Here’s our latest sync for Rubicon’s Watermelon ad campaign produced by Ed Chilcott and Tim Clyde at the Minimart. The track ‘Watermelon On The Vine’ is by the Delta Rhythm Boys and dates back to the 1920s. We hope you like it…

My first boombox was called a Tensai Rhytm Machine. It looked like a standard boombox but it also allowed you to split the stereo into two recordable mono tracks and included five or six pre-set rhythms, which if you held two of the buttons down together allowed to ‘mix’ the rhythms. Prior to the invention of the first Tascam 4 track portastudio’s this was the first thing I owned that allowed me to record music with some basic overdubs and a rhythm track. Many happy hours were spent in my bedroom trying to be the next Durutti Column. Sadly my guitar playing never quite made the grade…

This video documentary created by National Public Radio in the US (who also produce some amazing free live concert podcasts avialable on iTunes), is a great 10 minute history of the boombox. It’s a shame that JVC never capitalised on the brand fame they aquired amongst the Hip-Hop community. How many brands since have tried to get rappers to positively namecheck them in a song?

Many artists seem to have taken to Twitter like ducks to water. While some musicians found the idea of keeping a blog going too daunting, Twitter provided an easy way to connect with their fans. Even Nine Inch Nails Trent Reznor, who recently claimed he was giving up on social media, just couldn’t stay away and is happily tweeting away again.

But Twitter’s staggering success (it grow by a staggering 752% last year) has meant that the marketing world has pricked up it ears and started to work out how to use it market products. But like any form of social media it’s so easy to get it very very wrong. Spam no matter what form it takes is unlikely to gain you friends. And the worst form of spam in the Twitterverse is using #hashtags, which allows you to post to all users who are interested in a specific topic. It may seem to some marketers that this is a great way to get to a large number of people quickly, but it is likely to have the opposite effect.

Before you start using Twitter to promote your latest releases I suggest you check out this case study on what not to do, which highlights how Habitat got it so so wrong with there recent Twitter campaign…

Saw Bobby McFerrin tonight at South Bank, London as part of Ornette Coleman’s Meltdown.

I have seen him perform a number of times, the first time going back to the mid-80s when his first album came out. Whilst not a fan of his dabblings with poppy songs and a sometimes throwaway approach to some beautiful songs, I truly admire his voice. he really is one of the great innovators.

So to have Ornette Coleman step out at the end of the concert for an impromtu performance with McFerrin, the night was made.

Coleman led (as he so often has), but McFerrin matched him, demonstrating his prowess and skill as a vocal musician.

Glorious night.

More →

Ahh the anticipation. Your favourite band is in town. You are ready to part with your precious money (note to promoters, it is very precious, so cherish our custom), but no matter how quick you are in booking tickets online, some company gets hold of them first.
So you end up booking tickets which might have a nice little ‘booking’ or ‘administration’ fee (i.e.taking a cut for doing nothing in return) added on top.

Slight problem. The tickets you paid for don’t arrive. So you call up on a telephone number that, in the words of British Telecom themselves

can help you generate that extra bit of revenue by deciding the rate you want customers to pay for the call

Lovely. So now the fan has paid an additional amount for the joy of chasing tickets paid for over a month ago.

Tickets still don’t arrive on the day of the concert. Don’t worry, they have been dispatched the day before according to the website tracker service, I am told…yeah right.

In the same breath, I am told that as the tickets have not arrived, I can pick them up at the venue, which means a nice little queue to collect tickets I paid for over a month ago, instead of having them in my hands. The company person I spoke to knew so little about the venue - I was told that I would have to queue up with people who had their tickets, when in fact it doesn’t work like that at all at the South Bank Centre.

So stealing myself for going earlier to the South Bank, when at 4pm, the tickets turn up at my house. Lucky I was at home. Utter shambles, and a waste of my time chasing these tickets. Mind you, given the huge number of complaints I see on the net about SeeTickets, I guess I should be so lucky…

So my question is this.

What is the point of SeeTickets for fans?

So brands are having to be focused more than ever on understanding who their consumers are/could be, along with what they really want. The days of conveying to consumers what brands think the consumers should have is moving aside.

As for musicians, their managers and their labels, they also are realising the importance of knowing more about who the fanbase is and what they like/don’t like. Mistake a CD sale, a download, a mug or a concert ticket for a long-term fan, and you will find yourself in the corner marked delusional.

Most people who like music are transients. They are passers-by. They are short-termists. A few though are in it for the long-term. Which ones are which? Is it only normal to categorise your fanbase into neat little boxes marked ‘young cool kids’ or ’30sonething mums who buy music in supermarkets’ (though that is sophisticated research compared to most acts when it comes to knowing who the fans are)

Which brings me to Baaba Maal. I went to the wonderful MELTDOWN event at the South Bank Centre in London tonight, to see Baaba Maal, his band and some special guests.

Incredible voice, great presence on stage, amazing musicians with him, infectious music. Down side? The place is a seated venue, not the best place to let loose with you dance moves…

Whilst soaking in the Talking Drums, I also gazed upon the people in the venue. There were young Senegalese guys moving, Hoxton trendies, young Chelsea sets, the MD of a major Advertising Agency, the crystal karma brigade and what looked liked an outing of the Womens Institute.

Such categories are not meant to be poking fun at these people. Quite the opposite. What binded everyone tonight was incredible music. No-one cared who they were sitting next to. Everyone was fixed on the stage and the sound.

Nope, my concern is how the old rules of marketing force the brand makers and product managers and labels and managers and CRM specialists all to channel energy into categorising people into neat boxes, then target products at them.

Such a focus then misses the opportunities like tonight. A gig that brought people together for a shared experience, with no-one caring one iota which consumer segment they fell into…

While at Unconvention last week I met up with Rich Dale, bass player in Befast based Escape Act. Rich has been invovled in the grass-roots music business in Northern Ireland for 15 year, and  was one of the coordinators at Unconvention in Belfast. With brands increasingly playing in the DIY and unsigned arena Rich gave me his thoughts on how brands can best work with brands at a grass-roots level. You can check out Escape Acts music here

Martin Atkins, legendary drummer with Public Image Ltd., Ministry and Killing Joke was one of the speakers at Unconference. He shared some of thoughts on the DIY music business as well as some of the insights from his new book Tour:Smart, the ultimate guide to the business of touring. Martin took a few minutes of his time to explain how he has sustained a career in music over almost 30 years, why the DIY ethic is still important and why the only contstant when it comes to the music business it change!

I attended my first Unconvention this weekend, a music conference for the grass roots music industry held in Salford, Manchester.  The first panel session I attended at the event, Outside The Box, looked at what it was like for those musicians and labels who choose to operate outside of the mainstream of the music industry, and what alternative ways they’d found that allowed them to be successful.

All the panelists had a different theory on what success looked like, but all of them agreed it didn’t revolve around massive CD sales or sold out stadium tours. For Caroline Churchill, aka Caro Snatch, “everyday I’m being paid to be creative, that feels like success to me”. While Abigail Seabrook, who has gone from being in indie bands to leading a unique 18th ‘pop band’ defined success as a process which has changed as she’s got older, but pointed out that she would tell her younger self that there are many more ways to make a living out of music than chasing the big record deal. Or as Steve Lawson put it you can have success without having hit records, then spending the rest of your life on a tour bus.

But they all agreed that all artists who choose work outside of the normal structure of a label/manage relationship that it was really important to have a plan and to keep returning to it regularly to ensure that you were achieving your goals.

But for this for this level of independence to succeed meant you also had to be resourceful, inventive and industrious when it comes to building and then managing the relationship you have with your fans. But as Steve Lawson put it “500,000 fans and no money would be a fantastic problem for any artist to have”.

Music these days is seen as highly personal, focused on the individual: my iPod, my selection, my taste, my choice in my time.

Yet, at it’s best, music is a communal experience - the live show, sharing favourite songs, artist and fan getting closer together.

In my view, there is a clear return to the communal experience of music.

From iCulture to communalCulture.

A friend of citizensound, Steve Lawson, aka solobasssteve, plays gigs around the UK in people’s living rooms. With the extortionate prices demanded to see the big names at cavernous venues, people who wish to enjoy the intimacy of the live music experience are finding an increased number of alternatives.

This isn’t unique to the UK. Music around the world plays a role in communalCulture, be it a punjabi wedding, a Maasai Eunoto ceremony or singlong in a local pub in County Wexford, Ireland.

And it is definitely not anything new. Folk singers in smoky bars in the 1950s. My son’s great-great-grandfather travelled the Auvergne region with his sons entertaining the villages with banjo, mandolin and violin. Minstrels entertained the European courts in the middle-ages.

Thanks to my wife’s inspired idea, we enjoyed the vocal talents of Rebecca Rudge, accompanied by excellent pianist Charles Economou. Along with 23 guests, we enjoyed an operatic evening in our living room. People entered into the whole spirit of the evening and came wonderfully dressed. Rebecca and Charles chatted with everyone after and also explained the story behind each piece.

A number of people at our little evening had not experienced Opera live. This is not unusual. Opera is stunning storytelling. Yet, all too often, Opera is promoted by those who wish to keep it elitist and accessible for only a few. Rebecca and Charles play at concert halls and old people homes, ensuring that Opera reaches everyone. Just like Steve Lawson, they should be congratulated and championed as standard bearers for communalCulture