The rise of DIY culture is not restricted to the music industry. Brands know that they have to earn their place in the consumer’s life. Improved insight on how to gain and build trust is ever more important. A full page advert that states how wonderful the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility policy is, will not suffice. The truth is in the detail. We adapt to the new realities or we carry on as before, pumping out the same messages through digital or vintage channels.

We Do…or We Die.

The fact that the Venice Festival of Media exists is confirmation that the advertising agencies are no longer automatic first choice for brands who seek assistance in engaging with consumers on their terms.

What exactly do clients need as support to help solve their business and marketing challenges?

Is it a big network with lots of dots on the map, or is it more about the people they get round the table?

Are there moves back to a fuller service agency model or towards a loose collective of people whose office is their laptop?

You can find out more about this very subject at our DIY: Do… Or Die session at the Venice Festival of Media 2008 from 1:45 to 2:45 on Tuesday 15th of April at 1.45pm

In almost twenty years as an A&R person in the record industry I've seen plenty of Battle Of The Bands competitions come and go. Did I ever think to show any interest in any of the artists that came through these competitions, not really. Was I unusual, certainly not. So why is the music industry so disinterested in these brands initiatives, at a time when shows like X Factor are making their creators millions?

By focussing purely on the competition angle in 'Battle Of The Bands' style competitions brands enter the arena at one point and often leave soon after. While the bands seem to enter a revolving door where they are spun around for a moment and then left either back where they started, or in slightly different place. Dizzy with raised expectations, but in reality no better off.

Timing is key to a band or an artist becoming successful, and yet there is no judgement of where a band is at in their early stage of development in any of these competitions. The music being good should be enough, everybody thinks so, but in reality it's not. History is littered with amazing artists who never sold many records in their careers, only to be revived decades later as a cult artist. Music is not alone in this, as it happens in all avenues of culture from authors to painters, many of whom die before they are discovered. 

But all is not lost, its a question of looking at strategy. The competition is only a small part of the equation.

It's not just winning a competition that matters. What matters is what other things are going on for the band, and in particular how the media perceives them - be it the press, radio or TV. None of the Battle Of The Bands competitions are respected by these institutions, or for that matter by the music industry, all of whom are critical to any ongoing success for any artist. In fact winning a competition can sometimes impact negatively on the winners credibility. It doesn't seem to matter if you win Pop Idol, but how would that change if it was Rock or Rap Idol, would you still be taken seriously? 

It's the same in the MySpace world, where millions of bands, both signed and unsigned, are easily accessible at the touch of the button. How do you distinguish between them all? What makes one band successful, and not another? It's partly down to the music, but its also about the ideas that surround the band and more importantly the infrastructure. Without this a band can win as many competitions as they like, but their careers wont go anywhere, because they don't have the basic tools they need to develop their careers.

citizensound says:

Nowadays there are different ways of developing an infrastructure, but any competition that pays no attention to this, and lacks any form of follow through will fail in the eyes of both the bands and the fans, and become valueless. It's like trying to build a house by starting with the roof, without ensuring that it has the foundations to support it.

Once you know where the artists and their fans ‘draw the line’, you then need to know where you can add value. Because in this day and age unless you add value to the music experience that you are creating (or buying into) you are unlikely to gain any real value from participating.

One of the most popular sectors for brands to play in at the moment is the Unsigned sector, no-doubt spurred on by the success of the Myspace brand. But how many of the brands playing in this space are delivering anything useful to the artists, or the fans?

Let’s take a look at Red Stripe’s Music Awards contest, as an example. What might a band want from entering such a competition? The expectation from these sort of competitions is usually some sort of record deal, lots of media exposure, the chance to play bigger and better venues to bigger and better audiences, and possibly some chart success.

The reality for the artist, however, is often very different.

Let’s look at last year’s Red Stripe winner’s, The Runners. It seems that almost one year on from winning the award, that their career has hardly moved on. They are back playing small and predominantly local venues. The media coverage they got from winning the award seems to have pretty much dissipated. While the band, who already had a record deal with a small UK indie label prior to winning the competition, have failed to capitalise on their ‘success’, with neither of their two singles to-date charting. Hardly the big leg-up I’m sure the band, and their label, were no-doubt hoping for.

The brand laudably claim that “the award is about championing grass roots music and we aim to offer a genuinely talented band a foot in the door of that great big sod known as the industry”. But sadly these sort of competitions rarely deliver on their initial promise. Ask any A&R man. It’s pretty true to say that few bands ever got signed from sending out unsolicited demo tapes, it’s also true to say that few bands got anywhere from winning a Battle Of The Bands style competition.

But often the issue is even more fundamental. We’ve spent a long time talking to unsigned bands and grass roots organisations that provide help to young musicians; and the things they really NEED are far simpler, and are often lot more beneficial than winning a competition.

Yet brands always seem to fail to ask the simplest of questions. How can we help?

Artists, be they unsigned or international stars, really shouldn’t see working with brands as some sort of necessary evil. Brands can help - be it investment, marketing or distribution. So talk to them and find out how you can genuinely help them achieve their goals. The solution could be far simpler than you’d think.

And once you get involved you can’t just drop everything and expect everyone to remain happy. Sony Bravia provided information on their website about Jose Gonzalez, who soundtracked their award-winning TV advert, but stopped updating it as soon as their new advert appeared.

One top UK manager summed it up best when he said:

Bands will sometimes work with brands for the money and the exposure. But these sorts of programmes usually don’t have a significant impact on building artist’s careers, and that’s why they don’t feel beholden to the Brand. Brands simply didn’t do enough to really impact on our attitude towards them.

When it comes to musicians, never ever make assumptions. Just because they are in a pop band, don’t assume that they won’t have ethics. And just because they are highly ethical, that they won’t get involved with brands. As the old saying goes, assumption is the mother of all fuck-ups!

Music is sensitive territory…

“There seems to me to be a great loss of integrity as far as I can see. But what the fuck do I know?” Lemmy from Motorhead

And just because some artists are prepared to work with brands…

“There is no such thing as selling out anymore, because there’s no opposite of selling out. If you have your song on a car commercial, it’s because your band needs to eat. It doesn’t mean what it used to mean. John Mayer

…doesn’t mean they’ll work with anyone.

“I was asked to endorse a hair spray, and it was the most soul-destroying thing. Record companies are trying to take all the money off the bands these days, so it forces you into selling yourself to those evil massive corporations”. Lily Allen

So why do brands get this sort of reaction from artists? The brand (or as likely their agency) made incorrect assumptions about the artist, which possibly went along the line of…

• She already had a fashion line ‘Lily Loves’ with New Look, and was therefore up for brand partnerships
• She’s a stylish girl, so she won’t have a problem endorsing a hair spray

Before you start making all sorts of assumptions you need to ask a very simple question of the artist ‘where do you draw the line‘? Lily, like all artists, know that not all brands are “evil massive corporations”. But when they act insensitively or inappropriately, which is sadly too often the case. it’s no surprise they get such bad rep from the artist they wanted to work with.

And remember just because some artists were once anti-brand, it doesn’t mean that they stay anti-brand forever. Like everyone, they have the right to change their mind:

“The Gap wanted us to be in a commercial and we said ‘No’ and everyone said, ‘Why not?’” he moaned. “People’s opinions about selling out seem to have changed over the years.” Jack White, The White Stripes in 2001

‘Jack White confirmed recently that he had accepted the offer from Coca-Cola to write a song specifically for a global campaign to be launched this summer, entitled ‘What Goes Around’.’ Jack White, The White Stripes in 2005

citizensound says:

Few brands ever seem to ask the artist up-front what their needs are, and where they personally draw the line - a simple concept that is key to both our philosophy and practise.

Last week myself I went to see Findlay Brown, at the Gladstone, a new pub/live music venue in South London.  

If you are wondering who Findlay is, you've probably heard his before music without knowing it. His song "Come Home" was the soundtrack for the Mastercard  ‘Priceless’ Christmas TV advert, which captured real people reuniting with their loved ones at the arrivals gate of Heathrow and Gatwick airports. The music for this TV ad campaign was pitched to Mastercard’s creative agency McCann Erickson by an independent sync company, via songwriter Findlay Brown’s manager. “I think the chorus from Come Home held some poignancy with the subject matter for the advert” claims Findlay.

Nobody ever says goodbye, but I don’t mind. Just come home. Come home"

A number of tracks were considered for the advert, “it was between me and Snow Patrol apparently, but I needed the exposure more than they did” he joked!

The advert, which has been used across the globe, was first used in 2006, and then again last Christmas.  “The use of the song definitely brought my music to a wider audience,” he said, “and although I got a small amount of ribbing from my friends for letting my music be used in an ad, most people thought it was a positive thing”. The awareness gained from the song being used in the advert had a significant impact, with a noticeable increase in the number of hits to his Myspace page and his official website over the last festive period. Findlay also found that when he played at last year’s music festivals, such as Glastonbury and the O2 Wireless Festival, that lots of people knew the words to the song, and were singing along to it! As a consequence of the advert’s success Come Home was released as a single by his label Peacefrog (also home to José González, whose track Heartbeats was used to great effect on the first Sony Bravia advert), which Findlay believes wouldn't have happened without the music appearing on the advert first. When he asked him if he would let his music be used again  for an advert he firmly stated that "It depends on what it was for. I wouldn't do anything for any cheese-based products, not even Dairy Lee".

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Now we know that the banks have wanted to be down with the kids as long as there have been students. Many of us can remember the scrum at freshers week to sign us up for our first bank account. And over the years one of the most popular hooks they’ve used to reach students has revolved around music – be they free record tokens or Walkman’s in my day, or downloads and MP3 players for today’s students. So after all those years of giving away music goodies what was it that persuaded Barclays Bank that they were ready to step-up their commitment in the music space by sponsoring nights at the Ministry Of Sound superclub in London? And to top it all there idea of sponsorship was to put up huge posters and banners around the club? I’m not sure who I’m more embarrassed for - the Ministry for taking the money, or the brand itself.

However, you would hope that even the most out-of-touch marketer would probably have guessed that Barclays attempts were likely to fall on deaf ideas. Yet plenty of brands still get it wrong, even though I’m sure they think they are getting it so so right.

How about Superdrug’s nail bar on a Double Decker Bus spotted at UK music festivals in 2006. “Girls like being pampered, and they like going to rock festivals. Result.” You can just see the meeting. So why were music fans going – nail-bar, rock festival, what, nah? Superdrug ‘Backstage’ was aimed at girls who wanted to glam up, be pampered, and even offered the opportunity to become a festival superstar via the Hairbrush Diva karaoke competition.

Had anyone involved in the brand ever been to a rock festival before? Especially somewhere like ‘T In The Park’. It’s in Scotland. It rains a lot. It can get very muddy. And if by chance it was really sunny, wouldn’t all those fair skinned Celts need factor 50 sunblock, not a pamper wagon?

citizensound says:

Music like any passion centre requires commitment from brands that wish to play in that space, be it a football or music.

And you don’t just get instant membership once you’ve joined the club. Few brands have the god given right to play in the music space - Levi’s and Jack Daniels are two rare brands that seem to just fit right in. But even if you are in that lucky position, you can still get it wrong.

If you want to join the club you not only need to show lots of commitment, but you at least need to try and be appropriate. And if by chance you get it wrong, learn by your mistakes. And remember it’s not only the artists who can take some persuading to get involved with brands. You also need to be aware that the fans can be even bigger critics, who unlike the artist aren’t getting paid to represent your brand!

This British act, released their multi-platinum debut album in 2006, spending almost half the year in the UK Top 20 album charts. They are an award-winning act, with a major European honour already under their belt’s. They have played a number of major festivals, and supported one of the biggest bands on the planet in 2006. They will release their sophomore album in 2008. We are looking, on their behalf, for a brand interested in partnering up with them on their next European tour.

So what can the band offer the brand?

This project is a great way for any brand to stake a claim in the music space on a pan-European basis, working with an exciting young and credible act, that has already started to build-up a strong presence across the continent. It is also an ideal start for any brand looking to understand how both bands and fans tick. Or a great way for an established brand in the music space to deepen their relationship with internationally-growing act.

So why does an award-winning act need a brands support? Fewer bands are receiving tour support from their record labels these days, especially when it’s abroad. Equally some bands are signed to different labels in different territories and find it hard to find a partner across a number of countries. Touring can be expensive business for any young band, especially when you want to put on a 'real' show. Brand support can help deliver a new and bigger audience for both brand and band.

We have a number of exciting music-based projects on the look out for brand partners. If you need some great ideas to help execute your music strategy, give us a call or drop us an email. We can help…

Rereading those quotes from Rolling Stone, made me think of a recent article in the excellent Word magazine. In David Hepworth's "And Another Thing" column he attacked the musicians who look to blame someone else when their music doesn't sell. As Hepworth clearly points out "Those artists who used to think they could float on a puffy cloud far moved from the brute realities of commerce are about to come down to earth. The last 30 years have been a bit of a holiday from the truth. You think you've worked hard in the past ? You've barely began." Even Radiohead's Johnny Greenwood claimed in the February 2008 issue of Mojo magazine that the band have no desire to go it alone and run their own record company. "The experiment was good, but we don't wanna be spending the rest of our careers in meetings discussing Portuguese shop displays." They promptly inked a deal with Richard Russell's excellent XL Recordings, home of the White Stripes, M.I.A.and Basement Jaxx.

citizensound says:

The DIY approach may not be for everyone. Artists and their management will need to employ skilled 'specialists' to do many of the jobs that the record company once did, and if it all goes wrong who's to blame? However, the DIY route can cut down on the overheads, should help increase profits (as long as your sales still hold up) and certainly offers the artist more control - at least you'll always be the priority act!

DIY is also becoming an increasingly viable option due to the increasing number of VC's and brands playing in the music space. While VC's can offer the finance you might need, can they bring marketing or distribution expertise? It should be no surprise then that when a brand like Starbucks comes along offering the 'holy trinity' of 'finance, marketing and distribution', that artists from Joni Mitchell to Sonic Youth, are keen to see what this route can offer.

Rolling Stone magazine, the venerable American music magazine,  hit it's fortieth anniversary in 2007. Like many 'old school' content businesses they are still struggling with what content to put online and what to save for the physical edition. So sadly all the quotes from their 'Future Of Music' feature in the 15th of November special issue of the magazine are not available online, although a few quotes they didn't use in the magazine are available here.

So for those of you who missed out on the article, here are a few choice quotes, which certainly give an interesting perspective on where artists head's are at right now. It seems that both record labels and brands need to work a lot harder on the relationship they have with artists… (more…)

Also on the Brands in Music Panel at In The City was Andrea Moore, Marketing Director of Levi’s UK. At a personal level, Andrea is passionate about music. At a business level, I believe that she has been involved in one of the most credible examples of Brands and Bands coming together over the last 10 years. So I asked her to relay the story of Levi's and the MC5 at the conference to demonstrate how a band can work with a brand to the benefit of all, including the fan… Levi’s back in 2002 was about to launch a range of limited edition Ts with Gary Grimshaw doing the designs. Gary was the man behind some of the iconic MC5 and Grateful Dead posters/album sleeves of the 60s. Well, this T with MC5 was designed, but Wayne Kramer of the MC5 heard about this and got upset that they were not consulted… Now most brands would get their lawyers on to it and go ‘oops, here’s a cheque’. Not Andrea. She talked to him and found out that Wayne really wanted to reform the MC5 (well the 3 of the 5 still with us). ‘So how can we help?’ was Andrea’s response. The outcome was the MC5 playing their first gig for over 20 years. When Wayne was first contacted, the guys were hardly on speaking terms let alone playing together. The gig was announced through the core fansites of MC5 and amongst those musicians who look up to their music. The three of them played the 100 Club in March 2003 with Lemmy, Dave Vanian, Mani and others in support. It was a special moment. I know I was there, and I have their scribbled set list as proof. After the gig, they started touring, their back catalogue was reissued and Wayne is often contacted for comment in many music mags. They are rightly more widely known than ever before. When a certain music magazine had a go at them for taking the brand $, Wayne hit back at his detractors.

When a certain music magazine had a go at them for taking the brand $, Wayne hit back with this statement:

If I declare myself to be a messenger of change, to protest what I know is wrong in the world or in myself, then actually be the person I represent myself to be, my critics seem to be compelled to needle me for not being downtrodden enough, not oppressed enough. There's a perverse thing going on here with critics and fans. It's especially peculiar to me that, when I was rotting in Federal Prison, the British music press revered me. Maybe they'd be happier if I'd never work again and be a glorious petrified legend. True to form, rather than step up to the plate this time and explore the decisions made by us, they tried to make us look bad. I would be disappointed if they didn't. It's predictable and it's cheap and it's their usual lazy journalism not backed up by any political ideology or theory one way or the other. It's about filling column inches with as little effort as possible, and they have a right to do so. It's as if we were accountable to a different standard that anyone else. If you shine a light on injustice, you can't have a nice, clean house?

This quote is still on their website, and you can read his full thoughts on the subject here.

As for the fans, there were people who travelled from Sweden, Japan and the States to that 100 Club gig, with the hope of getting in.