[photo courtesy Chris Carlson, CLCmusic on Twitter]
On Friday I sat on a panel at the MEIEA Conference at Berklee College of Music in Boston with Storm Gloor, Jim Griffin, and Walter McDonough about “Marketing and Distribution in a Digital World”. Much of the conversation centered around access and monetization (the “distribution” part of the above). I left entertained by my fellow panelists but thinking we’d probably done more for the audience as a group if we’d have skewed a bit more toward marketing than access.
As such, I wanted to expand on a couple of points I heard on the panel. First Walter said step one to being successful is simply being a great live band. Second, Storm and Jim both talked about establishing a direct relationship with fans rather than treating them strictly as “consumers” (Jim hypothesized “the feminization of marketing” which I couldn’t do justice to — maybe he’ll blog about it if you’re curious). Personally I think both of these things are true but how you do each is just as important, not trivial, and being re-pioneered and re-defined. I bumped into two artists this weekend who are using their opening tour slots to build new relationships with fans and wanted to tell their tale as an addendum to our panel on Friday.
[Topspin doesn't work with either artist, yet]
I met a band called Halestorm through the magix of the Interwebz. They were in LA making their record with Howard Benson when they saw word of one of the Topspin meetups on Twitter. They came out, introduced themselves, and we talked the future of music a bit. Turns out they’re on Atlantic and touring with Shinedown. Luck would have it they were playing Boston the same weekend I was there for the conference and visiting my eldest daughter Zoe (who’s in college at MIT). After securing some heavy duty earplugs for my two year-old we rolled out to the new House of Blues across the street from Fenway to check out the show.
Halestorm knows what to do with an opening slot like the one they have now with Shinedown. They get 30 minutes every night in front of a crowd of people, most of whom have never heard of them, and they convert as many of them as possible to fans. I stood in the balcony and watched it happen. Here’s what I saw:
- Lzzy starts solo with a guitar around her neck and a mic, just singing acapella. Long notes, killer voice. She has people cheering for her before the rest of the band even walks out on stage. Before her voice gets hidden behind the rock, she lets ‘em know she can sing and you can see people are impressed straight away.
- The rest of the band appears and they tear through a few songs. It’s straight-ahead rock, on the heavy side but ready for pop radio. Everyone in the band is high-energy and engaging, even Lzzy’s brother Arejay on drums is standing up for parts of the songs and just generally being a showman.
- Mid-way through the set Lzzy announces they have a new record coming out in a few weeks but you can buy a pre-release of it now for $5 at the merch stand.
- There’s a drum solo-y part that doesn’t go on long and ends with the entire band at the front of the stage playing drums and the crowd cheering as they go crazy with it.
- During the last song Lzzy reminds them that they have their own merch stand upstairs and CDs for only $5. She also says the whole band is going to be up there after their set and that she wants to meet everyone.
- I head over to the merch stand after the show and watch their tour manager relieve the woman who runs the merch table so she can disappear into the crowd below with a box of CDs with “Halestorm CDs $5” written on it.
- The merch stand is mobbed. It’s surrounded by people and they are selling merch literally as fast as their tour manager can manage.
- The band appears (after breaking down their own stage setup) and meets and talks to as many people as possible, while helping to sell their merch.
- Free stickers list their MySpace page, etc.
Very very well done. I’m not worried about these guys at all. Even if the record doesn’t work at radio (it may) they’re going to do just fine building their audience one show at a time.
The next day I heard from another artist who found me on the Internet after one of my public speaking to blog post translations: D.A. from the Harvard-educated and on Pharrell’s label Chester French. Chester French has an opening slot on the Lady Ga Ga tour and it turns out D.A. was not only in the same town as us for a Monday night show his tour bus was parked at the same hotel we were staying at.
D.A. is one savvy guy, far from your average bear, and runs his own Salesforce.com setup to manage his band relationships with everyone from press to fans. He hands out cards every night with his URL, TellMe number, Twitter URL, and an email address that automatically adds people to his Salesforce setup.
DA Selling CDs outside of a show from Chester French on Vimeo.
Not only that, but he hustles on the street selling CDs after every show. People who saw them play, people who didn’t, passerbys, anyone who will give him $5 in exchange for a CD.
So yes, I encourage you to support these artists: follow Halestorm or D.A. on Twitter, pre-order Halestorm or Chester French’s upcoming releases. But also, watch and learn. These artists aren’t waiting for someone at the label to make them a priority (though I think both are priorities for their respective labels). They’re using the tools, doing the work, connecting directly and building real relationships with fans. That’s as close to a silver bullet as you’re going to get.
ps – I am posting this mid-flight, BOS to LAX, Virgin American Air. Wifi and laptop power in the sky! I’d like to say it feels futuristic, but really it just makes the past feel primitive. For anyone who is curious what the bandwidth is like, here’s the result of a speed test.
I learned the most from your panel. It was fun and informative.
It was really cool to meet you afterward, too.
THIS IS THE SHIT. Artists need to capitalize on the live show experience more. 66 CDs x $5 = $330 = the gas to the next venue and a motel room. what more could you want??? The HUSTLE can keep a band on the road and on the road is where new acts HAVE to be.
To take this one step further, if the road manager and the act can consistently collect and distribute content from the road (pics, videos, little stories), then they will really be on a roll: implementing “the straddle“.
I was thinking about this exact topic a lot during SXSW, great post. I was debating the merits of direct call-to-action (merch stand, merch stand, merch stand!) vs. suggestive, coy, meet me halfway marketing. Debated with folks at Covalent Records, who have a really talented new band, Jake Dilley, on their roster. Needless to say, I argued on the part of beating the fans over the head with blunt, obvious calls to action.
Interesting what D.A. is doing. Is he essentially hacking together a version of Topspin’s platform? Sans demo, my one line pitch of Topspin to anyone that will listen is this: Sales Force for artists.
The account of the Halestorm show is a great break-down of how to make the most out of an opening tour slot, and D.A.’s use of Salesforce is more advanced CRM than my business has right now :-/
But I think there’s a more fundamental issue that artists like these make us take for granted but some of my conversations with artists (musical and otherwise) continue to remind me is not a given for everyone, especially those who are less Interwebz or marketing savvy. The old model restricted the artist to the role of content creator, a single cog in a tremendous and complicated machine, and gave them little say in, let alone responsibility for, marketing and promotion. These were the functions handled by the label/network/studios and the artist’s involvement basically stopped at the water’s edge when they delivered the album/show/film.
If that model placed the artist in the role of an employee, doing their part of the job and handing it off to the next team on the assembly line, then this new model requires them to step up to being an entrepreneur and taking ownership of the end-to-end business of delivering, not just creating, their content. The challenge is that many artists bristle at the mere mention of the ‘business’ side of things because they see them in the light of the old model. But in the new model, marketing and promotion can and should be an extension of the creative process. Just as album art and packaging became a canvas for creative expression and an important part of the user experience, so can the promotion and even sale of the content be opportunities for the artist to express themselves and connect with their fans.
In order for an artist to survive in this new model, they must be willing to roll up their sleeves and participate in (if not lead) the work of marketing and promotion. But those who will thrive are the ones, like Halestorm and Chester French, who understand that what they are selling consumers is no longer just a piece of content but the entire lifecycle of the customer relationship, or entertainment-as-a-service.
Very well said, Jonathan. Thank you. I’ll be adopting some of this…
right on ian, i’m reading this mid-flight (MIA/LAX) and even did a video chat with my wife and daughter…trippy, gotta love technology.
back to grass roots, it works, i first saw black lips do the “halestorm” thing at cmj about 3 years ago, right after their gig they announced they’d be hanging out in front of the venue, they had their tour van/record store parked in front, opened the double doors and sold so much merch it made my head spin…such super chill cats, friendly and approachable, they did this drill nearly 10 times that week. it was easy to tell they knew what was up. definitely thinking topspin is the ultimate virtual merch table.
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Glad I’m digging back in the archives, this was solid gold, too. I wish you cats would post more because this is definitely one of the best music biz/promo blogs going right now. Thank you for the focus on What Works & detailed content, instead of a barrage of press releases.
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