Digital Marketing Techniques: Music Streaming

Back to the point you made earlier, relating to the fact that exclusivity is becoming on trend now, due to the fact that there is access to people, their content and their profile and what they are up to, day to day. How do you think, more broadly, about marketing online and what techniques you think are particularly interesting, given the amount of access and content out there?

The one area that we like to think about is, how can we make greater space for the diehard fans. Facebook is now turning their strategy more towards Facebook group interactions. When you look at their marketing strategy, it’s less about, I’m posting my breakfast or pictures of my kids, but more towards very specific groups, where they can interact. We are also seeing a lot more engagement in those.

For some of the bands we work with, it’s about creating that space. It could be a Facebook group, it could be a Telegram group, it could be a forum. But we need to find a space for them to interact and to have the opportunity to be very close, share very exclusive content, like a shout out. What you can make out of this is a business model. There are new platforms out there, like Patreon, but there was other crowdfunding, as well. This is taking another turn, I would say, because people are very interested in funding their favorite bands and we see a lot of action happening there. But obviously, it needs to be something a little more creative than just putting an album out. That’s something that we think is going to be lot bigger next year and where we have put a lot of resources, to think about things that people would love to crowdfund, in order to get some exclusive access.

With Instagram becoming such a huge channel for everyone, we can also think about how we can make use of face filters, camera effects, all the new features that go live every day. How can we turn them into music promotion tools? Face filters, for example, are pretty expensive to develop, because it takes programming. But if you can make the music play in the background of a face filter that is very fun to use, you can have a lot of reach and you don’t have to pay for that. That is something that we have used in a couple of campaigns. Whenever there is a new thing coming out, on any platform, what we like to do and propose to a client is, this is something new and we think we can work in this way, or let’s try it out that way. We can then get some first-hand data to see if that actually makes sense. Not just using Instagram by posting a picture of me in the studio, but actually tie it back to, by the way, this is all the music we created this month, listen to it on Spotify. Actually, come back with a call to action, anytime you do something, and not just post a picture because you have to post a picture.

It’s creating a more cohesive experience for the listener?

Yes, exactly.

You mentioned how you think Patreon is going to be pretty big next year. Do you see that the industry is moving towards more niche verticals, with diehard fans? Potentially, even looking for your fans to fund you in a certain way, especially for the newcomer?

Yes. I think, with streaming and less money coming through via the old school ways, such as buying CDs and vinyls, there is a pressure point relating to what other business models make sense for creatives and creators. One thing that we are seeing is podcasts as a big trend. However, not every artist wants to talk about a certain topic every week. It ties back to the fact that they don’t always want to interact all the time.