So AC/DC, the scourge of the religious right in the U.S. and conservative parents everywhere, with albums such as Highway to Hell and Back to Black, have struck an exclusive deal with WalMart in the U.S. to distribute their music…and some of their hardcore fans are either furious or in shock. 

The issue of WalMart’s stringent music policy is not a small one, but I will deal with that elsewhere.

Let’s not get all worked up on this one though. AC/DC have never to my belief taken any big moral stand against the corporate establishment. They have sold millions of albums and made themselves and the label rich. To my knowledge, they have not flown to Darfur or spoken out against gun running. I don’t think they are anti-fur. They just want to play rock n roll.

Their lyrics are not a rallying call for revolution either. I am no AC/DC specialist, but a quick read of their lyrics includes one about getting beaten up by the girlfriend, one tying the girlfriend to the railway tracks, one about their girlfriend overdosing. They might say that their songs focuses on the personal relationships between man and woman and ‘good ol Rock n Roll’. Some people might find some of the lyrics offensive or uncomfortable, others just wanna rock and sing along without reading much into the lyrics. Mind you, Walmart might approve of their commitment to monogamy (Girl’s Got Rhythm).

Those fans up in arms about ACDC ’selling out’ is an interesting position for them to take. It seems the fans are ok to sing along with the band to href=”http://members.tripod.com/acdcwillie/highway.htm”>’Go Down‘ and ‘Night Prowler’ but not ok to let AC/DC secure their pension? 

Some bands start as revolutionaries then move to the right. Others flip-flop from one issue to another. Others just play music and keep their views to themselves. Not every artist is a revolutionary, not every artist has a high moral code on everything they do.

Now that artists are looking for new ways to distribute and market their music directly, there is no label to hide behind. They have to show their colours. Their fans will find out where they stand - and if it important to the fans, then they will react, and act, accordingly.

Artists now have to be clear where they draw the line. Radiohead and ACDC draw their own lines. One artist we know turned down a seven figure deal wit a brand, because the holding company is involved in arms trading. That artist draws the line very clearly. It is the artist’s choice. Yet the smart artists are also highly aware of the impact on their fanbase of any decision they take. Whether it is taking music to a new direction (Electric Bob Dylan, Christian Bob Dylan, ‘Before and After Martin Hamnett’ Joy Division) or signing up with WalMart, the artist takes the risk of losing fans. They also take the risk of gaining new ones.

AC/DC have made their choice. Maybe is is only about the money. If their fanbase collapses in the U.S. then they know the risk was too high. Somehow, I get the impression they have done their homework on this one.

However, Bob Lefsetz doesn’t seem to think so. He certainly is not happy. First, he mentions that 3 million copies of the Eagles album were shifted through Wal-Mart with no-one noticing. Three million people bought it, I think someone noticed. He suggests that these purchases were an impulse buy. Proof that it was purely down to impulse? None. I agree that supermarket shoppers make decisions on impulse at times. Supermarkets are experts at getting people to buy stuff they don’t need. Yet, shoppers in supermarkets make decisions for different reasons - their mood, time pressure, impulse, product positioning in aisles, shelf position and state of mind all affect the decision. However, to assume that all 3 million units were down to impulse purchasers is breathtaking in it’s naivety. The Eagles were never a ground-breaking act. They took what was a vibrant west coast sound in the 70s and packaged it up for the mass market. So it could make perfect sense from a consumer targeting perspective for The Eagles. A proportion of shoppers at Wal-Mart could be either those who bought Hotel California first time round or remember their parents singing along to it, or it could have been a gift purchase…or they might have liked the pretty picture on the cover.

On the one hand he seems to throw all Wal-Mart shoppers into the same trolley, then he champions the cause of the young fan who cannot get to the Wal-Mart store or cannot download it. On the first point, won’t the young fan just ask their mum/dad to buy it for them when she/her shops?

He is also stunned that AC/DC do not understand that the world is not about the album CD any more, and that it is about customer sampling digitally. He clearly is a fan of theirs and thinks they are making a big mistake. I agree wholeheartedly with him that musicians have to have a digital platform allow people to sample the music. Just one thing though, digital is global, and WalMart distribution deal is only for the U.S. Unless I am very much mistaken and unless a Chinese government style clampdown by Wal-Mart is underway, won’t the American kids will be able to find it online legally?

Maybe the hardcore AC/DC fans who have problems with this deal, but they could look at it this way: Imagine some soccer mom buying a WalMart AC/DC CD, then later getting into ‘Let There Be Rock’ as she heads off to pick up her 2.2 kids. Wouldn’t that be undermining the very fabric of society in one step?

Couldn’t that be AC/DC’s legacy to the RocknRoll revolution? 

I leave you all with something to cheer you up…Celine Dion and Anastacia doing a cover of AC/DCs All Night Long…

Some might find this joyful, some painful to watch…

Just wait for the moment when Celine says to Anastasia “Come on Girlfriend, shook me…”

“They’re almost all terrible-hideous, out of date and boring - and the last place you’d go to find anything of use.”

What could ‘Music Magazine of the Year’, The Word, be talking about in their Worst Things About The Internet feature, this month? A crime so hideous that it’s up there with spam, pointless registration pages, talking smileys, premericals, and intro screens that take ten minutes to download before you can get at the site.

Well folks it’s the humble Artist Website. The Word reckon that “Fansites, done for nothing by mad people, beat them (the official site) hands down pretty much every time”

With such large sums of money being spent on artist websites these days, why do so many of them still get it wrong?

We finally got hold of the recording of our DIY: Do or Die session at this year’s Venice Festival Of Media. You can listen to it here or by downloading it to listen to on your computer, iPod or MP3 player. Again a big thanks to Maarten Steinkamp, Jon Webster, Martin Stiksel and John Ingham for making it a fascinating session…

To listen now:

To download the podcast:

For those of you who are PC users, or are not iTunes users, the MP3 version can be downloaded by right clicking your mouse, here

One of the big problems we all have when we go into a music store to browse, be it in the high street or online, is what do we want to buy? For many of us it might be what fits with our mood at the time. Music stores are generally rubbish at trying to provide this sort of help, especially traditional high street music retailers. Some stores are racked in broad genres that are so broad they are useless (ABBA next to AC/DC), while others go so niche only trainspotters stand a chance of deciphering what goes where.

Music plays to our emotions, so why do retailers so often ignore them? Especially as music can be really functional; great to drive to, great to dance to, good to have a little cry to, music to lie on a beach to, or possibly provide the perfect background to your next dinner party (that’ll be your chillout compilation then). Maybe retailers could take a leaf out of a certain UK supermarket’s book (who really didn’t like me taking a picture of their display) and suggest products to suit every mood, or as in this case a wine to go with different types of food. Shame they didn’t rack some spicy music to go with the food and wine ideas though…

Well, our panel at the venice Festival of Media 2008 went really well.

The topic was a great one (if we say so ourselves), but what made the session were the great panellists and the audience.

There is nothing worse for me than a panel that answers with Yes, No or Maybe. We all want a panel that is inspired to really let loose. We were blessed with four people who didn’t hold back at all.

So a huge thank you to:
John Ingham, CEO of ESP and MOG blogger extraordinaire;
Maarten Steinkamp, SonyBMG CEO Continental Europe and a man who speaks his mind;
Martin Stiksel, Last FM CEO and someone who forgets more about how people relate to music than I know;
Jon Webster, Chairman of the Music Managers Forum, and a man who held back from sharing too many stories on stage.

One person in the audience told me after that he couldn’t mistake this panel as a music panel as everyone swore freely, but more importantly, expressed themselves very openly.

It seemed to inspire the audience too, as they were fantastic. When we over-ran by 15 minutes, I invited the audience to attend the next session in the main hall. I said I was happy to stay, so did the panelists. The audience stayed put, leading to overrun by 40 minutes…causing chaos for the organisers! (Sorry Clare, Charlie and everyone at CSquared!)

The questions just kept coming. It was fantastic. So thanks to Lucy from Diesel, Steve King and John Taylor from ZenithOptimedia, Graham Duff from Universal McCann, the guys from Nokia Procurement (I know you were out there!), the fantastic lady from Future Magazines (contact me please!!!), Olivia from Media and Marketing, Mariana from CSquared, Martin Sambrook from Billetts and Tom Bowman from BBC Worldwide, the guy at the back who asked about Apple, and everyone else who I have forgotten!

citizensound listened in on the Sports Marketing panel to see whether there were any insights to be picked up from bringing the worlds of sport and marketing together.

Rob Simmelkjaer, former ABC News anchor and ESPN reporter, bravely dealt with continual sound distortion on the mikes and ran a really interesting panel. Meanwhile, Gianluca Vialli provided an example of a true professional…modest, charming, insightful and engaging - many of the young Premier League stars could learn from him in more ways than one.

I asked them what lessons could be learned from the sports world for the music world, as more brands move into music.

Dominic Fawcett, Managing Partner of Mindshare, rightly stated that there has been too many instances in sports marketing where the connection between brand and sport made little sense to consumers. He was also concerned that the creative expression of the brand/sports partnership was a little too forced -

Brand X: We are part of the team

…ouch…

Meanwhile Kevin Roberts, Editorial Director, SportsBusiness Group raised two interesting points. For him, the sports world is struggling with a fanbase that is ageing, be it cricket, football, rugby, tennis or the Olympics. no such problem in the music world.

Secondly, Sports he said struggle to attract lots of female fans. So sports marketing is also limiting from a brand’s perspective. Another reason why music makes sense for many brands…

So citizensound does have a future then!

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".

(more…)

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!