Due to popular demand...

Assessing the size and demographics of a potential market for a product is a marketeer's nightmare, and failure to do this correctly has been the downfall of many excellent projects. But thanks to the internet there's a new way of working out the size (and pocket depth) of your potential customers BEFORE engaging in the costly process of designing, creating and distributing your product. (or write/record/distribute if you prefer).

The website PledgeBank was launched in 2008 with the slogan "I'll do it, but only if you help". It worked like this: a user created a pledge such as "I'll donate $100 to (insert charity) if 100 other people do the same"; people sign up to the pledge; then when the required number of people sign up, this triggers each pledger to do the thing in the original pledge.

In 2009, a group of musicians and A&R men set up PledgeMusic, a business that applies the same idea to the business of creating and selling an album; the artist pitches the idea to their fans, then fans hand over their credit card details on the understanding that they will be charged when the target is met. The artist records and releases the material, distributes it to their pledgers, then places the album on the wider market. The fans essentially function as the record label, leaving the artist to select their own studio, producer, artwork and whatever else.

Fans wishing to pay more than simply the cover price for the album can be offered a wide range of value-added services: signed CDs, limited edition vinyl and even helicopter rides with the band. Artists as notable as Daniel Bedingfield, Hugh Cornwell, Ben Folds Five and The Libertines have run successful projects on the site and this list of artists grows every week.

The key to the success of PledgeMusic is however the solid industry backing behind it and the team of seasoned music industry veterans that provide help each step of the way to those electing to use the platform. Other crowd-funding services are available, in the same industry and in other sectors such as scientific research, movie-making and healthcare but it's not difficult to see that the level of engagement and interest generated by such an activity is perfect for the music industry.

Push the Button

From the rock n' roll teddy boys of the 50s to the Primark Ramones shirts of the 10s, music and fashion have always been linked. Punk went high fashion with McLaren and Westwood's SEX boutique and continues today with the likes of Puff Daddy; even Metallica have had a dabble.

The cheapest and most accessible way of displaying your music taste on your sleeve (or more accurately, lapel) was popularised by Stiff Records in the 70s: the button badge. Since then, music fans have been adorning their shirts, jackets and bags with them.

Around the end of the last decade, the humble button badge was given an upgrade. Apple introduced the 6th generation of the iPod Nano, reformatted into a inch-and-a-half square with a vibrant screen, enabling the user to display the album art of the playing track on the device, presumably clipped to the user's shoulder strap or lapel. You can pick up one of these for around £85.

With a more retro look, and at a much lower $12 price point, Playbuttons have been adopted by some record labels and musicians looking for value to add to their releases. They look very similar to the old school button badges, but have a headphone jack socket that doubles up as a USB charging/data interface. The limited edition Lady Gaga "Born This Way" PlayButton (displayed opposite) was released as a limited edition collector's item for $50 a pop, but some have decided to take advantage of the almost disposable nature of the device to use them as a freebie release preview tool.

The Gossip, in preparation for their latest release, A Joyful Noise, distributed a number of free PlayButtons at various pubs around the south of England featuring an exclusive preview of a few tracks from the forthcoming album. It's an idea borrowed from such sites as BookCrossing and a nifty marketing gimmick. Will it catch on?

YOU WOULDN'T STEAL A HANDBAG

If you listen to the RIAA, you get the impression that the major factor in falling record sales is online piracy. Ads like those spoofed by the IT Crowd clip below are designed to scare consumers away from illegal download sites.

But while downloading content illegally obviously isn't good, it isn't stealing either. When you steal an object, the person who bought the object no longer has the object. The correct automotive equivalent of downloading an album would be finding a car in the street that an individual has crafted using their own hands from their own design, then creating a copy of it using your matter resequencer.

Some would say that sharing music online is the equivalent of using cassettes to tape the Top 40 from the radio or to copy your latest vinyl for your friend to listen to in the car; a good way to get the message out about a certain band or track but no substitute for owning recordings, and no threat to the industry. Some artists even encourage the listener to download their material illegally.

And the internet pirate isn't likely to be caught either. Millions of Brits have downloaded music illegally, yet so far none have been successfully prosecuted. Thankfully, there are signs that the recording industry is moving away from the RIAA's litigious, confrontational stance of prevention and prosecution and is increasingly looking at more positive alternatives like the ones mentioned in this blog.

So, as consumers, let's encourage them by spending some money on their products. That way, we can support artists as they make new music for us and we can continue to enjoy downloaded music in the traditional shareware "try before you buy" way without fear of reprisals.

Your body starts to shiver...

Easy Star Records formed 15 years ago in New York, and strive to collect together the best independent live talent on the city's reggae scene. In 2003, they released an album designed to showcase their artists, under the name Easy Star All-Stars, a reggae tribute to Pink Floyd's classic Dark Side of the Moon. Its name? Of course, Dub Side of the Moon.

This album spawned international tours and led Easy Star to release 2006's Radiodread and Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band in 2009. In May 2012 the label announced there would be a fourth Easy Star All-Stars tribute album, released in August. The marketing campaign was inspired.

A list of classic albums was produced, featuring a broad range of titles, from CSN&Y's 1994 album Deja Vu to Amy Winehouse's masterpiece Back To Black. The visitor was invited to vote for which album they thought would be the subject of the next project, and to share the competition on Facebook or Twitter. Three free MP3 downloads from Easy Star's back catalogue would be the reward for each of these actions. The prize for guessing correctly was an entry into a draw for the entire Easy Star Records back catalogue.

Ensuring repeat visits to the website and longevity for the campaign, each day, one or more titles were "crossed off" the list by the label, until only one remained. So goodbye Parallel Lines, adiós Mothership Connection, so long Purple Rain. Easy Star's next cover album is... Thrillah!


Not content with generating tension and keeping the public on the edge of their seats, not content with the constant buzz of Easy Star related tweets and posts, the label struck another blow to the face of record releasing mediocrity with an absolute standout release site, offering a free time-limited MP3 download of the title track of the Billie Jean EP, a "share-to-stream" invitation, a trailer, and some excellent pre-order offers on their CD and Vinyl formats, including a free download of the album in MP3 format on the release date and 50% off their next purchase from the web store.


So, a release campaign to inspire and a massively fun album (and at least one inevitably hilarious pop video) to come.

jim fork

Future of the Left is a noisy, sarcastic alt-rock outfit from Cardiff, and back in 2009, they were eight weeks away from releasing their best work to date, the album Travels With Myself and Another. A promotional copy of the album showed up on eBay, closely followed by various sites offering paid downloads of the work. This was a full month before the official release date of the album.

Following this act, lead singer and lyricist Andy Falkous posted a heartfelt and hilarious entry on his MySpace blog which was later published as a full-page advert (right) in the Guardian, paid for by the industry association UK Music:

...getting annoyed about downloading in this valueless modern age is like taking issue with water for being wet or night for gradually turning into day because ultimately the entitlement that most people feel for free music completely overshadows any moral or legal issues and conflicts that may arise in the hearts and minds of better people, people who understand that actions, on both an individual and group level, have consequences far beyond that moment of instant gratification.

Future of the Left herald and accompany their releases with a mix of punchy YouTube videos, free tracks and even a hilarious podcast featuring Glenn Danzig's travelogue of Northumbria* and an exclusive track* from Billy Corgan. Most of the band's material is available on vinyl, CD and digital.

The other artist I should mention is Against Me!. The title of this blog is taken from a song on their 2007 album New Wave and features the lyrics:

All the insiders rumor over the decline in sales.
All the buzz is happening in the new digital market place.
FBI warning printed on the flipside.
Under penalty of law piracy will be prosecuted.
In MRR (Maximum Rock And Roll) someone asks the question,
“With the instant availability of information
and content so easily obtainable
is the culture now a product that’s disposable?”
All the punks still singing the same song.
Is there anyone thinking what I am?
Is there any other alternative?
Are you restless like me?

The lead singer, Tom Gabel (now Laura Jane Grace, long** story) this year formed a music label, "Total Treble Music", and built a studio, "Total Treble Studio", to help realise his/her intention of recording and releasing one full length album a year for the next decade.

As more bands become self-reliant in this manner, is the future of record companies more about product dressing, distribution and retail, and less about handing out advance fees to musicians? How do the musicians feel about this? Is this going to increase the gap between mass-marketed TV talent show drivel and independent artists, even to the extent where substantially different delivery methods will be required for their products?

* Authenticity not verified
** Not that long

Let's see how this goes...

Hi everyone; my name is Alex Martindale. I'm a computer programmer, music lover and sound engineer and next month I start a new job doing techy stuff at Townsend Music.

One of the subjects that came up during my interview for this new post was how Townsend are working with artists and their management to add value to their products. It's a common marketing problem at the moment, and in this case the product is, of course, music.

We all know the script; music lovers who once lovingly collected vinyl, and later CDs, are eschewing physical formats in favour of "digital" music; ie. computer files that they can play on their portable music player. Many are subscribing to services such as Spotify that allow them to listen to whatever they want whenever they want without having a physical or digital collection. Some are even happy with the free versions of these services, permeated with annoying audio adverts featuring a mock Frenchman hawking expensive cider or tuneless idiots singing along to their Blackberries. Those with a torrent client installed on their PC simply steal* music.

Record companies and retailers are finding the need to innovate. And that's what this blog is about. Please drop me a line if you're interested in this idea or have an idea for a future post.

In the next article, I'll tell you about my favourite bands, how and why they inspired this blog, and how they are working to make their own products more desirable.

* steal is the wrong word. I'll come to this in a future article.