DISTRIBUTION CONVERGENCE Instagram album release

https://www.nme.com/news/music/jaden-smith-released-new-album-instagram-syre-2352122

FACEBOOK INSTAGRAM music and lip sync features

Convergence continues...

With Facebook recently tieing up rights deals with multiple labels their subsidiary Instagram has announced an add music option for their Daily Story feature ... and a Lip Sync Live feature is rumoured for a Facebook launch soon

https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/28/instagram-stories-music/

SOCIAL MEDIA key to marketing

Not exactly a revelation, blogging on the basis of a simple, sharp quote from Lily Allen (who in the same article says it's the 360 deals for branding, endorsements that make money now, not the music):

Lily Allen: ‘We need to fight back against these forces’

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/may/06/we-need-to-fight-back-against-forces-lily-allen?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

Allen responds to a question asking how she can face going on her social media daily when she gets so much abuse through it:

Well... a) Social media, what it’s for, is to partake in conversations. Just because my conversations are amplified or misconstrued, doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t be able to express myself, and that’s what we’re talking about, really, freedom of expression. b) Every marketing budget now takes social media engagement into account. So if I didn’t tweet and I didn’t do Instagram I wouldn’t be here right now – we literally wouldn’t be having this conversation.

WOMEN still controlled by men, Instagram only space for genuine expression?

A good look here at how patronising patriarchy, an assumption that women are more pliable and will do as instructed, remains ingrained in the music biz, and an interesting side note on how being 'woke' (Katy bloody Perry's farcical attempt to show her socially conscious side leading to that garbling of language) is seen as important for branding and the opportunity to land marketing deals with brands.

A perhaps too uncritical, but useful, highlighting of Instagram especially as social media being the only space where female artists are permitted to freely express themselves - ignoring the product placement rife in these platforms and other forms of artifice.

Pop’s glass ceiling: why new female stars can’t break through https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jul/21/pops-glass-ceiling-why-new-female-stars-cant-break-through?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

MONETISING, PROMO CAMPAIGNS, BRANDING The Pixies

a branded campaign

As good an example as any, they're highly active across multiple platforms, and even managed to persuade me to lash out on a vinyl copy of their comeback single Bagboy and EP after spotting a promo tweet. Like many who ordered this I don't currently have a record player - the package also came with download codes for high bitrate (quality) MP3s.

Old-school email is a tool they use very effectively - always integrating their other platforms when doing so. These screenshots largely speak for themselves:

• using staggered video releases to push new releases and tours alike
• they've recorded videos for every album (2) and EP track since re-forming, a growing trend (not least as YouTube plays themselves generate revenue)
• the range of videos work to both please their existing, ageing fanbase (the band date back to the late 80s and were a key influence on Nirvana) and to target a new, younger audience too (for sheer inspiration, I highly recommend viewing a batch of these and/or Depeche Mode videos)
• they offer exclusives to various online ezines; an advantage of multiple videos is that they can offer this to a variety of sites over time
• they highlight Twitter, Facebook and Instagram (plus their website), currently the big 3 of social media (surely users will tire of Twitter eventually?!)
• look carefully at the followers/likes numbers, and you'll get a good example of which platforms are most/least significant for a primarily mature adult fanbase
• the emails are not excessive, but often enough to keep prompting fans into potential purchase of recordings, merchandise or tickets, or at worst to view their video/s or visit their online platforms
• the branding is clear: the P in a circle at the bottom of the email; the banner/masthead across their online platforms pushing the latest album, and a consistent image for their user icons
• recordings are offered in multiple formats, including vinyl and boxsets
• there is also a link for streaming
• this is tied into multiple streaming platforms

Skip to 1:43 for 2nd question in this interview in which they discuss social media...(part of my extensive Pixies playlist)

a few of the emails The Pixies (... the marketing agency they've hired!) have sent me.

Details of the latest, plus screenshots from their platforms, are below the read more line

Music vid renaissance...for the biggest acts

The big budget music video died with Michael Jackson's reign as king of pop, as the music industry faced up to the disruptive impact of digitization.
Consumer/fan-made videos are widely used by the industry, and lo-fi official videos are not uncommon.
True.
BUT, in some cases this established narrative is being undermined.


Snippet:
Film-maker Romain Gavras’s cinematic vision for Jamie xx’s Gosh – which features a cast of 400 people and eschewed CGI and 3D effects – came with one instruction for its viewers: fully immerse yourselves in the apocalyptic experience. “Please watch full-screen with loud speakers or headphones,” Gavras tweeted on its release this month. The video was a moment, rolled out for a track that was originally released more than a year ago. It’s a track that really doesn’t need a music video, let alone a physical copy, designed to look like a knock-off DVD, of a 40-second trailer for said video, which was delivered to journalists days before its official premiere.
At a time when the music world is still dealing with illegal downloads and streaming culture, such an ostentatious approach to promoting an old song may appear incongruous. But thanks to the power of a small number of elite artists, music videos are having a renaissance and once more becoming events in themselves, the way they were when Michael Jackson released Thriller or Madonna put out Erotica. Some are cinematic: Beyoncé’s visual album Lemonade, which is set to sweep the board at this year’s MTV Video Music awards; Rihanna’s Sledgehammer, the first video shot using solely Imax cameras. Others, such as David Bowie and Radiohead, have engaged with a new demographic using short, shareable Instagram vignettes.
Major artists and their labels are again spending serious money on music videos. However, unlike a few years ago, when the likes of Robin Thicke and Miley Cyrus were going for the shock factor, artists are taking artistic, inventive approaches. When they do try to provoke outrage – as with Kanye West’s Famous or Rihanna’s Bitch Better Have My Money – it’s a step beyond Blurred Lines or Wrecking Ball.
How the pop video got weird again.

WEBSITE Sly Antics Leeds, UK Indie band

IN THIS POST: Analysis of an obscure UK Indie band's website (for comparison with the major acts The Doors and Lady Gaga already blogged on), discussion of how relevant or not band websites are given the role of social media today, and points on why you might want to go for a local/student band rather than international stars... I also reviewed their debut video, making this more of a look at an all-round promo package. The band have tweeted me since I did this post; you can check out Sly Antics' updated website here!

WHY PICK A SMALL-TIME LOCAL (or even student) ACT?
You might be tempted to produce a promo package for a (currently!) small-time, local act rather than for a major existing/heritage artist. The closest I've seen to this thus far has been a group who entered the recording studio with their own metalcore band, Sunburnt in December, to produce the broadcast-quality audio required. Two of the group were Media students. This meant they had their cast sorted and a keen, engaged cast at that! They had to be ... they set up for performance footage in a snow-covered Yorkshire moors setting in what remains one of my favourite students videos (even if there were opportunities to improve it...). This video also came to mind given the main website image Sly Antics use (they also use it for other social media logos)

NB: the video contains FLASHING LIGHTS and scenes of horror

The advantages of local or student bands are evident:

Viral vids Audience remakes: White Stripes

I'll offer this as a simple example of a vid that's tailor-made (I've no idea if this was the intention; their vids do tend to feature kaleidoscope or psychedelic repeating patterns) to encourage or facilitate fan-made vids. A video that could be used to invite fans to submit their own version, for publishing via a band's site/YT channel/Instagram site etc:

Easy to replicate via cropped layering, and open to creative interpretation (other items/places/people appearing, not necessarily linked to the music or performance).
Remember, U2 released three videos for One; even the world's biggest bands have used secondary vids to maximize the promotional impact of vid releases and to suggest that they've not lost sight of their humbler roots.

For other examples/inspiration, take a look at this previous post.

I'd really welcome any suggestions of other examples you come across.

Using INSTAGRAM to promote promos! (Britney, Rhianna etc)

Blogging, FB and Twitter are social/new media frequently mentioned here as tools used by artists/labels to boost acts'/videos profile and distribution.
Another useful site, heavily used by many artists, from the smallest Indie acts to global names, is Instagram...

On August 9, 2012, English musician Ellie Goulding came out with a new music video for her song "Anything Could Happen". The video only contained fan submitted Instagram photographs that used various Instagram filters to represent words or lyrics from the song^[63] and over 1200 different photographs were submitted. [Wiki]

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]