Presentation- music marketing

Music marketing is always about exposure and discovery. With the evolution of technology, music labels use different tools to promote their music. Now let’s start from the traditional media, radio.

Past

Radio

Radio is the major tool for us to find new music for several years. We listened to Jazz in the 1920s and Swing in the 1930s. Afterward rock and roll became the mainstream in 1950s. “Top 40” was a radio format to play popular music. Current popular songs on the music chart were played in the shows. Besides music programs, DJs are key factor to promote new music. Some DJs became famous with their own characteristics, style and the songs they selected. They even are celebrities and definitely had great influence on popular songs.

Record company tried to build relationship with radio station. In 1943, Capitol Records sent “personalized special copies of new release to key DJs. The free supply of new music to DJs became a tradition and even became Payola.

The term “Payola” means finical, sexual or other rewards that are provided by music labels in return for promotion. Famous DJ Alan Freed was found guilty of accepting payola in 1958. Other DJ also faced similar scandals. Until other formats of program, like talk shows or news programs, showed in the 1970s, the influences of disc jockeys faded.

MTV

In 1975, the chief operating officer of MTV, John Lack, invited a musician, Mike Nesmith, to host a test version of MTV on Nickelodeon. John Lack believed a music channel would be cheap to run and would be supported by music labels. August 1, 1981, MTV was launched. The first played video was Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles. Music videos have become mainstream since then. A lot of pop stars were born under the influence of MTV, for example, Michael Jackson and Madonna.

MTV built several milestones and became an effective promotional tool for record labels. First, it created a model of music programs. It is the first 24-hour commercial music channel. Hosts, also named “VJs”, introduced music videos and played them. It also provided a new business model by having the labels pay for producing and airing the music videos.

Second, the success of MTV has encouraged artists to produce cool and fancy music videos. Music videos became a form of art, not only a promotional film.

The most famous case belongs to Michael Jackson’s Thriller. It cost 500,000 dollars and was listed as the most expensive video in 1982. In the 13 minutes long video, a horror story was played with special effects and dancing. The high awareness of the video also promoted the sales. Michael Jackson’s album, Thriller is still the best-selling album ever.

There was a huge controversy of MTV. Marketing music became more important than music itself. Artists must look cool in a video. How they looked became more important than how they sounded.

Recently in the late 1990s, the program format has been changed to keep the revenue from advertising. Reality shows and animated shows are aired more than music videos. Since the music channel aired less and less music videos, the effectiveness of promoting music decreased.

Present

Internet killed the video and radio star

The influence of TV and radio is becoming less and less since young people’s attention is moving to the Internet. Compared to traditional media, the Internet controls music marketing and music distributing at the same time. People used to listen to a song from a radio show and go to a CD store to purchase the physical CD, now they can complete the whole process online.

Most labels help musicians start using the Internet by creating an official website. An official website usually includes a home page, biography, tour schedules, audio clips and video clips. Besides, online communities are also platforms for fans to build relationship with their favorite artists.

The typical music fans like to feel so close to the act and its music. The more personal the relationship is, the more loyal the fans are.

Case Study: Nine Inch Nails and official website

Nine Inch Nails released their album “Ghosts I–IV” in 2007. The tracks were available online before the physical album was released. Moreover, it was licensed under Creative Commons. Then in May, 2008, another album, “The Slip” was released on Nine Inch Nails’ official website for free downloading. Without any pervious announcement and promotion, “The Slip” passed 1.6 million downloading and it is still growing.

New radio: Internet radio and podcast

Internet radio and podcasts are more diverse than traditional media. They display all kinds of music genre and meet audience’s need from different niche market. They could be adopted by labels as low-end technology since labels spend less on it than traditional media.

Future

New MTV: YouTube

YouTube reflects some phenomenon. First, people can gather popularities through a killer video. People don’t need to spend a lot of money making a fancy video or buy airing. As long as the content is attractive enough, people can be a star easily.

Second, according to Christensen (2004), YouTube could a replacement technology for independent labels. They can broadcast the videos with lower prices and spread the videos widely. People also could watch the videos that they like repeatedly.

Third, although the copyright issue is still a controversy of YouTube, some labels see opportunities on YouTube. In October, 2008, Click-to-buy buttons on music videos were launched. Viewers can download the audio track on a music video page.

Here is the example of the band, OK GO. This is their music video, “Here It Goes Again”, featuring with dancing on treadmills. It generated more than 40,000,000 views, rated 2^nd as “Top favorited (All the time)-music” on YouTube. The sales of the single, “Here It Goes Again” also topped 34^th on US Hot 100 chart and 36^th on UK single chart. A creative music video and YouTube are definitely successful promotional tools for the band.

MySpace

Users on MySpace could invite their favorite artists as friends and view the new updates from their favorite artists. Users not only find news, photos and videos from the artists’ profile pages, they also interact with the content by leaving comments and sharing it with others. Browsing each artist’s MySpace profile page is more easily and quickly than going to each one’s official website For labels and musicians, MySpace provides a platform for streaming music files, videos, news and message boards. In the future, merchandise and concert tickets will also be available on MySpace. MySpace is the first social networking website that merges the role of a record company.

In 2008, Universal, Sony BMG and Warner music joined MySpace music service. Users could listen to free and authorized streaming music. Those tracks are also available for users to build their own playlist. Users get more content to personalize their music profile. Several bands, for example, U2 and Guns n roses, released the tracks from their albums on MySpace profile page prior to the physical CDs were released. The privilege on MySpace shows its influence for music fans and musicians. In the future, more labels and musicians will spread their promotional messages through MySpace.

Cell phone and wireless music

As a result of the growth of mobile music, labels will spread the promotional message through mobile phones. For example, iPhone applications are available from some artists for fans to download. Furthermore, the communication through mobile phones will be more instant and geographic between musicians and fans. “Proximity marketing” is a mobile marketing tool. It is the localized wireless distribution of advertising content system with a particular location. People will receive information and download coupons for concerts that near their location through the proximity marketing service. Or people will listen to streaming live music that near their location. Using the proximity marketing, customer will receive more personal and relevant promotional messages.

Conclusion: Let the music play

With a more direct communication, what the music really sounds like deter the customers’ decisions more than ever. After all, there are too many choices, which one makes the audience click “play?” It’s the music itself.

Slides

Recommended Song List for the project

(1)U2 – Beautiful Day

The future of music business will be more alive and vivid. Tomorrow will still be a beautiful day.

(2)Radiohead – House of Cards

In the video, no cameras or lights were used. Instead, it used 3D plotting technologies which collected information about the shapes and relative distances of objects. The video was created entirely with visualizations of that data. 

(3)Michael Jackson – Thriller

A classical and legendary video in 1982.

(4)OK Go – Here It Goes Again

A low-cost and creative music video, which gained popularity on YouTube.

(5)The Buggles- Video Killed the Radio Star

The first played video on MTV channel.

(6) Coldplay-Lost

Fan’s production for the video competition.

(7)Meiko – Boys With Girlfriends

An artist from MySpace Records

(8)Sodagreen- The Most Beautiful Thing

A Taiwanese indie band who likes to build relationships with fans on BBS

(9)ABBA – Thank You For The Music

Music itself becomes more important than ever. Thanks to the technology and those musicians, fans will enjoy the music continuously.