One Cool Free Idea

I believe that in the current music marketing environment, (and the business environment in general) the folks who will emerge as the highly-successful vs. the so-so successful will be the artists who combine great talent/product with really imaginative and nimble direct-to-fan campaign strategies.  So I was pretty psyched to catch this recent post by Mike King at Berkleemusic on some of the innovation thinking being inspired by folks using the new technology platform Topspin to reach out to their audiences.

If you don’t know, Topspin allows artists (or authors or filmmakers ) to launch their products directly to fans, helps you drive traffic and demand for your product, and helps you analyze and refine campaigns as they unfold.  As you read, take note of the some of the topline best practices in play here: optimizing your web presence; developing a great purchase environment,  and developing and maintaining strong and ongoing fan engagement that leads to sales.

Though I haven’t taken them, I’ve heard great reports of the Topspin courses now underway at Berkleemusic, so if you’re looking for a leg up on this platform, you might want to check them out here.  (In the spirit of full disclosure,  I do some copywriting for Berkleemusic, but don’t get any kickback from the referrals;)

Thanks (via Mike) to Peter Brambl at Topspin for the original post below:

Crush Luther

Sheila Hash has been using Topspin to set up what she calls “The Living Room Sessions” for artist Crush Luther.  “Basically, you can request the band play your living room,” says Shelia.  “You need to send pictures of the space and guarantee that at least 20 people will show up. We set up a private ticket link on Topspin and every ticket purchase gets a hard copy of the album upon arrival to the show. It’s been highly successful and the band is booked at various houses throughout the summer. They love it because it’s much more intimate and interactive than a regular show. “
http://www.crushluther.com/

Jonesez

Annmarie McMath is kickstarting a fan acquisition project for artistJonesez.  “The course was instrumental in not only honing my online marketing skills but educating my artist on best practices for social media marketing and direct-to-fan initiatives,” says Annmarie.  “We have had a steady intake of sign ups, and social media interaction is increasing. We have received a stack of great feedback from fans, musicians and others in the industry..and of course the widgets and music players have been a hit too. Thanks Topspin & Berklee.”
http://www.jonesez.com.au

Brandon Hines

Dan Conway is applying his marketing skills to student projects at Drexel University as well as his own record imprint:  “With our latest release on Drexel’s student run record label (called MAD Dragon Records), we utilized Topspin in creating a new website for the band (streaming player, mailing list, store functionality, etc.) as well as marketing the album using techniques covered in the course. Next year, I plan on incorporating Topspin into the everyday classroom through courses like Marketing and Promotion in the Music Industry and E-commerce in the Music Industry. I will also use it as our direct to fan platform for every Drexel released artist.  Along with my work at the university, I have applied the knowledge at my own record label, Revel Music Group. We used Topspin to release a free promotional “mixtape” for an R&B artist, Brandon Hines, that we have signed. We were able to grow his mailing list from 0 to over 5,300 in a few months (and still acquiring an additional 100 per week) using the email for media widget to exchange 10 free tracks for an email address. We continue to view Topspin as a large piece of the puzzle in both our distribution and marketing strategy and plan to incorporate it into all future releases.
http://maddragon.ning.com/
http://brandonhinesmusic.com/

Soul Mekanik

Ian Clifford is applying the best practices from the course to the marketing of online stores for artist Soul Mekanik. “I had some internet marketing experience already, but I had never applied it in an indie basis,” says Ian. “I learned about the process from the course. In six weeks we have added 600 fans to the email list.”
http://www.soulmekanik.com