“No alarms and no surprises”Digital music marketing in the era of abundance

#med332

‘Paranoid Android’ (2007), 6 min 27 sec, UK chart peak no 3.

iBlips

‘a masterclass in both exerting and relinquishing control.’

By doing something a little different with digital they have managed to get swathes of media coverage, cutting through in a manner that could only be dreamed of with a traditional music marketing campaign- Mulligan, 2013

Source: Mulligan, 2013

As music sales continue to dwindle artists’ release teams have to get increasingly creative about how they get the most bang for their marketing buck. Expect the first week sales focus to sharpen even further now for frontline global scale artists.- Mulligan, 2013

‘No one had more hype than Miley Cyrus, but “Bangerz” didn’t even sell 45,000 copies in its fourth week of release. She can go on “SNL,” tweet her life away, but it’s not moving the needle. Lorde is selling as much as Miley without the benefit of scorched earth, proving quality music is as good as hype. But Lorde isn’t burning up the chart either.’- Lefsetz, 2013

The time limitation affected popular music even more deeply … Some early blues singers crafted the narrative structure of their songs specifically to fit the playing time of the 78, while … Duke Ellington’s mastery of the small form was born out of the same technologically imposed necessity. The three-minute pop song itself may be considered a phonograph effect. …. Because of its limited playing time—about the same as a 78—the 45 could not compete with the LP for recording classical music. Instead, it became the standard format for pop, and remained so for decades. - Katz, 2004: 35

Nickleback – ‘Rockstar’

Single-centric careerLess longevity?

Scarcity vs abundance

• Shift from an economy marked by scarcity to an economy of abundance

• Digital goods (abundant)

• Zero reproductive costs

Physical goods (scarce) Expensive to produce and reproduce

Race is on to round down to zero (eg streaming)

45

“The interesting thing about the Beyoncé and Bowie releases is that [Rob] Stringer was involved in both of them. He has given these artists this incredible leeway to do these wonderful things. He had probably the most respected artist on the planet and the biggest artist on the planet – and they both did this.”- Forde, 2016

“It was quite egalitarian,” says the Bowie source on why the song went live on YouTube first. “A lot of people, when they have a big album, will do exclusives. But here, everybody got the video at the same time. There was no exclusive. Nothing.”- Forde, 2016

Can it be a surprise if you announce it in advance?

August 2017‘verified fan’ points scheme to jump queue for Reputation Tourinvolved buying merchandise / signing up for emails / watching music videosGetting points =/= getting tickets: just an increased chance

to pre-empt piracy

to seize back control

to stand out from the crowd

2016