med332 slides

1. “No alarms and no surprises”
Digital music marketing in the era of abundance
#med332

4. ‘Paranoid Android’ (2007), 6 min 27 sec, UK chart peak no 3.

6. iBlips

24. ‘a masterclass in both exerting and relinquishing control.’

25. By doing something a little different with digital they have managed to get swathes of
media coverage, cutting through in a manner that could only be dreamed of with a
traditional music marketing campaign
- Mulligan, 2013

26. Source: Mulligan, 2013

27. As music sales continue to
dwindle artists’ release teams
have to get increasingly creative
about how they get the most
bang for their marketing buck.
Expect the first week sales focus
to sharpen even further now for
frontline global scale artists.
- Mulligan, 2013

35. ‘No one had more hype
than Miley Cyrus, but
“Bangerz” didn’t even sell
45,000 copies in its fourth
week of release. She can go
on “SNL,” tweet her life
away, but it’s not moving
the needle. Lorde is selling
as much as Miley without
the benefit of scorched
earth, proving quality music
is as good as hype. But
Lorde isn’t burning up the
chart either.’
- Lefsetz, 2013

37. The time limitation affected popular music even
more deeply … Some early blues singers crafted
the narrative structure of their songs specifically
to fit the playing time of the 78, while … Duke
Ellington’s mastery of the small form was born
out of the same technologically imposed
necessity. The three-minute pop song itself may
be considered a phonograph effect. …. Because
of its limited playing time—about the same as a
78—the 45 could not compete with the LP for
recording classical music. Instead, it became the
standard format for pop, and remained so for
decades.
- Katz, 2004: 35

38. Nickleback – ‘Rockstar’

44. Single-centric career
Less longevity?

45. Scarcity vs abundance
• Shift from an economy marked by scarcity to
an economy of abundance
• Digital goods (abundant)
• Zero reproductive costs
 Physical goods (scarce)
 Expensive to produce and reproduce
 Race is on to round down to zero (eg streaming)
45

46. “The interesting thing about the Beyoncé and Bowie releases is that [Rob] Stringer
was involved in both of them. He has given these artists this incredible leeway to do
these wonderful things. He had probably the most respected artist on the planet and
the biggest artist on the planet – and they both did this.”
- Forde, 2016

47. “It was quite egalitarian,” says the Bowie source on why the song went
live on YouTube first. “A lot of people, when they have a big album, will
do exclusives. But here, everybody got the video at the same time. There
was no exclusive. Nothing.”
- Forde, 2016

52. Can it be a
surprise if you
announce it in
advance?

53. August 2017
‘verified fan’ points scheme to jump queue for Reputation Tour
involved buying merchandise / signing up for emails / watching music videos
Getting points =/= getting tickets: just an increased chance

54. to pre-empt piracy
to seize back control
to stand out from the crowd

55. 2016