Audience Interaction: Nine Inch Nails

NB: the article contains strong language

Compared to the arguably cynical, hackneyed, overhyped apps, dripping with prompts to buy more merchandise, for Lady Gaga and Snoop Lion releases, this example of using websites, dropping USB sticks at gigs and suchlike is innovative and refreshing - and a source of ideas for any forward thinking promotion. Mark Beaumount details his groundbreaking Year Zero project:

He has explored the latest on-stage hardware and in-studio techniques and has been eager to use cyberspace to give his fans an all-encompassing multimedia experience. Its pinnacle was 2007's Year Zero project, an apocalyptic concept album about a futuristic US dystopia run by the military and populated by drug-controlled surveillance slaves. Initially, Year Zero sounded about as sci-fi as an Oyster card. Then fans began finding hidden website URLs imprinted into their promotional T-shirts and USB sticks of coded static left in toilets at NIN gigs. These clues led them to a labyrinth of websites for fictional organisations such as the Bureau of Morality and the First Evangelical Church of Plano, all part of an ultra-elaborate alternate reality game. For two months Year Zero lit up the web, turning from a cloak-and-dagger internet lark into a concerted effort to rally real-life political protest. Complete immersion.

Reznor has a track record for putting out some quite extreme promo clips, but also for looking beyond record labels for new digital forms of (self-)distribution:

iPad apps replacing albums? Snoop, Bjork, Gaga...

Rather different from the usual album review! (on Biophilia)

IN BRIEF:
With major artists Bjork, Jay-Z, Lady Gaga and Snoop Lion amongst those releasing iPad apps, does this mark the end of the album - or, at the time of writing at least, are these apps simply another promo tool seeking to flog merchandise ($100 pseudo spliff anyone? comparable to freemium games?) as well as tracks?

Ideas of this nature are far from new - I remember picking up several CD-Rom albums ('multimedia-a 2007 article posed the question: '“Interactive” Album Art: The CD-ROMs Of The Digital-Music Age?'
enhanced') back in the 90s ... and pretty much never bothering with the added content. Indeed,

WMG tried adding interactive booklets to about 75 albums sold on iTunes this spring, providing extra photos, lyrics and links to multimedia content much like extras on a DVD. But the booklets require Flash technology, which Apple later disabled in Quicktime because of a security flaw for which it has yet to release a patch.

So, are we moving beyond the concept of a traditional album, with its dozen or so tracks sequenced and packaged with cover art? Actually, hasn't that already become passe with most iTunes (etc) users picking up specific tracks not albums, and Spotify users creating track-based not album-based playlists?

Kanye West's interactive video

I'll get round to a round-up post on video-centred apps that I've posted on multiple times; this is a linked but distinct topic: Kanye West has made his new video interactive - you can change the vocal and click to grab screenshots for Instagram (etc).
Here's what you see when you visit KanyeWest.com (as I did on 23.7.13):

The splash screen for KanyeWest.com in July 2013

I was reminded about this just now thanks to a MusicGuardian article, a great source of relevant news, interviews and features, specifically a blog post by Harriet Gibsone. She makes a great point about Kanye's new vid, which is exclusively available via his site (a pointer towards YouTube's grip loosening?):

As this video is streamed exclusively from West's website, it renders the viewer unable to fast-forward or trace backwards: Black Skinhead demands your attention

What I also noticed is that there's no attempt at any age restriction, or warning, yet the track features swearwords and racial terms. YouTube hasn't a great reputation for effectively limiting content to minors, but it does at least run age warnings/restrictions and censor some material.
[tbc]

Apps v Albums: paradigm shift?

The 1st album-app: see links list at end of this post

As 2012 draws to a close we could be close to a major shift in how the music industry operates, or, to use some terminology, a paradigm shift (a change in the normal, typical way of organising or conceiving of something). iTunes has already seen the traditional album under threat as record labels see customers increasingly downloading individual tracks rather than whole albums, with the shift to digital formats also diminishing the impact of sleeve designs that made LPs and, to a lesser degree, CDs objects of desire and often collectable items.
There have been a raft of announcements from major acts that they are releasing new material as apps, most prominently Lady Gaga, whose next album will be released as an app. Others are seeking to encourage listeners to upgrade from streams of their work to purchases by throwing in videos and other content with the album (or concert DVD) bundled as an app.
The article below gives good examples of this.

There are also multiple additional links at the end of this post.

You need to be blogging on, and thinking about digitisation and how this imapcted the music industry - a relevant factor when thinking about audience targeting/feedback/publicity, design, the rising significance of back catalogue sales (often stimulated by reissue/remastered editions, with previously unreleased demos and alternative versions added to the album or as a 2nd CD also common, as is 'best of' collections with a small number of new/unreleased tracks). As the long tail theory becomes an accepted part of contemporary economics (Amazon is the perfect example of a company making fortunes by selling few copies of many back catalogue items), new videos for archive tracks is a major growth area for media producers within the creative industries (as an economic sector, second only to the financial sector in scale and share of GDP) ... such as yourselves.
If you've been looking at the 1st part of your exam, you'll have noted that Q1a (DCRUP) is potentially linked to this issue - ditto Q1b (MANGeR), for example through Audience.

Music apps are the new albums. Or the new concert DVDs. Or...

David Gilmour, Lady Gaga, The xx and Calvin Harris app strategies show music industry experimentation

Lady Gaga's next album will also be released as an app. Photograph: Daniel Roland/AFP/Getty Images

Every so often, the music industry gets sucked into a debate about whether the traditional album is dead, even if the murderer has varied down the years, from iTunes downloads to Spotify playlists.

Covergence - albums via magazine + papers + iPad apps

The post on Caliban points up examples of convergence - a music act effectively with its own TV [online] output.

Here's more egs, again flagging up the fast-changing nature of the music biz as the digital revolution grips every facet of the media industry in its binary teeth, of the music industry converging with the print industry.

MY NAME IS PRINCE

If you're unaware of who Prince is, try the wiki...
Lets start with an interesting vid, blending faux-news report ('Vanessa' is actually famed Cheers actress Kirsty Ally)

Prince giving away his 2007 album with the Mail on Sunday - a frankly bizarre choice given the ultra-conservative nature of the paper, and much of its readership - is one early example; the newspaper effectively became a music publisher, record label! Here's the Mail's announcement.

His move didn't go down well with the music industry:

One music store executive described the plan as "madness" while others said it was a huge insult to an industry battling fierce competition from supermarkets and online stores. Prince's label has cut its ties with the album in the UK to try to appease music stores.
The Entertainment Retailers Association said the giveaway "beggars belief". "It would be an insult to all those record stores who have supported Prince throughout his career," ERA co-chairman Paul Quirk told a music conference. "It would be yet another example of the damaging covermount culture which is destroying any perception of value around recorded music.
"The Artist Formerly Known as Prince should know that with behaviour like this he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores. And I say that to all the other artists who may be tempted to dally with the Mail on Sunday."

More on this:
Prince's CD giveaway another nail in the album's coffin
Why Prince's Free CD Ploy Worked

Prince was reportedly paid $500,000 over and above the royalties for each CD — typically around 10%. Considering that his last album, 3121, sold only 80,000 copies in the U.K., this deal may have earned him more than eight times as much. Plus, Planet Earth — which has gotten fairly good reviews so far — is now in the hands of thousands of people who may never have thought to buy it. Maybe they like what they hear ... and maybe they want more. They'll have to settle for buying up his back catalog, because the 21 shows he's playing in London in August and September are already sold out. Naturally, he's giving away a copy of the album with every ticket (a trick he pulled with Musicology back in 2004).

...

There's no ignoring this bigger, stronger breed of freebie, but there's also no reason it has to signal the death of the music industry. Thanks to the rise of digital distribution, the business of making and selling music has been in flux for years, with labels, lawyers and retailers constantly forced to adapt. "In the record industry, you can barely hear yourself think for the sound of the business being dismantled and the paradigms being broken," says Conor McNicholas, editor of music weekly the New Musical Express. Those who can't keep up are flailing — last month, HMV reported its annual profits have more than halved — or already fallen: last year, retail giant Tower Record sclosed its stores and in June the U.K. music chain Fopp shut up shop. Meanwhile, record labels are looking for solutions in mergers and takeovers — any day now, British firm EMI could be bought out by investment group Terra Firma. Says McNicholas: "With the pace of change, you just have to be very quick on your feet and rework your business model every six months — that's the challenge."

Are free CDs killing music?

But the free CD has been around for decades. Smash Hits gave away flexi-discs in the 1980s and modern music magazines such as NME, Mojo and The Word have long been including CD compilations with their issues.

The industry is feeling the strain

It was recently estimated that 10% of CDs produced in the UK are covermounts. But most of these are to plug new artists and therefore have the blessing of the industry, because fledgling acts reach new audiences.

There are fears, however, that the Prince deal marks a new phase in which established artists will cut record companies and traditional retailers out of the equation.

[Q magazine have reduced the frequency of their covermounts, fearing being seen as a CD with a mag] ... In 1997, Q's first free CD - a high quality, best of the year - increased sales of the magazine by 325%, and the production cost was shared by the record company. But the returns have fallen since and the cost is now £150,000, fully absorbed by the magazine.

The broader issue of the Prince deal is how the function of albums has changed, says Mark Ellen, editor of The Word magazine.

"Five years ago people toured in order to sell records and called the name of their tour after their recording, and probably lost money in order to promote and extend the life of the album.

"That balance has shifted and now people put out albums to justify going on tour and charging more to go on tour."

As Prince might say, a sign o' the times.

Thats a point I've made often, thus the subtle highlighting - its useful to have this direct quote.

PRINCE DOES IT AGAIN: 2010 GIVEAWAY
Prince came up with the clever ploy of giving away an exclusive album with concert tickets, which has been widely repeated since and looks set to be an increasingly important means of music distribution henceforth. The vociferous condemnation of the music industry didn't stop the symbol, who went about for some time with "slave" on his forehead in protest at his record contract, from repeating the process in 2010, this time using a tabloid, The Mirror. I have to say I bought it. And it was about as good as the paper itself.

Prince gives away his new album - again

Prince bypasses record stores again with German magazine deal

Although details for only two territories have been released so far, 20Ten, the singer's 27th studio album, will be issued in Germany and Belgium as a magazine cover mount. In Germany at least, 20Ten will not be available in record stores or as a download.

... Since Prince's 2007 experiment, artists such as Paul McCartney and McFly have tried the model out.

Prince's war with iTunes plays into the hands of illegal filesharers

Sign of the times ... Prince gives away his latest album free with the Mirror

 

As a Prince fan, I bought the Mirror for the first time on Saturday to get a copy of his latest album, 20Ten. As a musician, I was puzzled by why he felt the need to give away his music with a UK tabloid that costs 65p. I was equally perplexed by his decision to snub iTunes because it doesn't pay advances.

ALBUMS WITH SUPPORTING MAGS

This is different from the idea of a covermount; in this case we're looking at artists' albums having an entire magazine commissioned to flesh out the package, and help encourage sales. The image below is from http://www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/classic-rock-presents-whitesnake-forevermore/
This is Future Publishing's (mag publisher) mag subscription sales site.

The same has been done for Motorhead, Jimi Hendrix (compilation, not new material!), plus Blondie:

The Blondie Fan Pack includes 'Panic Of Girls', the band’s brilliant new studio album, plus a 132-page magazine.
Fans who buy the Blondie Fan Pack will be able to hear Panic Of Girls weeks before it goes on sale in the UK record stores.  What’s more, the Fan Pack version of Panic Of Girls comes with two bonus tracks – that will not be on the record store version of the album.
The Fan Pack magazine is 100% Blondie-approved and contains major, all-new interviews with Debbie Harry, Chris Stein, Clem Burke and all the other members of Blondie, as they talk us through the making of the album and look back over a history that has seen them sell 40 million albums and break new ground in the worlds of pop and fashion.
The magazine is packed with a wealth of exclusive, never-before-seen pictures of Blondie – including rare treasures from Chris Stein’s own archive. A must for all Blondie fans!

(From http://www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/blondie-panic-of-girls-classic-rock-fan-pack/)

Future, of course, is far from a print-only publisher these days; rare indeed is the paper or magazine that doesn't offer some online content. iPad apps are another multimedia offering demonstrating convergence. At http://www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/music/guitarist-magazine-subscription/ you can see this:

I'm sure bands (Radiohead?) won't be far behind in tapping into potential new sources of revenue with Ipad apps - let me know if you come across any