Content Publishing and Connectedness: Artists Embrace New Media to Build Their Brand

by Mitchell Hunter

Many people who know me know I love two things – music and new media marketing. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that I spend a lot of time researching how artists are using the new media tools available to them to connect with, and build, their audience.

To say the music industry pioneered the new media revolution would be a paradoxical statement. While MySpace was one of the first social networking platforms to really gain mainstream momentum (heavily fueled by its music community), we all remember the RIAA’s ridiculous attempts to fight P2P file sharing networks. Let’s face it, record labels never really got it. I’m still not convinced that they have. Certain artists, however, continue to break new ground by finding innovative and creative ways to build their brand and connect with their audience using new media technology.

Let’s take a look at some interesting examples I’ve come across recently:

Of A Revolution writes with fans – I haven’t actually listened to this band yet, but an article titled “O.A.R. Launches Twitter Songwriting Contest” immediately caught my eye. It’s exactly what you’re thinking. The band is leveraging the micro blogging website to involve their fans in the songwriting process for a new single which they will record and release. In addition, the band will document the whole writing and recording process in a series of webisodes. Why not?

The Mission District gets remixed – This is a band I was introduced to in Toronto a couple of summers ago. A few months after I met them, I was surprised to find Perez Hilton profiling them. As one can imagine, Perez helped them sell some iTunes downloads and has since lead to them signing in the UK. To promote their single “Heartbreaker”, the guys released all of the stem tracks for the song to music blogger Arjan and launched a remix contest allowing aspiring DJ’s to remix the track. Fans vote for the winner, and the winners track gets released as a bside on the bands first major label single. The band taps into the listening network of each DJ (plus Arjan’s blog) and the DJ’s get exposure. Win-win for everyone. Works for me.

Def Leppard goes mobile – This is definitely a concept that should be expanded on, but for now it’s a cool start. The seminal British heavy metal act has teamed up with Ace Marketing & Promotions for “Rockzimity,” a mobile experience where fans attending summer concerts will be able to download select Def Leppard album art wallpaper, voice tones, and video clips to their mobile phones while at the concert– free of data charges or minutes usage. It was tested before and had 18% uptake, which isn’t bad. I love it because it’s measurable. However, with wireless devices exploding, I see this concept expanding to offer more interactivity options and hopefully, free music!

Tori Amos’ sells her boots – This is a couple of years old now, but remains one of my favorite new media offerings. For her American Doll Posse tour, singer-songwriter-pianist Tori Amos (a fav of mine) launched Legs and Boots, an online portal where fans could buy digital bootleg downloads in MP3 format of any concert on the North American leg of the tour within a few hours after each show. She also made them available in CD-quality FLAC format within a week of each show. Not only does it offer a great souvenir for fans attending concerts, but for an artist who changes her set list nightly and considers no song of hers too rare to be played, it offered her fans the opportunity to get high quality live recordings of songs they didn’t get to hear at their show(s). It’s an additional revenue stream AND a bonus for fans – now THAT is a smart strategy. I hear she’s planning something similar for the European leg of her upcoming Sinful Attraction tour. Count me in!

Amanda Palmer busks in theatres – This is one of my favourite stories from the past few months. Between Amanda writing and performing a song about wanting to get dropped from her label and sharing it on YouTube, leveraging Twitter to host an unofficial album signing for underage fans in a public park (after explaining to the head of digital media at her label what Twitter was), and busking in theatres to pay for the back up actors/dancers she brought on tour with her because she couldn’t afford to pay them, this girl just gets it. Her fans take care of her because she knows how to use these tools to connect with them.

While not everyone participating in the new media space is a recording artist, the key thing to take away from examples like these is the power of content publishing and connectedness – offering desirable content through channels heavily utilized by your target audience is a key factor in building your brand. If you pair it with a strategic approach that includes some ability to measure and improve your execution, you can achieve desirable results.

So until next time, ask yourself – “What can I offer my audience, and where should I offer it to them?”

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