We've already written about a number of efforts to crowdfund and crowdmanage music bands, and now in Scotland a crowdmanaged music festival is in the works that was prefunded by a local brand.
Last week Tennent's Lager launched Tennent's Mutual, a new music venture that will ultimately result in a live music festival this fall in which fans select artists, debate locations for gigs and call the shots on ticket prices. To kick off the effort, Tennent's created a start-up fund of GBP 150,000. Fans who sign up before June 30th will be given founder member status and the right to vote on the "who, what, why, where?" of all decisions as to how that start-up money is invested. Counsel will be provided by the Rolling Stones' Andrew Loog Oldham, Babyshambles' Drew McConnell, journalist and broadcaster Keith Cameron, former Scots chart-topper Ken McCluskey and local musicians Stewart Henderson of Chemikal Underground and Johnny Lynch of The Fence Collective. Tennent’s Mutual is a not-for-profit enterprise, and no booking fees will be charged for shows. Ticket income, meanwhile, will be ploughed back into the central fund, creating a self-generating amount that will grow and continue to create yet more live events.
Chemikal Underground's Stewart Henderson puts it nicely: “Generally speaking music has gone digital and you can't put the genie back in the bottle. This is a total watershed time that we're living in at the moment. It will change things completely—irreversibly. What Tennent’s has done is they’ve effectively set themselves up as patrons. It’s a positive thing as it allows things to happen that may not have otherwise.”
As fans and customers claim increasing control in the music industry and beyond, it's a smart brand that will jump to the forefront with funds and a supporting model. Imagine the transformation in Microsoft's image if it ponied up the funds and let users decide how they were spent! It's just a matter of time before this comes to other countries and other industries; who else will stand up and be an early leader?
Website: www.tennentsmutual.com
Contact: www.tennentsmutual.com/contact
Spotted by: Lyuba Stevasarova
In much the same way that movie studios market soundtracks, video game producers have published game soundtracks for years now. With the release of Grand Theft Auto IV later this month, in-game music marketing is being taken to a new level. Whenever they hear a song they like on one of the game’s fictional radio stations, players can call a dedicated number from their cell phones. Within seconds, they’ll receive a text message with information on the song and artist. The game’s publisher, Rockstar Games, is also developing a community site around GTA IV, and members will be able to receive emailed links to the songs for easy downloading from Amazon.com’s MP3 store.
Besides songs, GTA IV's radio stations—which include international funk hosted by Femi Kuti, and disco tunes courtesy of DJ Karl Lagerfeld—also feature commercials and DJ banter. Music has always been an important part of Grand Theft Auto’s virtual world, serving as a background to the gritty action in the same way songs helped define the ’80s TV series Miami Vice. So it makes perfect sense for Rockstar to create an additional revenue stream around music downloads. Smart way to cater to consumers' infolust while promoting music sales. (Related: Online database can name that tune.)
Website: www.rockstargames.com/IV
Contact: www.take2games.com/index.php?p=global_contacts
Spotted by: Bjarke Svendsen
When a company employs 1.6 million front-line workers throughout the world, chances are that at least a handful of them will have knock-your-socks-off singing abilities. That’s what McDonald’s reckoned when it launched its Voice of McDonald’s II.
As the title implies, this is the second time around for the event, which debuted in 2006. Then as now, company talent shows were nothing new. But the sheer number of McDonald’s participants—some 3,600 working at restaurants in 53 countries signed up for the most recent contest—helped generate valuable media coverage and customer involvement. This time round, customer votes helped select the finalists whose video performances are posted on the contest website. In April, the three top performers from the event will compete for a USD 25,000 first prize at the company’s world convention in Orlando, Florida.
Advertising and marketing bloggers have generated considerable buzz about the campaign, enough that other large companies could well emulate it. Corporate event organizers and team-building experts, and those wanting to enter that business, should be able to invent countless variations of the idea—everything from sports competitions to the funniest YouTube videos to events where finalists get to challenge the pros. As with “American Idol,” the basic idea behind these contests is universal: the yearning ordinary people have to be discovered and the fact that many who lead ordinary lives have talents which deserve to be shown off.
Website: www.mcdonalds.com/usa/voice.html
Contact: www.mcdonalds.com/contact/contact_us.html
Spotted by: Bjarke Svendsen
Whether it's board riders or hotel seekers being targeted, there's no doubt that the verticalization of video sites continues apace. The latest evidence: Shoetube, a new video-sharing site for those obsessed with shoes.
Launched about two weeks ago by Massachusetts-based Powderhouse Productions, Shoetube aims to use online video and social community to connect women through their passion for shoes. The free site features original video programs, user-generated videos and photos, and sponsor-created content, along with professionally written blogs, forums and articles on fashion news and trends. Among the site's regular video programs, for example, are Behind the Boot, which provides access to the makers and shakers of the shoe world; Real or Deal, a studio show daring viewers to guess which shoes are from high-end designers and which are knockoffs; and Walk on By, in which Shoetube.tv hosts ask passersby nationwide, "Where'd you get those shoes?" Coming soon is a Boutiques section, which will showcase videos and photos, blogs, contests, polls, and shoe deals from well-known shoe companies. Ad-supported Shoetube provides sponsors with promotional opportunities through video ad overlays, boutique microsites, banners, contests and polling efforts. Through a collaboration with Nine West, for example, Shoetube is helping to promote the shoe brand's 30th anniversary and the launch of its fall 2008 boot line; to celebrate Shoetube's launch, meanwhile, shoe brand daniblack is offering a USD 1,000 sweepstakes prize to a Shoetube.tv registrant.
From aardvark fanciers to zwieback aficionados, it's a niche-filled world out there, full of opportunities for topic-specific video sites. And when there's the likes of Twistage (which Shoetube used) and Magnify at the ready for help on the technical end, there's no reason not to pick a niche and get to work!
Website: www.shoetube.tv
Contact: www.shoetube.tv/about-us/contact-us
Spotted by: Amy Leung
The world of independent music is a crowded and competitive one, with millions of bands languishing in obscurity both online and off. indieSolo is a site that hopes to help the cream rise to the top, so to speak, by giving one independent band centre stage each day.
Launched at the end of 2006, Canadian indieSolo gives unsigned independent musicians the opportunity to showcase their music and talent for an entire day in the hopes of getting discovered. Bands are chosen by audition, and those selected get 24 hours to promote their music, show off their unique personalities, build their fan base and make money through the sale of CDs, ringtones, merchandise and donations. indieSolo offers free hosting of up to three MP3s for each band, and a rating system measures their popularity and buzz. Fans, meanwhile, gain an easier way to discover new music. They can interact with bands they like, give feedback, and download free MP3s and ringtones. The site keeps a list of the top MP3 downloads, while forums and blogs foster community interaction. Participation on ad-supported indieSolo is free for both artists and fans.
indieSolo was created by Johnny i, founder of EyeShout Media. He explains: "I see indieSolo empowering the indie artist like MySpace empowered the entire indie music industry."
As traditional music distribution models give way to web-enabled ones, sites like indieSolo offer a win-win by bringing new freedom and exposure to musicians and helping fans discover new music. The concept cries out for genre-specific versions—focusing on the blues, say—as well as application to other art forms, such as a site showcasing the authors of books. The main challenge will obviously be to attract enough traffic to these sites, but it will be interesting to see what this model can do! (Related: A luxury deal a day.)
Website: www.indiesolo.com
Contact: www.indiesolo.com/contact
Spotted by: Lori Reiser
Customised content has long been held up as the Holy Grail of digital publishing, and idiomag is making that promise a reality with a personalised, daily digital magazine about music that is based entirely on members' individual interests.
Launched just over a year ago, UK-based idiomag uses a system of weighted tagging to customise both content and advertising to readers' personal musical tastes. Readers initially name their favourite music topics and weight the relative importance of each of them in the content they will view. idiomag then uses that information to serve articles, tracks, videos and other multimedia content in a high-quality, audio-visual virtual magazine format that readers can enjoy in page-by-page fashion. idiomag has content partnerships with publications including Billboard, 365mag and Hip Hop Nation as well as popular blogs such as Aurgasm and BlogCritics. It has also built up a large team of its own journalists across the UK. As readers rate the appeal of the content they view, idiomag intelligently adapts subsequent issues to reflect those changing preferences.
Not insignificantly, advertisers benefit from idiomag's personalisation system as well, with the ability to serve nonintrusive, full-screen and rich-media advertisements that closely match readers' interests. A newly incorporated social element, meanwhile, uses Facebook integration to let readers get their idiomag within the social networking site, view their friends’ magazines and capture articles they like, submit articles, and view trends and favourites among the other idiomag readers on the site. idiomag also offers widgets to incorporate the magazine on other social networks, blogs or home pages. Subscriptions to idiomag are free for readers; advertisers are charged on a CPM basis, and revenue is shared with content providers based on their content’s popularity.
When readers get the content they want and advertisers reach their target audiences in a targeted way, it really is hard to see a downside. One to bring to other niches, localities and topic areas!
Website: www.idiomag.com
Contact: andrew.davies@idiomag.com
Spotted by: Cagla Pakel
In the crowd-funded arena, one name keeps popping up: Mark Bowness. Tribewanted, the experimental island community he founded, is now the focus of a BBC documentary series. Two other ventures—VIPbandmanager and the Liverpool Culture Cafe—haven't taken off as quickly, but Mark has high hopes for his latest project: Have You Got The Nerve TV.
Have You Got The Nerve aims to be a new type of TV production company: one that's created, lead and inspired by a group of 3,000 executive producers. Fusing the collaborative power of the internet and the enduring mass appeal of television, Nerve will take on three genres: documentary, drama and entertainment. Content will be made both for TV and online viewing.
To sign up as an executive producer, anyone can pledge to pay a one-off fee of GBP 60 as soon as 2,999 others have agreed to do the same. Once the 3,000 execs have joined, Nerve will be open to more people, who will pay a small monthly fee have access to the the platform. These members will also have input into programming, but only the executive producers will share in Nerve's profits. Revenue sources will be the traditional 10% cut of production value that TV production companies get, plus earnings from book deals, online social networks, games, mobile content, etc.
Will the crowds be able to create content that's more engaging than traditional producers? And will Nerve be able to reach a wider audience than user-generated Current TV? We'll be watching ;-)
Website: www.haveyougotthenerve.tv
Contact: mark@haveyougotthenerve.tv
Grand funerals and eloquent eulogies are all very well when it comes to marking the demise of the wealthy and well-respected, but as the royalty and nobility of days gone by can attest, there's nothing quite like a requiem to cement one's name in the annals of time. Fortunately for today's moneyed elite, there's Requiem for You, an Austrian firm that can compose a personal requiem on demand.
Just launched last year, Requiem for You offers services on three levels, the most basic of which is the composition of an individually tailored requiem. The firm represents a network of composers, librettists and musicians who will write an individual requiem in advance, capturing the client's unique personality and accommodating preferences for balance among vocal, instrumental and textual components. Styles available include baroque, classical, romantic, jazz or Broadway musical, with text in German, Latin or English. A personal laudatio is also available.
In addition to composing the piece, Requiem for You can also produce an audio recording of it using a team of freelance artists, orchestras and recording studios, once again honouring the client's personal tastes in the CD's cover art. Finally, upon request the company can arrange a performance of the requiem, using anything from an audio presentation of the recorded version to a live performance with orchestra and choir. Prices reportedly range from EUR 20,000 for the requiem's composition to EUR 400,000 for the all-out live performance.
Requiem for You obviously targets the highest of high-end consumers, offering a premium shot at immortality that only the wealthiest can afford. This is where gravanity and premiumization meet—and given that there are some 9.5 million millionaires in the world, according to the 2007 World Wealth Report from Cap Gemini and Merrill Lynch, that's not a bad place to be! (Related: Art after life.)
Website: www.requiemforyou.com
Contact: salzburg@requiemforyou.com
Spotted by: Martina Meng
