MusicMarketing

Brands who provide a platform to service an interact with their consumers have been reaping the benefit when it comes to retention and relationship development. So what does a young gentleman  and a young lady have in common on Valentine’s Day – A Date. Which is why with the help of Heineken, you can bag that special someone using the new ‘Serenade Your Date’ application which launched on Facebook.

On the App, can enjoy their fully personalized Serenade for their perfect date in just 4 clicks. A simple few questions such as “Who” you would like to take on a date?”,  “Why  you want to go out with them?” and then decide “What you want to do on your?”

What happens next in a bit like speed dating but with digital prowess removing those on the spot nerves that may be encountered!

Join in and let Heineken help you set your Valentines’ Day message to music and lyrics. Be part of the worldwide Serenade!

* The “Serenade Live” Event will be streamed live at the following local times:

London: 6pm – 3am / New York: 1pm – 10pm / Sydney: 5am – 2pm

Twitter: @Heineken, #Serenade, #SerenadeLive

SPONSORED POST

No Comments | In: Brands | tags: Heineken. | #

We are living in a digital global environment in which we all participate in a ubiquitous network; as a consequence each individual has an empowered role within society. The new found empowerment has significantly transformed the relationship between the consumer and the content. Content is no longer subjected to defined routes of consumption, instead the way content is shared, consumed and even absorbed in now an integral part of our lifestyles. While traditional broadcast platforms such as television and radio continue to deliver the same underlying pieces of content in sequence, the digital environment has transformed how our relationship with that content. Digital has created a democratisation of technology that has given music artists a global audience for their content and in return given music fans a unique connection to the content. This digital connection creates a knowledge transparency, generating data if analysed can act as a blueprint of digital behaviour.

From ‘liking’ a Band on Facebook or becoming the ‘Mayor’ of Vicar St, digital fingerprints provide an in-depth view of the individual consumer giving brands, bands & labels the opportunity to harness this data to develop something of value to the consumer. The most effective digital platforms have shifted from disruptive to productive, providing a service or utility, in return for a glimpse of behavior. What each label, brand and band can do through simple digital intelligence is identify who loves their music and how convenient is it for them to consume it? The real fans are the ones who love not like, who want to have that unique connection, who will buy exclusive records/DVDs/ringtones/merchandise etc, who will pay to see them in concert, who will share within personnel networks.

To simplify a traditional record label’s role as brand management, whose main responsibilities include: 1) Creating exposure for the artist, 2) Highlighting potential markets, 3) Developing an image, 4) Providing distribution & 5) Generating revenue. In a digital market place, fans are now the A&R guys, discovering and exposing artists through social networks, blogs, etc. The image is no longer developed, instead an image is earned, and the path of distribution is now a motorway. Digital has reduced the music industries control over supply and distribution, increased consumer power, heighted competitive rivalry and has provided a worldwide audience for artists, however the threat of substituting music with film or gaming does not exist, music is and always will be cherished and loved.

Labels of Tomorrow

The labels of tomorrow will be able to offer the fan that custom experience, that intimate memory, something of value that the consumer will pay for. The labels of tomorrow will ignore mass crowds identifying niches for their artists to sell to. This is already occurring, fans of Duke Special are funding the recording of his new album through pledges and in return they will receive limited edition personalised copies. Radiohead empowers their online community to be brand ambassadors by giving them access to insider information, special promotions and discounts, and tickets to the shows which in turn generates interest from new audiences and creates conversation among their existing fans.

The debate over illegal downloading may still be fighting out in court, but the digital world should be seen as the saving grace of the industries sustainability. The initial digital market or lack there of, gave way to media jacking which highlighted consumer’s preference for convenience over quality and outlined how the industries regime was set against consumer behaviour. The current digital market is seeing royalties from digital music growing at a faster rate than the decline in revenues from physical music sales for the first time. However the current digital market has given rise to media arbitrage; where cost fluctuates from iTunes to Spotify, pointing to an unsustainable scenario for the music industry. Digital has created new avenues of revenue for recorded labels through ad revenue from Muzu and YouTube   The convenience of digital combined with the selection available can be attributed as the main reasons for the increase in royalties, but the music industries ignorance of consumer’s digital behaviour has resulted in an environment where in 2010, it is expected that just 5% of all music will be paid for.

Labels have long since focused on the logistics of the industry and failed to capture the greater essence of music, both as organised content and as a cultural currency. Music has always had a strong culture currency yet record labels are not finding that it directly relates to a strong monetary value. Social media has an inimitable ability to transfer this cultural currency across an audience network, creating dialogue which can hold real value. It is estimated that 2010 will be the year that social media-fuelled technology and behaviour is responsible for more content consumption choices than ever before. For consumers the real value is no longer just the content, it is now the context.

New Requirements

New marketing has publicly emerged as an empowering “tool” of the post-consumer establishing democracy that can be shared within new digital communities. New digital platforms such as Google Music, Sky Songs, Bandcamp, Spotify, Last.fm etc are highlighting the potential digital has to deliver new experiences for fans, and in return create new avenues of revenue. The abundance of digital touchpoints available to artists provides a global platform to connect with their music fan, whoever and wherever they are.

The combination of the decline in A&R and the failure of the 360 record deal to launch many major artists, has resulted in a DIY culture emerge, allowing artists to leverage digital interaction to establish their own market. It is important to note the key factors that will affect the music industry over the next decade, the channels of communication are going to become more decentralised, cloud computing will eliminate the need for ownership, location based services will provide intelligent information and the mobile will be the main access tool to the internet. Music is no longer force fed, instead digital has given music, not just popular music but all music a new opportunity to be shared and enjoyed all over the world by every individual.

No Comments | In: Bands, Distribution | tags: Digital Enviornment, DIY culture, Facebook, Music Industry. | #

What has become apparent is that although consumption of media has changed, the number of people watching TV has not changed. The future of television is changing before our eyes and that is creating new challenges for TV stations as well as TV advertisers. In  a recent poll by Red C, it highlights the role convergence has played in diluting the entertainment value once recorded by TV.  The research points to the growing trend of consumers multi tasking, ie when watching TV, they are surfing Facebook, on their mobile etc.  The question is what is the dominant medium in this situation? With just 15% of communication occurring aurally, there is less clutter to get the message across, whatever stands out to the consumer has a good chance! What does this role mean for music on TV, what was once a revolutionary through MTV, has lacked luster over the last few years with the introduction of new media consumption channels.

MTV revolutionized the music industry in the early 80’s with the introduction of music videos on television, over the last 3 years it has been quietly been transforming the music television in the form of “modified reality” TV programs. These shows are not only visually stimulating for the viewer, but they are intrinsically link to the viewers emotional well being, demographic and aspirations. That connection and targeting ability give advertisers and music labels unparalleled communication opportunities, take for example The Hills, a popular ‘reality show’ set in LA and aimed at teenagers will sample 10 tracks over a 23 minute episode. The selection of those tracks are paid for by labels who wish to target specific TV audiences, for example Maroon 5  saw a 400% increase in sales the day after their song ‘makes me wonder’ was broadcast in a series of The Hills!,

TV has always been a popular distribution channel for music (High School Musical, X Factor etc), the biggest success of the last 5 years is likely to be on your TV right now! Glee is reinventing how Television can sell music and how music can sell brands on Television. In one particular week’s singles chart saw five Glee cast songs in the top 50, while the first album release from the show, Glee The Music: Volume 1 , has just entered the top 30 and is expected to rise to the number-one slot the next few weeks. What’s revolutionary about Glee and the understanding of media convergence by Fox is its use of media integration. What is fundamentally changing in is how this convergence of Television with new media is changing the way consumers discover, buy and share music. Sony who has a 360 degree deal with Fox over Glee, now have a unique, never before explored opportunity to blend their artists with cultural messages via the shows storyline to develop a cultural currency for their music that will end up in actual currency. Merchandising, touring, music sales etc have all been taken into account, but the access to obtaining these have been re-mastered, the songs featured in any given episode of the program become available later that same night on iTunes – it’s like buying the artist’s CD in the lobby on the way out of the gig.

Kevin Courtney, music editor for the Irish Times recently wrote how labels and bands no longer view having their song used in advertising as conforming, but now see it as a core part of their strategy, no surprise there, for the past 5 years ads have been developed with the unsubtle tone focused on the music. Now we have to see how bands like having their songs in the hands or the fantastic vocal chords of  Finn Hudson and Rachel Barry, all under the careful supervision of Will Schuester!

No Comments | In: Bands, Distribution, Media, Record Labels | tags: MTV, Music Distribution, Sony, Television. | #

In an interview on BBC, Brian Eno explained how MTV created music videos as a culture currency for fans. Today music videos are still held with the same regard, but with the presence of Muzu.tv or Youtube music videos no longer have to conform to required expectations to guarantee airplay. Cover art is being replace with music videos!

What was once gushing rivers of revenue for the music industry has turned into not so much as a dribble!

One big move from record labels to capture revenue from advertising dollars spent on targeting music videos shown on the likes on YouTube or Muzu. Considering music videos as cultural currency, fans want to share them throughout their online profile, via blogs, social networks profiles etc, but this effectively removes the possibility of advertising, removing the possibility of earnings from ad revenue. EMI recently disabled the ability of sharing videos, hindering fans to share the infamous music videos from band OK GO. In response to outcry at this decision Ok Go’s Damian Kulash posted an open letter on the bands site explaining the “harsh” reality in the music industry, that labels have not only lost control, but have lost their ability to recuperate production costs!

Irish-based music video website Muzu.tv has signed a number of video syndication deals that will see its content made available to major publishers including AOL Music, the Telegraph Media Group and Bebo in a return for a share of advertising revenue. Although the the video site is recording traffic growth at 20-30 per cent month on month, it poses the question how sustainable this revenue model is for the music industry.

Rather than spending another misguided year counting the pennies, labels must realise that 2010 will be the year that social media-fueled technology and behavior is responsible for more content consumption choices than ever before. By continuing to alienate music fans, the labels responsible are showing no understanding of the music fan. The most effective digital platforms have shifted from “disruptive” to “productive” providing a service or utility. What does this mean, simply brands, bands and labels must change their approach once again to consumers and ask themselves “how can we make their lives better”?

In Seth Godin’s book, the Linchpin, Godin states that ‘the winners are the artists who give gifts‘. Artists who provide additional experiences apart from their music, eventually win out, whether it be fantasy football, one of Radiohead’s amazing distribution activities or simply allowing the fan to use the music video to not only promote the record within their social group but also to use as a form of self expression.

Anybody interested in looking at some quality videos, click on the image above!

No Comments | In: Advertising, Distribution, Record Labels, YouTube | tags: EMI, MUZU. | #

What can the music industry learn from the advertising industry? Ownership. In the same way the brands controlled the product of conversation, music has been controlled by large labels who dominate global consumption. Consumers have been empowered through emerging technology and increased global social conversation to give individuals a cultural currency that was previously only held by the labels/brands. What we have seen so far is the ownership of music changing from owning the end product or the merchandise divulge into the ownership of the music itself.

An example of this is how Ash are deciding to release singles every two weeks and made available to those fans who buy a long term subscription. The initial investment made by fans is not only bypassing labels hold over artistic development and cutting out the middle man, but it is bringing fans a step closer and changing the dynamic of relationship. Another such example of is Pledge Music which aims to create new musical experiences far beyond previous fan funded models such as Sellaband and Bandstock. There are four corners to the Pledge concept: music, fans, recording studios and charities. The Irish Artist Duke Special is availing of this new service and has already received 99% of funding from his fans.

When Rupert Murdoch was asked what will be the biggest story of the 21st Century he responded – ‘The Great story of the next century will be the empowerment of the individual, all individuals!’. Empowerment must be defined from the user’s viewpoint as it is context specific, but if we relate it to a music fan, their new found ability to both source and control of information flow was critical aspects of empowerment.  Consumer empowerment is attracting new phrases such as the “Democratisation of technology” or “Knowledge Transparency” as a result of the shift of market control. The question is how have brands/bands and labels lost the ability to control decision making?

So the artist may be liberated from the label, but indebted to another form of Label, their fans.

1 Comment | In: Bands, Distribution, Record Labels | tags: Ash, Democratisation of technology, Distribution Model, Empowerment. | #

What better way to reflect on a pretty good decade of music then create the only poll of the top 50 albums of naughties in the world. For all you music lovers and marketing masters, can you spot any artists who have been on the receiving end of some of the most inventive and creative music marketing promotions of the decade.

1. The Strokes – Is This It
2. Kings of Leon –Youth and Young Manhood
3. Arcade Fire – Funeral
4. Daft Punk – Discovery –
5. Radiohead – In Rainbows
6. Damien Rice O
7. Jay-Z – The Black Album
8. Radiohead – Kid A
9. Beirut – Gulag Orkestar –
10. Sigur Rós – Með suð í eyrum við spilum end
11. Kanye West – The College Dropout
12. Kings of Leon – Aha Shake Heartbreak
13. The Avalanches – Since I Left You
14. Radiohead – Hail to the Thief
15. 2 Many Djs – As Heard of Radio
16. Danger Mouse – Grey Album
17. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
18. Badly Drawn Boy – The Hour of Bewilderbeast
19. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
20. LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver
21. The Streets – Original Pirate Material
22. Bon Iver – For Emma, For Ever Ago
23. Brian Wilson – Smile
24. Muse – Origin of Symmetry
25. Jurassic 5 – Power in Numbers
26. Coldplay – Parachuters
27. Jose Gonzalez – Veneer
28. Manu Chao – Promxima Estacion Esperanza
29. Justice – Cross
30. The Shins – Oh, Inverted World
31. Norah Jones – Come Away With Me
32. Battles – Mirrored
33. Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
34. Arctic Monkeys – What Ever People Say I am I am not
35. The Strokes – Room on Fire
36. Broken Social Scene – You Forgot It in People
37. The White Stripes – White Blood Cells
38. David Kitt – Big Romance
39. Modest Mouse – Good News For People Who Love Bad News
40. Kasabian – Kasabian
41. RJD2 – Deadringer
42. Stantogold – Santogold
43. Soul wax – Nite Versions
44. Grizzly Bear – Yellow House
45. Broken Social Scene – You Forgot it in
46. Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand
47. Missy Elliott – Under Construction
48. The Bees – Sunshine Hit Me
49. Friendly Fires – Friendly Fires
50. Glasvegas – Singles

No Comments | In: Bands, Record Labels | tags: The Strokes, To 50 Albums. | #

Those beautiful people in Sweden are bucking the trend in the music industry, Sweden are one of the only countries to record a increase in music revenue, in fact figures from the record labels association IFPI Sweden show revenues rose 18% in the first nine months of this year, a significant reversal from seven consecutive years of decline. In April, Sweden upheld new anti piracy laws which saw sites such as Pirate Bay being blocked to users. Although Swedish ISP’s removed one of the major sources for illegal digital content, 80% of the growth in sales was recorded in the digital market, suggesting that consumers are turning towards purchasing behaviour.

The IFPI also flags up rising sales in South Korea, another country that recently introduced an anti-piracy law and where several legal services have launched. It says music sales there were up 18% in the first half of 2009 on a year ago.

The value of music does play on the conscious of illegal down-loaders who are now begining to find legal solutions to their consumption habits. Ludvig Werner, who chairs IFPI Sweden,said even if the new law had not changed people’s perceptions of whether copyright owners should be properly remunerated, it had changed their behaviour. A crackdown on illegal sites combined with the spread of legal sites supported by advertising had helped push consumers from one to the other

Interestingly, The European Parliament today approved a new telecoms reform package that offers greater protection for consumers, which threatens Eircom’s plan to ban internet subscribers who persistently download music illegally. Eircom agreed to introduce a “three strikes and you’re out” rule in January as a result of an out-of-court settlement with EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner Music.

This report has furthered heated the debate on the control ISPs should have regarding consumers usage rights. The quest for the Internet to remain open access is being head fronted in Europe by Sweden’s The Pirate party who are the founders of the Pirate Bay but now have a  seat at the European parliament after being democratically elected in Sweden’s European Election in June. It can also be argued that bands have access to a wider audience through these file sharing sites that they may not through conventional methods.

In a recent article we mention one of the four possible growth areas for the music industry is the ability to bundle music with everything else. A relevant example here is the Danish music business proposing the plan to offer unlimited music downloads for a fixed ISP cost back in 2007. With IP laws bound to continue to cause controversy, and file sharing sites duplicating like tadpoles, the music offering is the core product and if this remains consistent we would not see a change in the piracy situation, however is the product and offering changes value placed on music could be reflected in the balance sheets.

Courtsy: The Guardian/Irish Times

No Comments | In: Distribution, Industry Reports, Record Labels | tags: Abba, Eircom, IFPI Sweden, ISP, Pirate Bay, The European Parliament. | #

The Sony Fantasy Festival competition, a promotion with Last.fm, has launched with more than 13,000 people having signed up to take part by the end of the first day yesterday.  The competition is open to people across 32 countries with the chance to win weekly Sony prizes and an overall prize of a VIP experience to the Glastonbury festival for four people.

Participants have been challenged to create the most popular fantasy festival line-up using a €1 million budget to book their ideal acts.  With over 30 million users on Last fm,  the platform will be used to determine the popularity taking into account Last.fm listening data and online buzz in addition to data from Yahoo. This is a brilliant example of how a brand should engage with its audience:

1) It shows understanding of the consumer (Music fans always talk of their dream gig)
2) Marketing Communications shows thought and intelligence, attracting attention through engagement
3) The content is impeccable, great lists of artists to select from and great features such as radio for the user
4) The site has wonderful interactivity, from the user directly engaging with the site through band selection to the user engaging directly with their friends via social options, (Facebook, Twitter, etc)

The 4 pillars of new marketing can only be achieved through dynamic strategy and planning and very engaging creative.  Music fans are hard-wired into their relative social hubs and in order to enter into an active conversation with them you’ll need to be able to position a music offering at the heart of their offline and online communities.

The campaign fits nicely in with Sony’s current focus on sound as represented by the recent Sony Sound Ville ad created by those ridiculously good people at Fallon UK. The idea for the festival was created by Altogether Digital and OMD International was responsible for the partnership with Last.fm. Kudos to all.

We implore you to create your own dream festival,  you can check our dream gig here

In a separate note but sharing the dream theme today, Susan Boyle’s upcoming album I Dreamed a Dream has become the largest global CD pre-order in the history of Amazon.com, that a girl Susan!

1 Comment | In: Advertising, Brands, Mobile | tags: Altogether Digital, competition, Fallon UK., Fantasy Festival, Last FM, Mobile, Sony Music, Sony Sound Ville. | #

With the emergence of 3G networks set to reach 55% of Ireland in 2010, the convergence of media has now enabled the mobile to act as the one stop shop, and a serious attraction for both consumers and marketers alike. An interesting new application has been released by Global Internet Radio Technologies, a company based in the West, but have both the ambition and the foresight to enter foreign markets.  The application entitled Grab Radio,  is the first of its kind, and is really adding showing the initiative in the music industry. Where some labels lack the insight into the consumers purchasing cycle, it is refreshing to see a changing platform that works with and not against the new consumer behavior.  The app in its simple form, allows users to listen to all the radio stations in Ireland, with the added feature of grabbing or tagging the music you love. The app is programmed to overlay the radio stations play-list, with song info, which is great when you hear a song on the radio but you don’t know the tune. Users of the app will have the option to purchase the song from iTunes immediately or if they wish to tag it for later.

There are currently app’s that allow you to name that track from 30 sec’s on music such as Shazam, but real time purchasing from what you are listening to was always confined to your PC. The opportunity for this app has still to be discovered, with 3G ability, geo-targeting mean that labels will be soon able to sell concert tickets on the mobile of the artist who is currently playing on the radio and has a upcoming show nearby. The app does allow some advertising, and while this is a very nice touch, the opportunity here is for the music labels,  to promote gigs, offer free downloads and launch new artists to consumers on a one to one basis.

The application is now available on ITunes, well worth checking out.

2 Comments | In: Advertising, Distribution, Mobile, Record Labels | tags: App's, Grab Radio, IPhone, Mobile, Radio. | #

With new digital touch points being introduced, and the promise by Google Wave to eliminate the use of email, we just wanted to comment of email while it is still around! A recent EDM arrived in from Paul McCartney informing of the recent release of  ‘Good Evening New York‘

The layout of the EDM was nice, easy to read, highlighted what was on offer, and informed what was available. It gave you a little taste of the album through a free MP3 download or a video of a live performance and was developed by TopSpin Media. For artists such as Paul McCartney, it is probably not a difficult task to get people to open your mail and go through it, if I got a email entitled ‘Enlarge Your Manhood with Paul McCartney’ I would probably open it! But what should you include in your EDM and how do you distribute it beyond site registrations?

Like search results (And this site!), readers focus from the left to the right and top to bottom, so clever design is essential to have any impact once the email is open. But the issue is getting it open.  As mentioned previously once the communication tool has as been selected, there are 3 key steps/pillars: Understanding customers, content and interactivity.  The right balance between these and you could see EDM’s becoming a integral part of your communication strategy.

The Paul McCartney EDM represents a nice balance of the 3 pillars but could work harder; Music is a live experience and fans want to know when their favorite artist is playing; With sophisticated distribution platforms there was the option to include content related to upcoming gigs in the O2 in Dublin, and to go a step further, to embed a social media aspect to it, from event Calendars on Facebook to a custom Fan page. The sophistication of digital enables all individual digital marketing disciplines to be integrated. If anybody has any opinions on EDM’s of the future of email we would love to hear them, the wave address is ……………….!

No Comments | In: Distribution, PLatforms | tags: EDM, free MP3 download, Paul McCarthney, Top Spin. | #