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January 25th, 2011

6 Predictions for the Music Industry (2011)

MediaShift delivers six sound predictions for the year in music. An overview:

1. Another one bites the dust! EMI music will be sold to other major labels

2. The indie queens are waiting! Indie labels will continue to thrive due to their business models

3. There’s a stream running over, & everybody’s swimmin’! Music streaming services like Spotify will take off and move into the mobile and car audio sectors.

4. Get free! For better or worse, consumers expect free music. Labels will have to continue to learn how to navigate these choppy waves.

5. Just a shimmy and a shake, & we’re on top! A digital music marketing company will emerge as the category leader

6.It’s gettin hot herre! Net neutrality will be a hot topic.

January 24th, 2011

In October of 2010, Google Chrome launched The Wilderness Downtown, an experiment to show off Chrome’s capabilities. Users were asked to input their hometown into the site, and using Google Street View, the site built an interactive music video set to Arcade Fire’s “We Used To Wait”. The band had an incredibly successful year in 2010 with the release of The Suburbs, which appeared on just about every indie “Best of” list out there.

This experiment is highly reminiscent of the British indie rock band, Editors, album launch in October of 2009, which used Google Street View to explore London and offered fans a visual experience to accompany the album. It will be interesting to watch the growth of interactive marketing and see just how much of a customizable experience marketers can offer consumers. “We’ve only just begun” - The Carpenters

March 1st, 2010
How a mediocre pop singer became an overnight sensation is beyond me. Recently, Ad Age decided to weigh in on Why the Lady is the Ultimate Social Climber. Basically, Gaga’s success comes down to a little thing we like to refer to as social media. She’s got over 5.2 million fans on Facebook and 2.8 million followers on Twitter. The premiere of her “Bad Romance” music video crashed Universal Music’s server. Vevo, a Universal Music video site, says 20% of users have all eyes on Gaga. She’s got a staggering 110 million views on YouTube alone. What Gaga is really good at is staying in constant contact with her fans. She’s got gay men eating out of the palm of her hand, waiting for Gaga’s next act perceived as “unique and groundbreaking”. Ha… but if you believe what marketers do, gay men have an incredible knack for selling products. They essentially have an aftershock effect that can move a brand if they like it enough. Gay men will tell their straight female friends about products and thus a rippling effect is set into motion. Gaga teamed up with Flylife, a gay and lesbian marketing firm, to reach out to the gay community. You won’t see Gaga’s faced plastered across a brand anytime soon. In order to get her behind a product, marketers have to give Gaga creative reign over their product. Polaroid recently named her creative director in an effort to add new life into the brand. Gaga’s created products for Mac, Universal Music, and eventually, Polaroid. She’s got to be in control for a product to be successful. She works hard to maintain an active role in her image. I’ll give her that. My problem with Lady Gaga is everyone’s insistence on referring to her as innovative and unique. Sure, the girl can sell a product, but coming from a musical perspective, her songs are nothing but canned beats and poorly written lyrics about money, love, and fame. It’s been done a million times and will continue to be done again and again. Why? Because sex sells. Gaga is perceived as being innovative because she’s brass, crazy, and frankly, a bit vulgar. If there’s anything that’s been apparent time and time again is the general public’s obsession with crazy people. Think back a few years ago to Britney’s meltdown. The pop princess has all but been forgotten since Gaga came onto the pop scene. In a nutshell, I can’t appreciate Gaga because her music is crap. I love quality lyrics and well thought out chord progressions too much to allow myself to be enchanted by Gaga’s spell. My disdain for Gaga has earned me quite a few hostile looks, but I’m willing to look past that if it means I can preserve my ears for actual music.

How a mediocre pop singer became an overnight sensation is beyond me. Recently, Ad Age decided to weigh in on Why the Lady is the Ultimate Social Climber.

Basically, Gaga’s success comes down to a little thing we like to refer to as social media. She’s got over 5.2 million fans on Facebook and 2.8 million followers on Twitter. The premiere of her “Bad Romance” music video crashed Universal Music’s server. Vevo, a Universal Music video site, says 20% of users have all eyes on Gaga. She’s got a staggering 110 million views on YouTube alone. What Gaga is really good at is staying in constant contact with her fans.

She’s got gay men eating out of the palm of her hand, waiting for Gaga’s next act perceived as “unique and groundbreaking”. Ha… but if you believe what marketers do, gay men have an incredible knack for selling products. They essentially have an aftershock effect that can move a brand if they like it enough. Gay men will tell their straight female friends about products and thus a rippling effect is set into motion. Gaga teamed up with Flylife, a gay and lesbian marketing firm, to reach out to the gay community.

You won’t see Gaga’s faced plastered across a brand anytime soon. In order to get her behind a product, marketers have to give Gaga creative reign over their product. Polaroid recently named her creative director in an effort to add new life into the brand. Gaga’s created products for Mac, Universal Music, and eventually, Polaroid. She’s got to be in control for a product to be successful. She works hard to maintain an active role in her image. I’ll give her that.

My problem with Lady Gaga is everyone’s insistence on referring to her as innovative and unique. Sure, the girl can sell a product, but coming from a musical perspective, her songs are nothing but canned beats and poorly written lyrics about money, love, and fame. It’s been done a million times and will continue to be done again and again. Why? Because sex sells. Gaga is perceived as being innovative because she’s brass, crazy, and frankly, a bit vulgar. If there’s anything that’s been apparent time and time again is the general public’s obsession with crazy people. Think back a few years ago to Britney’s meltdown. The pop princess has all but been forgotten since Gaga came onto the pop scene. In a nutshell, I can’t appreciate Gaga because her music is crap. I love quality lyrics and well thought out chord progressions too much to allow myself to be enchanted by Gaga’s spell. My disdain for Gaga has earned me quite a few hostile looks, but I’m willing to look past that if it means I can preserve my ears for actual music.

October 30th, 2009

Cool New Google Search Feature

Google just launched a new music service that’s pretty sweet. Type in the name of a song, artist, lyrics, or album, and it’ll bring up the song that you can stream for free while browsing. If you feel so inclined, you can buy the song via the stream, which comes from Pandora, Lala, Rhapsody, iLike, and MySpace Music. I think it’s a really smart pairing especially for music sites, imagine all of the advertising!

October 27th, 2009

Ad Age just posted an article on music marketing. Ryan Star, David Cook’s opening act for his recent tour, made a music video featuring professionals from all walks of life who are currently unemployed. In the process, it created an opportunity for unemployed professionals to post their need for jobs. Apparently, people are looking on the website to recruit job seekers. I think it’s great that music is connecting people and impacting their lives in a positive manner. It never gets old.