Music Marketing Trends

This is John Tuttle's mandatory Music Marketing blog about trends in the music business ~ John is a student at Anderson University, plays in a band, likes long walks on the beach, and enjoys a cool Fall breeze.

[trendymusicballer]

Coldplay says no to freemium

Coldplay’s new album A Head Full of Stars drops today everywhere but Spotify! This is another huge blow to the major streaming service. Taylor Swift has opted out of this service along with Adele, but now Coldplay? Spotify needs to figure out a way to maintain these types of world renowned mega-stars. The more this continues to happen, odds are that Spotify will start to lose users. Generally, when artists avoid Spotify it’s because this company does not compensate artists well enough. Music has become a “free” commodity in most people’s minds, which destroys an artist’s livelihood.

[trendymusicballer]

Periscope and the buzz around live streams.

Periscope is an application for iOS and Android devices that enables individuals to stream video in real time to all of their followers. This type of technology has been being utilized by other apps such as Livestream and YouTube for the last couple years. However, Periscope has combined seamless live streaming with a social platform for users to follow and be followed. The app will even send you notifications whenever someone you follow begins a stream.

This technology could enable fans to see glimpses into a band or artist’s life. In turn, this causes a higher sense of connection and loyalty. Connected fans are fans that will drive 3 hours to catch a show by that artist, or buy that artist’s t-shirt, album, or EP.

[trendymusicballer]

Artists need to post videos besides music videos.

Many bands and artists get into the habit of only posting music videos on their YouTube channel. In reality, posting about the band’s life and activities has become a proven trend.

Artists should utilize acoustic versions of their songs. This does not have to be super professionally shot and recorded. In fact, sometimes it appears more authentic and vulnerable if it isn’t perfect. I love the idea of behind the scenes videos. These videos capture the moments of an artist that usually wouldn’t be seen. Again, this creates authenticity and a deeper connection between fans and artists. Either way, artists should make sure they are posting videos that are not necessarily always official music videos.

[trendymusicballer]

Streaming is about loyalty.

Everyone knows streaming is not profitable, but why are all the major players like Amazon and YouTube still joining this industry? They are penetrating this market in order to increase loyalty to their brand. It is seen as part of a whole entertainment package offered by companies. For Amazon, you can stream music, stream movies, and shop extremely easily with free shipping. This creates a bundle of services in one. Even if consumers choose not to utilize one of their services, it is still included. This causes the consumer to stick with Amazon since he/she is already paying for the rest of their services.

[trendymusicballer]

Alanna Story merch bundles

Alanna Story has now started to utilize the bundle method of selling merchandise. This enables fans to get a bigger bang for their buck, while still supporting an indie artist like Alanna Story. They are selling a t shirt, EP, and a journal book for only $30! This is super cool, and it is a wise music marketing move on their part. I assume they will continue to do this with more of their products.

[trendymusicballer]

Adele ditches LiveNation & AEG

Adele has become more and more of an icon with each record she releases. An artist of her status will usually make a deal with a larger conglomerate to promote and set up each show across the nation. However, Adele has chosen to make a separate deal for each city she plays on her next tour. This is super unusual, but it has been done before. This method is done to drive promoters into bidding for work with Adele and give her the best deal possible. Her booking agent has 10x more work than if she were to have settled for a less fair LiveNation deal, but the predicted outcome will be worth it for everyone involved.

[trendymusicballer]

Smaller Blogs = More Fans

As someone who is constantly dreaming big and setting my sites high, I have discovered that, not only are big publications hard to land, but sometimes they don’t even achieve what a smaller blog would. Small blogs tend to have niche, cult followings that are pumped about whatever the blogger posts. Big publications have millions of viewers/reader, but are they really interested in your music?

A small publication tends to push the artist much more, because less known writers tend to not have post quotas or large amount of posts to promote. This means more of their energy can be put into your featured post. Smaller blogs will also tend to grow with you and maintain a relationship of promoting you. They usually actually care about you and your music, as opposed to big name writers trying to get a certain amount of views.

[trendymusicballer]

Snapchat for musicians

The average young person (13-25) sends 1-6 “snaps” on Snapchat every single day. This app used to be seen as a way for teens to flirt and waste time, but now it is a force to be reckoned with. It has proven itself to not just be a flickering light that only burns for a second in the app world before quickly dying out, but instead, it has become a major player for this industry.

Snapchat has been embraced by many celebrities and corporations alike in order to keep a steady stream of connectivity between producers and consumers. On any given day, artists will do what are called “takeovers,” which are essentially companies giving up their Snapchat account to a band or artist for the day. In this way, if you like the artist, you may give the company a follow to ensure you see every move of the band. Snapchat is much different than any other form of media, because it does not attempt to save a moment in time or archive a person’s events. Instead, it is only a quick glimpse into the person’s life. A Snap Story lasts no longer than 24hours before deleting forever. Musicians can use this as a way of conveying both pertinent information about the next 24 hours, or they may use this function as a way of showing fans their every day life. The latter technique tends to create a stronger bond between fan and artist, because it shows fans that the artist is human, rather than just a product or icon. In conclusion, musicians should embrace Snapchat sooner than later.

[trendymusicballer]

Instagram’s “Boomerang”

A recent trend for band’s and artists is the use of many short videos. These videos are used to show a short repetitive glimpse into the band’s everyday life or musical experiences. Vine sorta died out until Twitter started showing its videos live in Twitter feeds. Now, I personally watch tons of vines but only on Twitter. I have seen how bands share their creative/funny/cool vines on Twitter and gain much more attention than if they only tweeted text.

Instagram is now pushing Boomerang, which is a combination between vines and gifs (short audioless videos/images). Boomerang creates repeating loops of 1 second long videos and reverses the video before the loop starts over. Pharrell and Twenty-One Pilots have already begun to use Boomerang as a promotional tool.

Here are some examples: http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2015/11/give-your-instagram-a-boost-with-boomerang.html

[trendymusicballer]

Dream Chief - IDK Why

Official Video for Dream Chief's single "IDK Why" "Movement EP" out now ~ Buy on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/movement-ep/id1037934679 Stream: h...

[trendymusicballer]

The Playlist Boom

As most music lovers and discoverers have probably seen, playlists have taken off more than ever in 2015 and continue to be a marketing force as we embark into 2016. To be relevant, which is the basis of an artist’s success or failure, is to be mixed in with other relevant artists and genres at the moment.

Spotify is famous for its phenomenal looking interface for playlists and beautiful imagery that then captures the consumer by labeling the playlist as “chill” or “party” or “happy” etc. So, a playlist is given life. The images add the visual representation of goals (a popular term currently), as the “chill” playlist shows the goal of being chill by showing someone sitting on a couch with friends or a book. The “party” playlist shows a Dj and blacklights and people jumping. It is all about capturing the listener.

Another use of playlists is by SoundCloud. SoundCloud is one of the most convenient ways to make and share a playlist, as well as embedit into one’s personal website. This technique is used constantly by blogs. The blog will create a SoundCloud playlist with all of its favorite new tracks. From there, the playlist will be posted on the blog. A week later, the process repeats. This is how many indie artists gain massive exposure over a short amount of time. Sites like Hypemachine keep track of how many times a track is playlisted and posted about. It then ranks tracks for listeners to find the best tracks right now.

I foresee this trend continuing for some time.

[trendymusicballer]

Dream Chief ~

[trendymusicballer]

YouTube still crashes through social norms of stardom.

As most of us realize, YouTube has been a culture-changing phenomenon for years now. The difference we’re starting to see now is the unexpected stardom rising from nowhere. A user with the name PewDiePie earns more than a million dollars a month solely from his YouTube activity. (What kind of rich and famous icon goes by the name PewDiePie? ......What?) Reality really sets in when you see the list of YouTube stars’ subscriber counts compared to world renowned musicians:

9 million –  Zoella, Bethany Mota, Bruno Mars, David Guetta

11 million – Sky Does Minecraft, Skrillex

13 million – The Fine Bros, Justin Bieber

16 million – Jenna Marbles, Katy Perry

17 million – No YouTuber equivalent – Rihanna, Katy Perry, OneDirection

24 million – HolaSoyGerman  – No music equivalent

39 million – PewDiePie – No music equivalent

As you can see, the tides continue to change in the YouTube world. Only time will tell how the world will react.

- John Tuttle, Dream Chief

(info from: http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2015/09/youtubes-biggest-threat-to-the-music-industry-may-not-be-what-you-think.html)

[trendymusicballer]

Welcome ya’ll

Hi there, I have just begun a music marketing blog for my college class. Here I will be writing about trends and big moves people/companies are making in the music business. Enjoy.