N° and issue date : 50201 - 02/02/2005Circulation : 17000Periodicity : Monthly Page : 40Revolution_50201_40_324.pdf Size : 80 %Web Site: http://www.uk.revolutionmagazine.com

Copyright (Revolution N° 50201) No reproduction without authorisation

1 / 4

CDs

Mercury

onlinerock

digital

access

independentclose gap

giants now

digital online

online

online

ec

Bandsto online

Like the rock and popstars they admire

,

fans need to feelloved and digital is

helpmg artists gainfrom giving themexclusive access

,

says Emma Rigby

rUsede ma n

ri

The web is providing bands and

their record labels with new

marketing opportunities in an

environment where users can

buy their products direct . And

it is also helping independentartists close the gap on the

giants . There' s now nothing to

stop an unsigned artist creatingtheir own T-shirts and CDs

,

or

digital downloads,

to sell online .

David Balfour,

editor of music community site Record of the

Day ( www.recordoftheday.com ), points out that online media

has been a huge boon for bands that would otherwise struggleto be heard:

"

For bands that don' t have a record label behind

them,

the internet offersa

vital means of advertising and

marketing."

He points to The Darkness,

which built up a strong fan

base from the start, despite being largely ignored by media and

labels .

"

By using their site effectively , they could communicate

with their fans and community around the group . When the

labels eventually showed an interest,

there was already a

committed fan base in place anda strong online brand

,

"

he adds .

The band Thirteen Senses had been going for 13 months

before they signed to Mercury Records . Manager Phil Chadwick

says that, pre-signing , they had

a very basic site ."A friend set

up a page with information about gigs and dates,

"

he explains ,

but it had no interactivity ,

no messageboard ,

no mailing list.

Anyo e can c

.

e ere ecfind ï rm-

io andi eract

,

werestiliat t

e po nt herey

u

eed omeo e t

&

m ke

yo r vo ce heard

Eric WinboltPositiva Records

BUONGIORNO

N° and issue date : 50201 - 02/02/2005Circulation : 17000Periodicity : Monthly Page : 41Revolution_50201_40_324.pdf Size : 90 %Web Site: http://www.uk.revolutionmagazine.com

Copyright (Revolution N° 50201) No reproduction without authorisation

2 / 4

Mercury

win

Fire

may

peoplesound.com

sift

Ben

area

mosaic

Digital Outlook

area

lot

online

online

US

its

online

AOL

digital media

who still

space

online

just

online SimplyJohnson

Johnson

Johnson

online

ads

Williams

ica

ntt

go

the link

Virgin

go

the link

first iTV

Sky

Virginidea

digital

TV

online star

via

Virgin

in-house

ads

via

MTV

digital media

Virgin

crucial

41

"

Bands don' t think about these things ,

"

he says .

"

We never

really thought about collecting email databases andinformation from bands-a lot changed when we signed.

"

On signingthe band

, Mercury Records launched a new site(

www.thirteensenses.com

),

witha forum

, mailing list, shop and downloads .

Recently ,

it launched an online barcode' competition , invitingfans to input the barcodes of the three different formats

of newrelease

,

Thru The Glass,

and win the chanceto meet the band .

"

We get extra marketing support from the label and we can

cross-pollinate with their mailing list(

of similar bands)

,

"

saysChadwick . He says there is an issue of whether selling musicfrom an artist'

s online shop should count towards the Charts .

Franz Ferdinand's manager ,

Cerne Canning , points out thatthere are further advantages in the international market

,

whichbecame apparent during the band' s 2004 world tour .

"

In

Montreal,

when the band played a track which had never beenreleased in that market

,

the front rows of the audience were

singing it

,

"

he says . There were also some 250,000 paiddownloads of the track in the US .

The band runs and funds its own web site, developed by

agency DS Emotion . Cerne says the revenue from online makes

up a

"

fairly minor part"

of the band' s overall income but "

is

increasing"

.In the UK

,

a digital-only download mixof This Fire

made the A-playlist on Radio One for six weeks,

he says .

"

WhenAOL streamed Take Me Out

,

it had 2.5 million listens and thatwill increasinglyturn into revenue.

"

However, many indie bands may not have the money or skills

to compete as yet . EricWinbolt, digital media manager at

EMIowned label Positiva Records, says:

"

The internet is becoming a

great leveller,

but it' s not there yet . Anyone can createa web

site where people can find information and interact with otherswho share similar appetites ,

but we are stillat the point where

you need someone to make your voice heardin the space

"

He points to peoplesound.com ,

which aims to aggregatehuge numbers of unsigned acts online to provide power in

numbers .

"

This presupposes that consumers wantto sift through

thousands of unsigned records,

"

says Winbolt . "A labelis not

just about finding bands but developing and promoting them."

But,

it' s not always necessary to have the marketing supportof a major label to succeed online

(

see box for Simply red.com,

p43 )

. Matt Johnson,

fan-base manager for acts such as MrScruff

, Fingathing and Homelife, says that white the label Ninja

Tunes releases the records for ail three,

the management runsthe sites . Mrscruff'

s database( wvvw.sparklest.com )

feeds intothe consumer-facing site

,

Mrscruff.com,

to power the shop and

provide content . Johnson says they' re looking at

"

developingthesystem to be available

to external artists we don't manage

"

.

The web site hosts sticky content and games to

"

keep fans

coming back, engage them and

to encourage them to interacton the forum

"

,comments Johnson . Fans receive points whe'

they do something to promote Mr Scruff online,

which areredeemable against merchandise .

It held a competition to findMr Scruff' s greatest fan

, promoted through banner ads . The

pers.n with the most points (

and best answers toa

questionnaire)

was flown toAustralia to meet the artist .

Word-of-mouth endorsementis a powerful marketing tool

for ail genres . When Robbie Williams performed at Knebworthlast year ,

fans could send photos of themselves,

which were

The Chem ica Ir

1 thers i nteract

Fans ntt interact,

seethes

iv supinlights . lt'

s a reason f

r

themte go to the

se

and tell friends . We are

taking the link to thesite

,

the t mobileSarah SherryVirgin Records

"

Fans want to interact . They

want to see themselves up in

lights .It' s

a reason for themto go to the site and tellfriends . We are taking the link

to the site,

then to mobile .

But we haven' t used blogs in

a commercial sense-it' s

about creating a relationshipand rewarding fans

,

"

she says .

The label has created the

first album preview on iTV,

inspired by French political

propaganda . The interactivead

, byWeapon 7

,

airs duringa 20-second commercial by

production company Copsand Robbers . Album previewscan also be accessed on Sky .

Ben Curwin,

senior product

manager at Virgin , says:"

The

idea works on two levels:

encouraging digital viewers

to push red for added

content,

and the ad appealsto the analogue viewers and

is an effective piece of

'

standard' TV advertising."

Thechemicalbrothers.com: hosts a messageboard . tour dates,

a shop anda mobile area

published onlineto create

a mosaic image of the star .

It wasincentivised with a competition promoted via the database

,

with the senders of the 100 best photos receiving a poster of

the image . Winbolt explains:"

We got data out of it-itencouraged word-of-mouth exposure and people stayed interested.

"

Agency Digital Outlook ,

whichis working with two major pop

acts targeting teen audiences,

has developed Street Teamswhich links the record company , artists and fans through a

networkof support to encourage them

to endorse acts . Fansare tasked with emailing artist information to friends

, voting in

polis , attending events like signings ,

and adding promotional >

Virgin Records launched an

interactive campaign for the

release of The Chemical

Brothers' latest album,

Push

The Button,

on 24 Jan .

It created a new site(

www .

thechemicalbrothers . com)

in-house,

which launched on

7 January . Trafficis driven

from ads on single packagingand via links with third-partysites

,

such as NME and MTV .

The site hosts tour dates,

a messageboard ,

a shop ,

downloads and a mobile area

where users can download

wallpaper ,

tracks and videos .

Exclusive content is key ,

says Sarah Sherry , digital media

manager at VirginRecords

,

and interactivity is

crucial.

"

We will have a blogon the site and encourage ail

our artists to do this,

"

she

says .

"

Fans will be able to

take a photo ,

and send it byemail

or text,

and upload it

on the site-a' moblog' .

BUONGIORNO

N° and issue date : 50201 - 02/02/2005Circulation : 17000Periodicity : Monthly Page : 43Revolution_50201_40_324.pdf Size : 90 %Web Site: http://www.uk.revolutionmagazine.com

Copyright (Revolution N° 50201) No reproduction without authorisation

3 / 4

adva

director

Rad

etc

area

fast

may

area

Simply go scoreSimply

lan

Simply

lan

us

go

Universal

its

digital media EMI

online

who close

ideal

initial via

lot

aspectoffice

online

cinema

EMI

context

Big Brother

EMI

time

big

big link

Simply

its

EMI

Simply Red go it alone and scorea top-selling album

Simply Red is an examnle of

,« MOO-klWe decided to do

everythg

ourselvesand fund it

. Somebandstal abo t

do'g

this,

but no onebas they prefer t

take the c quelan GrenfellSimplyred.com

how the internet can give

power toa band

,

without the

input of a major record label .

When Simply Red' s contract

with Warner expired at the

end of 2001,

the artist faced

adilemma . But the band had

seen huge success with eightalbums

,so their manager ,

lan Grenfell,

felt they had the

one less barrier to getting to

the internet and this gives us

Gloser interaction with fans .

We got experiencedprofessionals

[

to create the site].

"

experience to go it alone .

"

We decided to do

everything ourselves and fund it

,

"

he says .

"

Some bands talk

about doing this,

but no-one

has-they prefer to take

the cheque."

The company named itself

Simplyred.com .

"

It's

not an

internet company ,

but it's

email and messenger footers.The record company provides the

information and resources to do it and offers rewards like the

chance to appear in a video,

adva çe tickets and merchandise .

Takingthis offline,

record label Universal recently hit the press

by using anetwork

of children to promote its artists in schools .

But DannyVan Emden, digital media director at EMI Music UK

,

reckons this' ambassador' method of promoting brands is

old-fashioned .

"

People prefer to see the individual behind the

site,

so when a fan goes online they are talking to someone

with a real voice-the artist or someone who is close to thedecisions being made . You need to be there with< hem-youneed

to know what' s turning them on or freaking them out."

Monitoring forums and interactivity isan ideal way to

understand audiences,

she says .

"

What are their user preferences?What do they like doing? You might find you have a huge gay

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Simplyred.com: the band has benefited from more intimate communication with their fans

He feels they gained more

intimate communications,

leading to better market

research and more control

over content . And the band

keeps all the revenue .

Grenfell says a lot of band

sites are managed by the

record label or athird party .

"

It' s rare for managementto handle every aspect . We

run the site from our office,

so the person in charge of

online sits opposite the

person deciding tour dates,

A&R,

etc . They' re integral."

following or 10 per centof your audience goes to the cinema

and this is a good way to work out howto involve offline

marketing ,

where and when to market,

and howto involve third

parties."

EMI wants fans to publish on the web site .

"

We want to

encourage fans to review things ,

vote,

have a voice and feel that

they' re recognised . The social context in which people discover

news,

music and videos is increasingly important ,

"

she adds .

Van Emden sees the profile area of messageboards as"

the

Holy Grail that brands want to get to . It isa source of loyalty

with integrity where people tell you about their other interests."

Communities eliminate that subversive Big Brother feeling of

being watched when giving data,

"

but,

where they feel they are

treated with integrity , people can't doit fast enough

"

,

she adds .

This isn' t exclusive to teen audiences .In

a survey on EMI s

information and distribution site,

the-raft.com,

at the end of

2003,

000 people responded in 48 hours, including pre

teens and the late 50s .

"

Older people are equally into music,

but may have less time to investigate it. We can do so much

more to engage older users . It's about their preferences and

givingthem a voice,

"

Van Emden explains .

As Winbolt says: "A big change is that social networking like

blogging means the consumer's voice is getting louder.

"

Artists

big and small are benefiting by offering a direct link for fans .

The Chemical Brothers launched a site to coincide with new

album Push the Button on 24 January andis looking at blogs

(

see box, p41 )

. Manager Robert Linney says the band used

messageboards to compile a singles compilation album in >

Fans can also research

tracks before release . SimplyRed' s last album

,

Home,

was

the biggest-selling album

from an individual label

worldwide in the 12 months

following its releasein 2003 .

It has sold 2.5 million copies .

The prof le area of

messageboardsisthe Holy Gran thatbrands want

to get to.

Il:is

a so rce of Ioyaitywith integnty where

peo le tell you abouttheir ot

er interests

Danny Van EmdenEMI Music UK

BUONGIORNO

N° and issue date : 50201 - 02/02/2005Circulation : 17000Periodicity : Monthly Page : 45Revolution_50201_40_324.pdf Size : 95 %Web Site: http://www.uk.revolutionmagazine.com

Copyright (Revolution N° 50201) No reproduction without authorisation

4 / 4

Sony

Sony

Sony

bluetooth

future

online

ing

BMG

BMG

via

online

Online

online

BMG

targetBMG

aim

via online

rock

game

Revolution

close

digital mediaVirgin who young

EMI

online

via

SMS

who now

word

just online

rock

us

rock

Kasabian finds online critical -or breaking the marketV

We are targetïg

a

s aller n

t

er of

pe pie o realy

appro e f wh ,

t wedo a dwo d buy mtothe niche that we aremark A'

g

at

,

r therthan mass mark ingDan AyersBMG Sony

Sony BMG launched

Leicester-based Kasabian via

targeted marketing online .

The label signed the indie

band in September 2003,

when they were unknown,

and their latent album sold

250,000 copies and was

nominated at the BritAwards .

"

Online was critical in

breaking this band,

"

saysDan Ayers ,

head of online

marketing at Sony BMG . It

was usedto talk to fans and

target them in

aniche way.

"

BMG set up Kasabian.co.uk

with the aimof creating a cuit

destinationto communicate

witha specific ,

small

audience via online social

networking .

"

Rather than

saying' join the fan club',

we

were saying' join the

movement' and created a fan

base that was a separate

entity to the band,

"

he says .

2003 .

"

It' s a correlation between using the site and impactingon the band

,

"

he says .

"

It'

s a way of keeping in tune with fans."

Me cury Records' new media manager Luke Bevans sayspunk rock band The Others uses niche interaction . As well as

a

relaunched web site( www.letskilltheothers.org )

,

it

communicates through aviral game , developed by agency Holler

,

thatis

emailed to fans(

Revolution, January ,

pi

5

), taking

communication to an intimate level . The lead singer exchanges mobilenumbers with fans at gigs and has about 2,000 numbers .

"

The

band is about community ,

"

and all\ " arketing must reflect that,

explains Bevans .

"

People are used to being close to the band .

We don' t want to spoil that relationship."

As mobile becomes increasingly important in the marketingcycle ,

how are artists exploiting it? Sarah Sherry , digital mediamanager at Virgin Records

, says Jay Sean,

who hasa young

following ,

sells lots of ringtones and the labelis looking at mobile

blogging .

"

We haven' t used blogs ina commercial sense-it'

s

about creating a relationship and rewarding fans,

"

she says .

For Starsailor' s last album,

EMI Records launcheda mobile

versionof their new site

, using XHTML feeds from the same

content-management system ,

to coincide with their

Glastonbury performance . The mobile site held bespoke content andfans could text photos from the festival

to a blog publishedonline and on mobiles . But

,

Winbolt warns:"

It's

not enough to

takea site and put in on mobile . You need

to think what contentworks on the move.

"

The moblog was promoted to fans via

bluetooth,

as a way of targeting them in

a field without SMS or

KASABI

Kasabian.co.uk: the site pushes a' movement' manifesto with ideas for fans to push the band

The site pushes' manifestos'

and provides a means for the

fans to arrange meet-ups .

"

We are looking athow

bands can use the interneti

a way that wouldn' t be

possible with offline media .

We are targeting a smaller

number of people who really

approve of what we do and

would buy into the niche thatwe are marketing at

,

raaçer

than mass marketing."

The site issues tasks to

fans,

such as waving a band

flag at festivals, leading to

press promotion . And the siteinforms about new releases .

Ayers says the indie market

tends to rush out and buy

multiple editions of

a songon Mondays to show solidaritywith a

band . Pop acts sell

continuously all week . This

boosts mid-week sales,

alerting radio stations,

which

then feel they should play it

.

Kasabian's fan base has

now grown from 3,000to 30,000 people .

flyers.A message formatted ona

business card gave detailsof Starsailor'

s mobile site and how to senda blog ,

and 25promoters mingled in the crowd to spread the word .

Thisis just the start

ofa lucrative future for mobile and online

marketing in this sector,

but there's one question: is it rock and

roll? The worry is that this might destroy the mysterysurrounding

our musical dols . Should we be able to text them?

Canning is wary . This year ,

Franz Ferdinandis exploring the

use of webcamsto provide content:

"

We' ll see how far

technologytakes us

,

"

he says .

"

But l'

m very cautious about marketingon the internet

,

and about the ways we interact with fans and

keep in touch with them . lt's critical that we don' t get to the

stage where fans get too much,

"

he warns .

"

It' s good to keep an

air of mystique .It'

s more in keeping with the rock and roll image .

How much did everyone really know about Kurt Cobain?"

N

Letskilltheothers.org: singer swaps mobile numbers with fans

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