modern music marketing

Music Promotion Catalogue

The Prisa Group's Music Marketing Winter Catalogue has been released.

There is a warning about adult images and languages. My kind of catalogue!

MTV taps into tech alliances to reach teens

MTV is pursuing a number of partnerships with technology-based companies to become a credible player in teens digital media entertinament market.

Todd Cunningham, senior vp brand strategy and planning, said MTV also is working to expand its gaming business with new alliances, and to launch its digital music download service to give marketers, advertisers and musicians "yet another through line straight to what they (teens) are all about without having to try to create that on their own."

New Marketing Strategy for Musicians leaves big labels behind.

British rock band Marillion has raised $1 million dollars from its fans via its website. This has allowed them to finance 2 albums and tour North America. They did it by pre-selling their album through their website. This is a completely different take on music marketing and financing, and appears to be working out. The Internet saves the day again. Check out all the details in the Reuters article.

Livewire: Today's Pop Stars in It for the URLs [Reuters]

James Taylor Sends Musical Greetings Via Hallmark

Good ideas are everywhere. This one comes via Yahoo news:

The Hallmark name is synonymous with card shopping, but it has also turned into a successful music retailer during the holiday season.

This year James Taylor joins a long line of artists to release a holiday album exclusively through Hallmark's Gold Crown stores. "James Taylor: A Christmas Album" is due in the United States and Canada Nov. 1. Grammy Award winner Dave Grusin produced the 11-track set, which features a duet with Natalie Cole on "Baby It's Cold Outside."

"Our estimation with James Taylor is that this will be a platinum album (for U.S. shipments in excess of one million copies)," Hallmark manager of integrated marketing Ann Herrick says.

Maybe you should put together a Christmas album exclusivly in your city and make a deal with a local retailer, preferably one with a chain of stores.

The U2 iPod

(via Paid Content) Rumors on this surfaced yesterday and Forbes.com is confirming it...the U2 edition of iPod will come preloaded with the band's new album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, along with portions of the group's 25-year catalog. The iPods will be black and will be made available the same week as the band's 11th studio album, to be released on November 23.

The custom iPods are part of a larger agreement between the band and Apple. The company will have exclusive rights to sell all the songs from the new album online through its iTunes Music Store for at least the first few weeks following the release.

Music Videos On Cellphones

Avista Entertainment Group, Distributed by Universal music & Video Distribution, and Nationwide Wireless Newcomer Trivo Wireless LLc announce today the release of Music Video on Demand on cellular phones(Select Models) Trivo Wireless will launch all of AEG's Music videos, and air them on select Trivo Phones. there will be no charge for this service, Simply log on to Trivo's website, and download a music video. You can even text a friend and send the video to them as an attachment. ( You can only send to a person who has service with Trivo Wireless) this new service will launch on October 29th 2004.

Napster 1st again

Roxio's online music service, Napster, is to become the first in the UK to offer pre-paid cards in shops for buying digital music downloads. The cards, which are being sold through the Dixons Group stores (Dixons, Currys, The Link and PC World), are similar to pre-pay cards on phones. Each card contains a unique code that users enter on the online store in order to buy tracks. The cards can also be redeemed against subscription costs. They will cost £14.95 for 15 tracks, £56.95 for 60 tracks and £25.95 for a 3-month subscription. That should make buying Christmas presents that little bit easier this year. The cards will be in store from November.

Are your music sales and marketing backwards?

Bob Baker talks music marketing...Are your music sales and marketing backwards?

...If you're one of the many music people who pays lip service to "sales and marketing," I'll bet your sales figures are far below what you'd like them to be. How do I know? Because you have the whole thing backwards.

Stop talking about "sales and marketing" and start arranging these two important activities in their proper order: marketing and sales. Marketing comes first. Sales efforts follow to complete the one-two punch. If you attempt to do sales before you've properly done the marketing, you'll come up short. If you choose to focus on one activity but not the other, you also lose in the long run.

To succeed financially in the music business, both marketing and sales must take place. And take place in that order.

While flipping through cable TV channels recently, I caught one of those watch-TV-at-home college courses. Business was the topic. The announcer made this simple but profound statement: "Marketing is creating interest. Sales is closing the deal." Nine simple words that get right to the core of what marketing and sales are all about...

mobile maketing bits

A digital media and entertainment delivery station, named the E2Go, was recently introduced at Popkomm, an international music and entertainment industry trade show in Berlin. E2Go is an ATM-like machine which delivers various types of digital entertainment with the swipe of a debit card, credit card, or even cash. Songs can be selected and burned into a CD on the spot, ringtones can be instantly downloaded into mobile phones, and photos can be uploaded and printed instantly.

Meal Planner: Consumers with Verizon Wireless Mobile Web 2.0 service now have access to dinner and directions. Vindigo Studios created a restaurant guide utilizing Gayot.com information, such as locations, phone numbers, menus, pricing and ratings. MapQuest supplies the corresponding driving directions and maps.

Mobile Karaoke: KTF, a Korean wireless service provider, is planning to offer a handset which allows users to download music videos complete with captions for on-the-go karaoke.

Dentyne Goes Digital to Target Teens

The unit of Cadbury Adams USA, Parsippany, N.J., will unveil online campaigns for Dentyne's Ice, Fire and Tango chewing gums, utilizing Yahoo!'s IMVironment and its Launch music channel as ad vehicles. In addition, Dentyne will have exclusive sponsorship of a new content area within AOL RED (the Internet service's teen channel), RED@Night, where teens can interact with a New York dance club experience via live video feed, streaming audio, chat and polls.

Ads will break on Oct. 15 and Oct. 19 and run through mid- to late-December.