So, you’re a band that likes to communicate with your fans (if you don’t, get a real job). You have your MySpace page, your email-newsletters, possibly a blog, maybe even a Twitter account. But fuck, it’s all quite messy, isn’t it? And aren’t the kids all on their mobile phones these days?
Then you may be interested in Mupps, a platform that allows you to build your own music applications for mobile phones (or at least the likes of iPhone etc).

People at Pitchfork and Wired are excited about iPhone apps for musicians, but so far it’s been only major label acts (like Snow Patrol, Pink and Pussycat Dolls) that have experimented with it. Possibly because they’re not that cheap to develop. 

And, apart from the Death Cab For Cutie one that was released last week, they do feel like pretty static marketing tools. Things that are dreamt up in a meeting room, things that don’t come alive, because the artist itself doesn’t use it to communicate. 

Mupps seems to address a few of these issues.
One, it taps into that oh-so-important mobile market, which is a major communication platform for music-lovers. Sure, not every 15-year old has an iPhone, but mobile phones are rapidly becoming multi-media hubs.  

Two, there’s the portal function, i.e. all your Radiohead-related info is there. Including iTunes and the likes. So I’m sure managers and record company peeps are sniffing out the commercial value.

And three: the directness of Twitter integration will make it feel like you’re constantly following your favourite band (considering your hero updates it). 

I’m curious to see what the price plan is, but there’s meant to be different levels (basic – advanced – professional). And I’m sure the modular aspect of it means that it can be relatively cheaper. 

The application is not available just yet (you can sign up for a newsletter to get notified). But apparently the developers are looking for feedback, so if you’re a musician / label / manager, you may want to find out more. Kanye, you listening?

What’s interesting to see is that labels, who have traditionally been quite averse to embracing internet technology are now realising the digital potential. Big time. Major label commissioner Tim Nash (who won the award for Best commissioner at the recent UK Music video Awards) writes a very entertaining blog about his lovely job and gave an insight in how they deal with the ‘Truth Tube’ and how they’re analyzing the viewing behaviour and the tagging of their videos. Turns out that 52 seconds is the average ’switch-off moment’.

As a fan of creative music videos and with quite a few talented directors in my close circle of friends, my heart breaks and weeps when I read this. It’s scary to see how the big corporations are desperately trying to take the risk and failure out of what we always believed to be a creative industry. Sure, from a commercial point of view you can sort of understand them, but we can only hope that the stats don’t get applied to each and every band.

My prediction is that music videos will become similar to tv commercials. They’re no longer the sine qua non of advertising, but for washing powder (read: hits! hits! hits!) it’ll still work. And for the more aspirational brands (read: more creative artists), the future of ‘music marketing’ will move more towards inventive campaigns like the Oasis one I wrote about before, highly creative material (video, websites,…) that translates the creativity of an artist and personal communication like blogs and documentaries/video blogs that give an insight in the wonderful world of musicians.

So here’s to a creative 09.

I’ve always floated around the music industry in some shape or form and I’ve always been surprised how un-creative the environment (and its output) is; despite the fact that there are so many talented people involved.

When I was commissioning music videos (I still do the odd one), I always felt there were quite a few other ways of translating music into moving image or into a (dirty word coming up) ‘campaign’. But there weren’t many examples and everyone kept making music videos; some great ones, lots of disposable ones.
But it seems the music industry is coming round and is no longer completely averse to exploring non-traditional routes.

It’s not really a surprise that creative artists like Soulwax do something as ambitious as their tour-film ‘Part Of The Weekend Never Dies’, but none other than Oasis recently did something that made me smile.
Not only did they give away sheet music of songs on their upcoming album, allowing people to play/record/upload their own versions; they also taught a bunch of buskers in New York how to play the songs and sent them out on the street, as an exclusive preview. Original, simple, to-the-point, pretty much (another dirty word coming up) ‘360′. And you document it and you have a film. I think it’s great. 

So yesterday I was talking to some friends and we were wondering who came up with the idea. And the answer is: the advertising agency BBH. While I find it a bit scary that the big advertising agencies are getting involved in music, it actually does make sense. I’m not talking about positioning a ‘brand’ like a pack of butter, but at the end of the day agencies generate ideas. And if anything, the Oasis ‘campaign’ shows that in an era where everyone has a video camera, a strong idea makes all the difference.
So maybe, just maybe, the major record companies and mainstream artists will start tapping into the creativity that’s all around them. 

After my post 2 weeks ago about the use of split screen, I received another example from Straighty 180, a production company in Sydney, who made this music video last year. On the first level it’s just a normal, narrative music promo, but part of the concept was a website where the original video would play splitscreen with another video, together revealing more about the storyline.  
Not as interactive as the Pop Levi experiment, but nevertheless a pretty interesting example of cross-platform approach, still quite rare in music video land. 

Why exactly is Euro RSCG doing this? In the press blurbs, they talk about ‘access to artists’ and ‘future-facing business models’. Now, The:Hours is not a traditional label; it also does ‘music content production’, like this. But if the advertising industry needs better/cheaper/quicker access to music creators and the copyright on songs, surely they could have bought a specialized music production agency. 

And I don’t get the fact they’re interested in a record label. If the plan is to discover the new Justin Timberlake, so McDonalds will háve to come to Euro RSCG for their new version of ‘I’m lovin’ it!’, then that’s quite risky, no? 

I know music is extremely important for brands and the last few years the trend has been shifting towards custom content (remember the Nike/James Murphy, Nike/Cassius and CocaCola/Jack White collaborations), but I’m just not 100% convinced by this one. 

What am I missing? Enlighten me!

Bloody Radiohead. They’ve done it again.

While the music video industry is nervously looking around, trying to avoid gloomy nose-dive scenarios, those Radiohead fuckers do something no one else has done before. Again. 
An interactive, no-camera-just-code, ready-to-remix video experiment.
Genius, right? Or is it just another marketing ploy, as cynics were keen to point out  last year when the band gave away their album on a pay-as-want basis?

I think you can judge from a few angles. 

From a creative point of view, I feel it scores well.
Apart from the fact that I’ve never really seen anything like it, it’s a great piece of visual expression that is typical for the band/brand Radiohead.
I also think that as a piece of filmmaking it does have its values. I watch a lot of music videos and my attention span is close to that of a goldfish, but this video kept me watching. Quite a feat. 

From an interactive point of view it’s a bit limited. The fact that it’s open source is obviously a genius thing. But unless you’re quite a geek -and let’s be honest, not that many of us are- it’s hard to interact with the work. In that way, Arcade Fire’s attempt last year was more successful, be it less aspirational. 

Technologically I’m sure it’s all great, but I personally couldn’t care less. Velodyne Lidar technology, whatever. 

And marketing-wise? A success, no doubt. After 3 days it’s already racked up more views on YouTube than a lot of it the band’s older videos. And which music video has recently received that much attention in the broadsheet media (ok – it’s the online version, but still). And has a collaboration with Google. 
But is that because Radiohead had a clever marketing plan? Or because it’s a great piece of work and worth the attention? 

One last point. Is this the solution to the flailing music video business? Obviously not. Although I’m sure production companies are already thinking about how to ‘implement’ this and score a YouTube hit themselves, this video really is just one example of doing something creative that also gets noticed.
Afetr all, even Robbie Williams made ‘interactive videos’ 5 years ago. 

In the category ‘pretty-useless-but-absolutely-great websites’: I So Wish. 
Although tagging it as ‘useless’ is maybe a little harsh. Especially for the makers.
Because creator Andrew Dubber, one of the leading bloggers about the music industry (check out New Music Strategies) started it ‘to make money while sleeping’.

In his recent post about how he and his programmer friend made this site, he extrapolates his concept to the field of the music industry. He pretty much recommends musicians to come up with a similar ‘cash machine’, instead of chasing the rock ‘n’ roll dream of getting signed to a record label, tour the world and make/burn heaps of cash. If they want to be creative, that is. 

Which makes total sense to me. Creativity’s success is all too often measured by the amount of money it generates. Which means that lots of creatives (musicians, filmmakers, artists,…) are having to compromise their output in order to make sure they can pay their rent and that can of ravioli. When they should be focusing on what they do best: make nice stuff that no one else makes. Whether that makes money or not. 

Actually, let’s make that ‘most people’. Because everyone has a non-professional passion and a story to tell. 
In Belgium (where I grew up) there’s actually a small political party that wants to get rid of social security and give everyone a basic income, unconditional. So people can do whatever they want. Make more money. Or be creative. I always thought that was an interesting concept. 

Having said that: there are no 6 billion ideas like this.  
Still, I may just get together a few of my friends and and see what we come up with!