We’ve been so busy lately trying to get our acts together for SXSW, we nearly forgot to update you on all the awesome bands using our platform for a variety of releases. Sorry! To make it up to you, we’ll give you some free PBR and great music if you swing by our cosponsored daytime showcase at SXSW this Wednesday – Friday.
To start off, Yeah Yeah Yeahs had the misfortune of having their album leak over a month before the intended street date. The folks over at Interscope were quick to react, and our Artist Services team was more than happy to help out, turning around an official digital direct-to-fan release in about a week. All is not lost when an album leaks — there are still lots of fans who want to pay for their music, especially when purchasing directly from the artist, and some of the fans who downloaded the songs elsewhere still came back to the band’s website to pick up physical copies (I know I was one of the nearly 50% of buyers who chose vinyl as part of their purchase). We’ve said it before, but fans will buy music if you give them desirable options and quality content – Yeah Yeah Yeahs have certainly done both.
Speaking of “Yeahs,” Clap Your Hands Say Yeah recently used Topspin to capture an audience from a traditional TV appearance. They premiered a new song, “Statues,” on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and offered up a free download of the demo track on their website immediately following the program — Jimmy Fallon even thought the idea was cool enough to plug it before they played. We always encourage artists to use our platform in conjunction with all their other marketing efforts, rather than thinking of it as an exclusive channel, and this is a prime example. Again, doesn’t hurt that they offer quality content, too.
Keeping with the young and hip theme, Vice Records recently put out a couple records using our platform. They’ve offered up Black Lips new album “200 Million Thousand” for free full-album streaming, and the download is a steal for $8 ($12 if you want the physical CD). Even more recently, Japanese Motors released an EP with a couple acoustic tracks and a demo, again with full streams, and again at a bargain price – $1.50.
It’s not all new releases – folk singer Joe Purdy and rock goddess Bif Naked have released their back catalogs on their websites, each capturing added fan engagement in anticipation of a new album. In shorter form, She Wants Revenge posted an EP that was previously only available on tour, and Modest Mouse’s Tom Peloso released a folksy EP (with definite hints of Modest Mouse) on his site.
The releases will be fast and furious in the coming weeks and months, so we can’t even hope to keep up with them all. For our part, we’ll keep building our direct to fan music marketing platform, and hope it helps the bands reach you. We’re deeply honored to work with each and every one of these artists, and look forward to helping more great music find its way to your ears. Stay tuned.
