Random acts of brands and music

The Streets supermarket sweep

2011-01-26T14:20:00.001Z

Best avoid Asda this week, as the soup aisles may well be filled with iPhone users aiming their phones at tins of tomato soup. Yes, tomato soup. Why? Well, Mike Skinner, AKA The Streets, is running a cyberhunt, whereby fans have to download the free 'Mike Scanner' app (see what they did there...) and photograph 2 barcodes, one of which can be found on Skinner's website. The other, rather strangely, can be found on the side of an unnamed 300g brand of tinned tomato soup. Yes, I repeat, tomato soup. When they do this, it will unlock access to a new mixtape from The Streets.

It's a nice idea, well written and sitting comfortably alongside a very focused digital campaign centred around The Streets blog. Skinner has been very hands on in the campaign to seed his forthcoming new album, Computers & Blues (out 7th Feb), actively blogging with video clips and photographs amongst other stuff since 19th October 2010. This date is interesting, because having been very active on Twitter, Skinner disappeared off the face of the earth on October 19th 2009, before returning exactly one year later with the tweet "www.the-streets.co.uk" directing fans to his new blog and a veritable flow of regular content, including new music and the Mike Skinner personality stamped all over the blog.

Whether it's a success will be proven on Sunday 13th Feb when we see if his album has sold well enough. If it has, then it'll be hi-5s all round at Warner Music on Valentines Day, but if it hasn't then at least he'll have a future in digital content and social media...

The Machine to win Xmas chart battle

2010-12-14T13:52:00.003Z

After last years impressive uprising against Simon Cowell which saw Rage Against The Machine solidly beat the X Factor winner, Joe McElderry to number 1, it's pretty clear that Syco have reigned in the masses this year, with Matt Cardle dead-on for the 2010 Christmas number 1 single, with his renamed Biffy Clyro cover, 'When We Collide'.

He's outperforming last years tracks with over 110,000 sales on day 1, compared to comparative sales of 83,000 for Rage and 77,000 for McElderry at the same point last year. Cardle's nearest rival, Rihanna, has sold just over a third of the amount he's shifted PLUS the physical CD version will hit supermarket shelves tomorrow enabling the parents and grandparents to make their impulse purchase whilst doing their weekly shopping - so I'd say it's pretty clear that Syco have it in the bag.

Perhaps it's down to the fact that this year there are effectively three different campaigns attempting to rattle Cowell's hold on the number 1 spot:
1) The Trashmen 'Bird Is The Word'
2) Cage Against The Machine '4'33"
3) Biffy Clyro 'Many Of Horror'

At present, The Trashmen are leading their way at number 3 with approx 25k sales, whilst Biffy are at #9 with just under 15k sales, with CATM at #19 with close to 6k sales. The Trashmen are also winning the social media challenge with an impressive 626,000 'likes' on Facebook, compared to 85k for CATM and 39,000 currently supporting Biffy Clyro. In comparison, the RATM Facebook page had just under 900,000 fans last year.

Momentum is certainly building around each of these campaigns now that we're in the week of release, so hopefully the various challengers will build their support and boost sales to at least give the X Factor winner a run for his money as we near the final chart rundown on Sunday.

I for one have put my money where my mouth is and thrown my spare change behind the Cage Against The Machine track which is raising funds for a selection of very worthy charities (listed on their Facebook page). So dig deep people and get involved and lets turn this into a real chart battle.

Fight the power and other cliches and watch the Cage Against The Machine official video below.

Radiohead gigs sap your energy...according to new research.

2010-10-21T13:58:00.000Z

Blogger, Joseph Wilk, has conducted research to establish the energy levels on offer at different concerts. Evolver.fm report that he pitted setlists from Songkick with The Echo Nests energy and danceability attributes to deliver his results.

Radiohead apparently sap your energy at the end...Elvis Costello only raises the audience energy levels at the end of the gig....Morrissey gigs become 'easier to dance to' towards the end of the set...while the Beastie Boys "absolutely destroy your soul towards the middle and then leave you absolutely shattered at the end" according to this basic study.

Read more and view some charts here

"Video no longer available due to a copyright claim by EMI..."

2010-08-10T09:44:00.001Z

EMI Music Publishing are on the receiving end of the beginnings of what could become a virtual kicking on social networks for requesting the removal of the recent phenomenon, NEWPORT: State Of Mind from YouTube. This being the parody of the Jay-Z & Alicia Keys track about New York that was created and posted up by some advertising creatives and a bunch of actors recently and went on to top the Guardian Viral Video chart.

OK, it was a fun little clip, but what people seem to be forgetting is that the pastiche uses a track written by somebody else, and therefore owned by a songwriter, who happens to be represented by EMI Music Publishing. This is unlikely to be a case of 'the man' getting rid of this specific song, more a case that EMI and other major music rights holders tend to request the removal of any use of their music which hasn't been placed by the label from services such as YouTube.

It's a standard system that works to ensure that use of the music is properly registered with the service provider (in this case YouTube) to ensure that the songwriters and other rights holders get paid what's due to them.

Songwriters getting paid? Sounds fair to me. The creators of the Newport parody should probably speak to the rights holders of the original version of the song to see if they can cut a deal to share rights on their song and make some revenue from it, so I hope this doesn't become a big deal because the joke has passed now, but at least it raises the issue of copyright and the creators of music needing to be paid fairly for their work. And yes, I'm aware Jay-Z already has quite a lot of money, but remember, without his original, this parody wouldn't have been so funny.

Tunited: An independent music community, created by...er...Midgure

2010-04-22T06:34:00.000Z

The man who penned the Band Aid single 25 years ago, Midge Ure, is launching a new independent music community, Tunited, aimed at independent musicians, music fans and record labels, centred around a belief that "music should be liberated, not free".

The offering is centred around the idea that the community can 'Create, Collaborate, Promote and Enjoy' and claims to be a meritocracy where "the best music will be recognised, regardless of the size of their marketing budgets or charm of their pluggers".

Rather interestingly, Tunited will pay artists 100% of profits from their music sales, however, this will naturally mean after costs are extracted, although they do claim that they will pay a higher royalty than iTunes which can only be a good thing for bands.

It will be interesting to see how Tunited fares in comparison to the likes of R&RMusic and the ever changing MySpace Music service, however, with the likes of Autonomy Music Group supporting the team behind the service, then they certainly have a fighting chance.

The beta service is to launch in 8 days.

mflow: combining music recommendations, streams, purchase & rewards

2010-03-15T12:59:00.000Z

I've been playing around with the new social music service mflow (currently in beta) for the past week, trying to decide where and why it fits in to the mix and what could make it special.

mflow is a user-generated music recommendations service offering access to 30 second audio streams, with the option to either purchase the full track or flow the track to your followers. The bonus comes with the fact that if you flow a track which is subsequently purchased by one of your followers, you will receive a 20% cut of the sales fee which can be spent purchasing more music on mflow.

They have also clearly stated that they will not be running advertising within the service which is a brave move, but shows they have confidence in the mflow model.

So far I've found myself using the service to discover new music, which I'm then sampling on MySpace or Spotify. I've so far purchased one song (Darwin Deez 'Constellations') and had one of my recommendations purchased (Lissie 'Little Lovin')

The only missing component for me at present is the option to stream full tracks, meaning I leave the interface and engage with their rival services, but I'm willing to give mflow a bit more time to see how the service develops.

You can request a beta invite at: http://www.mflow.com or to get in quicker, sign up with one of their launch media partners: NME / Clash

Thom Yorke: The Brand Ambassador...

2010-03-11T13:22:00.001Z

This story passed me by last month, but it would appear that Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has engaged in an arrangement of sorts with the New York denim brand, Rag & Bone.

It seems that Thom soundtracked the brands New York Fashion Week show last month, selecting tracks in conjunction with their designer & co-owner, David Neville, and then mixing the tracks together - link here

Yorke selected tracks by Squarepusher and Bjork in his short selection, as detailed on Bjork's website - link here.

Thom was also seen wearing a Rag & Bone jacket at his Grammy Awards performance last month - story here.

It's possible that Thom is a fan or friend of the brand, however, whether he's receiving cash or clothes in return for his support, it still seems to go against the vehement anti-brand stance that his band Radiohead are so well known for.

Having said that, his 'partnership' has been delivered very tastefully, without overt exploitation of his involvement and putting his creativity at the fore, so Rag & Bone have to be applauded for achieving this priceless endorsement.

Intriguing music viral

2010-02-22T12:35:00.001Z

The blogosphere is mildly buzzing about a series of teaser virals that are running on YouTube under the username iamamiwhoami_

UPDATE: A locked Twitter account has appeared that is claiming to be behind this campaign - twitter.com/IAmItsMe - could be a spoof, but who knows. Lots of Swedish in their tweets...

The videos showcase a selection of brilliantly shot clips featuring a blond lady covered in what appears to be tar, licking trees, whilst a dog frollicks in the snow. They also end with sketches of animals and feature strawberry's for some unknown reason.

Rumours are circulating that it's either Goldfrapp, Christina Aguilera or Lady Gaga, but my instinct is that its the Swedish duo, The Knife. Why? The woman looks a bit like the lead singer and the music is probably closest to The Knife than the three aforementioned acts. Their new album, an opera called 'Tomorrow, In A Year' (out on 1st March - click here to order your copy) has a relevant connection to these clips, having been based on Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species.

Whoever is behind it has delivered a nicely shot viral campaign, that is creating a decent level of interest online. If it is Christina Aguilera, then a nice move to show a new edgier direction, however, if I'm right and it is The Knife, then the 150k+ people who've engaged with the campaign are most likely mainly potential new fans who may then go out to buy the album. Nice result.

Watch the full set on the iamamiwhoami YouTube channel

BBC 6 Music is its own worst enemy. Discuss...

2010-02-15T19:23:00.002Z

Today the BBC Trust published their findings about the Manchester United-esque Radio 2 and it's relegation-zone sibling 6Music, finding that Radio 2 has decent reach, but needs to cater better for the over 65 market, while 6Music has low awareness amongst its target audience (20%) and low reach (1%).

The reasons appear quite clear to me, it's a niche station and could do with addressing the following issues...
1) Playlist
2) Name
3) Distribution

"HOW VERY DARE YOU" you cry (well the two of you that accidentally found this link when searching "Chevy Chase and BBC"), but before you hang me out to dry I'll go through the points one by one....

1) Playlist
The playlist is niche with a focus on playing heritage tracks along with brand new bands. Thankfully, they avoid the XFM approach of playing the same 'mainstream indie hits', however, this makes the station less accessible than the other BBC stations. They have to decide whether to stay true to their ideals or extend their playlist to widen their appeal. Hopefully they'll stay true to their ideals and address the next two issues to increase awareness and therefore reach, to build their listener base as a result.

2) The name
The station name needs to be better aligned with the rest of the BBC network....Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 3, Radio 4, 5 Live, 6Music....what's wrong with Radio 6? Or the more descriptive Radio 1.5!! Radio 6 feels like a better explanation, in that its the 6th national BBC service. 6Music takes it away from the historical successes of BBC Radio stations of the past 40+ years.
5 Live originally launched as Radio 5, so had the chance to create awareness before its rebranding to FiveLive and later 5 Live.
Perhaps the BBC should also look at learnings from their TV channels, having rebranded BBC Choice to BBC Three several years back.

3) Distribution
The distribution is limited. Yeah yeah, I know we live in a digital age, but mainstream radio listeners still use FM to find their radio station of choice. Until every car & kitchen FM stereo has been replaced with digital-only hardware, 6 Music will continue as the distant cousin, only available to the technically minded few (circa 600k) who will seek them out on digital platforms, me included. Distribution is an essential strand of the marketing mix, so while being forward thinking by making 6 Music digital only, it's the equivalent of Cadbury not putting their products in Tesco and only online shopping services rather than traditional supermarkets.

Even the recent rumours surrounding the possible closure of 6Music leading to a 'Save 6Music' campaign on Facebook has only delivered support of 50k fans, while the 'Can This Sausage Roll Get More Fans Than Cheryl Cole' Facebook group has reached over 1 million supporters in a similar time frame.

6 Music needs to deliver greater awareness amongst the masses first and then reach out to its share of fans within that wider group. A hard task on a limited budget, but music is the greatest tool to engage with any audience, so I believe it can be done......How? Well, that will cost them!

Football & Music: A Perfect Partnership.

2010-02-11T12:43:00.002Z

The association between football and music goes back years, with legendary moments including 'Three Lions', Chas N Dave's Spurs FA Cup anthems and the first single I ever bought, the 1985 Everton FA Cup Final Anthem 'Here We Go' (B-side, Home & Dry)....a classic.

Two campaigns have caught my eye this week, one being Umbro's launch of the new England team away shirt, and the other, Puma's Hardchorus campaign for Valentine's Day.

The Umbro campaign see's them teaming up with Kasabian's Tom Meighan, who is the new face of the England away short. This week Umbro secured favourable column inches around the launch, by getting Tom to wear the shirt for its world exclusive at a Kasabian gig. This works on a number of levels, from the fact that Tom is a proud England fan, a fan of football (well, Leicester City...), their tracks can be heard regularly at football grounds across the country and their audience is the same crowd that populates the football terraces week in week out. So that's all the boxes ticked, however, playing on the cliched national rivalries, Umbro created their own mini invasion by launching the new shirt at a Kasabian show in France....cue slightly jingoistic tabloid headlines, thus ensuring the staunch England fans jump to attention and salute the three lions emblem emblazoned across the shirt. Job done.

Puma's Hardchorus takes a different creative route, yet again puts fans at the centre of the campaign. The TV ad will break on Valentine's Day during the Bolton vs Spurs coverage on ITV1, with an empassioned crowd of football fans in the pub aggressively singing a Savage Garden love song to camera. This is then followed by the final sequence that encourages all fans to go to the campaign website and dedicate the song to their WAGs. "Ah, how sweet..." their partners will no doubt squeal in delight as they receive an email sending them to a personalised version of the website that looks something like this

So, two very different campaigns, with fans set at the heart, yet both latch onto the passionate emotions that music and a dedication to sport can deliver.

Thounds: A collaborative platform for music creation and sharing

2010-02-11T11:13:00.002Z

Thounds is a music platform that allows users to share their musical ideas and collaborate with eachother across the globe through social networks.

This technology not only allows anyone the chance to create and share music files quickly and easily, it also means that they don't need to buy expensive equipment to enable them to deliver this. Meaning that now literally anyone can create and distribute their music in minutes, whilst also enabling their fellow band members, fans or friends to collaborate with the track or sound byte to create their own interpretations.

As you'd expect, the audio files can be posted on other social networks and there is also an iPhone app.
OK, the file on the home page is a bit shambolic in terms of the quality of the musical collaboration, but it gives you an idea as to what's possible and as they develop the quality will no doubt improve at a fast pace.

Check out the Thounds blog for the Coolio Thounds collaboration...

Warner make the first move in music streaming chess match....

2010-02-10T14:51:00.001Z

The BBC today report that the major record label, Warner Music, have announced that they will no longer support free music streaming services, however, they will still support paid for subscription services.

Read the full article here

This stance was only a matter of time, and following last years stand-off with Last.fm where they removed their music from the service, it's no real surprise that Warner have made the first move here.

In the UK, the Universal-backed VEVO service is expected to launch later this year, which I expect will see labels retaining yet more control over their audio-visual content, limiting the 'promotional' distribution in order to monetise the content via their own service, and avoiding sharing these revenues with the existing streaming services.

As a music fan, these services are a godsend....free music in return for listening to a few ads. Result!

However, when you look at the finances of services such as Spotify, they don't really stack up. With a rumoured 250k subscribers paying £9.99 a month, and around 7 million people using the free service, the labels/artists/publishers share of revenue is minimal.

And now that we've got used to these free services offering everything for nothing, will we take the plunge and pay a subscription to retain access to this vast library of music? Some will for sure, but the masses will no doubt head straight back to the torrent sites to keep their music free.

Meanwhile, if the product is devalued by limited content, the services will become less attractive to the limited pool of advertisers willing to invest their funds through these services. Combine that with the excessively high advertising rates charged by certain services, and the opportunity for these models shrinks even further.

The likes of Napster have taken a shrewd approach to music consumption, by cutting deals with hardware firms to carry their service, giving them a leg up in terms of opportunity, and their PC-only pricing of just £5 per month makes them more attractive than Spotify's £9.99 offering.

It'll be interesting to see how this one pans out over the next 6-12 months.

Alan McGee vs Drowned In Sound: The Movie

2010-01-25T15:34:00.001Z

Last week, music biz legend, Alan McGee, used Twitter to launch a tongue-in-cheek tirade against music website, Drownedinsound.com, and specifically its owner, Sean Adams. If you missed it, Alan has already wiped it from his feed, however, we've managed to grab CCTV footage of a secret face to face meeting....

New OK Go viral not quite so viral...

2010-01-20T11:03:00.000Z

OK Go, the US band behind the Treadmill-based music video that took YouTube by storm a few years back, have returned with a brand new video for their single, This Too Shall Pass, that they were rather hoping would gain similar viral traction to the last one.

However, their record label EMI, who own the license for the recording, have banned all video content to be embedded away from YouTube, due to the software that pays out to the label for every stream not recognising embedded files, thus removing a huge chunk of the viral effect.

The band have posted an open letter on their website messageboard explaining their point of view to their fans in a very fair and frank manner, whilst seemingly remaining very supportive of their record label through their understanding of the need to deliver revenue from their music in these days of shrinking music sales.

OK Go - This Too Shall Pass from OK Go on Vimeo.

4 bands to watch this year...well 5...plus a few more....

2010-01-06T13:38:00.002Z

Yes everyone is throwing their opinion in the ring as to who'll be huge this year, so here's another opinion stating the same acts as everyone else...

Ellie Goulding:
Ellie is the name everyone is talking about, and looks set to be a shoe-in for this weeks BBC Sound of 2010 poll. She's already been announced as the winner of the Brit Awards Critics Choice Award at next months ceremony, and her album Lights (released March 1st) will no doubt storm straight in to the charts at number 1. I really like what I've heard so far and suggest that you may too.

EMIL
Oh, and Hackney born EMIL is one that you can't afford to miss. Think Prince...Michael Jackson...Lenny Kravitz...and a whole host of Absolute Radio hits...and you still won't quite understand quite how important EMIL could be in music this year.

The Drums
They're on the NME Awards tour and are also being hyped by all and sundry as ones to watch for the year. Currently releasing via the indie label, Moshi Moshi, these American hipsters will take their Summer pop and smash it this year given half a chance.

Delphic
I really like Delphic. Lazily described by many as Manchester's latest answer to New Order, although there is a distinctly 80s Hacienda / Manchester inspired feel to their pop/indie/rave crossover sound. Ultimately its pop and they will become the first real breakthrough of 2010 with this months release of their album, Acolyte.

Delphic - Counterpoint
Uploaded by UniversalMusicUK. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

Marina & The Diamonds
Another big female personality with her only quirky twist on pop to get the nation excited. After a year of endless gigging and building her profile through the style pages, big things are expected of Marina in 2010.

And I can't be bothered to write about the rest, so click the links to find out more for yourselves...

Egyptian Hip Hop
Free Energy
Hurts
White Rabbits
Mini Viva
Lauren (Listen to Wasted In Jackson)
Charlie XCX

Maybe I'll add some more if I get round to it, but maybe not...

X Factor stars sing Rage Against The Machine...

2009-12-16T12:29:00.001Z

Here's a great viral that supports the campaign to get Rage Against The Machine the Christmas number 1....

Tiger Woods launches music career?

2009-12-15T17:44:00.000Z

Music by Trevor Cushman / Video by Al LeVine / Produced by http://www.HalfDayToday.com

The X Factor debate RAGES on...

2009-12-15T16:56:00.001Z

So Rage Against The Machine are sitting at number 1 on first day sales, proving the power of social media to be a true engager of people behind causes that matter to them.

This campaign to beat X Factor's Joe to the Xmas number 1, has also highlighted how easy it is for the rumour mill to confuse the general public.

Lets look at a couple of the rumours:
- "Simon Cowell owns the rights to both tracks...."
- "Amazon sales won't count towards the chart..."

And now lets look at a few facts:
- Simon Cowell is employed by Sony and has a JV with them, Syco. RATM are signed to Sony's Epic label, with whom Simon Cowell is not specifically involved.
- Amazon sales WILL count towards the chart (it even says so on the official Facebook group page)
- X Factor sales traditionally sell the majority of copies through physical formats

Add....
- Voting stats show that after week 6, Joe was always going to win X Factor by a mile...

As an aside, the official chart rules do indeed state that singles must be sold for a minimum of 40p each (for a single track), however, recent chart successes have come from the likes of Peter Andre who have also heavily discounted their singles to gain higher chart placings, with the sales subsidised by Amazon.

So of the 19 million people who watched the X Factor final, if they sell the single to even just a 10th of these (assume 95%+ for the number of CDs sold), then they'll comfortably beat RATM, who currently sit 5000 sales ahead, based on purely download sales.

Be great to see RATM win though...it'd be like Everton winning the title this season....well, one can dream....

Umbro back Sony's "Kasabian Football Idol"

2009-10-23T13:46:00.006Z

Sony Music have partnered with Umbro to create a football viral for the new Kasabian single, Underdog.

The viral sees Britain's Got Talent 'Freestyle Football' duo, Woody & Kleiny, play a version of Guitar Hero with footballs instead of guitars. Umbro dressed the players and provided some funding for the project.

The power of music

2009-10-14T17:29:00.006Z

It's well documented that music has a unique power to change moods and shift perceptions around a visual image to create any atmosphere. Legendary ads ranging from 'I'd Like To Give The World A Coke' to the more recent Cadbury's 'Gorilla' have shown how music can really drive a message home. This latest ad from Häagen-Dazs uses the song 'Open Up Your Door' by the brilliant Richard Hawley to great effect to deliver a really rich, romantic atmosphere around the product. Cheesey? Absolutely. Effective? Absolutely.

Quiksilver enter the music market with Leddra Chapman

2009-10-13T17:37:00.004Z

Media Junction Digital reported in their newsletter this morning on Quiksilver's endorsement of a new singer, Leddra Chapman, who is now a 'Women's Ambassador' for the brand. She has reportedly performed at Quiksilver events already, and now she is making a free mix sampler of her album and also the full track debut single, from a Quiksilver created website, in return for shared datacapture.

It's particularly interesting to see that Leddra isn't managed by a music firm, but a celebrity and sports firm that manage the likes of Ant & Dec and a bunch of footballers. So even the celebrity agents are finding new routes to launch music careers to avoid the need for a traditional record label.

The cleverest part of this partnership is that over the next couple of months, clothing at Quiksilver stores will have a label attached directing their consumers to the co-branded website. Now that's what we call integrated.

And finally....

2009-10-13T17:09:00.005Z

I've just come across this video of Jon Snow and his fellow Channel 4 newsreaders performing a song in the C4 News studio. I am not entirely sure why, but it's a very delicate ballad and isn't as bad as I expected...what next? John Craven covering this or Trevor MacDonald on the X Factor?

Mixcloud launches...

2009-09-28T09:28:00.003Z

Mixcloud has launched, aiming to do for radio content what YouTube has done for video.

The system allows users to upload their own radio shows, with the Mixcloud service then making all tracks and artists uniquely searchable.

The site has a PRS radio license and claims to be in discussions with labels to license their music. They are funded by a mix of advertising and transactional user payments.

Dear Lily....the power of digital...

2009-09-28T08:57:00.004Z

Well, it's been quite a couple of weeks for Lily Allen! It started with her leading the charge in her crusade against illegal filesharing and ended with her resigning from music last week.

Now, a quick thinking 'rapper' (talker? wannabee Mike Skinner perhaps?) called Dan Bull has cleverly exploited the situation by writing a song as an open letter to Lily and posted it on YouTube. A very well written bunch of lyrics, it sits head and shoulders above Dan's other tracks on his MySpace page, however, he represents the approach that all musicians, Lily included, now needs to undertake in this "new modern age"*...he is using social media to provide endless amounts of video content and while he's selling his CD, he's also allowing people to hear the tracks in full on his MySpace and to download his new album at a lower 128k file quality for free. It's a bit like the free samples you get at food markets, where they hope you'll buy some once you've tried it.

*its not really that new now is it, we've had years to come up with digital solutions for selling music...

So The Beatles ARE bigger than Jesus...according to The Guardian's Google Labs research

2009-09-21T11:25:00.006Z

When John Lennon joked that The Beatles were "bigger than Jesus" he had to apologise to all and sundry for his claims. But now The Guardian's Tim Jonze has delivered definitive proof* that for 5 days last week, The Beatles were indeed bigger than Jesus....
*well according to Google Labs

This video provides further 'evidence' of this fact

The football soundtrack

2009-09-19T15:50:00.003Z

As the wonky mobile phone picture above shows, I'm at the Emirates watching Arsenal v Wigan and its currently 3-0, so the Arsenal faithful are in fine voice. Classic tracks are being reworded, such as The Village People's 'Go West' becoming 'stand up for the ar-se-nal'. They're simple chants but they succeed in uniting the crowd with one voice.

Only sport and music generate such a mass emotional engagement, so bringing the two together is enormously powerful. Think '3 lions' or 'Swing Low', simple songs that unite thousands if not millions to provide an emotional soundtrack to their sporting experience. Now imagine if a brand bought into the experience? It's a massively untapped opportunity...

Could a brand release the first crowd sourced single, recorded at a major game? With the World Cup fast approaching brands are going to be working hard to engage with football fans, so maybe music can help to deliver the some real cut through. Let's make this happen.

Let (the music chart) battle commence

2009-09-15T11:36:00.005Z

So battle has commenced for the number 1 spot this week with a potential SEVEN new entries in the UK album charts.

Muse are flying ahead in the midweeks with some very impressive 1st day sales of almost 70,000, which should ensure them the top spot with the potential for approx 150k sales across the week by my reckoning. Their enthusiastic fanbase will have been out in force with pre-orders and first day purchases, and the band have been in a very pro-active dialogue with them over the past six weeks via Twitter.

Bizarely for such a strong sales week, singer-turned-reality-TV-star-turned-singer-again, Peter Andre, is currently sitting at number two, with Jay-Z at number 3.

It looks like age before beauty for the number 4 spot, with Vera Lynn currently winning the "battle of the female solo singers" against every tabloid picture editors favourite, Pixie Lott, who will be disappointed to be sitting outside the top 3 - although a top 5 placing would deliver a very impressive result for a singer that only came to prominence in the last 3-4 months with two number 1 singles.

David Gray will also no doubt be disappointed not to reach the number 1 spot with his latest effort, having to make do with a top 10 placing along with new albums from Porcupine Tree and 80s rockers Megadeth.

The Fat Dancer returns....

2009-09-04T09:09:00.004Z

So Robbie Williams is back with a new track.....*silence ensues*.......that'll be the "fat dancer from Take That" ((c) Noel Gallagher), once one of the UKs biggest superstars, who has filled venues from Knebworth to Milton Keynes Bowl on major world tours, while filling the pages of the red tops with a variety of 'entertaining' news stories about UFOs, fluctuating weight and more. "Oh right, him, he must wish he'd never left the band..."

Lyrically, Bodies is on a par with his previous work, with an over reliance on the rhyming dictionary (tree, chemis-treee, famil-eee, me, ceme-treee, be...). It has the expected big production so will work wonders on commercial radio, so get used to hearing this one. Word on the street is that Bodies will be followed by a ballad of Angels proportions, just in time for Christmas too, how clever of those EMI & IE types.

So Robbie's back, with his comedy Rudebox album a distant memory. He hasn't changed the world, but at least he's back on track which will keep mainstream England happy.

In the past 12 months Robbie's name has come up a number of times, with various colleagues asking questions such as "isn't it over for Robbie?", "shouldn't we be looking at someone a bit more relevant?"
I think Bodies answers the questions that yes, he's back, he's primed for yet another number 1 and his music will annoy the bejesus out of my ears for the next 12 months, but it does mean that a large FMCG brand would do well to consider teaming up with his latest adventures for the following reasons...

- The focus of Robbie Williams is once again about the music
- Blanket coverage of mainstream 25-45 year olds (estimated demographic)
- Everything he does hits the headlines, so now he's back on track with his career, the associative PR is of great value

Now, when's he going to get back onstage with his former Take That counterparts?
The smart money is on next Summer....

Radiohead's game of cat & mouse

2009-08-17T16:59:00.005Z

Contagious Magazine have published an interesting overview of the journey behind the Radiohead track, 'These Are My Twisted Words', released today as a free download from the bands website. Read it here.

The band do a great job in generating PR and creating a mystical 'what will they do next' buzz around everything they do. And it makes brilliant viewing.

Search 'Radiohead' on Google and you'll get a massive 25million articles!

Most importantly, they've realised that they can play by their own rules and take the risks that traditional music rights holders are scared of.

I met with one of their management team about another band a couple of years back, and it was very clear that he is a driving force behind the new thinking, looking at creating revenue streams, finding new routes to market and also retaining as many rights as they possibly could. He was also very astute at negotiating very agreeable upfront payments and financial terms on behalf of his band, that would have seen a label partner digging very deep.

In my view a much stronger track than 'Harry Patch (In Memory Of)', there's no doubt more to come from Radiohead in the coming weeks and I'm looking forward to it.

The Human Synthesizer & Calvin Harris

2009-08-13T11:47:00.004Z

Some clever types at the RCA, have come up with a rather cool way of creating music, using electric ink to create a human synthesiser called the Humanthesizer. Columbia Records artist, Calvin Harris, has taken the tool and created a version of his latest single, Ready For The Weekend, using the humanthesiser, powered by Calvin, a singer, aaaaand....15 bikini clad girls. So for purely scientific reasons, I decided to check the video out....

The electric ink is called Bare Conductive. It's a non-toxic, conductive ink that is applied directly to the skin allowing the creation of custom electricity, allowing users to interact with electronics through gesture and movement.

The video shows Calvin explaining the concept, plus the girls applying the electric paint.....anyway, yeah, he then performs a short burst of the track which comes out pretty well.

It was uploaded to YouTube on Monday (11th Aug) and has already hit almost 150k views.

Columbia have also shot a video of how the Humanthesizer has been created, where Sony's new creative team Phil & Steve walk us through the process of putting the shoot together.

Photo borrowed from www.geeky-gadgets.com

Audio Joy vol 10: Nintendo Korg DS THE BAND!!

2009-08-12T10:24:00.007Z

You may have read about Sony Music's PR stunt for MGMT last year, where a four-piece girl group performed a version of the bands hit, Kids, on iPhones. Well now an act called Lung Rotter & Seven are creating music using the Nintendo DS-10.

They synch 3 of the devices together and use the Korg plug-in to create some decent tunes.

The band feature Barry 7, a former colleague of mine at Mute who is the former drummer of Add N To (X).

Check out the Lung Rotter & 7 DS-10 tracks here and watch them performing here

U2 on iPhone & Blackberry?

2009-08-07T11:29:00.005Z

My ex-brandamp colleague and avid twitterer, @Timull, pointed out to me today that when you click on the iPod section of the iPhone, where there is a list of playlist, album & artist, the artist image that features is that of U2's lead singer Bono (not the photo linked here of course...).

Sounds OK, artist appears on major music device in a promotional capacity. And Apple and U2 have a history of course, from the collaborative U2 / iPod / iTunes TV ad of a couple of years ago.

Tim's next comment was "well Blackberry are paying them a fortune at the mo..."

To quote another colleague and eminent media blogger/twitterer, @lyndonmorant, "valid".

So, what would Blackberry make of it? Rumour has it, they've paid in the region of $10m to partner with U2 for a mobile content and world tour sponsorship? You'd have to imagine that Blackberry would require a certain element of exclusivity as part of this major sponsorship.

Could it be argued that the iPhone placement is a promotional tool to create a sales opportunity through iTunes, while the Blackberry is a marketing partner? I wonder what Blackberry would have to say about that?

LG to sponsor F1 Rocks

2009-08-04T11:02:00.007Z

LG have this morning been announced as headline sponsor for F1 Rocks, the music event co-created by Universal Music's All The Worlds and Formula One.

The first event will see Beyonce, ZZ Top and Black Eyed Peas playing at the Singapore Grand Prix in late September at Fort Canning Park. Simple Minds, NERD and Chinese singer, Jackey Cheung will also perform, with more acts to be announced. Fortunately Damon Hill and Eddie Jordan will not be performing at the event.

This extension of their current F1 sponsorship deal, is a shrewd move by LG, as it offers them a great content opportunity that allows them an ownable piece of F1 entertainment that could gain some real cut through past the other F1 sponsors that focus on the race itself.

Comparedownloads.com

2009-08-04T09:05:00.003Z

Comparedownload.com is a new website that, much like those insurance comparison sites with the annoying TV ads, offers consumers a one-stop site to compare prices, in this case for music downloads.

They've constructed deals with the major MP3 retail stores which they claim offers consumers access to an impressive 10 million tracks, along with reviews, gig tickets and up-to-date artist information.

The site features a We7 music player and a feed of music news from NME.com, and is quite nicely designed, coming across as a thought through blog, with a search cloud for easy reference. It also allows users to share playlists via a link, and features an Amazon MP3 sample of each track on the song page to listen to a clip as it seeks out the various prices.

I need to live with the site a bit more, but it looks like a great site for music fans to find the best deal, potentially giving the smaller providers a fighting chance against iTunes by undercutting their pricing policy.

Audio Joy vol 9: Sharemyplaylists.com

2009-08-03T17:24:00.005Z

Every month, my twitter (and real life) friend, iamnottheenemy, posts a Spotify playlist of his month in music on the ShareMyPlaylists.com site.

It's the perfect way to check out loads of new bands you've heard of, but haven't actually heard yet, without having to go to the effort of searching for the songs yourself.

Check out the brand new July playlist here.

NME Radio launch iPhone app for music sales

2009-08-03T09:19:00.004Z

NME Radio have today announced the launch of an iPhone app enabling their listeners to immediately download tracks played on the station to their phone.
This is a very shrewd move, which will now allow them to benefit financially from the exposure they offer to artists, whilst also improving the consumer journey by enabling instant purchase.
It follows hot on the heels of the iTunes powered Global Radio chart show, The Big Top 40 Show, which encourages listeners to buy tracks to shape the top 10 as the show airs, with NME taking it a step further by creating their own method of purchase.
Expect more broadcasters to follow this route fairly quickly.

Barclasonicwide Mercury Music Prize shortlist announced... a good partnership for a brand?

2009-07-21T11:07:00.008Z

So the 12 shortlisted albums for the Mercury Prize have been announced and it's a fairly close list to those that have been discussed within the blogosphere in recent days, amongst the annual speculation surrounding who would feature. But I wonder how many people are connecting the awards with a specific sponsor? After all, this highly regarded reward was originally created for the Cable & Wireless communications brand Mercury back in 1992, and retained the name once the Mercury brand was replaced by the name One 2 One.

Sponsorship duties have shifted this year over to Barclaycard, taking on the mantle from previous sponsors: Nationwide (04-08), Panasonic (02-03), Technics (98-01) & founding sponsor and now defunct brand name, Mercury (92-97). Having been around the block a few times, you have to wonder whether a lead sponsor will continue to get the cut through in return for its spend, but it looks to me like a canny move for Barclaycard and works brilliantly alongside their other recent music partnerships, covering live events (Live Nation deal for branding and contactless technology at Wireless & Hard Rock Calling festivals), Radio (12 month deal to partner Global Radio live events) plus the delivery of their recent music websites, exclusively available to their customers which will take content from all these touchpoints and offer real value to their consumers.

Anyway, more importantly, who do I think will win the Barclasonicwide or whatever its called Mercury Prize on September 8th? My vote is with The Horrors....

The full shortlist with links to listen for yourself (where possible) can be found below.

Bat For Lashes – 'Two Suns'

Florence And The Machine – 'Lungs' (selected tracks)

Friendly Fires – 'Friendly Fires'

Glasvegas – 'Glasvegas'

The Horrors – 'Primary Colours'

La Roux – 'La Roux'

Led Bib – 'Sensible Shoes' (selected tracks)

The Invisible - 'The Invisible' (selected tracks)

Lisa Hannigan – 'Sea Saw' (some tracks)

Kasabian – 'West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum'

Speech Debelle – 'Speech Therapy'

Sweet Billy Pilgrim – 'Twice Born Men'

This Sunday's chart news....two days early.

2009-07-17T15:42:00.002Z

X Factor losers JLS storm to the top of the singles chart with their debut, Beat Again, outselling last weeks number 1 from Cascada, by more than 2-to-1. Black Eyed Peas new single, I Got A Feeling, looks set to climb from 10 to 3, so could well be a contender for next weeks number 1. A sign that singles buyers really don’t like music is with Chicane’s terrible cover of the Sigur Ros track, Hoppipolla, renamed Poppiholla, enters in the lower reaches of the top 10….as a colleague just told me "Just listened to the Chicane cover of Sigur Ros. Threw up in my mouth a bit." Well said.

In the albums chart, Michael Jackson continues to dominate with 6 albums in the top 20, and Florence & The Machine keeps hold of the number 2 spot for a second week - who knows, had Jacko still been with us, she might have been number 1... The highest new entry is from the ‘supergroup’ Dead Weather who’ll enter just outside the top 10 with their debut album, Horehound. The New Seekers return to the top 20 with their Greatest Hits set, while rising star, VV Brown looks set for a top 40 placing with her debut, Travelling Like The Light.

Digital emerges victorious against CDs and 7" in the UK singles chart

2009-07-15T13:38:00.008Z

Teletext's Planet Sound column report on the virtual collapse of physical product sales in the UK music market, with digital sales now accounting for a massive 98% of all singles sales.

This is big news when you consider that all digital sales first started to count towards the chart, a mere two-and-a-half years ago in January 2007. Prior to then, digital sales only counted from 1 week prior to the physical release.

Planet Sound's report is based on this weeks first day sales, reporting that while JLS have managed to shift close to 4000 CDs of their debut single, no other release had managed to beat the 500 units mark.

Interestingly, they also report that mobile sales are fairing better than physical singles, however, at a fairly low base, with the top 10 tracks shifting between 500-1000 copies each through this medium on first day sales figures.

The twitter celebrities are watching you

2009-07-07T16:33:00.005Z

When NME blogger, Jeff Maysh, saw a couple of tweets from Mike Skinner of The Streets, about celebrity fragrances, and how much they make, he (Maysh) chose to make a comment about it to his friends, via twitter. Apparently, he was shocked to find out that Skinner was able to view the comment (he'd included Mike's twitter tag....) and received a direct response from the talented music star.

Read Jeff's account here

Now, Maysh claims to have been surprised to have received the reply, but doesn't it just go to show that Mike is ahead of the game by being in full control of his personal twitter platform? By managing his profile himself, it has enabled him to 'release' new music, engage fans with some entertaining content (from crop circles to photoshoots) ...and he's even drawn me in, a lapsed fan who had lost interest in his music.

The message is simple: If you make a comment about someone on any platform, be it twitter, myspace or even on a blog like this one, then it becomes public property which may be viewed by the person you're commenting on. Even worse, their fanbase might pick up on it and then you're in real trouble!

Audio Joy vol 8: M83 & Maps

2009-07-07T11:28:00.005Z

Today is all about M83 and Maps who are playing at London's KOKO this evening.

Both bands soundtracked my tenure at the record label, Mute, and if they aren't already, they should also be soundtracking your life.

So go forth and check out M83 on the video above and Maps on the video below.

Then buy tickets for tonights KOKO gig here - but be sure to get there before 8pm to get your moneys worth by catching both bands.

Want to own a share of Spotify?

2009-07-06T09:38:00.006Z

The Guardian are reporting that Spotify are seeking investment of between £20m & £30m, with The Times claiming that Spotify are "trying to drum up a valuation of close to £200m".

So, if you won the lottery tomorrow, would you consider investing, and has it any hope of providing a decent return for your £30m?

I would want some guarantees of a minimum return on my expenditure as although the free service is immensely popular with consumers (reports of 2m in the UK), its finances don't look healthy enough at the moment. A recent report from The Register claims that they are earning just 14p per head and a very low score on premium subscribers.

So, I'll keep hold of my imaginary £30m lottery win for now and hedge my bets on buying this instead....

Coke sponsor Summer Series gigs

2009-07-02T10:40:00.005Z

Coca Cola have been announced as the new sponsors of the Metropolis Music produced, Summer Series shows at Somerset House. The series of gigs features headline shows by acts including The Enemy, Grace Jones and Calvin Harris, who also created the soundtrack for Coke's Summer marketing campaign. The gigs run throughout July.

These shows were originally launched in conjunction with Grolsch. When they pulled out, Vodafone stepped in as the brand partner. After a couple of years, the headline sponsorship went over to Converse who partnered with the event for 1 year as a part of the brands centenary celebrations.

And now Coke are stepping in as the last minute sponsor of the shows. Activation of this sponsorship will be key - because since Grolsch launched the series, its proved hard for the subsequent brands to really gain any ownership of the event, beyond a badging exercise at the event. Vodafone had the added layer of TV programming, but again, it felt like a thrown together partnership rather than an engaging strategic partnership.

The current Coke ad campaign is pumped full of personality with layers ranging from the Calvin Harris-penned theme tune, to the characters featured in the ad, through to their current music download giveaway, so it will be interesting to see how Coke approach this new sponsorship.

The top 99 songs on Twitter

2009-06-29T09:37:00.003Z

WeAreHunted.com has launched a new aggregator chart of the top 99 songs on Twitter.

A quick look at the current Twitter chart, shows the topical nature of the service, with Michael Jackson at number 1, reformed band of the moment blur in the top 20 off the back of their Glastonbury performance last night, along with large fanbase acts such as Jonas Brothers & Taylor Swift who will naturally keep their head above water in these kind of charts.

Who needs Glasto when you have...the DC.

2009-06-27T00:26:00.004Z

OAP rockers AC/DC are live onstage at Wembley stadium. Its Neil Young at Glastonbury so i can safely say i'm having more fun than the weekend residents of Sommerset. They gurn and they look like they might have a cardiac arrest at any moment. We've even had the Traditional Angus Young strip. Thats right, we've watched an old man take his clothes off. Better than The Killers in Hyde Park any day.

MJ passing = return to chart + AEG £300m bill

2009-06-26T10:37:00.005Z

Jacko looks set to head back into the charts following his untimely passing.
As I type, he occupies the entire top 10 of Amazon's album bestellers list, plus number 6 in the iTunes album chart. The image above show's the Last.fm plays of MJ tracks rising from 2000 to 35000 on news of his demise, as posted by the Dubliner blog.

The Times report that Jackson's death will lead to a liability of up to £300m, to refund ticket-holders for his run of 50 shows at The O2. There will also be financial repurcussions against marketing spend for the dates - including a full 3 minute ad break on ITV1, production costs already incurred, and the fact that they now have to fill the dates previously scheduled for these shows.

Warning: Flippant comment alert*** All may not be lost for AEG....they apparently have Elvis playing live at the venue on 28th Feb (details here), so perhaps they have contingency plans for Jacko too....?

Twitter users will pay ca$h money for music

2009-06-24T12:35:00.003Z

Hypebot report on NPD Group research that Twitter users are happy to pay for music.

Some of the results...

- 33% of Twitter users reported buying a CD in the prior 3 months

- 34% said they had purchased a digital download

- 33% listened to music on a social networking site
- 41 percent listened to online radio (compared to 22 percent among all Web users)
- 39 percent watched a music video online (versus 25 percent among all Web users)

- 2X more likely to visit MySpace Music and Pandora

- When Twitter users purchased music, they also spent 77% more money on digital downloads than their non-Twitter counterparts

Audio Joy vol 7: The New York Fund

2009-06-23T14:02:00.004Z

It's Summer 'proper' in London today, meaning it's a day to laze in a park....although we're all stuck at our desks in the office......it also means its a New York Fund kind of day.

Check out their track 'Nobody Home' here.

And come to The Flowerpot in Kentish Town at 8pm tonight to see them live ahead of their Glastonbury Festival appearance this weekend.

Mos Def releases new album as a t-shirt

2009-06-23T11:19:00.002Z

Our good friends at NotAnotherMindshareBlog have reported this morning on MosDef releasing his new album via a new format.....a t-shirt. The t-shirt comes with a code to download the album.

It backs up my views that great packaging will always deliver opportunity for music makers to create cash, enabling them to continue with their art.

It's not the first time that an artist has released their music free with a t-shirt, Ryan Adams did it a couple of years back in an exclusive deal with HMV, whereby if you bought the t-shirt, you got the album for free.

Nokia N97 live gig mobile broadcast platform

2009-06-23T09:07:00.006Z

Last night, Nokia teamed up with the online/Sky Arts music show, From The Basement, to broadcast The Dead Weather live on their N97 mobile.

From The Basement is a pre-recorded music TV show, which is 'all about the music maaaan', with no presenter, no live audience, just live music, pre-recorded and broadcast on Sky Arts and online. It's created by music producer Nigel Godrich (Radiohead) and has previously featured the likes of White Stripes, Radiohead, Beck, Iggy Pop and Fleet Foxes.

The N97 is claimed to be specially designed to deliver content live to your mobile, so have rather cleverly partnered with From The Basement to deliver FTBs first fully live show, for broadcast live onthe N97 handset and online.

Nokia's partnership with From The Basement delivers on numerous levels...

- Association with one of the hottest acts currently on the scene - The Dead Weather

- Association with a global superstar - Jack White

- Association with fans of the rest of the band: Alison Mosshart of The Kills, Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age and Jack Lawrence of The Raconteurs.

- Exclusive content for their customers - the debut UK live performance from The Dead Weather

- But most importantly, they have placed their product at the centre of the partnership by offering their customers the opportunity to use the product as the platform to view the show

It sounds obvious, but so many brands don't realise the importance of adding value to the music fans experience. A badged sponsorship can deliver great awareness of a message, but what else does the brand add to the consumer journey? Look at Carling's festival sponsorships as an example: They branded events, had exclusive beer pouring deals in place and rather than resting on their laurels, they activated this with activities such as the cold beer amnesty, a simple idea where they encouraged festival goers to bring them their cans of warm beer to swap them for a cold can of Carling. Now Carling may not be your beer of choice, but a chilled beer beats a warm can of lager any day of the week, so it enhances the music fans festival experience and they remember your brand for it. Nokia should be applauded for taking this same approach of putting the product at the centre of the strategy.

DrownedInSound.com also broadcast it live, along with Pitchfork, The Quietus and The Guardian, and there were a few technical issues along the way, but it still seems to have impressed the bands fans. Read comments 'as it aired live' from DrownedinSound readers here.

Blur: the setlist

2009-06-20T17:26:00.002Z

The sideways picture above is the setlist from the gig, all you need to know is they are officially one of just 3 bands that i would pay to go and see. Nice that it was free though...

Blur Live Now. Brixton Academy. 20th June

2009-06-20T16:11:00.002Z

Yep, i may not be an actual friend of the mighty blur, but here i am at Brixton Academy watching Blur play to around 1000 'friends and family' in preparation for this weeks tour and next weeks festival shows. It started fairly low key, but we're halfway through now and the picture shows them playing Tender. Apparantly this set is 2 and a half hours long, so those of you heading to Hyde Park have a lot to look forward to. I won't spoil it for you here.

Amazon MP3 album gaffe brings chart returns for Coldplay et al

2009-06-18T12:27:00.007Z

Yesterday's very public '29p albums' pricing gaffe by Amazon, has led to the return of a number of affected bands to the UK albums downloads top 20 chart, judging by today's midweeks.

Lily Allen's digital album has seen her rise to a top 5 spot in the digital chart, from last weeks number 9 placing.

Coldplay have jumped into the top 15, from a place just outside the top 100, although total sales are shy of 1000.

Kings Of Leon (just outside the top 10), MGMT, Faith No More & Madness all also benefit with top 20 placings today.

By my very rough calculations, assuming 900 of the Coldplay sales were through the mis-pricing, Amazon probably face a bill of approx £3k - 4k. If you estimate that the rest of the featured albums sold half the amount of Coldplay on average, then you could be looking at a record label bill somewhere in the region of £40-50k.

When all's said and done, although it's proven costly, it's got people talking about the Amazon MP3 store, so they've probably got their moneys worth in terms of new subscribers and PR value. So it's not all bad.

More on Amazon's 29p MP3 album fire sale

2009-06-17T12:53:00.007Z

Following on from my last post, it would appear that it was a technical error, because the Lily Allen album is back up to £7.99. As I type, there are several other albums still available. Just go to the MP3 bestseller list to find them, but they are already disappearing pretty quickly.

Assuming it was a technical error, it has worked to Amazon's advantage (promotionally rather than financially) as a great marketing opportunity for Amazon, with new customers signing up to their MP3 service, greater awareness of their MP3 offering, people downloading their albums widget, making the process much easier for furture downloads, etc.

It's also proved a great PR opportunity for Lily Allen, as the main artist being tweeted around the twittersphere, but also for numerous other acts who have returned to the bestsellers list thanks to this 'campaign'.

The cynical part of me believes this was a planned attack on iTunes from Amazon.

I'm looking forward to seeing whether this has affected tomorrows midweek sales chart (assuming these sales are chart eligable at such a low price point?) and the truth behind whether this was a marketing stunt or a technical error.

If you missed it completely, then at least Amazon are still offering free songs from the likes of The Prodigy.

Lily Allen - number 1 album this week??

2009-06-17T11:58:00.004Z

Either it's a technical error, or a stroke of marketing genius (a huge loss leader...), but Amazon appear to be selling Lily Allen's latest album, It's Not Me, It's You, for the knockdown price of just 29 pence. That's right, just 9p more than The Sun in London, and half the price of a Kinder Egg.

When you consider they are probably paying the record label somewhere in the region of £3 to £4.50 per copy (subject to variable discounts of course), then this is a massive loss leader for the site.

So, if it's a planned assault on iTunes dominance, then fair play to them, because this promotion will no doubt spread quicker than a Pizza Express 2-for-1 voucher.

So, for loose change, you can legally own the new album, rather than just streaming it on Spotify.

UK chart predictions

2009-06-12T15:03:00.003Z

18 year old newcomer Pixie Lott is set to knock Black Eyed Peas off the top spot in the singles chart this Sunday, with her debut single, Mama Do.

Otherwise the same faces will occupy the top ten: Agnes, Dizzee Rascal, Daniel Merriweather etc... Lady GaGa will make a notable climb from outside the top 40 to score a top 15 hit with her latest single, Paparazzi, and Linkin Park scrape in to the top 20 with New Divide.
Lots of new entries in the albums chart, but only one real contender for #1. Kasabian will breeze to the top with their latest record, West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum.

Black Eyed Peas will be disappointed to enter at #3 with The E.N.D while Little Boots should enter at #5 with her debut album, Hands. Placebo & Bruce Springsteen will hover around the lower reaches of the top 10, while US rock 'supergroup' Chickenfoot will enter in the top 15..

"Downloads are not lost sales"

2009-06-11T15:05:00.003Z

Informed blog from The Guardian's Charles Arthur, discussing why its shrinking consumer spending affecting the music industry, rather than illegal downloads.

Recession busting gig ticket prices

2009-06-10T08:48:00.005Z

NME.com report that the global concert promoters, Live Nation, are selling select gig tickets at 'recession busting' prices of €15 per ticket, for concerts across central Europe by acts including Mötley Crüe, David Byrne & Nine Inch Nails, via the Artist Music Exchange website.

The website states: "Artist Music Exchange tickets will be made available for a special selection of shows throughout Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Music Fans can purchase a limited amount of discounted tickets priced €15 each."

US CD sales reach 'mid-90s levels'

2009-06-10T08:24:00.004Z

Digital Music News report that Neilsen Soundscan data shows CD sales to have levelled with the volumes they were selling in the mid-90s.

This is based on CD album sales figures of 368 million CDs in 1995 vs 360 million in 2009.

They also report that 2009 sales figures are running at a 13% reduction on 2008 figures, so its not all good news.

Digital Music News also recently reported that decade sales have decreased by a massive 54.6%, a drop of 514.6 million CDs.

The year 2000 saw sales of 943million CDs, while 2008 figures stood at just 428.4 million.

Digital sales have been increasing through the decade, thanks mainly to iTunes, however, not as fast as the decline in CD sales.

Image credit: Rolling Stone magazine / Neilsen Soundscan

Songkick: The Social Network for Gig-Goers

2009-06-09T10:04:00.005Z

Songkick has relaunched today, with a rather impressive site for fans of live music.
Likely to become the ultimate destination for planning your gigging and festival calender, it allows you to track bands, venues, cities & other fans, to keep up to speed with all the live events that you should be going to.

It also features an iTunes plug-in to track the music you're listening to, plus it allows you to align your profile to your Last.fm profile, to sync up the bands you're listening to - don't worry, you can delete the embarrassing ones.

All that's missing now is a Spotify plug-in, to stay completely aligned with everything I'm listening to, plus a recommendation tool.

I've signed up and my profile, is currently a work in progress.

How brands are harnessing music

2009-06-05T15:00:00.002Z

Article on brandamp

Audio Joy volume 6: Grizzly Bear

2009-06-04T15:04:00.004Z

I'm very late to get to this band, and it turns out they're at number 8 in the US charts this week. So I am, in fact...very late. Anyway, if you're even later in the chain, then check them out and go buy the new album, Veckatimest from the shop on the site!

Listen on their MySpace

For fans of: Fleet Foxes

Relentless claim naming rights for The Garage venue relaunch

2009-06-02T13:57:00.005Z

The Mean Fiddler / Mama Group venue re-opens to the public on June 26th as The Relentless Garage.

The venue will also host an exclusive Bloc Party Glastonbury Festival warm-up in association with Trekstock the day before.

Recent brands & music deals

2009-06-02T11:35:00.003Z

1) Sony Ericsson launch PocketTV music show
RAOBAM comment: T4 for your mobile? Very nicely packaged and delivers good value for their consumers.

2) They also launch Sony Ericsson Pitch Black gigs
RAOBAM comment: Following their departure from their Ibiza Rocks partnership, they deliver

3) Universal Music Publishing Score deal with Asda to place lyrics on t-shirts.
RAOBAM comment:An obvious & most likely lucrative move, following on from the pre-existing Sainsbury's clothing deal with EMI Publishing.

4) Jim Beam partner with Kid Rock
RAOBAM comment: As much as I dislike Kid Rock's music, it's a strong, wide-reaching association, and raises money for the Operation Homefront charity.

5) Dr Dre appears in Dr Pepper ad
RAOBAM comment: Both sides benefit from the association as it sees Dre air exclusive snippets from his brand new album.

6) Mountain Dew launch free digital music platform
RAOBAM comment: A new take on the singles label. Nice move from the soft drink brand.

Bands: How to get a large Twitter following

2009-05-28T14:35:00.005Z

Media Junction Digital (the artists formerly known as Million Media) have published a graph on Hypebot showing how easy it is for bands to gain success using Twitter, based on a current campaign with an unnamed, brand new, major label act. And the method? Follow people! Really, that's it!

OK, there's a bit more method to it in the blog post, i.e. following people with relevant music taste to ensure cut-through, but bands, record labels and managers.....the opportunity is there for you to grab.

The proof? It's on the image above.

Spotify on your Mobile

2009-05-28T14:28:00.002Z

Includes an option to listen while offline too, avoiding huge bandwidth costs. Very nice.

Samsung Bebo Nights

2009-05-27T09:06:00.005Z

Samsung are making a lot of noise in the UK music arena at the moment and Music Week report that they have partnered with Bebo on a new initiative covering monthly events and digital content, Samsung Bebo Nights.

The events will be attended by a few lucky bebo subscribers at London's Gibson Showrooms, but the opportunities for artists are vast through the digital promotional platform via the homepage presence.

The one question surrounding all of these activities though is, at what point do the record labels and artist managers view this is a sponsorship opportunity for their band rather than a promotional platform? You can't deny the reach that this activity will offer an act, however, if Bebo are benefiting financially, why shouldn't the creative talent also benefit from this?

Global Radio to incorporate live iTunes data into chart

2009-05-26T14:15:00.005Z

Global Radio's The Big Top 40 Show will feature a live top 10, based on the current iTunes download top 10, enabling fans to engage with helping their favourite artists reach the top of the chart. The show will have a massive audience reach across 142 UK stations.

Nice concept, which will no doubt help influence an extra sales push for the biggest tracks every Sunday afternoon, but doesn't it remove the excitement of guessing what's going to be number 1, if you can just tune in to the answers on the iTunes homepage?

PRS slash music streaming fees

2009-05-26T08:50:00.003Z

Music Week report that major record labels are "up in arms" about PRS plans to slash the minimum per track streaming rates for music, from £0.22 per track to £0.085 per track in the UK. On the other hand, the highest rate rises from 8% to 10.5%, so it's not all bad news for the big guns.

Whether it affects the prices drastically for audio streaming on branded websites remains to be seen.

Audio Joy volume 5: Sounds Like Violence

2009-05-20T13:47:00.004Z

For those of you that like commercial rock....we recommend you try Sounds Like Violence.
They have a new album coming later in the Summer and they're playing 2 London shows this week.

20th May: 229, Great Portland Street
21st May: HMV Forum, supporting Gallows

Caffe Nero quietly sponsor London Songwriters Week

2009-05-20T11:17:00.007Z

Caffe Nero are sponsoring this weeks London Songwriters Week, which runs until the 22nd May. The partnership sees them showcasing a selection of singer / songwriters in some of their London stores, with on act going on to become Caffe Nero's 'Artist Of The Month'.

Music Week have also partnered in the activity to deliver a Playlist for the event which has been emailed out to their music industry database. Shame the link at the top of the email, takes you to a previous New Zealand act themed playlist though!

Interesting move from Caffe Nero, and a nice, relevant follow-up from their artist of the month activity. Only thing is, I bought a coffee in Caffe Nero this morning and didn't see anything about the promotion?

The full list of performances can be found here

Eminem album clinic

2009-05-18T13:00:00.004Z

Eminem's marketing team at Universal have unveiled a pop up clinic in Covent Garden today, to launch the singers new album, Relapse. The surgery features album listening booths, doctors, nurses (in Carry On style uniforms), massages and an unusual looking drink in a test tube.

Wonky pictures taken on my phone (someone send me a free iPhone please!).

Brands at Music Festivals

2009-05-18T11:46:00.007Z

Comment piece from the latest issue of Campaign, with me pitting my views against Robert Guterman of Big Fish. Ignore my photo....

UPDATE: Campaign have now put this article up online: Click here to view

New music business models deliver rapid digital growth

2009-05-18T09:14:00.006Z

The BPI have announced that new business models are seen as one of the key drivers behind a phase of rapid growth in the UK digital music market, according to data recently published in their annual music industry statistical handbook. I haven't managed to disect the data yet, so more news to follow if I find anything of relevance to the above claim...

Recordoftheday.com have published the following highlights from the research...

• 10% of the population bought some form of digital music in 2008, up from 5% in 2007

• 10 m digital albums were sold in 2008, a 65% increase on 2007

• Digital now accounts for 10% of music spending, up from 6% in 2007

• Three albums – Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida”, Kings of Leon’s “Only By Night” and Duffy’s “Rockferry” – sold more than 100,000 digital copies

• 110 m single tracks were downloaded in 2008, a 42% increase on 2007

• Digital tracks now account for 95% of the market, up from 90% in 2007.

Despite this positive message from the BPI, Jupiter Research measured industry losses to illegal P2P at £180m in 2008, and estimate the figure for 2009 to reach £200m.

Audio Joy volume 4

2009-05-15T16:42:00.009Z

Check out this rather fine Marina & The Diamonds remix by Black Teeth.

Black Teeth are Banks & Alex from the equally excellent Haunts.

Check them out too while you're at it.

My opinion on Spotify

2009-05-13T18:41:00.004Z

As featured in recent trade press

Campaign article on Spotify, featuring comments from me. 7th May 2009

New Media Age cover story on Spotify, 11th March

New Media Age article on Spotify, 5th March

iTunes to launch airport kiosks?

2009-05-12T09:05:00.005Z

Following a post on AppleInsider, Dan Leahul has blogged on his brandrepublic blog about Apple's patent to develop a series of wireless iTunes kiosks allowing users to download new content at airports and the like, before travelling.

Read AppleInsiders comments here

And the full patent application here

No Spotify 'All You Can Eat' Service

2009-05-08T09:50:00.004Z

Revolution magazine have unveiled details of Spotify's plans to offer an 'all you can eat' downloads service for £9.99 a month.

As a music fan, I'd sign up straight away, but the economics just won't work for the labels, publishers and artists. Don't assume this is happening any day in the near future, as it took Nokia months to get their clunky Comes With Music service up and running as they didn't have agreements with the repertoire owners.

In the long term, you never know what they might offer, but as things currently stand it's unlikely.

Wot no Groove Armada on the new Bacardi ad?

2009-05-07T11:37:00.004Z

So, after their bells and whistles PR announcement of a 12 month 'record deal' with Groove Armada, Bacardi have delivered yet another TV spot that, er, doesn't showcase this genre defining 'brand/artist' partnership.

The latest Bacardi ad, Eras, celebrates the brands 147th anniversary and is soundtracked by the cool Brooklyn duo, Matt & Kim. The last TV spot was soundtracked by Kidda. And no Groove Armada...

Now correct me if I'm wrong here, but so far, all the Groove Armada 'record deal' has delivered is a social network site that came & went from the mainstream consciousness pretty quickly; a couple of appearances at BLive events; and a shed load of news stories about the 'record deal'.

So Bacardi, what's wrong, have the band not delivered any suitable tracks for your brands? I guess the 12 month deal must be up now, so maybe you'd rather brush it under the carpet?

And it begs the question, what next for Groove Armada?

Coke commission Calvin Harris track for new TV ad

2009-05-07T10:53:00.005Z

Ad agency, Mother, have commissioned a new track from Sony's Calvin Harris, for Coca Cola's new Summer TV campaign. More brands should be partnering with artists to create bespoke tracks for their campaigns, rather than creating a great looking TV spot and retro fitting the music to fit.

Watch the clip on The Guardian Media website

Live Nation launch US MP3 store

2009-05-07T09:15:00.004Z

Following their launch of their Artist Nation record label arm last year, concert promoter Live Nation have launched a digital music store in the US, supplied. The site sells 256kbp MP3 files selling albums & individual tracks from major artists, ranging from U2 to the Jonas Brothers, effectively as a new, yet powerful entrant to the digital music retail space. The assumption being that this added service will enable Live Nation to package ticket/download bundles to claim a larger share of the music consumers spend. The service was initially announced last November, as a MusicToday (Live Nation subsidiary) backed service placing MP3's on artist pages, but these are also aggregated at a Live Nation digital superstore.

So, now Live Nation own services including tickets, concerts, venues, artists, recorded music, MP3 store and merchandise, meaning they are developing into a full 360 degree operator much faster than the record labels who in general don't have their own retail outlets, let alone a chunk of the valuable concert promotion/ticketing industry.

These recorded music deals require agreements from both the publisher and record label, with the US deals agreed with the majority of major labels late last year. It will be interesting to see how they roll this out in the UK.

The Twitter of podcasting

2009-05-06T08:56:00.007Z

Audioboo is a newish app (launched 6 weeks ago) that allows you to podcast from your iPod. Conceived by Best Before Media and commissioned by Channel 4's 4IP initiative, supporters include Stephen Fry.

Watch the 'how to' video here

Spotify top 10 tracks

2009-05-05T11:00:00.006Z

The Music Machinery blog, have spotted a way of getting hold of user & music stats from a simple Spotify search, detailing the most popular tracks and artists, plus an overview of the number of tracks, artists and albums currently hosted on the site.

A quick search by Random Acts delivered the following top 10...
1) Coldplay - Viva La Vida
2) MGMT - Kids
3) T.I - Live Your Life
4) Beyonce - If I Were A Boy
5) Flo Rida - Right Round
6) Britney Spears - Womanizer
7) Coldplay - Clocks
8) 50 Cent, Eminem, Dr Dre - Crack A Bottle
9) MGMT - Time To Pretend
10) Kelly Clarkson - My Life Would Suck Without You

Genius overdubs of bands on YouTube

2009-05-01T14:45:00.002Z

Great blog from NME, featuring overdubs of Coldplay + more from YouTube. Stupid, but very, very funny.

Hype Machine + Muxtape = HypeTape

2009-04-30T12:31:00.007Z

Playlists are the buzzword of the moment and the latest entry to the market is HypeTape, a collaboration between the excellent Hype Machine and MuxTape.

In theory, it's very easy to use, but has a number of early glitches which we're sure they'll iron out soon, such as problems registering through Internet Explorer, plus seemingly little content featuring the lesser known artists that you can normally find easily on Hype Machine.

Check out our first (work in progress) HypeTape playlist here

Audio Joy: Volume 3

2009-04-29T17:10:00.007Z

A new discovery thanks to We Are Hunted - "HOORAY" we cry.
THE BAND: The Intelligence
THE TRACK: “Thank You God for Fixing the Tape Machine”
THE NEW ALBUM IS OUT IN MAY

Click here to hear the MP3 on the You Ain't No Picasso blog

And click below to view the video to another track, Dating Cops (courtesy of YouTube).

Digital music start-ups don't add up

2009-04-29T15:29:00.003Z

This Techrunch article is a month old, but it's a pretty good outline of the perils of music-based digital start-ups.

'The Sorry State of Music Start-ups'

Audio Joy 2: We Are Hunted

2009-04-29T15:04:00.005Z

We Are Hunted is an aggregation of blogs that feeds through the most blogged music tracks into a chart. It's a joy to behold and fills the new music gaps on Spotify. Go forth and try it out.

Music sponsorships to reach $1.08billion in 09

2009-04-29T14:13:00.006Z

High fives all round in the US music industry, as trade mag, Billboard, report on IEG research stating that music sponsorships are to reach a new high in north America in 2009. With brands spending $1.08billion on venues, festivals and tour sponsorships, this is up 3.8% on 2008 and the highest spend ever reported on music sponsorships by IEG.

Impressively, the 3.8% year on year increase outweighs a 2.2% prediction from IEG for the entire sponsorship industry, including sports and other types of events. They report that the majority of these funds are going to major events, with smaller, niche festivals suffering as a result.

New entries to the music sponsorship market this year include State Farm Insurance Cos & Nestle's Wonka brand in the US and Barclaycard in the UK, with probably the most vocal investment in music in the UK since O2 and Carling before that. Brands to remove themselves from the music festival arena include Pimms, who had presence at events including Latitude and Ben & Jerry's Summer Sundae in 2008.

So, was David Cameron a raver or what?

2009-04-29T13:56:00.006Z

NME.com have posted a YouTube clip that alleges to feature a young, longer-haired, David Cameron raving. Yes that's right sports fans, raving.

Read the article here and watch the video to make your own minds up.

Brands in music in 2009

2009-04-29T10:33:00.011Z

Here are just a selection of the current music partnerships in the UK and US:

State Farm Insurance Cos
A 7-figure spend on national and regional festivals and events according to Billboard, including Billboard's Latin Music Conference, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, All Points West Music & Arts Festival and the Dfest Music Conference & Festival.

Nestle Wonka

Headline sponsors of the touring US music festival, produced by Live Nation, covering 22 events and featuring the likes of No Doubt & Fall Out Boy.

Barclaycard

UK strategy aligning with Wireless Festival, Global Radio live events & Mercury Music Prize.

Gaymers
Gaymers are a fairly recent addition to the UK music scene, as reported by the BBC, spending their entire £5million marketing budget around their associations with live music, an increase of 25% on last years investment. The associations with music festivals including Glastonbury, Reading & Leeds, Bestival and Camden Crawl, allow them to reach a potential UK audience of 800,000. Last year saw a 200% sales increase for the brand, proving that the right music associations can create a positive effect as part of the marketing mix.

Virgin Mobile & Britney Spears
Headline sponsorship of Britney's Circus tour

JC Penney & Rascall Flatts
The brand have entered into a 2-year integrated partnership with Flatts, covering an exclusive version of the Unstoppable album release featuring an exclusive track, American Living, plus tour sponsorship. American Living is a Polo Ralph Loren designed brand, sold exclusively by JC Penney.

KC Masterpiece /Kingsford & Keith Urban
Sponsors of Urban's May US tour

Blackberry & U2
Ramping up their music initiatives, the brand have spent a reported $10m on partnering on the bands global 360 tour.

More to come in the coming weeks / months....

Audio Joy: Volume 1

2009-04-28T15:43:00.012Z

Just two to get started with, but two whoppers...

The Horrors - Primary Colours

OK, forget the 'goth Menswear for the 00s' quipps and the brief flirtations with tabloid stardom via singer Faris Rotter's relationship with Peaches Geldof, this new album is a million times better than their debut. They may not harm the top 10 this week, but this band could well be acclaimed as the first music success for Twitter, with opinion formers from all corners of the industry proclaiming their love for them. Think Joy Division meets shoegaze and a few other joys along the way. Listen on Spotify

Golden Silvers: True Romance

I really wanted to hate the debut from this eclectic 3-piece, but its far too likeable. make your own minds up and listen on Spotify.