsalis – @wyntonmarsalis
Diana Krall – @DianaKrall
Melody Gardot – @melodygardot
Benny Powell – @Bennybone
Emergency Service – @esband
Noise in the Basement – @noiseinthebsmnt
Christiane Sattler – @musiccs
Bruno Morais – @brmorais
Arnell Carmichael – @ArnellDerek
Fabio Mignola – @fabiomignola
Ryan Zoidis – @zoidis
Alan Evans – @playonbrother
Neal Evans – @nealmusic
Peter Martin – @pianopeter
Tony Foster – @tonyfostermusic
Michael Mishaw – @michaelmishaw
Rob Michael – @AtmosTrio
Chris Bestwick – @bestoman
Chris Greco – @chrisgreco
Kirk Whalum – @kirkwhalum
Jamie Cullum – @jamiecullum

LABELS

Blue Note Records – @bluenoterecords
Verve Music Group – @vervemusic
Schema Records – @SchemaRecords

FESTIVALS

Toronto Jazz Festival – @TorontoJazzFest
Malta Jazz Festival – @MaltaJazz
Vilnius Jazz – @VilniusJazz
Oxford Jazz Festival – @OxJazz
Berks Jazz Fest – @berksjazzfest
Healdsburg Jazz Fest – @healdsburgjazz
Duke Ellington – @dejazzfest
Oslo Jazz Festival – @oslojazz
Gent Jazz Festival – @gentjazz

WEBSITES

All About Jazz – @AllAboutJazz
A Passion 4 Jazz – @APassion4Jazz
Jazz Beyond Jazz – @jazzbeyondjazz
Jazz Institute of Chicago – @jazzinstitute
Jazz Heritage Center – @jazzheritagectr
Jazz Boston – @jazzboston
Jazz HQ – @JazzHQ
Jazz Talk – @jazztalk
Jazz Wire – @jazzwire
Lincoln Center in New York – @Lincoln_Center
The Jazz Police – @theJazzPolice
Smalls Jazz Club in New York – @SmallsJazzClub
UCLU Jazz Society – @UCLUJazzSociety
Barbican Centre in London – @BarbicanCentre
Smooth Jazz – @smoothjazz

Following someone is fairly simple – just click on ‘Follow Me’ and you’ll instantly have access to their ‘feed’, which could be a simple message or a link to something they find interesting.

Creating an account is simple and once you’ve started following other users you can read their updates (or ‘tweets’) and search for other users.

If you want to search for jazz topics on twitter just use their search engine at search.twitter.com

There are a couple of other things worth mentioning: re-tweeting and creating hashes.

Re-tweeting is when you see a tweet you like and re-publish (or re-tweet) it to your network of friends.

Hashtags (denoted by the # symbol) are a way to group twitter messages together according to subject matter. So if you wanted to discuss a single topic or event – e.g. the London Jazz Festival – you would tag your tweet with a label like #londonjazzfestival.

You can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, SMS or external applications such as Fring (for mobile phones), TwitterBerry (for Blackberrys) or Twitterfon (for the iPhone and iPod Touch).

There are also free programs like TweetDeck and Twhirl which allow you to read and post to Twitter.

It is worth noting that Twitter in general is free, but if you are using SMS you may incur phone service provider fees.

There are also some useful web services that can make your Twitter experience more useful whether you are a musician or fan:

• Song.ly – Type in a song title or mp3 link to tweeT and your followers get a short link to a page allowing them to play the song right in the browser without having to download it.
• Twitterfeed – Use this free service to have your RSS feeds and blog posts automatically posted to your Twitter account
• Twi.bz – Every letter counts and this url shortener has special features designed specifically for Twitter.
• Facebook Updates – Link your account directly to your Facebook profile and you can update your status via Twitter from your phone.
• Tweet Later – Spread out your tweets using this post scheduling service. Musicians can schedule a special Tweet to be sent to fans in the middle of a show like asking for requests via Twitter
• Twit Pic – Share photos including from your phone via Twitter. Handy for “behind the scenes” pics.
• The Mattinator – Post to multiple Twitter accounts (like band or label and personal) at the same time.
• Ping.FM – Update your social networks and Twitter all with one post.

If you are on Twitter and want to follow us just go here www.twitter.com/jazzfm and click follow.

If you have any suggestions for interesting jazz twitter users we should check out then email us via our contact page.