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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.

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