Marketing Essay

"In the Music Industry, the power of marketing online is the most useful asset in the promotion of music products." To what extent do you agree with the statement? 50 marks.

This is a statement which many people have differing opinions on. The power of marketing online has been the most useful asset in the promotion of music products in more ways than one however one can argue against this statement, and I will demonstrate this in my essay. New media have changed the relationship between the recording industry and fans. The fact is that networked technologies allow fans to share copyrighted music in peer-to-peer networks and Web 2.0 platforms. However the Internet could be a challenge to create new business models. First, e-commerce allows the creation of new markets, and the reduction of the cost of storage and distribution. Second, synergies between producers and consumers could emerge. In fact, fans are not just ‘pirates’, but also promoters and co-creators.

One could say that marketing online is the most effective and useful way to promote music products. Connecting with fans is essential in today’s competitive music industry. It’s that connection that can give them a reason to buy and support your music. Utilizing social media and having a strong online presence makes connecting with fans much more achievable. 'Arcade Fire' are a band that found their success through an online campaign. Arcade fire utilized HTML5 to create an interactive music video for “We Used to Wait.” Users are prompted to enter the address of their childhood home at the start of the video. While watching the video, scenes from your old neighbourhood are pulled in using Google street view.  The elements of new technology, interactivity, nostalgia, experimentation, and personalization all aided in making this video a huge hit. This is a great example of how bands use online marketing to their advantage. Another person that tried a similar technique is Amanda Palmer.

Amanda Palmer is widely known for her social media expertise. Advertising Age said, “Palmer is more sophisticated than almost anyone on the internet — musician, brand or otherwise — when it comes to gathering her audience around her and keeping the conversation going.”

In one night alone, Amanda managed to rake in $11,000 in just two hours. It all started with her tweeting about how she was alone, again, on a Friday night sitting in front of her computer. Others started chiming in and began claiming how “we are all losers.” Dialog continued and grew at a rapid pace. A faux organization was started called, “The Losers of Friday Night on their Computers.” Amanda created the hashtag #LOFNOTC and thousands joined the conversation.

A follower suggested the group create a t-shirt. Amanda quickly decided to run with it. She took a sharpie and made a t-shirt design. A website was thrown up that night with the t-shirts available for $25 a piece. 2 hours later… $11,000.

Big names such as Beyoncé and One Direction both use online marketing to their advantage. Beyoncé's Lemonade, the visual album, had no release date when the single “Formation” was surprisingly released on February 6, 2016. Prior to that, Beyoncé had not released an album since December of 2014. While remaining silent about her endeavours for this new album, she released a single right before her second Super Bowl halftime performance and made sure that the visual addressed the controversial racial injustices of America. Prior to her album being released, her marketing team along with HBO released a 5-7 second clip of “Lemonade”. There was no indication as to what it could’ve been. A short film? A music video? A documentary? The album everyone was waiting for? The release was announced and set for April 23rd, leaving a week for suspense and anticipation. As the date grew closer a longer promotional clip was released, and it still kept much of what it was a secret. It was definitely a friendly reminder that the date for release was approaching. The visual album celebrated black women throughout her entire short film, and shed light on the pains of black women who have lost their sons due to police brutality and racial injustice. Showcasing many sides of the artist herself, it was undoubtedly the most innovative piece of work that Beyonce has put together. Directly after the release of the visual album, the album was available via Tidal. Lemonade then went on to break the internet with a record of 4.1 million tweets in under 48 hours.

One of the biggest social media success stories of the last few years has undoubtedly been the rise to fame of one of the UK music industry’s much-loved exports, One Direction.

The group’s success is also a testament to how, in this digital age, UK record labels have become experts in building fan bases around the world and have embraced social media and placed it at the centre of marketing campaigns to ensure global success. Genevieve Ampaduh, Head of Digital Marketing at Sony Music, who masterminded One Direction’s social media campaign, (which included fifty-five 'Go1Den Tickets' promising a “once-in-a-lifetime experience” with the boys in New York being released globally. Each was won in a completely different creative way. The band joined the dots with its constant presence via Facebook, Twitter and the official 1D site, where an interactive Bring Me to 1D map enabled fans to follow what was happening around the world.

Millions of fans took part. Tens of millions engaged.) says: “Social media has changed the face of music marketing forever. The ability for artists to reach out to their potential fans in every corner of the globe in real time is incredibly powerful and cannot be replicated by traditional media."

Netflix can attribute much of its growth over the last couple of years to its flagship ‘Netflix Originals’ such as ‘House Of Cards’ and ‘Orange Is the New Black’.  It is an appealing model but the Netflix Originals approach cannot so easily be transferred to music.

A very successful form of online marketing is windowing. With this, an artist can release a song or album strictly on one music accessing platform. There are three types of windows, the first one being Service Window, this is when an album is released exclusively to a single music service for a fixed period of time e.g. only on TIDAL for 1 month.

The next type of exclusives is Tier Window, where an album is released across one type of music service tier before others e.g. only on paid subscription tiers for 3 months. The final exclusive is Service Exclusive: music service acquires exclusive rights to an album so that it will never appear anywhere else unless the service decides to let it.

To conclude, one could say online marketing is the most effective and powerful form of marketing in todays modern day and age where the internet is central to our day to day life. Online marketing is an extremely useful asset to the music industry, and can help promote new albums and artists and spread their influence all around the world. It is for the pure simplicity and effective factor of online marketing that makes it extremely beneficial to the music industry.