Month: September

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Each week, Apple's iTunes store gives away a free download. This track is typically from a little known artist that caught the fancy of the staff and is looking to get some exposure. But when Jazmine Sullivan's new single was featured on Sept. 2 the main difference was that it's already a prominent fixture on the charts. So why give away a hit single? J Records execs see the promotional value of this exposure as outweighing the loss in sales for the week. They are hoping it will bolster sales of her forthcoming album. The iTunes store Single of the Week has also featured tracks from Duffy and Raheem DeVaughn, two other prominent artists. These artists and others in the past have seen significant increases in their album sales during and after the single has been posted for free download on iTunes. The store provides great visibility for the song and exposure to a much broader and diverse audience.

Month: July

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Music piracy has reportedly contributed to 70% of the reasons why global sales of recorded music fell 8% in 2007. But it has provided business with at least one advantage: statistics. It is helping management companies and more get insight into music-lovers interests and into what is truly popular. For every song purchased legally, 20 are said to be illegally downloaded. BigChampagne is a firm that compiles data about file-sharing to sell to its customers, like how many times a song is downloaded and where. Music executives are saying illegal downloading is no reason to put your head in the sand, because you might as well take advantage of the data available. These statistics are helping managers, labels, and more plan tours using the locations where artists are popular and can pair artists with groups their fans have similar tastes in based on people who download the same artists. Even though the execs are reluctant at first to use data from illegal use, they are coming to terms with its benefits.

Month: July

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As recorded music sales slip for the business and advertisers find their markets to be fragmented over new media platforms, it's easy to see why both are looking to co-brand in new campaigns. Marketers see using music as a way to reach consumers with a deeper ring that is not forced or contrived. Sara Bareilles' success within the Rhapsody spot along with The Shins and McDonalds, Santogold and Bud Light, and many more have shown a change in how it is easier to pair artists with brands in a day where people are just looking to make things work. Toyota, Red Bull, Barcardi, and Procter & Gamble have marketed, financed, and released music as part of branding campaigns. The next step happened when Reckitt Benchiser's agency of record Euro RSCG acquired a majority stake in an independent record label, the:Hours, with a distribution agreement with Universal Music. The:Hours' goal is to create a large, commercial friendly catalog through signings to be used for many campaigns. The company will continue to work through other labels and publishers, as well.

Month: July

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Video games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band have been very popular as of late and are also integrating themselves into key marketing plans for bands. With rock and metal groups in particular, the games provide a platform to introduce new and younger consumers to all sorts of bands, from older groups who were made famous in the '70s and '80s to new groups who are just coming up in the industry. Aerosmith recently had their own version of Guitar Hero released. By the numbers, bands like Aerosmith are seeing a 400+% increase in single sales for older tracks on these video game downloads, as are new groups. All but one song out of the 63 songs on Guitar Hero III jumped more than 100% when it came out. This means video games can also help boost single sales like other online download services. Bands get royalties from every copy of the game that is sold, as well for each single downloaded to the game console. Older groups like the exposure to younger fans, while new bands get a chance to showcase their music to a broad range of people. The video-game industry also gets a chance to market these games to an older crowd that would be interested in listening to bands like Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, etc. So far, it has been a win-win situation for music and video games.

Month: July

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iTunes' Complete My Album is emerging as a marketing tool for labels releasing new albums from their artists. In recent years, releasing an upcoming album's first single for digital download has been common practice. But many believe this takes away from full album sales when the release date comes along. That is where Complete My Album comes in. The premise is to release several singles in a timely fashion before an album's release. Consumers can purchase these singles to give them a better idea of what the rest of the album will sound like, paying the usual 99 cents per song. When the album comes out, they will be offered to pay a reduced price for the rest of the album. In reality, they are paying the same amount, but in smaller installments over time. Lil Wayne's latest album released six singles beforehand, and the Complete My Album sales accounted for 52% of the digital sales on iTunes. Labels are happy this option gives a better chance of consumers purchasing the album after getting the singles. The videogame industry has done similar marketing schemes by releasing demos and screenshots in anticipation of the release date to generate excitement and demand for the final product.

Month: June

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TopSpin is a new company emerging with an online service that looks to revolutionize the way bands manage themselves and become noticed. TopSpin Manager is a website with several technological tools that are perfect for up-and-coming artists to manage their careers with. The idea is that artists can use these tools on their own website to improve their careers and abilities to increase their fanbase and get noticed. The site includes: - A content management system that hosts music, photos, video, etc and a rights management interface that allows the artist to decide how their music will be made available. Includes a commerce engine to take care of sales and orders with abilities to set prices and usages (some songs can be given away, expire of set period of time, or only made available to fan club members). - Fan management system that collects emails and organizes demographic information on fans like age, location, how many times music or video is streamed, sales history, music sharing, etc. - Product creation tool that lets artists develop their our content like membership subcriptions, ticket and track products, email offers, and other ways to offer their catalog to fans. - Reporting feature that tracks site visits, song streams and downloads with user detail all with customized charts.

Month: June

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The band Pennywise originally went to MySpace Records to capitalize on the site's social networking abilities. They were then given the opportunity to give away the band's upcoming album for free with support coming from mobile billing and music delivery service Textango. The band took the chance and it worked out extremely well. Of the 630,000 people who have signed up for Textango and received the promo code for the album, 400,000 of them downloaded it. This is the same number of people who purchased Pennywise's best-selling album to date, 1997's "Full Circle." The new album also boasts their highest-charted single in their career. Their live show guarantees reportedly increased by 20% and their merchandise sales have boosted, as well.

Month: May

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The Eagles and Radiohead may be very different bands, but both came up with creative ways to release and market their latest albums. The Eagles had parted ways with Warner Music Group and Radiohead's deal with EMI had concluded. Each group was in a position of strength with a loyal fan base and proven success. The bands, most importantly, wanted control over their distribution and marketing of their new albums, something the record labels they were meeting with could not provide them. Management for the bands had to come up with an alternative for releasing their albums. The Eagles decided to go with Wal-Mart with an exclusive deal that gave the band over $20 million in promotion and advertising support, an amount no record label could ever supply, according to the band's manager. Wal-Mart has other advantages as well, including 140 million visitors per week and have a circular weekly reach of 85 million consumers. Priced at a modest $11.88 (for a double CD) and using recycled paper for the packaging, the album was placed in strategic locations within each store by counters for impulse buyers, end-cap displays, in-store TV ads. The band will reportedly net $50 million from the project, earning more than any from worldwide sales in history, and be able to their masters. Radiohead chose a very different route. The band decided to provide their album online for a pay-what-you-want amount as well as a deluxe discbox for $82. This method allowed for bloggers and websites to create a great deal of buzz which linked to the website. A key aspect of the pay-what-you-want scheme was a 10-day waiting period between ordering the album and being able to receive. According to the manager, this may have psychologically affected the consumer and caused them to pay more since the waiting period allowed them to see the value the album meant to them. Another thing the band took away from all this was an invaluable list of their fans who purchased the album online for means of keeping them in contact and updated. The band reportedly will make between $6 million and $10 million, or around double the amount they would have made off of a traditional record deal.

Month: april

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Even though ringback tone sales have slide a bit, it is still being watched and talked about as the next growth area for mobile music. The first question that arises is who should market and advertise for ringbacks? As a label, you get a percent of the initial sale of the ringback, but the carrier gets a percent as well as a monthly service charge that the label never sees a piece of. The next question asked is who would benefit most to invest in a niche market that isn’t their main source of revenue?The phone carriers make most of their money in voice minutes, and labels still in record sales.

Month: April

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Ringback tones are a growing area for the mobile market. Alicia Key's is the first to sell over 500,000 of them. While only Verizon gives a bundle option for ringbacks to promote them further, other carriers are starting to focus strongly on their marketing plans to get in on the trend.