Bunji & Beyoncé: The Biz - Part 2
Although I’m a fan of the art first, I also analyze the world’s reaction to music from a business perspective. In the past few years, I’ve watched artists strengthen their relationships with fans through increased social media interaction. Some artists who didn’t have a presence on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook have created their own accounts. Even up-and-coming talents are branding themselves through new digital content mediums, like creating all-inclusive apps with videos, music, event calendars, exclusive content, and more. Since social media is much more interactive and fast-paced than before, there exists an almost self-created buzz marketing machine that drives fans to share, promote and purchase their favorite artists’ music.
At the end of 2013, I watched two artists galvanize their fans in different, but incredibly beneficial ways for their business. Both believed in and subsequently harnessed the energy their fans could create for their music.
Beyoncé & the Visual Album
I’m not even part of the Beyhive, but I have to give this lady credit. She put a tremendous amount of trust in her millions of fans worldwide to make her latest album a success. And what loyal fans she has! My timelines went haywire just after midnight on December 13th, when the world let me know of the surprise release. But it didn’t shock me that Beyoncé made a deal with iTunes to release this album exclusively or secretively (though keeping it completely under wraps was an amazing feat in this leak-driven era)… What shocked me were the results.
The new order of business was the release of 17 complete music videos with the 14 songs and the accompanying digital booklet… No advertising, no promotion, no visits to MTV or 106 & Park, no album release party… As soon as the album was made public, it became a trending topic on social media sites. The thought of having missed the latest BeyHive detail was enough to prompt her diehard fans to buy the album right away, even before the physical copy was in stores, for a modest $15.99. Here’s how the album did in the first week:
In 3 hours, the album sold more than 80,000 copies (~ $1.3 million)
In 3 days, the album sold almost 830,000 copies (~ $13.25 million)
In 6 days, the album was platinum (~ $16 million)
When I saw these figures, I wondered how much of it Beyoncé would earn. As I’ve learned, your percentage of ownership determines how much money you make. So where does Beyoncé stand?…
In 2008, Beyoncé founded her own entertainment company (Parkwood Entertainment), under which she has produced Cadillac Records, Obsessed, her HBO Special Life Is But a Dream, her last record 4, and three other performance DVDs. In February 2013, she and Jay Z both signed a global publishing administration deal with Warner/Chappell Music. The exclusivity of this iTunes deal suggests a mutually beneficial relationship, though I’m guessing the weight of Beyoncé’s brand was used a bargaining tool in negotiating splits.
Beyoncé released the self-titled visual album under her company in conjunction with Columbia Records, and is credited as a writer, producer, and video director. So at this point in her career, with her name appearing everywhere you should stake a claim in your music, I suspect a lot of Beyoncé’s earnings (after paying the respective parties, of course) are going back to her. Not to mention, the money that would have been allocated for advertising was most likely directed somewhere else, like the tour she’s had planned for months. I wonder what Mrs. Carter has planned next…
Click here to read Bunji & Beyoncé: The Biz - Part 1
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