DYM MYSPACE FEEDBACK

Very good Myspace research, Nick. This will guarantee some solid research marks by the end of the project.

Myspace Research Task

Death Cab For Cutie - Official Website
Url: http://www.deathcabforcutie.com/
Genre: Indie (American)/Alternative
Country of Origin: America (Seattle)
The bands official website is a flash layout with moving images and sections. The homepage is arranged in a circle around their band's name in the middle. There are links at the top and the bottom to safeguard against the crashing of the flash layout (a common occurence on such programs as the shoddy Internet Explorer). The main sections which are shown in the flash portion of the homepage are: Photos, Music, Videos, Fan Club, Tour Dates, Merch Store, News (with a live feed), Mailing List. The colour scheme is all white, oranges and greys, but very soft colours. This is a clear signifier of the genre of the music giving a very calm feel to the website rather than harsh contrasting colours associated more with heavier music. The photos are on a slideshow reel, with a calm dissolve between them. Each section has a small animation when you hover over it to make interesting visuals while browsing the site. If you roll over the bugles, they play a little jingle.
Each individual section of the site is made on a standard layout, with a cream background on the text boxes/link boxes etc, over a white main page background. The links at the top and the bottom stay the same and there is a big link back to their homepage in the top left. The colour scheme is still oranges/greys/white with the addition of the cream text boxes. These pages are a lot more simple than the extravagent homepage.
The website appeals to their audience by giving the standard expectations of music, videos, information, etc. The website stays key to the bands iconography and style of artwork from their albums therefore creating a synergy between their music and brand image.

UnderOath - Official Website
Url: http://www.underoath777.com/
Genre: Alternative/Post Hardcore
Country of Origin: America (Florida)
The band's official website is a flash layout based around the bands most recent album "Lost in the Sound of Separation". At a first glance I was disappointed thinking it very badly designed but soon discovered the links pull you flying across the screen to a different island in the background design where the section of the website is. It is all very arty and big bold colours representing the contrast of their musical style to the norm. The sections from the main flash layout are: NEWS, SHOWS, BAND, MUSIC, MEDIA, PHOTOS, JOURNAL, LINKS, CONTACT, eNEWS, MERCH. From this I can see similarities between their website and Death Cab's, giving a sense that audiences expect certain things on a band website and it is their job to deliver this. All the media is part of the flash layout so photos pop out and videos are embedded to the website. This is good as you don't need to leave the page to see any of their material. Obvious links are too their myspace and facebook page.
The band have chosen to use artwork from their current touring album "Lost in the Sound of Separation" for the site so it is a direct link to the bands brand image, easy for an audience to associate with the band as it is nothing different from what the fans expect of them. The bands record label is hardly mentioned or visible through the site, other than in the links section. This can be seen as a sign of independence from the bands label.

Bring Me The Horizon - Myspace Page
Url: http://www.myspace.com/bmth/
Genre: Metalcore/Black Metal
Country of Origin: England (Sheffield)
Straight away as we go onto BMTH's myspace page we see a huge different in genre signifiers from the previous two websites. The layout is almost all white, green and black with a background which is very grainy and harsh, looking like a worn down wall. The first thing we see is the cover art for the bands most recent album, depicting a girl holding some guts (not quite as sweet and calm as DCFC's website). This is showing the gore associated with this genre of music and hence why they used it for their album art (with an album called "Suicide Season" what can you expect). The myspace layout is using DIV codes to cover up the traditional layout and rearrange it how they want it. The music player is still in its usual place but all the info on the left hand side has been replaced with graphic designs, like photos of the band members, links to buy their albums, a link to the merch store, what equipment they use, and their most recent magazine cover. Underneath this is all their contact information very neatly presented. Most of this is a good example of marketing, with clear showing off of their endorsements while shoving all available band goods in your face.
The right hand side covers their tour dates, twitter updates, videos and the standard myspace layout of top friends and comments. There are also adverts to join their street team and to do with promotion packages. Their top friend is "Drop Dead", vocalist Oli Sykes own clothing brand, basically more band merch but keeping a direct link with them for fans.
This type of music and the scene that follows it are largely associated with myspace hence their main website being a myspace page. It is very simply laid out and the colour schemes and artwork follows all signifiers of the genre, making them a very fan friendly band. The twitter feed makes fans feel directly linked to the band.


I chose these 3 sites as they all have their various contrasting factors but all have very big similarities that are obviously expected from a band website these days, like song players, music videos, news feeds and tour dates. We should keep these sort of things in mind when creating our myspace page to make it as authentic and marketable as possible.

Music Industry Marketing HW

1. Summarising in your own words what the 4Ps of music marketing are. Use the following categories:

a) What band/artist related products can audiences buy?
Other than the obvious of CDs, and Deluxe Editions of CDs, there are DVDs (often Live or documentary). band merch including t-shirts, bags, outerwear, shorts, hats, shoes, the like. Posters, some artists do biographies. Digital media like mp3 albums, music videos, podcasts.

b) Where can audiences buy/listen to music/merchandise/hardware?
Audiences can buy in physical format (Disc) from music shops (e.g. HMV, the late Zavvi), online from sites (like Amazon.co.uk, Play.com), General Stores like W.H.Smith sell CDs. You can buy music in digital format from iTunes, also sites like Amazon sell MP3 albums. Merchandise can be bought at live shows (including CDs) or on the bands personal merch store, often linked to from their personal site (such as myspace/facebook).

c) Give 2 or 3 examples of paid-for/subscription based and free products.
Free downloads off of the bands site. Mailing lists (such as Metallica's "Metal Militia" which shows the progression from physical mailing to digital mailing).

d) List between 5 and 10 examples of creative music marketing strategies (including at least 3 internet based examples).

Slipknot - Before world tour 2008, posted videos on their websites promoting the tour in their typical stage costume telling fans to "be scared", "be warned" and "don't come to this tour". Form of reverse psychology.
Muse - New single "United States of Eurasia", put USB sticks in capital cities of the world with sections of the song in. Fans had to find the USB sticks and post the clip online so that eventually the whole song would be pieced together. Promotes them of album/song and also gets fans involved.
Architects/Elliot Minor/Your Demise - Get fans in music video. 15 seconds of fame principle. Fans feel involved with the music and the band. Band can get away with not really showing anyone in it but the fans feel like they have a personal connection to the video, song, band. Fans will tell friends about the video, good promotion.
Saosin - Send in text messages to a number, your name posted on the album artwork in the thankyous. Bit rubbish really, could hardly see your name as so many people texted in. Still feel part of the production and connected to the band.
Radiohead - Album, In Rainbows. Sold online as an auction style thing. Fans pay what they want for the album (or free). Their best selling album of all time. Fans can relate to bands anti-establishment style attitude through their choice to sell independently.


2. Who is frukt uk and what is their mission statement/company ethos?
"We’re all about music and are really very fond of it. Music colours people’s everyday lives. It’s found in the mundane and the exalted. It moves us all. And it’s thriving. We help brands access the passion and the communities, the lifestyle and the artists. Music is a vast cultural space - it's flexible, it's multi-channel, it's live and digital, it unites gender, race and age and it defines the spirit of generations.

You just need to know how to use it.

That’s where we come in."

Frukt come up with marketing strategies based around music and use them for bands or products and create case studies out of them.

Dizzee Rascal Marketing Task

1. Summarise the changing image of the band/artist as it has developed over time. It might also be useful to summarise the music genre also.

Dizzee has progressed from a grime genre, and is now seen as a garage/hip hop mix. He has incorporated more dance inspiration as seen in his collaborations with such artists as Calvin Harris, Arctic Monkeys and his support slot on his recent tour with The Prodigy. He has gone from being an independent to a more mainstream sound. This has expanded his fan base to more than just his original demographic of hip hop youths in London town. He has been quoted as saying he is “leaving his grime roots behind” in favour of more mainstream pop.


2. Who are the fans? Do you have any sense of how the music companies have segmented the audiences? To what extent has the branding of a band been linked to target audience?

The hip hop and grime genre has a history of a predominately black fan base. This is due to most of the artists being black themselves and that they come from similar social and class background, thus appealing to the demographic. They are like local heroes in a way. However, with the genres becoming increasingly more mainstream, the audience is becoming a much more mixed bag. This can be related to the more frequent appearance of rap artists in festivals, and the charts, thus making them more accessible for a larger, more mainstream audience.

In this case, the record company is Dizzee himself, as he produces and records his own songs and albums on his record label “Dirtee Stank”. This means that he is in complete control of how he brands himself and how he appeals to his audience, which he does through his genre and fashion.

By producing all his own music, Dizzee, or as I like to call him, Mr. Rascal, has stayed true to his independent roots by not relying on some fancy pants record company.


3. What marketing strategies can you identify? What kinds of stategies can you list? (above/below-the line? unexpected promo stunts? etc). List any examples of the use of synergy with other industries to promote other media/products in connection with a band/artist.

Dizzee’s first album, “Boy in da Corner”, was the first rap album to win a Mercury Prize. It has been voted one of the top albums of all time by MTV Base. This shows how Dizzee has embraced his grime culture and mixed it with mainstream to produce an album that was marketable to more than just the standard rap demographic.
During his time in the Roll Deep crew Dizzee was stabbed six times in a live show due to a rivalry with the So Solid Crew (there was some bottom pinching involved). Although this is obviously bad it brought about a surge of press, getting Dizzee’s relatively unknown status brought in to the limelight. This is akin to the gang rivalries of the 90s seen in West Coast and East Coast rap in the US.

In 2004, Dizzee Rascal made an international endorsement deal with urban brand Eckō and designed his own shoe with Nike in 2005.


4. Add any relevant links to your blog, especially Myspace page/music vids/official websites etc. A couple of illustrations (e.g key web design graphics/album cover photography) would also be useful to add to your blogs.