M6.2THE EVOLUTION OF OUR MUSIC EXPERIENCE

A Special Thanks to:

Steve jobs was one of the great innovators of our modern era. his creative insight and incredible abilities to market his inventions and make them mainstream was at the forefront of our media sharing revolution. Not only did he make computers cool, he took them from mainstream to main street.

Sean Parker (left) and Shawn Fanning (right) were the pioneers of the media sharing revolution. Although hated by the entire music industry top to bottom (most notably by Metallica) these two are loved by billions for creating the framework of the modern age of media sharing through their former website, Napster

Rdio

• Rdio markets their brand as the a personal juke box…’play what you want, when you want it’

• They wanted to create a music sharing app that was socially driven, something that was ad-free, and offered a reliable online service and great experience

• Rdio is an app that was created by the same guys that created Skype: Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis

• Since launching in 2010 the executive has been tight lipped about how many members they have, however insiders say its rivaling that of Spotify, which is about 24 million users *

*Source: TechCrunch.com retrieved from : http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/11/rdio-20-new-countries-latin-america/ February 14, 2014.

Brendan James• A 34 year old Singer/songwriter from New York City, Ny

• Basis his music around his abilities to play the piano

• Influenced by James Taylor, Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, as well as more current acts such as Ryan Adams and Death Cab for Cutie

• He just released his fifth album and will be touring to promote it

• Ironically enough, I found out about Brendan James because I was looking for the artist featured in this recent IPhone Commercial…. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1QLMHgX_VU

• Here is his song (that actually sounds a lot like it)… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJkngXENj6Q

Social Media• Like many musicians, Brendan has his own website to promote his brand:

http://www.brendanjames.com/

• He is also very active on:• Facebook• Twitter• Instagram• Linkedin• And of course he has his own YouTube channel

• Influenced by James Taylor, Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, as well as more current acts such as Ryan Adams and Death Cab for Cutie

Online Community• Unfortunately, Brendan doesn’t have much of an online community or a

following

• He is like many singer/songwriters who are just starting out and trying to find their ‘place’ within the incredibly competitive musical market

• He could gain some exposure if he followed Debra Eckerling’s 5 tips for musicians. Because I noticed that Brendan was almost oblivious to her tips:

Debra Eckerlings 5 Tips1. He hasn’t found his audience: i.e. I don’t think he has been able to make the

connection to his fans that many musicians do

2. his twitter posts are all over the place, i.e. there is no focus and its hard to learn more about who he is, thus making it hard for the audience to connect to him.

3. he doesn’t, or hasn’t illustrated a willingness to engage his fans. I haven’t seen any response to tweets from his fans, nor have I seen any ‘shou-outs’ from him to his fans (although, he only has 4800 followers and he is only following 66)

4. this one he does a pretty good job at, he’s always ‘putting up flyers’ so to speak and letting people know where and when he is playing

5. this one he is awful at. He goes weeks and in some cases over a month without tweeting

Finding the Audience• I don’t think he has found his audience just yet

• Although he is on his fifth album, I think he is still trying to find out who his fans are

• His posts on twitter range from humanistic ones that feature his daughter, wife and dog to anti-government and anti-war slogans

• It appears as though he is trying really hard to connect with an audience by using terminology that is thought to be ‘cool’ i.e. pro-Obama yet anti-government

• He doesn’t seem to mirror the image he has in his music to what he says and who he portrays himself on twitter

Content Shared• I haven’t seen much meaningful commentary from James Brendan on his

twitter feed other than his humanism. Its nice to see how he has humanized himself, i.e. talking about his family, friends and experiences

• I do however see much meaningful content on his twitter feed regarding his brand i.e. his music

• To me, meaningful content from a musician means, where they are playing, when I can see them, see new videos, or listen to new music

• By no means, do I look to musicians for meaningful content outside of their musical abilities. i.e. views on politics or economics. Although some people do, but to each their own

Engaging• I think Brendan could engage his fans more

• Re-following or follow-back is a good way to do this on twitter

• Although he does seem to comment on popular current events, I think that adding some critically reflective commentary on current events would be good, that way his audience can see some of his true colors• Seems like he is currently just posting what the masses are saying. I

tend to like the people who actually put thought into their words, rather than just say what everyone else is saying in order to be ‘safe’

• To me, to be ‘engaging’ means to demand presence or attention without permission.• a good example of this is how Yoko and John portrayed themselves in

the 70’s by speaking and acting out and showing their true beliefs

Engaging and Consistency• This was yet another area where I saw room for significant advancement

• Twitter, facebook and Instagram posts were few and far between• This leaves the audience questioning their want for engagement with

their fans

• As mentioned earlier, I saw a lack of engagement from this artist with his fans, this could be due to the lack of consistency with his posts.• Posts were weeks and in some cases months apart and they didn’t

offer much from an engagement point of view, nor did I find them to be overly meaningful

• What I did like about his posting pattern, is that you could always tell when he was performing, because although his posts were inconsistent, he always posts when he is performing

Personal Listening Experience Timeline

I was born in 1983, therefore I have seen a tremendous change in our experiences of listening to and acquiring music. here is a quick look at how my listening experiences has evolved over the past 30 years

Thanks for Reading