My Prep Notes from me panel at Aim #MusicConnected on ‘Setting up a Record in the Streaming Age’
Some of the things I talked about (or wanted to talk about) this year!
- Balancing the 'day one' marketing splurge and the ongoing awareness required for streaming; where do you put the marketing focus: on the short-term money (physical, week one) or on the duration (streaming)?
It is definitely a balance and always depends on the artist, the album, and it’s audience. A goal with a large push in the beginning captures awareness through streaming charts and the social functions and network effect inside the the various platforms. A huge goal for duration is for our artist's music to be added to personal playlists and saved for later.
- Is streaming worth much more than promotion? Especially YouTube and Soundcloud... and Spotify's freemium tier.
So, I approach it with a very very simple equation. Promotion = Revenue. The two should not be mutually exclusive. If it goes on soundcloud and youtube it will always be on streaming. We use monetized platforms to promote so our Artists’ get paid. We can’t ignore the tremendous audience and engaged reach that YouTube & Vevo (monetized correctly) and SoundCloud have but we need to make sure that the fans can make it ‘portable’ on monetized platforms and save to their various library’s on their many devicesÂ
- Global Release Day: Godsend for global premieres or pain in the ar*se?
From a purely digital perspective the global release date seems like it will be very effective move. We successfully released an Aphex Twin ep everywhere on a Friday back in January. It was successful in that we didn't need to split messaging and had a unified front across channels. I am a bit worried, though, that the new rules may have an adverse effect on indie artists’ ability to chart.
- Leaks! How do you respond?
We take a proactive role at the beginning stages of every campaign with stringent policies and workflows to reduce the exposure of the album beyond those that need to have it. If leaks happen we will take them in stride and address each on a case by case basis. I can't think of any catastrophic leaks in my tenure at warp.
- Is Spotify getting shared enough? I still habitually turn to YouTube or Soundcloud on social media. Guilty!
Spotify (or any other Streaming Service) is not being share enough by media. As I see it, the media is missing a trick on this, they should be using these platforms to build an awareness of their own! Â The media have such an amazing knack at curation and all of the monetized streaming platforms offer them an easy and effective way at building their own brands WHILE supporting the rights holders.
We try to always share direct links to streaming, artist profiles, and embed links with our PRs. It would be tremendous if, as we do with youtube or soundcloud playlists, media would be able to share an embed of an artist's playlist in their write ups.Â
- Playlists and the growing presence of major-owned brands on Spotify, Deezer etc,
It's not unlike Record Label’s owning Record Stores, distribution networks, and radio stations. Ideally our music should be so infectious that it’s able to stand in it’s own right but we’re not naive to the glut of content being produced all the time. Spotify’s owned playlists still remain on top and we actively pitch our artist’s inclusion. What I tend to look for (in addition to building our own label & artist profiles) are those key niche playlists with HIGH engagement and very selective curation. Those types of playlists really have the potential for fan building.
- YouTube, Music Key & increasing role of visual material
Warp have a long history with visual media and most of our artists consider it a direct extension of their art. In setting up a record we look at the traditional format of the packshot and try to design specific art for all of the channels! Aphex Twin's minipops on YouTube is a prime example, we took the aesthetic of the packshot and made a youtube specific version that shared Aphex’s data in the player - a very specific extension of the Transparency concept through out the rest of the campaign.
YouTube is the largest music streaming service in the world. It should never be considered just promotional platform, it’s a streaming platform with the additional artistic benefit of visual content. The indie community via Merlin and AIM have done an amazing job at working together and supporting rightsholders so it’s our job to make sure we’re taking advantage of it
Check out my other music industry babble here.
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