Bob Lefsetz, who publishes a widely read newsletter about music and music business, recently wrote that true artists "don’t give a shit what anybody thinks." "We Can Be Heroes, Just For One Day,"Lefsetz Letter, 4/21/09
But that's not the new music business model. If anything, that is now less true than ever before.
In the past, the rebels could fight the corporations, the record labels, the system. In many cases they were able to play the game from both sides. They would get the contract (which they could justify as a necessary evil to get their music out to the world) and then, if they chose, complain about it. Protest songs were written and sung by artists on major labels. The system insulated them, in a way, from the dirty work of making money. Rather than being part of the money-making machine, they could legitimately claim they were its victims.
But now there isn't a system to complain about. You are free to do whatever you want in pursuit of your music. If you hope to make any money at all, you have to talk to your fans.
Twitter, Facebook, and the other forms of social media are about staying in touch with your fans, communicating with them, making them part of your family. You give them a great concert experience. You build communities for them. If anything, it has never been more about what people think. If they don't like you, they move on to someone else.
As Lefsetz also wrote in that newsletter, the alternative to not caring what people think is this: "You need to appeal to everybody. You need to take everybody into consideration."
That, rather than the "don't give a shit" attitude, is what music is about. If you aren't relating to your audiences, you are playing for yourself. And if you are playing for yourself, then you might as well play in your basement.
Suzanne Lainson
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
A Closer Look at the Susan Boyle Effect
Susan Boyle continues to be a story, at many levels.
I'm one of those who have been totally taken by Susan Boyle and her story. I'm not easily impressed with performers, but to my ear, her voice and style are the real deal.
Her version of "Cry Me a River" would hold up against anyone.
What is most remarkable to me is that she has made it this far. Were she to have grown up in America, her career would likely have been stymied any number of times:
1. She might not have gotten singing lessons. Most families don't invest in professional vocal training for their children.
2. Even if she had gotten some lessons, if she wasn't turning out to be a cute child or teen, she might have been discouraged by her family from pursuing singing on the assumption that vocal talent alone is not enough.
3. If she had continued with her professional training, but she hadn't broken into show business by the time she was in her early 20s, she probably would have been told she was now too old to "make it."
4. And finally, she might have been told not to enter Britain's Got Talent because she wouldn't stand a chance and would only expose herself to ridicule. I don't watch these contests because I don't like to see people humiliated. The whole concept of putting untalented people on camera and insulting them makes me uncomfortable. Of course, that's the part that has pulled so many people in. Everyone expected her to be ridiculed, but talent won out.
We're hooked on Susan Boyle because she triumphed over a number of adversities. Not necessarily devastating problems, like surviving a terrible accident. Rather, her story is more about the postponed and often unachievable dreams we all have.
And even if there had been no backstory, she's got a hell of a voice that deserves to be widely heard.
Suzanne Lainson
According to Visible Measures, which tracks videos from YouTube, MySpace and other video-sharing sites, all Boyle-oriented videos -- including clips of her television interviews and her recently released rendition of "Cry Me a River," recorded 10 years ago for a charity CD -- have generated a total of 85.2 million views. Nearly 20 million of those views came overnight."Scottish Singer Susan Boyle's Web Popularity Is at Numbers Never Seen Before," Washington Post, 4/20/09.
The seven-minute video that was first posted on YouTube and then widely circulated online easily eclipsed more high-profile videos that have been around for months. Tina Fey's impersonation of Sarah Palin has clocked in 34.2 million views, said the folks at Visible Measures, while President Obama's victory speech on election night has generated 18.5 million views.
But it's not just in online video where Boyle, the unassuming woman from a tiny Scottish town, has dominated. Her Wikipedia entry has attracted nearly 500,000 page views since it was created last Sunday. Over the weekend, her Facebook fan page was flooded with comments, at some points adding hundreds of new members every few minutes. The page listed 150,000 members at 1 p.m. Friday. By last night there were more than a million.
I'm one of those who have been totally taken by Susan Boyle and her story. I'm not easily impressed with performers, but to my ear, her voice and style are the real deal.
Her version of "Cry Me a River" would hold up against anyone.
What is most remarkable to me is that she has made it this far. Were she to have grown up in America, her career would likely have been stymied any number of times:
1. She might not have gotten singing lessons. Most families don't invest in professional vocal training for their children.
2. Even if she had gotten some lessons, if she wasn't turning out to be a cute child or teen, she might have been discouraged by her family from pursuing singing on the assumption that vocal talent alone is not enough.
3. If she had continued with her professional training, but she hadn't broken into show business by the time she was in her early 20s, she probably would have been told she was now too old to "make it."
4. And finally, she might have been told not to enter Britain's Got Talent because she wouldn't stand a chance and would only expose herself to ridicule. I don't watch these contests because I don't like to see people humiliated. The whole concept of putting untalented people on camera and insulting them makes me uncomfortable. Of course, that's the part that has pulled so many people in. Everyone expected her to be ridiculed, but talent won out.
We're hooked on Susan Boyle because she triumphed over a number of adversities. Not necessarily devastating problems, like surviving a terrible accident. Rather, her story is more about the postponed and often unachievable dreams we all have.
And even if there had been no backstory, she's got a hell of a voice that deserves to be widely heard.
Suzanne Lainson
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
The Power of Music
If ever there was an example of the extent to which music can affect people, it was this performance, which has now been viewed by millions on YouTube.
YouTube - Susan Boyle - Singer - Britains Got Talent 2009
What is significant is that it is about the music, not the packaging.
The Beauty That Matters Is Always On The Inside
And there are even lessons for marketers.
The Most Important Marketer of the 21st Century: Susan Boyle - Britain's Got Talent Contestant
When done right, music is one of the most powerful ways to reach people.
Suzanne Lainson
YouTube - Susan Boyle - Singer - Britains Got Talent 2009
What is significant is that it is about the music, not the packaging.
The Beauty That Matters Is Always On The Inside
And there are even lessons for marketers.
The Most Important Marketer of the 21st Century: Susan Boyle - Britain's Got Talent Contestant
When done right, music is one of the most powerful ways to reach people.
Suzanne Lainson
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Short-Term Versus Long-Term Music Branding
A few weeks ago, SOUNDS LIKE BRANDING™ published the results of a survey of 70 global brands concerning their views about music as a branding strategy. Key findings:
97% think music can strengthen their brand.
76% use music actively in their marketing.
68% consider music to be an important tool for building a consistent and unique brand.
But 71% spend 5% or less of their marketing budget on music.
Why so little if they believe music is a good branding tool? The primary reason, according to 41% of respondents, is difficulty in measuring return on investment.
Unfortunately, music is used in so many different ways, there is no "one size fits all" measure of effectiveness.
Percentage of respondents using music in these formats:
TV commercials 20%
Websites 16%
Commercial locations 13%
Artist sponsorships/collaborations 12%
Music events 11%
Radio ads 10%
Music products 10%
Sonic branding 6%
Other 1%
A topic not covered in the report, but which I think is relevant to any discussion of music as a branding strategy, is how long the music will be called upon to deliver a brand association.
I want to suggest four types of music branding tactics, with their corresponding timeframes:
1. Sonic branding is the most long-lived, presumably for the life of the company. Typically companies commission a unique sound or song as a form of corporate identification.
2. Next in permanence is the jingle. Generally the intent is to create a sonic tagline which will be used for at least a year and often as long as a decade or more. Here are some well-known jingles. And this list ranks the top 30, with introduction dates included.
3. Sponsorships often run on a year-by-year basis, although they can be shorter (perhaps the length of a tour or promotion) or longer (extending over several years). Sponsorships can be quite elaborate, with a company entering into a relationship with an artist/band that extends through multiple presentations and platforms. The sponsorship may involve music for a website, for multiple commercials, and with artists appearing at events. This article mentions a number of sponsorship deals with bands.
4. Song use is generally short-term, often for just one commercial. A song may be chosen to augment a specific concept rather than reflecting a more comprehensive corporate image. Sometimes the songs are classic, but more often than not, they are momentarily popular and are forgotten as soon as the ads disappear. A good resource for the latest in music and advertising is Advertising Age's Songs For Soap blog.
The purpose of the above list is to show that music as a branding strategy can be as simple as picking the right song for an ad running only once, or as complex as finding the right sound to be incorporated into corporate branding for decades.
The "try today and gone tomorrow" scenario allows for experimentation. The "tie your corporate history to a sound" scenario should involve far more deliberation.
Suzanne Lainson
97% think music can strengthen their brand.
76% use music actively in their marketing.
68% consider music to be an important tool for building a consistent and unique brand.
But 71% spend 5% or less of their marketing budget on music.
Why so little if they believe music is a good branding tool? The primary reason, according to 41% of respondents, is difficulty in measuring return on investment.
Unfortunately, music is used in so many different ways, there is no "one size fits all" measure of effectiveness.
Percentage of respondents using music in these formats:
TV commercials 20%
Websites 16%
Commercial locations 13%
Artist sponsorships/collaborations 12%
Music events 11%
Radio ads 10%
Music products 10%
Sonic branding 6%
Other 1%
A topic not covered in the report, but which I think is relevant to any discussion of music as a branding strategy, is how long the music will be called upon to deliver a brand association.
I want to suggest four types of music branding tactics, with their corresponding timeframes:
1. Sonic branding is the most long-lived, presumably for the life of the company. Typically companies commission a unique sound or song as a form of corporate identification.
2. Next in permanence is the jingle. Generally the intent is to create a sonic tagline which will be used for at least a year and often as long as a decade or more. Here are some well-known jingles. And this list ranks the top 30, with introduction dates included.
3. Sponsorships often run on a year-by-year basis, although they can be shorter (perhaps the length of a tour or promotion) or longer (extending over several years). Sponsorships can be quite elaborate, with a company entering into a relationship with an artist/band that extends through multiple presentations and platforms. The sponsorship may involve music for a website, for multiple commercials, and with artists appearing at events. This article mentions a number of sponsorship deals with bands.
4. Song use is generally short-term, often for just one commercial. A song may be chosen to augment a specific concept rather than reflecting a more comprehensive corporate image. Sometimes the songs are classic, but more often than not, they are momentarily popular and are forgotten as soon as the ads disappear. A good resource for the latest in music and advertising is Advertising Age's Songs For Soap blog.
The purpose of the above list is to show that music as a branding strategy can be as simple as picking the right song for an ad running only once, or as complex as finding the right sound to be incorporated into corporate branding for decades.
The "try today and gone tomorrow" scenario allows for experimentation. The "tie your corporate history to a sound" scenario should involve far more deliberation.
Suzanne Lainson
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Encouraging Fan Involvement through Remixing
In my last blog entry, I mentioned one way to use music as a community builder is via fan creativity. A big proponent of this approach is Terry McBride, CEO of the management firm/record label Nettwerk (Avril Lavigne, Barenaked Ladies, Dido, Stereophonics, Sara McLachlan, Sum 41, Jars of Clay).
K'naan is inviting fans to follow him on Twitter and then submit verses for a song via Twitter.
"People Like Me" Contest
More info here: "Things That Go Pop!" CNCNews, 4/1/09
Imogen Heap recorded the vocals for a song that was never finished. Rather than letting it go to waste, she has uploaded nine different vocal stems [tracks], invited fans to finish the song, upload their completed versions on the website, and donate some money to charity.
Imogen Heap - The Song That Never Was
Ben Folds released the album Way to Normal in 2008. But many of his fans thought it sounded awful.
RRE-MIX AMEN CORNER
Radiohead made five stems (vocal, guitar, bass, drum and strings/effects) from one song available for purchase on iTunes. Then fans were invited to vote on the best remixed submissions.
Radiohead/ Remix/ Reckoner
More info here: "Radiohead fans can remix ‘Nude’ single," Los Angeles Times, 4/1/08
Kanye West bettered Radiohead by making a song available for free on his website, with six stems.
"LOVE LOCK DOWN STEMS," 9/25/08
Here are three variations on the remix concept:
Hoobastank has provided enough online tools to make a simple video that it requires no skill and takes less than a minute to create.
Hoobastank: My Turn
3OH!3 provides spoken sound clips so you can make prank phone calls.
3OH!3 Soundboard
People were invited to add clips to a documentary about remixing.
RiP: A Remix Manifesto
Here are four more sites with remix resources:
Music Ally: UGC fan music contests
Radiohead Remixing: Contest, Full Stems via iTunes and GarageBand
MixMatchMusic
More info here: "MixMatchMusic adds over 2500 Musical stems"
mixwidget.org
Whether or not remixing itself catches on with the average fan, what is significant is the move toward letting them play with the content. Now that the tools are there, it is unlikely we will return to the days when artists/producers made the content, and audiences passively consumed it. We may even see the day when the big name producer is considered dispensable. If fans are mixing their own songs, will they care if there are no famous producers to guide the projects?
Suzanne Lainson
We found out that the T-shirts that the fans designed -- even if the artists didn't like them -- the people who went to shows liked them more than the ones that the artists designed. "Nettwerk CEO Terry McBride Puts Fans in Charge of Bands," MediaShift, 12/11/08That realization led Nettwerk to give the fans even more control.
In 2005, we took it a step further by releasing Barenaked Ladies songs in stems [pieces of the music tracks]. …That was more of a remix. Now I'm more about the mix; to hell with the remix! We have an artist named K-OS, and we released all of the stems two weeks ago, and the fans have not heard the album. … they are actually mixing the album. So we will release physically and digitally the artist version and the fan version. And when we go to radio, we will service the artist version and fan version. So we are taking it the rest of the way.Nettwerk hasn’t been the only entity to do this. In 2006, Duncan Sheik, who had been on Atlantic but then dropped, released the two-disc While Limousine album.
The "mine" disc is a conventional CD with the music mixed by engineer Kevin Killen. The "yours" disc is a DVD-ROM which contains computer audio files of individual elements of each song, the vocals, the strings, the guitars, etc., along with a link to free software which one can use to mix the CD anyway one likes. George Graham Reviews Duncan Sheik's "White Limousine" 2/06/06
The DVD portion of the release contains all of the individual tracks for each song as well as instructions for downloading a free demo version of Ableton Live, with which anyone can remix and experiment with the constituent parts of the songs. Additionally, advanced users can load the standard 16-bit/44.1kHz WAV versions of Sheik’s White Limousine tracks into a variety of other popular DAWs, including all versions of Pro Tools, Ableton Live 5, Apple Logic Pro and GarageBand, Cakewalk SONAR and many others. M-AUDIO-Duncan Sheik Solicits a Few (Thousand) RemixesNot everyone has been impressed with this approach. Jason Feinberg, president and founder of On Target Media Group, an entertainment industry new media marketing and promotion company, pointed out that only a minority of fans got involved in these experiments.
When they first came online, a slew of artists adopted video remix contests, but soon found that their fans were not willing to put in the time and effort to create a usable finished product. "Five Tips for Musicians to Engage Their Fans Digitally,"MediaShift, 3/9/09But instead of abandoning the concept as too much bother, more artists are jumping on board. Here are some recent examples.
K'naan is inviting fans to follow him on Twitter and then submit verses for a song via Twitter.
"People Like Me" Contest
More info here: "Things That Go Pop!" CNCNews, 4/1/09
Imogen Heap recorded the vocals for a song that was never finished. Rather than letting it go to waste, she has uploaded nine different vocal stems [tracks], invited fans to finish the song, upload their completed versions on the website, and donate some money to charity.
Imogen Heap - The Song That Never Was
Ben Folds released the album Way to Normal in 2008. But many of his fans thought it sounded awful.
… there have been requests for an alternate less compressed version of Way To Normal to be made available. … And so we have "Way To Normal: Stems and Seeds" - two disks. One disk is a remix, remaster, re-sequence of "Way To Normal" … The other is a disk of files, called stems, which will pop up in Garageband and allow you to mix the album yourselves. Just click on the file of the song you want to mix and you'll quickly understand how it works. If you'd like to turn the drums off or down, or if you want to use loops or turn that damn singer off and sing it yourself, its all possible. We've included extra loops with the song "You Don't Know Me" hoping someone could maybe come along and make a hit out of this fucking song. "Way To Normal: Stems and Seeds,"12/16/08Railroad Earth has uploaded two songs to remix, plus software and instructions.
RRE-MIX AMEN CORNER
Radiohead made five stems (vocal, guitar, bass, drum and strings/effects) from one song available for purchase on iTunes. Then fans were invited to vote on the best remixed submissions.
Radiohead/ Remix/ Reckoner
More info here: "Radiohead fans can remix ‘Nude’ single," Los Angeles Times, 4/1/08
Kanye West bettered Radiohead by making a song available for free on his website, with six stems.
"LOVE LOCK DOWN STEMS," 9/25/08
Here are three variations on the remix concept:
Hoobastank has provided enough online tools to make a simple video that it requires no skill and takes less than a minute to create.
Hoobastank: My Turn
3OH!3 provides spoken sound clips so you can make prank phone calls.
3OH!3 Soundboard
People were invited to add clips to a documentary about remixing.
RiP: A Remix Manifesto
Here are four more sites with remix resources:
Music Ally: UGC fan music contests
Radiohead Remixing: Contest, Full Stems via iTunes and GarageBand
MixMatchMusic
More info here: "MixMatchMusic adds over 2500 Musical stems"
mixwidget.org
Whether or not remixing itself catches on with the average fan, what is significant is the move toward letting them play with the content. Now that the tools are there, it is unlikely we will return to the days when artists/producers made the content, and audiences passively consumed it. We may even see the day when the big name producer is considered dispensable. If fans are mixing their own songs, will they care if there are no famous producers to guide the projects?
Suzanne Lainson
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