Global Gathering TV Is Now Live

Global Gathering has launched an ipTV channel to showcase their video podcasts and festival. It was developed by our technology partner, Modera and allows video feeds from YouTube, Vimeo & Muzu to be screened within a customised player.

Hype Machine Reveal The Shocking Truth – There Is Hype In The Music Industry!

Dead End - Out July 6th

There is delicious irony in this story – Hype Machine, in an effort to protect their integrity, have revealed a list of 40 artists who they claim were manipulating their charts by creating multiple profiles and favouriting themselves. In other words, hyping their position in the ‘Most Popular’ chart.

One of the artists, Master Shortie, happens to be one of the artists we work with. I’m going to declare now, it wasn’t us or Master Shortie – frankly, we have better things to do in our lives than create 50 fake profiles.

But the point is, what is the difference between hype & promotion, when is it marketing or manipulation and where is the balance?

For many years labels, fans and artists have collaborated in forming online street teams – dedicated fans who will promote the artist via link building, posting, recommending and favouriting. It seems that in many of these cases, some fans took the time to create multiple profiles on Hype Machine to boost the rankings.

No-one likes to be manipulated and since Hype Machine is Anthony’s website he can do whatever he likes. If he believes this is against the spirit of the site, that’s his call. But by the reaction of some people (here, here), you would think the artists had defrauded a little old lady of her life savings.

The web is full of opportunity for hype/promotion/marketing. Perhaps this crossed the line? Or, what if we had managed to get bloggers to talk about the artist, which are then listed on Hype Machine. Because it’s a step removed is this OK? Or is it because some blogs questioned Hype Machine’s integrity he reacted badly.

The bad taste & anger I feel is simply because Anthony has automatically punished the artists rather than digging deeper and banning the IP addresses or sending a warning first. Why not go the whole hog and ban any artist who employ’s people to promote, market or talk about them?

TentFinder – Cool App for, Finding Your Tent

You know the feeling – it’s late, your knees and feet ache. Your back kills. You’re hungry and know that in your tent you have a packet of Walkers and a Pot Noodle. But where is the frickin’ tent? And, they all look the same!?

Which is when you pull out your iPhone, hit the TentFinder app and a handy map appears showing you a map back to your tent. How does it know? Because when you first arrived and while still sober, you pinpointed the position during erection. If you have a new 3GS it will even guide you. Neat. Press another button and it sends a text to your mates, telling them to roll one ready and put the kettle on. OK, maybe in the next version.

Master Shortie is All Over Hype Machine

Master Shortie Hype Machine

As Master Shortie gets set to release his new single Dead End and album ADHD, all the work we have put into the artist is helping add to the buzz nicely.  We started working with ATC Management many months ago, building him up slowly, embracing the internet, p2p, blogging, social networking, content, SEO etc.  The buzz has grown and grown as has his communities across the site and social network sites we have.  With the leak of the Don Diablo remix of Dead End things have gone up again. He is one of the most blogged artists on Hype Machine right now, beating incredible acts we at Media Junction Digital all know and love, like Daft Punk, Mos Def and MGMT.  Master Shortie – the world is yours, and it’s a pleasure to be working with you/your team.

How To Sell All Your Ticket Allocation And Some. With No Advertising!

Last week The Rifles announced a new tour direct to their fanbase and sold all their tickets allocated for www.therifles.com in less than a day.   The London date in particular added 3 more sets of tickets to cope with demand – again all in less than a day.   So what’s the secret? It’s easy…but first some more data and process:

Over the last few months Media Junction Digital and ATC have helped maintain a good fanbase across The Rifles’ site and social networking sites, as well as designing a site that fans can interact with using their own content.  First lesson – give the fans things they want and don’t expect, don’t just sell sell sell.  Surely as music fans we understand this?   With the news of the tour coming we followed this process:

1. Inform the fans via the site, mailout and social networking sites, that a fan only sale will start the next day at 8am
2. Send an email etc to the fans at 8am the next day with a buy link
3. Make sure there is an incentive. Fans want to meet the band or get free tickets?  We offered both.

Here are the numbers:
1. Traffic to the site increased 1195% from Wednesday to Thursday (Google Analytics)
2. Our social networking push across all The Rifles’ communities we control, got 2577 clicks to the store on the Friday (Bit.ly) Check info here (not including Myspace stats who don’t accept bit.ly)
3. We sold 31.35% of our allocated tickets inbetween 8am and 9.30am on the Friday
4. We had to increase allocation.

All Traffic Sources:
-The majority of the traffic came from referring sites eg myspace/twitter/facebook etc (Google Analytics)
-This would be site posts, bulletins, comments etc

Sales:
-Sold out our London allocation 3 times on the Friday
-Sold 31.35% of the tickets in an hour and a half.
-Added more allocation

Conclusion:
-We work to build up a community as you go along – one fan at a time and across all social platforms. Provide them with interactivity, don’t push sales and treat them as the important person they are.
-Fans want money can’t buy offers and to meet their heroes. If they pay for a ticket – give them the opportunity of getting close to the band.  We did this with the added incentives to the ticket buy.
-News should always be given to the fanbase first. If they sign up or become a facebook follower, then they should get everything first.
-Have a great live band, who play with passion and love their fans.
-It is all simple stuff – and the stats prove it!

The Difference Between Music & Everyone Else

Having worked in both music and non-music sectors, a key difference is becoming apparent. Music companies, and I include promoters as well as record labels, place virtually no value on Engagement. Which is strange when you consider how relatively easy it is for them to get.

What I mean is, other industries will pay for the acquisition of site registrations, requests for information, mailing list sign-ups or referals. But ask a label or promoter and the only thing that matters to them is whether someone buys a CD or ticket. There seems to be no acknowledgment of the role engagement plays.

When I did sales we learnt about AIDA – Attention Interest Desire Action. To gain a customer you were required to guide them through the four stages. But the difficulty for a marketing agency is what little value labels and promoters put on each of these.

If I can get you a Facebook fan what is it worth? Or a mailing list sign-up, a MySpace friend or a YouTube play? In other non-music sectors I get paid for this, but in music it appears to count for little.

A major problem is that labels and promoters have to share the Lifetime Value (LVT) of a fan. If my marketing gains the artist a fan they could either spend their money on a CD or a ticket. In which case, neither the label or promoter will pay so the other gains. So neither pays for engagement, only the end sale.

Which leaves the artist.

Will they pay me to acquire fans by arousing attention, interest & desire?

Actually, the more accurate question is, will their management?

Most managers are adept at bringing in revenue, never paying it out. For artists to benefit from digital marketing they must realise that engagement is worth paying for.

Ministry of Sound Chilled II : Number One Compilation Album

The titles say’s it all….. congratulations to the Ministry team!

Media Junction Digital helped to plan the online advertising campaign, incorporating Spongecell. It’s the third number one album we have worked on this year (White Lies & The Prodigy)

Great album too – you can buy it here.