The Music Industry is going through a time of repositioning, where record labels, concert promotors, music distributors, digital retailers and artist managers are vying for the position as the one-stop shop for their clients - the artists. CD sales are falling fast while people are paying inflated prices to see their favourite band live. Artists are ready to seek investment from Venture Capitalists or sign up to brand partnerships. It is a fascinating time to be involved in the music space. Nothing though is more exciting than the clear trend towards the DIY ethic in music.

Whether it is an established act - such as Radiohead or Simply Red - or young unsigned artists (such as Holly Rose (opposite) who will be appearing at the Venice Festival of Media Gala Dinner), musicians are looking to do it for themselves. Technology has something to do with it, making the distribution of music an easier thing to do. Partly, it is just a sense that ‘there is another way’. A way that gives the artist control over their own destiny. The DIY artist will still need the right people around them to find the right investment, or get the best distribution. Yet distribution doesn’t mean anyone will discover the music. How do they get noticed? Is it still about getting in the van/train/private jet and doing lots of gigs? Or will the online social networks do the work for them? And are the challenges for established acts any different?

The music industry has responded by re-shaping in front of our eyes. All artists are having to work out who best serves their interests.

And then we have the fans. They can find more music than ever before. They are more fickle than ever. They can make up their own personal Top 10 every minute, and can use free peer-to-peer services to pick one song and move on.

The artist wonders:

• Where is the fanbase going to come from?
• How do we hold on to them?
• How can we get standout now that everyone has cheap
• and easy access to marketing and distribution?
• Who can we turn to for help?

Exactly the same challenges face each and every brand. Who do they turn to? As for their marketing services partners, the race is on to offer the right kind of services that brands need to deal with the world in 2008.

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 the citizensound sonicRetail survey, we found a few stores decided on a policy of a music-free zone in–store.

Shops such as Church’s shoes had the sound of people talking and shoes being squeezed on to feet, nothing more. And this worked for the environment and the clientele. A sense of calm away from the storm of the street.

The Apple Store on Regent Street London is also music free, which given the connection between Apple and music, this seems shocking. However, Apple might rationalise this decision by seeing each person as controllers of their own music destiny (via their iPod of course). So a store that tries to dictate and decide what the customer should hear is not a store that respects that customer. However, my issue with the Apple Store is that in this music-free zone, music is generally heard…not through the store PA system, but through far-off speakers linked to Apple products. People test out iPod speakers or listen to songs on laptops. So the sound throughout the store is of far off tinny music.

Meanwhile the O2 in-store had the music so low that you could hardly hear it. Given the immense commitment to music by O2, this again seems like a contradiction. I would expect the in-store sonic experience to be stunning in any O2 store. Sadly, this is far from the truth.   Which leads to another issue…

citizensound says:

If you think music has a role in store then for goodness sake have it loud enough to do its' work and invest in a decent soundsystem. 

Mango stores are the sonic version of vanilla ice cream. After a while you are yearning for mint choc chip, raspberry, peach or mango even…anything but  vanilla…I have to ask the question – what is the point of having music in store if the music is so bland? It got me thinking…

If Mango was a band, who would it be? And then it dawned on me…Mango is the fashion version of Westlife.

Westlife have sold loads of albums, have a huge following, but are not known for innovation and creativity. They get on their stools, then get off them and sing covers, get back on their stools, then sell lots of CDs. A brilliant and successful model that works. So, Mango as Westlife is not a bad thing, IF Mango wanted that image. But this is NOT Mango. When I lived in Barcelona in the 90s, Mango was not a covers band. It was not white suits and the boy your mother would like. Mango had credibility. It had edge. Yet it also had accessibility. Right now in their stores, it just feels much like a lot of other stores…

Una nota para MANGO:Por favor Senores y Senoras de Mango, es possible a cambiar vuestra estrategia de musica en las tiendas – estoy seguro que hay musica que puede connectar mejor con los consumadores. No estais Westlife, eres mas cool que ellos.

In our first post on the sound of the brand at retail, citizensound mentioned the lack of investment that seems to go into sound within the retail space.

This comes in part from a marketing focus on the visual when it comes to financial commitment. The sense of sight dominates marketing decisions – the logo; the packaging design; the Retail window display; the Point of Sale materials; the storyboard for the next ad – all highly visual. This makes sense given the power of the visual to connect with our subconscious. However, the human being is a sensory beast, not purely a visual one. The sense of smell, of taste and of touch have immense power on human behaviour, yet are still highly under-utilised in marketing – likewise with the sense of sound. Many retailers know that music has a role to play in the in-store environment, but it seems to have been relegated to a line on a spreadsheet that gets ticked or a figure that is cut every year.

In many of the stores citizensound visited, the little thought put into the sonic experience suggests that the sourcing of music has been given to companies who provide the cheapest service of homogenised nonsense, rather than carefully chosen music that resonates with the brand and the consumers. For some companies, I can imagine that music sourcing has been left purely in the hands of those looking to reduce costs rather than build brand. However, it is also probable that music is just not seen as a priority, so marketing budgets are channelled to the Visual, while the other Senses get neglected.

Gap has used music imagery in their communication successfully before and have created innovative music links such as Madonna/Missy Elliott. So to find poor sound quality and bland music in their stores was hugely disappointing sonically.

On the other hand, HSBC have invested in their own radio station. As you wait for an appointment with a business account person, you can kick back and listen to HSBC’s in-house radio station. Playing a balance of music that works for the company, HSBC have DJs playing a safe playlist with dedications to local store staff, and promotions of new products for customers. All the staff said they enjoyed it, whilst customers were shaking their ankles. This made more sense than Gap.

Who would have thought HSBC could teach Gap about music and customers?

citizensound says:

If you are listening GAP, please please sort out your stores – you and your customers deserve better…

The magazine Media & Marketing ran a few features on Brands and Music in their February issue that are worth a read, including some thoughts from citizensound. Also published within the magazine was an article I wrote on the sound of retail environments.

citizensound carried out an extensive survey at the end of 2007 early 2008 in London and Paris on the sound of (physical) retail. We checked out nearly 100 stores in the two cities to see (or rather hear) whether brands have fully leveraged the power of sound at retail.

Unfortunately, the results were not positive. A few companies had developed an outstanding approach to creating soundscapes that added to the shopping experience. Paul Smith had brilliantly fused music selection with each collection throughout the store, thus combining the senses as people explored the shop. However, this is the exception rather than the rule.

Music is often dictated by store staff for their own enjoyment, rather than what will connect with consumers. I walked into four different mobile phone stores and the music was interchangeable RnB. The staff were happy but the consumers were not all RnB fans.

If you are going to be in the store all day helping customers, then great music can help the day go by. Let’s be honest, time can drag if you are faced with either few customers or ones that don’t want to talk to you. So the sound of the store needs to also be motivational for the staff as much as for the customers. Which leads me to Top Shop / Top Man.

Here is a store that smartly fuses fashion with music through the layout of the store and the collections themselves. Bands could/do walk in, pick the look as laid out in the store,

So you would think that the store would be bang on the money when it comes to the music played in store. Wrong!

The music sounded fresh, very ‘indie/new wave’. However, when we asked two staff members about the music, we were met with strong responses. Both staff said the music is organised by main office (one thought that Q magazine was also involved) and that the same music had been playing in store for four months straight, same tape, same loop for four months! Also the same music is chosen for Top Shop and Top Man, so little by way of any gender segmentation analysis going on here. For the sanity of the staff, you have to hope this has been changed and that a more rapid changeover of music is happening in store. Just as the Top Shop collections are inspired by designer labels, so can they also gain from bespoke approach to sonic retail by Paul Smith.

citizensound says:

The balance between music for staff and music for consumers is a tricky one. However, getting it right can lead to an environment where the staff and consumer both enjoy their surroundings. This has to be the goal. It is a shame that so many stores fail to recognise this.So many reasons why, but one is money.

More on this subject in Rant 2 on Sonic Retail.

Citizensound were invited by the Venice Festival Of Media organisers C Squared, to deliver a session at last year’s inaugural event, entitled ‘Brand, Bands and Fans’. We ran a panel session with esteemed band managers Pete Jenner of Sincere Management and Gary McClarnan of Sparklestreet. The aim of the session was to discuss how Brands could get involved with Music in ways that benefit them, the Artist and the Fans. The session was a sell out, with standing room only. This no-doubt influenced the orgasnisers decision to have us us back to run another session at this year’s event!

citizensound brands and bands session, DIY: Do… or Die?

DIY culture, where creators connect more closely to consumers, is beginning to alter the shape of the music industry. It is nothing short of an industry revolution - where record labels now act as agents, and where tour operators now act as record companies. Can brands harness the DIY culture? Where can agencies get involved? How can both manage the managers? This Session will find the answers.

And as ever we have an august bunch of speakers to chew the fat with citizensound founder Paul Bay acting as moderator.

Maarten Steinkamp CEO, Continental Europe of Sony BMG. Maarten heads up the Continental European division of SONY BMG, which at 20 markets, is the biggest international division of the music entertainment company of Bertelsmann and Sony Corp.

Martin Stiksel, Co-Founder, Last.fm set up insine.net in 1999, a platform for unsigned bands and an online record label together with Felix Miller. They were joined by Richard Jones of Audiosrobbler fame in 2003, and founded Last.fm with a view to building the social music platform to end them all.

Jon Webster, CEO, Music Managers Forum. “Webbo” has worked for 2 people most of his life - himself and Richard Branson. Most of his career was spent at Virgin Records, which he became Managing Director of in 1988. In 2007 he embraced the artist centric future when he was appointed CEO of the Music Managers Forum

John Ingham, Chief Experience Officer, ESP. John has been involved in interactive media since 1985. From 2001 to 2005 he was Head Of Content Development at UK mobile operator O2, helping to develop Europe’s first OTA mobile music download service. He now advises media and entertainment companies on their online and mobile strategies. He was also the first man to interview the Sex Pistols back in 1976!

We’ll post up more background information on the topics we’ll be covering in the run up to event. If you are planning to attend this years event, don’t forget to sign up for our session which will take place on Tuesday 15th of April at 1.45pm. We look forward to seeing you all there..

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.

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!