Skip to main content

From music as a recoding to music as an experience



Kevin Kelly writes: “The elusive, intangible connection that flows between appreciative fans and the artist is worth something”.

Or as Joel Zimmerman, better known under his artist name Deadmau5 puts it:

“You need to make a world: […] you have a rollercoaster in your backyard… which is rad. coz everyone loves roller coasters,[…] and all the people from around your block is gunna wanna come and at LEAST check that shit out, or ride it. And itll be the hot thing in the neighborhood for about a week. But once everyone’s had a go… they’ll lose interest, go home n play Sega instead. I see this happen to SO many people… its ridicules.

Well, what you need then, is a fuckin theme park… and you AND your music are the theme. You with me here?  Now, people come into your theme park, and holy fuck, check out all this shit… buncha rides, no 2 the same, some merch here and there, special events, dolphins through hoops and all that whack shit. You want people to come to your theme park and feel like they’re a part of this world of yours”.

Joel points out that an artist needs to offer an exciting and ever changing experience of which the fan can be a part of. He practices what he preaches and offers a wide range of experiences for fans. From using social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram to communicate with fans, to selling merchandizing, organizing remix competitions or providing insights into his studio work via a live webcast.

The song “The Veldt”, for example, resulted from cooperation between the artist and a fan who spontaneously sent a vocal recording to Zimmerman via Twitter during a live broadcast of his studio work. Zimmerman contacted the fan live on air expressing his appreciation for the musical contribution and offered him cooperation. The resulting song became a big success and fans valued Zimmerman’s openness to work together with his followers.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Bibliography of my thesis 'Artist Entrepreneurship In The Music Industry'

Ackerman-Haywood, J. (2010). Artist follows inner drive toward full-time art career. The Grand Rapids Press.  Retrieved January 3, 2012, from http://blog.mlive.com/runningwithneedles/2010/10/artist_follows_inner_drive_tow.html Adler, M. (2006). Stardom and talent. Handbook on the Economics of Art and Culture, 1, 895-906.   Adler, N. E., Epel, E. S., Castellazzo, G., & Ickovics, J. R. (2000). Relationship of subjective and objective social status with psychological and physiological functioning: Preliminary data in healthy, White women. Health Psychology, 19(6), 586.   Adorno, T., & Horkheimer, M. (1977). The Culture Industry: enlightenment as mass deception. In J. Curran, M. Gurevitch & J. Woollacott (Eds.), Mass Communication and Society (pp. 349-389). London: Edward Arnold in association with The Open University Press.   Adorno, T. W. (1941). On popular music. Studies in Philosophy and Social Science, 9(1), 17–48.   Ahlkvist, J. A., & Fisher, ...

Digital Distribution Models Reviewed: The Content Provider’s Perspective (book chapter)

Citation (APA): Peltz, P. (2013). Digital Distribution Models Reviewed: The Content Provider’s Perspective . In Music Business and the Experience Economy (pp. 99-117). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Abstract Digital distribution has surpassed physical distribution in key markets and will soon be the dominant music distribution model in Australia. Four different business models (free, ad-funded, pay-per-use and subscription-based) and two different music delivery methods (downloading and streaming) currently compete in the market place. The author analyses each distribution model available in Australia and evaluates advantages and disadvantages from the content provider’s perspective. The most striking development is the blurring line between promotion and distribution. Content providers can either lower the barriers to access music in order to facilitate rapid music circulation and create a strong promotional effect to support various revenue streams; or heighten the barriers to acc...

From Payola to Blogola to Pandola?

Montgomery and Moe showed that it would be efficient for labels to pay for airplay ( Montgomery & Moe, 2002 ). This is not surprising given the impact airplay can have on sales, at least in the old music industry ( Dertouzos, 2008 ). However, direct undisclosed payments to influence radio programming (called Payola, a combination of pay and Victrola) are prohibited by law. Hence, labels developed strategies to circumvent the law by using independent promoters or naming payments “consultant fees”. The bottom line is, there will always be efforts in whatever form to get exposure through a promotion channel if it could increase profits or benefit an artist's career. This principle prevails, as for instance in form of  Last.fm’s Powerplay  or  Jango’s Airplay  program, where artists can simply pay for plays. Or  Blogola , where influential bloggers receive anything from free products, to tickets and money in return for featuring a specific artist on their...