The 2010 Bandwith music and tech conference ended last week, and I am still thinking about the great time I had there! I was lucky to be invited to speak and participate with a great group of people. It felt intimate, and there was lots of variety. Jac Holtzman’s presentation was a real highlight!
My session was entitled “COMING TO A SCREEN NEAR YOU – How visuals are changing artist marketing and artist development”.
I vividly remember a moment five or six years ago that changed my perception of the explosion of video screens on our culture, and ultimately its effect on music. I was driving in Los Angeles and I pulled up next to a family in an SUV. It was one of those big hunks of metal, tricked out with a big screen in every seat. I watched as the family was driving along next to me watching a movie together (something we see in every minivan commercial now…). Something about that really effected me and a voice in my head said “this is wrong”. The car was meant to be driven while listening to music, not watching TV! The fact a generation of kids were going to be driving around watching movies instead of listening to music made me mad! Some of my favorite music moments were driving along with my favorite tune, while my mind explored the terrain around me!
But my natural curiosity kicked in and I’ve been spending a lot of time at Warner Bros trying to understand the new world of visuals. What does it mean for music when there are screens everywhere, in all the devices we listen to music with? Is the future of music apps? You Tube? Lyric Videos? Or is it something we haven’t seen or discovered yet? Artists are starting to ask the same questions and it’s getting exciting!
My goal at Bandwidth was was to have a conceptual talk about all this, share data from projects I am working on, and get into some specific tactics on how to harness a new visual world to market and develop artist careers. The original presentation was 80 slides! But to everyones benefit, it was a discussion, not a one way presentation and we let the conversation guide us.
Here is the part of my keynote presentation I covered. You can read some highlights and play by play on Digital Music News. Theres is also a lot I didn’t get to that I will post later. Thanks to Eric Garland and Lisa Lum for helping with stats, and pulling it all together!
Im very lucky to have a slot at the Bandwidth Music conference in San Francisco later this week. The conference is this Thursday and Friday, August 19-20. The conference is trying a new format this year, and it’s a welcome change to standard panel based format. Each presenter gets one hour to discuss a topic with a smaller group and hopefully generate some new ideas and conversations without the buzzword and standard pr.
My talk is entitled “Coming to a Screen Near You: How the influence of visuals is affecting music marketing and artist development”. Now I need your input to make it complete.
What’s your favorite music based you tube clip? Best artist taking advantage of visuals in a new visual world? The worst artist on you tube? I’d love some of your links to include in my presentation, and ill give you a shoutout and maybe some great music. Hope to see you there!
Yes, devo is using QR code technology for their release in Japan. On the back of the cd you can use any qr reader to go to a Warner Japan mobile store, with more products and product info. If you read Japanese tell me more!
Here is a close up! And it will work from this page so try it out – (links too http://wmg.jp/artist/devo)
Weve heard the fans (winner coming soon!) and now hear an unfair tease of the bands version of “The Catalyst”.
With Sick Visuals! Arrives in itunes 8/2/10
Fan versions of the Catalyst are now all over the net. It appears as if may fans are just posting them on you tube and soundcloud. Using the official indaba contest engine is tough, but you may see some of these widgets online because this is the official contest voting mechanism!
Linkin Park has a new album coming Sept 14th, and fans may find themselves on it! The band launched a contest on their myspace page, allowing fans to download stems from their first single “The Catalyst”, and produce their own version.
Its an exciting promotion with a few twists – first off, the single is not out yet. You wont be able to hear “The Catalyst” until sometime in August. Very cool – your starting with a clean slate, and a real chance to influence the music.
Second – it appears if LP will be putting some version of the winning one on their album! Not juts on their myspace page (cop out for all you bands out there).
I’ve downloaded the stems, and this is NOT a remix contest. You get some beautiful drums, vocals, keyboards, piano, that allow you to create a great music bed, and then add your OWN parts.
Contest aside, the music so far sounds beautiful. Download below.
Instead of streaming the audio in a digital format, Mr. White and his crew have pointed a camera and a microphone at a record player spinning “Sea of Cowards” on vinyl at their office in Nashville. And from 6pm to 10am pst, the stream will come live from the WBR New Media dept. Were pulling an all nighter, so stay tuned throughout the night!
Tons of great press around it!
Wall Street Journal
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/04/30/dead-weathers-jack-white-on-previewing-sea-of-cowards-on-vinyl/
New York Times
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/the-vinyl-countdown-jack-whites-concept-of-streaming-music/
It’s live! On iPhone, Touch and iPad!
A new era in music apps begins. Is it a game, is it an experience, is it a new way to just enjoy LP’s music, or all of the above?
The game and the band are getting recognized, as we’d hoped, for breaking the current mold of re-purposed web sites, and tap along type games that have dominated the music app space to date.
The band has alse been very active in the campaign!
Finally – head over to 8bityourself.com and get in on the 8-bit action.
The sales results will be in later this week, but the game is slowly rising up the itunes app charts, and is getting mostly positive reviews!
Billboard wrote a piece about ways Major Labels are beginning to take the app market seriously. Linkin Park’s 8-bit Rebellion, the band’s new game for the iphone/iPad, is used as an example of how Artist and Labels are working together. The article interviews Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park, and Artificial life, the developer of 8-bit Rebellion. They both reinforce themes I think are important: Creativity, Artist Involvement, Authenticity.
And the fourth key is Marketing! Outside of the itunes homepage and pricing games, the marketing of apps is a murky world that is often overlooked. I contributed to the article with some insights on how Warner Bros is marketing the launch of the game later this month.
The article also covers some other major label perspectives and projects – worth a read!
Check out the article here (via abc news)
