This blog posting from Paul at his blog www.PaulColligan.com
My buddy and audio/video mentor Mike Stewart has launched a fascinating little project over at BuyThatCD.com.
Essentially, Mike has launched a “real” record label and his first project is an album called “Unspoken.”
The album is actually, quite good - but that’s not the point of this post.
His little record label is doing two very interesting things:
He’s giving away the single for FREE. That’s right. FREE. Can you really make money with free content? How much will that upset the powers that be? We’ll be following that story here as well.
But even more interesting is his offer to Podcasters. Buy his CD (physical or $9.99 download) and get 5 original royalty free smooth jazz themes for use in your Podcasts or other audio/video projects. Tracks like these normally cost $30 a pop (and these are better than most) so you’re looking at like a $150 value. It will be interesting to see how this project goes (and we’ll be tracking this one here as well).
If you are interested in the whole story, I interviewed Mike for Electronic Marketing Interviews Number #3. Good stuff - he’s a smart guy.
Listen to the interview!
This is our latest press release to spread our story. It is here on the blog because we want it picked up where ever we can. Thanks for being a part of our community!
-For Immediate Release-
Dreamcat Records, distributed by Alive Records (www.AliveRecords.com) has released to radio and online their smooth jazz act, MichaelandMike.com (www.MichaelandMike.com) using traditional promotional systems common place in the music industry for the last fifty years. However this act’s members are successful internet marketers, and they know that the music industry is running with blinders on. In the background they are
testing new online strategies as the promotion stratigies previously used up until now will not cut it in today’s Web 2.0 market.
Proof is the diminishing sales of CDs, the increased use of mobile mp3 players, the closing of major CD chains, like Tower Records, and even more significant reasons are mounting by the minute. As Mike Stewart says “Building personal relationships with fans is a must for music acts today using the internet tied in with radio, and www.MichaelandMike.com has the intention to awaken a confused industry that they are going to have to change the way they communicate to their audience.”
In years 1999 - 2001, Napster built a community fanbase that flocked to download music. In the midst of huge publicity the music industry chose not to embrace or partner with Napster and others as to how money could be made under this exciting scenario.
Mike Edging explains “They should have embraced those Napster members as consumers, communicating with them, marketing to them. Instead they decided to sue 13 year old little girls. Industry big shots, displaying incredible shortsightedness, killed the chance for creating a direct to consumer business with the people who matter most–the fans.
Did they kill illegal downloading or build a list of raving fans? No, they handed off digital downloading to Itunes and Steve Jobs. Then they wasted time arguing over DRM. The result is that Apple has the list of customers and their credit card numbers, not the major music labels or more significantly, the artists.”
That was then and this is now. We believe all businesses must work in tandem with the technology trends, not against them or use litigation to try and control the uncontrollable. “You have build community if you expect to sell music in the years to come learning about new ideas like, The Long Tail, the 3rd screen, Blogging, Pod-casting, Vblogging, and Social Networking…
the tools of Web 2.0.” says Mike Stewart.
The experiment launched is in motion.
www.MichaelandMike.com is a first in our knowledge in the music industry to:
-Inspire fans to take their single as a download for free from their website for
just name and email.
-Insist that their artist name is “dot-com”, not just Michael and Mike, but Michael and Mike.com
-Actively podcast, video blog and help create a social network for the fans and artists in Smooth Jazz.
-Advertise on Google Adwords pay per click advertising to drive traffic to their website and give away their single
-Advertise on radio with the new system at Google called Google Audio Ads. The radio spots only purpose is to build a list direct from radio to the web and increase radio listenership.
-Use blogs to promote their music to radio and allow instant access to all promotional materials.
-Find and create a top radio promotion team because of Web 2.0 strategies.
Says Mike Edging “Smooth Jazz Space was built by All That Jazz Inc. with our guidance just for the pure reason of building an online fan base and perpetuating the art of Smooth Jazz. It is an open forum to find new acts and celebrate the established acts in this incredible format!” www.SmoothJazzSpace.com
The times they are a changing!
Watch this video online to see the story about Michael and Mike by clicking on this link: http://tinyurl.com/38e6xj
Any questions, comments or suggestions are welcome, especially from our friends on the
front line at radio.
Contact: Cliff Gorov, Jason Gorov or Marcy Schmitz
All That Jazz Inc.
702-453-6995
www.AllThatJazzInc.com
www.AliveRecords.com
