Perfect Bedfellows
DIY culture is throwing up some interested new record labels, that are more than just labels, but are building on the relationship with the visual arts. Home Tapes, based in Portland, Oregon is home to a group of bands and musicians such as left field Hip-Hop stars CYNE and the excellent Slaraffenland, and a bunch...
Dear Musician & Brand – Is your sound irresistible?
Robert Wolf, London musician and drumming teacher to my son, is finishing up his album right now. Getting noticed is a big challenge for every musician, but there was something he said to me today that really resonated. He said is is going to make his music sound irresistible How many musicians aim for that?...
And the winner of the 2009 Mercury Music Prize is…
…Speech Dabelle. Wish I’d had the common sense to put a few quid on this, the citizensound favourite for this year’s Mercury Music Prize. And YES once again we got it right! Former Mercury Award winner and fellow citizen Paul Martin, who won it with Roni Size Reprazent in ’97 (famously beating Radiohead’s OK Computer)...
See me, Feel me, Touch me, Hear me….
I admit to being a teenage vinyl junkie. The way the sleeves looked and felt, the way the vinyl sounded, and even smelt, made it a truly sensory experience that became almost a life long obsession. But in the late 80’s, like so many, I was lured by the portability and ease of use of...
Surge of complaints for emusic and Sony raises the question: What is the value of music?
It looks like I spoke too soon about the benefits of emusic’s deal with Sony Music for the users. What wasn’t immediately clear was the impact on the price that users would have to pay for their downloads. Some of the most loyal users have seen a 40-50%Â increase in the price they are paying....
Sony Music seeks the power of recommendation
Yesterday’s New York Times announced that Sony Music will be making some of their back catalogue available via download store emusic in the US, which up till now has only carried music from independent labels. Although the major labels have never been keen on emusic’s pricing policy (an average 40 cents per track), the site’s...
What do your fans want from you? (Part 3)
Artists are increasingly embracing Twitter as a great way to connect with their fans. But its not just its simplicity as a communication tool that is attracting ‘celebrity’ users, it can also be a useful tool in helping you grow your fanbase. US indie band Jimmy Eat World accumulated some 200,000 new Twitter followers in...
What do your fans want from you? (Part 2)
Writing regular blog posts for your fans is not up everyone’s street. But who said you had to write? Kanye West’s blog is a great example of what you can do by developing a visual approach to blogging. Kanye regularly posts up images and videos that have grabbed his interest – be it some arresting...
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Six goals for your social media strategy
A few months ago we posted up a picture of the anatomy of a modern musician/music manager that showed how complex their role has become. Tom Williams (a New York based online marketer and publicist) has tried to map out the complex role that social media plays in a bands overall business strategy. What is...
What do your fans want from you?
Whether you like it or not fans expectations have changed in terms of the type of relationship they expect to have with their favourite acts these days – many of today’s fans expect Access All Areas from their favourite artists, so the need for Artist Generated Content is key in how you communicate with your...
Gigging 2.0 – a band and fan partnership
With recorded music sales in decline, many artists are increasingly having to turn to the live arena to make their living. One manager of an internationally renowned singer told me that even after platinum album sales she was still making very little money from her record sales, making her increasingly reliant on a punishing touring...
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Sensory Marketing: A musician’s approach
Be it Dubai or Mumbai, London or Lisbon, citizensound is excited to find that more and more brands are investing in the power of the senses as part of the consumer experience. The old one dimensional approach to sensory marketing is moving out of the mainstream into the background, being replaced by strategies that consider...