“Moldover’s new CD, over 3 years in the making, not only delivers gorgeously diverse music with meaning and musical mastery, it completely redefines what it means to “play an album”… Moldover’s CD packaging itself IS a new musical instrument! The CD is mounted on a custom designed circuit board, intricately patterned and powering a “light-Theremin”. Yes! You play the artwork and it makes sound! Only the musical supervillain genius of Moldover could develop something so stunningly innovative.”
Moldover got a little grumble over at Hypebot though – When Marketing Overshadows the Music – the author states: “This YouTube video shows just how innovative and fun the packaging is, but fails to do almost anything to showcase the music that Moldover says took three years to record.” Hypebot readers’ comments didn’t quite agree with the author’s opinion: “Look, it’s totally awesome what he did and if you think it “doesn’t focus on the music” enough… I would ask you, has the conventional major label delivery system been focused on “the music” at any point in the last 25 years?” Another reader thought the album’s circuit board and video an “awesome tech artifact, a good viral video” – and two readers exchanged digs between themselves (virtually, of course).
Whether the “Marketing Overshadows the Music” or not – one reader summed it up “they pulled a viral stunt that will get people talking about them.” Indeed they did! These days, artists have to get people’s attention amidst countless other distractions however they can. When marketing is fun, it’s a win win situation – and fun is what Moldover appears to have had marketing his music.
We’re further writing about this because it’s becoming common practice. What is all this talk about just giving it away? Well, typically, artists who give away their music generally generate more income than those who don’t. Why? Simple, the general population loves free stuff! Once given a free CD, the consumer listens to it, likes it, and tells a friend. That friend then tells another friend, and so on and so forth. Exposure.
It’s all a part of the number one rule of music business, one that the record industry has forgotten: Hear, Like, Buy. In that order exactly.
Circulating free CDs allows the artist to reach a broader audience, creating a fan base, eventually resulting in sales and popularity! But it isn’t just the music industry that utilizes the “freebie” marketing strategy. Television can be live streamed on the Internet. Movies, music, video games; you name it, the Internet has it. A man by the name of Chris Anderson of the Wall Street Journal is convinced that people will pay to listen to live streamed music from their iPhones. Why? Well, if there is an application for the iPhone a consumer must purchase to listen to live streamed music, most consumers will do it. A growing number of people depend on their iPhones for all sorts of things, including the Internet. So, what does this mean for the general artist? What exactly are your rights? How do you protect your slice of the apple pie?
At Pro Soul, We help our artists build a growing audience, earn income even when giving music away, and avoid costly mistakes without giving up any of the rights to their music.
We’ve talked about the importance of using social networking tools such as Twitter, Facebook and Myspace, but without a reliable website, which is where your career magic begins, successful exposure may be dealt the back space card should a fan have to wait for slow page loading, or reach an error message when landing at your site.
We’ve experienced firsthand unreliable web hosting – from our artists websites being down for days at a time and being unable to access their site, to not reaching our hosting providers for explanation and resolutions. After much research and through our own valuable experience, we have taken the appropriate measures to insure our current web hosting service provides a strong Network Uptime Guarantee.
We offer a solution for all our artists that uses Rackspace technology, for the best hosting in the world. Absolute reliability, redundant server backups, fanatical 24/7 support, and a leader in the global community, Rackspace technology’s “Company” is socially aware and offers “A Greener Way of Doing Business”. From cost-effective green servers to company-wide conservation programs, they are dedicated to doing business in an eco-friendly way.
Pro Soul is constantly aware of the things that artists need to take care of. The last thing an artist needs to worry about is their hosted web site, the hub of their music career.
This company, Prefueled, or one much like it is the future of offline music sales and distribution.
We expect this will be the year that CD’s are pulled from major retailers like Wal Mart, and are replaced with units like these. And you can bet Pro Soul will do our best to get our artists on them!
Recently a new type of technology called Spotify has been taking off online. This is from Sweden and it does live streaming of music.
Many are tired of wasting time uploading their CD’s to their computer, but how do you think the creator of Spotify feels, finding all that music? A little more difficult task…
Spotify is free, legal and quick. So, what will this make of the CD? The ever slowly dying CD industry is being suffocated by creations such as these. But many feel having the actual CD is a thrill. Looking at the album work, and actually physically holding it in ones hand. Are MP3 USB drives are next? Will ideas like this stifle things like Spotify? Will the moblie phone with built in iPod be the ultimate victor as the method people access and listen to music?
We are at a stage where there are many questions, but one thing is for sure, we are swiftly moving towards the death of the CD, and that means artists need to fully embrace alternative ways for people to get music if they don’t want to suddenly left high and dry when CD’s become the least popular format for music.
Experts now confirm that the top method we will all use to communicate within the next 3-4 years will be through mobile devices. That means it’s never too early to start implementing them into your promotional strategy.
In their efforts to analyze who their audience is and how to build it, artists must be aware that young audiences heavily use this technology and thrive on instant gratification, phone, laptop, iPod, game system, and whatever else emerges.
Mobile Marketing guru Helen Keegan of Beep Marketing says that Artists should be using their mobile phones to not only create and capture content themselves, but to help the audience get to the real essence of the artist, beyond branding and a manufactured image.
Pro Soul assists our artists acheive this by using Twitter and Wordpress and such applications that can update social networking profiles from their phones, as well as integrating cutting edge software technology in their website design that ensures their site will look good and load quickly on almost every mobile browser available.
