Brian Hazard of the Music Think Tank published a comprehensive post addressing the pay-for-play model that online streaming playlist service, Jango, adopted as part of its monetization strategy, dispelling the analogy to terrestrial radio payola and drawing references to mainstream advertising mediums. In March, I promoted Jango Airplay and touched on the controversial issues Brian addresses in his piece but his first-hand experience and engaging write-up of the music dotcom serves the topic more justice: Is Jango Payola?
IEG, a global leader in sponsorship consulting services, valuation and measurement, published promising figures for US music sponsorship spending for 2009, in spite of the current economic climate. The report highlights the consistent growth in the ‘big ticket’ live music sector, while noting that local music events and properties are displaying a decline in sponsorship support.
Recent deals include J. C. Penney Co.’s two-year integrated partnership with Rascal Flatts on behalf of its American Living brand; The Clorox Co. co-presenting the US stops of Keith Urban’s tour on behalf of its KC Masterpiece sauces and Kingsford charcoal; and Research In Motion Ltd. aligning with U2 on behalf of BlackBerry.
Tighter budgets for working class musicians is expected as a reflection of the music industry’s flux, but cashflows in the direction of A-listers may [eventually] trickle down toward the indies as competition for aligning brand with band stiffens.
Subscription-based music service, Rhapsody, has been attempting to acquire new users by offering free downloads from independent artists sponsored by the United States Air Force, which has also been making appearances on PureVolume as part of a nationwide campaign to enlist musicians and music fans to fly stealth bombers. For Rhapsody, the free music tease is part of a broader strategy to combat the various free music services on the web, legal and otherwise, and a means to frequently upsell the portal’s paid subscription service. 750,000 recruits have signed up to date. To Rhapsody, that is.
“When we launched our free digital distribution service, we knew we would be able to provide our users with new possibilities to help them expand their own marketing. With Jango Airplay, our users can freely invest into getting radio promotions and establish unique social interactions with new fans to help drive music sales. We are very excited to be working with Jango to provide an effective marketing avenue to our users.” said Kevin Rivers, Founder and CEO of WaTunes.
“We designed Jango Airplay to give emerging artists an affordable and effective way to get their music proactively played to real listeners who like similar music. Thanks to WaTunes and affordable technology it is cheaper than ever to produce and sell music – but getting your music heard is the first step. We are very excited to bring WaTunes users in front of our 6 Million listeners. ” said Mattias Stanghed, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Jango.
Prince offers the very cream of his artistry to his most loyal [and affluent] subjects in an exclusive and uber glitzy collector’s initiative through the PrinceOpus website, a dedicated portal to marvel at the only diamond encrusted ‘Symbol’ masterpiece going up for auction at Sotheby after a 12 city tour, and Opus limited to 950 units going at $2100 each, which includes a branded iPod pre-loaded with exclusive content.
ArtistForce, an online CRM solution and marketplace for the entertainment industry, made a controversial appearance at SXSW with a racy promotional campaign involving a hot blonde in a liquid latex sheath passing out flyers with “Thousands of artists get screwed every day. Protect yourself with ArtistForce.com” printed on them and attached with complimentary condoms.
Founded in 2006, ArtistForce provides an online environment for entertainment industry professionals and talent to conduct negotiations directly, manage their business administration, track activities, and more, through proprietary technology applications and consultation services.
Universal Music Group International and its joint venture company, All The Worlds, are hitting the track by joining forces with Formula One Administration Ltd. to create F1 ROCKS, a new global entertainment initiative. F1 ROCKS will combine racing’s most glamorous and spectacular sporting event with A-list stars at international F1 racing locations.
“The partnership between the world’s most thrilling sport and the world’s biggest music company is one of the most exciting entertainment initiatives to be launched anywhere. The combination of music, megastars and motor sport will create a groundbreaking, all-new entertainment spectacular, channelled through the multiple platforms open to our two global brands.” — Lucian Grainge, Chairman/CEO, Universal Music Group International
International advertising powerhouse, Ogilvy & Mather, produced a high-octane media campaign for the Crystal Lite powdered soft drink brand by Krafts Foods. Yet another example of consumer brands converging with music sensations to compete and differentiate in the marketplace, Kraft has aligned itself with Grammy Award winning artist, Estelle, for the pre-release and distribution of her song, “Star”. The US campaign was launched in tandem with the Grammy Awards Ceremony last month and drew traffic to the co-venture landing page by offering a free download of “Star” prior to its release in stores this month. Estelle fans divulged their email addresses in exchange for site access and a free and exclusive download of the song.
Associating brands with entertainment media and music celebrity is tried and tested territory for corporations such as VW, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Apple, and other leading giants of cool. However, the phenomenon appears to be spreading to more conservative brands attempting to revitalize their message and acquire a new audience base, both to listen and to buy.
Music search engine, SeeqPod, that has already indexed (but not stored) 12 million songs, has been handed a formal complaint from EMI following a lawsuit from Warner last year. Unlike Pandora and Imeem, the company has not pursued licenses to provide “playable search results” maintaining that they are not responsible for content sources and, therefore, free from any obligation to the copyright holder. Legally questionable, Seeqpod has become very successful and the two major labels are probably going after it to settle on a mutual business model rather than to shut it down. The news prompted me to play with the system a little and I enjoyed learning about their artist-centric advertising progamme that’s highly targeted and cost competitive. Providing 5000 “exposures” (i.e. impressions) a month for $19.95, SeeqPod Echo is a nicely put together search-oriented advertising interface which may very well generate some relevant traffic for artists and music promoters who wish to tap into SeeqPod’s massive music listening community. I’m curious to learn how the conversion rates stack up.
IEG, a global leader in sponsorship consulting services, valuation and measurement, published promising figures for US music sponsorship spending for 2009, in spite of the current economic climate. The 
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