AUSTIN, Texas--I've blogged about Topspin Media in the past--it's the company that handled the staggered direct-to-fan release for the recent David Byrne-Brian Eno album, "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today." At the South by Southwest festival here this week, Topspin announced that it has taken a lot of the lessons it learned from the Byrne-Eno release and applied it to their platform.
Under the Byrne-Eno program, the artists first asked listeners to enter their e-mail address in exchange for a free song download. A few weeks later, they released a streaming version of the entire record, while simultaneously offering various packages for sale at various price points. This was the only way you could get the CD for eight weeks, when it finally went on sale for retail.
Subsequently, the artists used the e-mail addresses they'd collected to send messages about the David Byrne tour for the album, as well as a vinyl release that just came out. It was a very clever and canny way to market a record, and it benefited not only fans but also the artists--they say they earned the equivalent to a record company advance during the eight-week exclusive period.
I got a demonstration of the new platform from Topspin on Thursday morning, and there's a lot of impressive behind-the-scenes work going on there. The process starts with embeddable widgets that the artist (or, really, their management) can offer through their Web page or MySpace page; any fan can then take these widgets and redistribute them on their own pages, allowing artists to leverage their fan base as marketers.
There are a couple standard widgets, including one that lets users enter an e-mail address in exchange for a free download, and another that can be used to share an audio and video clip of some sort (Byrne and Eno sat down and talked about the album).
As these widgets are redistributed, artists can collect detailed information about who's putting them where, paving the way, for example, for a scenario in which an artist could offer free backstage passes to its 10 biggest promoters. Further down the line, when the artist is selling an album, Topspin enables the collection and storage of more information about fans (such as their ZIP codes). Such data is later used for promotions such as targeted e-mails advertising a local gig. Giving personal data is opt-in; these are fans getting information about an act they like, not random spam or cross-marketing.
Topspin's not intending to go broad--musicians have to have some history or traction before it'll take you as a client (management's basically required; a label is nice). The company is not looking to get into the distribution game, either. But I think that this type of direct-to-fan marketing is soon going to become standard-practice, at which point it'll be interesting to see how Topspin differentiates itself from the labels...or, perhaps the labels will just outsource this kind of work to them.
Back in August, I noted that the new David Byrne/Brian Eno album, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, was available in its entirety as a free streaming audio file.
They also put up a free download of one track, "Strange Overtones." Later, they offered several packages to purchase--from downloads-only for $8.99 to a deluxe package with a hardbound book, screensaver, and extra songs for $69.99.
Turns out that this release and marketing strategy was driven by Topspin Media, which is led by former Yahoo Music Vice President Ian Rogers.
A couple weeks ago, Rogers spoke at a Grammy-sponsored event in Seattle and, as Idolator reports, the results of the Byrne/Eno experiment have worked out quite well for the artists. After eight weeks of digital-only sales, the duo have already grossed what they would have earned from a typical record company advance for artists of their expected sales profile. And that's without any physical CDs--they don't drop into retail stores until November 30.
As Nine Inch Nails has already shown, the key for established artists is to reach out to their "superfans" and give them opportunities to feel like they're part of an exclusive club. In the case of Byrne/Eno, it really worked: of the people who entered an e-mail address, more than 50 percent opened the subsequent e-mail, and more than 20 percent eventually purchased music through the site.
I'm a David Byrne fan--I've bought most of his solo CDs (which range from OK to great), and have seen him in concert a few times (always outstanding). Sure enough, as soon as I found out that I could buy a physical CD through the site, that's what I did. I guess I'm not a superfan, as I didn't spring for the $70 deluxe package, but I did buy tickets for Byrne's Seattle stop as soon as I heard they were going on sale.
In past years, I often bought a full album because I heard one or two tracks I liked on the radio, only to find that the entire record was a letdown. One way to cure this problem is to offer larger free samples, like game demos that last more than a level.
On Tuesday, David Byrne and Brian Eno released their new record, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. It's available, in its entirety, as an online stream. They are encouraging anybody who wants to embed it in a Web site to do so.
If you're a fan, you've already hit play. If not, I'll just say that the Eno-produced Talking Heads albums (More Songs About Buildings and Food, Fear of Music, and Remain in Light) are indisputably the band's best work. I'll add that I've followed Byrne's career since he left the Heads and believe that his solo records--particularly his last, Grown Backwards, and 1994's self-titled record--are chronically underrated by the powers that recommend.
So put on some headphones and try it. If you like it, buy it. Or go see Byrne (without Eno, alas) on tour.
Additional note: Earlier Tuesday, I posted about how the music industry might fight back against piracy. Attention, commenters: I never advocated for piracy, merely for the music biz to acknowledge that the problem is technically and legally unsolvable, and therefore must be routed around.
MTV has a rundown of events showing that 2007 was the year the music industry broke. Not broke as in "broke big," like "The Year Punk Broke." Broke as in "became broken." (Which I suppose is followed by "went broke.")
And in Wired, David Byrne explains the modern landscape and what musicians can do about it. I'm a huge fan of his music, his writing, and his art, so far be it from me to add anything to what he said, but I'll point out my favorite part: he begins by defining music, a subtle way of pointing out how warped our modern definition of it has become. Before the latter half of the 20th century, music was like conversation--live, in the moment, and tailored for specific social events. There was no plastic, no manufacturing, no "radio-ready" mixes, no merchandising, no marketing, no branding. Just, you know, notes and words. When it was over, it was over. To me, this is still what music's about--recordings are great, but the context in which you listen to them can completely change how they sound, and a live performance is still the highest form of musical art.
Which brings me to the Crocodile, which closed suddenly last Sunday. If you lived in Seattle in the 90s, or even visited, and are into live music, you probably saw a show there. Clubs come and go, but they had a great sound system run by an excellent sound engineer, and were genuinely decent to the musicians playing there, regardless of how hot they were at that particular moment. A shame, but live music continues in the many other mid-sized clubs that have sprung up in Seattle since the Croc opened in 1992.
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