PROMO PACKAGE Slayer digipak, vinyl, figurine + promo videos

I mention beer as a great example of merch below - you can buy both Slayer and Iron Maiden beer in Luxembourg (Auchan), and Motorhead, plus some other branded wine/spirits if I recall correctly. That this is now a common strategy, especially in heavy metal, can be seen from a simple google ('heavy metal beer'). See this Pinterest for a gallery (pic, right comes from it):

A salutary lesson - I'd tapped out a lengthy post on a smartphone using the Android app ... only to see every word blink and disappear (possibly because the broadband connection flicked off). If using this very useful tool, its worth saving a few times to avoid the risk of this...

NB: As the article link contains a filter-unfriendly term, its below the read more line; the videos featured in the article contain uncensored strong language.  

Multi-editionalising has become the norm, certainly for rock/Indie acts

Here's a new example of a converged, web 2.0 promo package featuring a digipak, vinyl and download options, a range of videos/vodcasts, and even an expensive, limited edition figurine (which clearly anchors the core target audience as being male, and a significant chunk of this being older males, more likely to be able to afford such items!).

The Metal Eagle Edition of Repentless is also available. Made of aluminum alloy, measuring 15” X 17” X 3” and weighing in at a hefty 7.8 pounds, the Metal Eagle Edition will house a deluxe digipak of the new Repentless CD plus bonus material detailed below. The limited (only 3,000 copies worldwide) and numbered Metal Eagle Edition will be a direct-to-consumer item and available exclusively via the Nuclear Blast mailorder online stores.

You really should take note of this - regardless of how simple your brief might be, your ads should reflect not just a digipak but the wider range of options we expect to see today, and you could usefully (and very simply) spin off digipak designs into vinyl editions - after all, the digipak is in large part mimicking vinyl sleeves.

Thrash metal icons Slayer are signed to an Indie label, Nuclear Blast, who astutely exploit the potential of online tools to engage with the existing fanbase and target a new audience for their acts.

ALT VIDEOS Tendencies to tout tour tickets

I've blogged on alternative, secondary music video formats before: the one-take, single shot video; the lyric video; the album trailer; the special edition or merchandise unwrapping.

To this list, one worth pondering for an additional quickfire production that will help to drive website and social media content and engagement, add the tour date video (with website plugging included too).

The example is from 80s crossover (punk/thrash) legends Suicidal Tendencies. The video, spotted from a browse of the TeamRock site, a rich source for spotting evolving marketing strategies, includes several features:

• performance footage
• album art and website splash page, with plugs for both
• like the most basic lyric videos, the main content is a vertically scrolling list of tour dates, white font on a black background
• the audio consists of a snippet from a new album track, NOT the full track
• The unpolished look is further evidence of how artists have incorporated audience approaches (fan-made videos) into their own playbooks. Even the mighty Metallica have dropped an unwrapping video, a hugely popular format that may have had pop origins but is now seen from audiences and artists across the age and genre spectrum.

I'll add to this more insight gleaned from the TeamRock site (an e-zine side to a stable of print magazines such as Classic Rock); Iron Maiden providing another example of how acts monetise themselves in an era of low record sales:

Iron Maiden Fan Club members will be given access to an exclusive pre-sale, with information available via the official website.A Trooper VIP upgrade package will also be available, giving fans early access to the venue, exclusive goodies as well as food and Trooper beer. VIP tickets cost £140 and gig tickets will need to be bought separately. [LouderSound]

Artists variously charge for photos with fans, sometimes as part of a VIP backstage package, have licensed drinks, offer exclusives to fan club or registered website members (often charging a subscription fee).

...Maiden are a great example of a long-running act who skilfully use traditional and social media, and diverse merchandising, to successfully monetise their art and brand. Here's another example from them...the thankyou to fans, a natural example of direct address made possible by online media.

...

[recent update:]

I mention beer as a great example of merch - you can buy both Slayer and Iron Maiden beer in Luxembourg (Auchan), and Motorhead, plus some other branded wine/spirits if I recall correctly. That this is now a common strategy, especially in heavy metal, can be seen from a simple google ('heavy metal beer'). See this Pinterest for a gallery (pic, right comes from it):

MERCHANDISING Whiskey in the jar - branded booze

(yes, a wee Thin Lizzy intertextual ref there...)


Here's yet more, including Indie rockers Shed 7: 
https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/iron-maiden-queen-madness-make-13639252.amp#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s

 frequently raise the point that digitization has meant that artists and record labels alike have sought to monetize other areas, and booze is a prime example of how wide this move into branded merchandising is. Take the example of Iron Maiden - they don't just sell one branded beer ... they have a whole website dedicated to their beer line! Smart branding.

See IronMaidenbeer.com.

There is an age check:


See TeamRock article for lots of other examples (and a nice Megadeth intertextual ref).

(and here's a further update:)

I mention beer as a great example of merch - you can buy both Slayer and Iron Maiden beer in Luxembourg (Auchan), and Motorhead, plus some other branded wine/spirits if I recall correctly. That this is now a common strategy, especially in heavy metal, can be seen from a simple google ('heavy metal beer'). See this Pinterest for a gallery (pic, right comes from it):

MERCHANDISING Metal figurine toys put Maiden ahEddie

UPDATE: Maiden mascot Halloween masks! 

If you look back to the 70s, American glam-rockers KISS predated all of the merch ideas I've blogged on, flogging lunch boxes, PJs, basically ANYTHING they could shove a KISS logo onto (and make-up sets!)...

The Maiden masks are also an example of the metal/horror links. And let's not forget the Maiden pinball machine...

https://www.loudersound.com/news/iron-maiden-launch-new-range-of-eddie-halloween-masks

The e-zine MetalSucks is one of many to feature the release of new Iron maiden figurines...

Xmas campaigns and social media engagement

Metallica fan's festive treat.

This is a key time of year for acts to engage with their audiences, and you'll see all sorts of examples of this. Social media is primarily used by acts to create the sense of enagement and interaction with fans - even though, for bigger artists at least, most of this 'personal' interaction is actually produced by hired help.

Iron Maiden's mascot Eddie is given an annual Xmas makeover

PopUp site: Alice takes Whitehouse pill

The site IronMaidenbeer.com shows one side of the diversifying approach of artists in the digital era - here's another, the mock election campaign of Alice Cooper (Wiki):

Visit site.

Such satire works as smart branding and PR for an artist that released his first album back in 1969 - fans will be familiar with his song Elected, but there is enough here to encourage wide (viral) spreading of the link or just the main poster with the manifesto - including a younger demographic than his primary fanbase.

See LoudWire.

(and here's a new note on the merch issue:)

I mention beer as a great example of merch below - you can buy both Slayer and Iron Maiden beer in Luxembourg (Auchan), and Motorhead, plus some other branded wine/spirits if I recall correctly. That this is now a common strategy, especially in heavy metal, can be seen from a simple google ('heavy metal beer').See this Pinterest for a gallery (pic, right comes from it):

UGC viral fan-made photos making minions

Just as with film, the notion that a producer churns out a text that is then passively consumed by an audience is clearly no longer the case in the music industry either. Artists feel great pressure to be heavily involved in some variety of social media to sustain interest (though there's certainly an argument that this eventually undermines interest as mystique wanes).

You will most likely have seen your own variations of the following - paste in links as comments and I'll add them...



See below for images

M.LANG INDIE: Jesus + Mary Chain

A band notorious for its fraternal flare-ups (the brothers in the band were reknowned for fighting on stage), but also an obstinate attitude towards pop (they were seen as noise-smiths rather than tune-smiths) the Jesus and Mary Chain naturally didn't produce straightforward commercial videos.

Here's examples from classic J+MC tracks which exuded Indie attitude, by which I mean...

• low-key, naturalistic lighting (practical as much as aesthetic: low budget!)
• some strange, elliptical framing
• whip pans that lead to ... nothing!
• distorted footage
• performance which is so wan, exuding such froideur, its the antithesis of the exciting, energising rock performance we're so used to seeing
• the lipsynching in particular is reluctantly done, but shots of drumming and guitar playing also slowed down to be out of synch with the music
• just like Iron Maiden on the German Top of the Pops back in the 80s (when the band swapped intruments repeatedly, making a mockery of the miming) these vids stand as an uneasy compromise: marketing and commercial returns seem like a dirty word to Indie bands and fans BUT the band's record co needs the vids to sell records and the band to raise their profile + build their fanbase
• this reluctant, contrary attitude is also where the Pixies' Velouria single-shot vid arose from
• neither are so surreal as to be not be recognisable as m.vids tho: we see many of the standard signifiers of performance (some focus on singer, MS/MCUs of playing instruments, reasonable pace of editing), its just that the delivery is alien to the hyped up norm

J+MC vids on YouTube.

JUST LIKE HONEY


HAPPY WHEN IT RAINS


APRIL SKIES


HEAD ON

Using TV set for live footage: Iron Maiden vid

Another vid picked out by Rob, Iron Maiden's Can I Play With Madness. A few brief comments, perhaps the key being the use of a TV set to bring in live footage rather than simple crosscutting:
I think the key to grasping this vid is the use of teens. Maiden were a mature band with a decade of growing success behind them, but needed to ensure they appealed to teens to continue selling.

Notable too that the teens are both M+F.

From an international perspective, we get a trad cliche of England: rural, castles...

But this was also a band at the peak of their commercial success: the SFX denote a high-budget vid - taking in elements of sci-fi, fantasy, horror (traditionally male genres, matching with the music genre)
The TVs to provide live footage is a nice touch; a postmodern element (Guns n Roses would use this approach in Welcome to the Jungle and other vids too).
[Iron Maiden - Can I Play With Madness]