From the sometimes theatrical and drawn out hype-campaigns to releases with nearly no promo/marketing, the year brought about what Rolling Stone magazine calls some of the “…most innovative and influential marketing rollout(s)” that we’ve seen in the music industry. Justin Timberlake’s “The 20/20 Experience” was the best selling album of the year while Robin Thicke’s hit “Blurred Lines” was the top single of 2013. Although Timberlake’s latest album was the best seller of 2013, it is the lowest-selling number one selling album since 1991, when Nielson Soundscan began recording such figures. The U.S. music industry saw a decrease in its digital music sales “…for the first time since the iTunes music store opened its doors.” This was due in large part to the rising use of streaming services such as Spotify and Pandora. However, according to Billboard, vinyl sales continued to increase from 4.55 million in sales in 2012 to 6 million in sales during 2013, making it one of the few areas of industry sales to actually increase in 2013 which goes to show that music fans still prefer a tangible, high-quality piece of physical music even in an age with an abundance of technology.
Tag: Music Industry
Viral Marketing at its Best
This past Friday, on December 13th, Beyoncé released her 5th studio album, the self-titled, Beyoncé. “Apple said Monday that the album sold 617,213 in its U.S. iTunes Store. It sold 828,773 internationally.” While these figures alone are staggering, the way in which she went about promoting, releasing, and keeping the album a secret are even more impressive. Beyoncé and Sony didn’t speak a word of the album’s release date leading up to December 13th. At midnight on the 13th, Bey took to Twitter to announce that her album had arrived, and was available that same day. Once the announcement was made, the news spread around the world like wildfire. The album was made available exclusively through iTunes “…only at full price ($15.99) as a full album download.” The fact that she made the release available as a full album download only, emphasizes the importance of the album as a single, cohesive unit, rather than just a collection of multiple singles. Beyoncé is an international superstar and the same tactics won’t work for most, but her and Sony’s use of viral marketing brings light to the fact that in the digital age of over-information, sometimes less is a more effective strategy and can make for a bolder statement. Here at Altavoz, we believe that since the music industry is ever-changing due to new technology and media platforms, promotional strategies must be re-created regularly in order to remain effective and relevant. We join Beyoncé and her fans in congratulating her on a wildly successful 5th album release, and a more than impressive marketing strategy.
Related articles
- Beyonce’s Album Breaks U.S. iTunes Record, Goes No. 1 Globally (mukeshbalani.wordpress.com)
- Beyoncé’s Surprise New Album Crashed iTunes Overnight (gizmodo.com)
Wednesday Wrap-Up
#MainstreamGoingVinyl
by Mary Mukira
About a week ago, Jay-Z officially released his twelfth studio album: Magna Carta…Holy Grail. With his innovative album release, the otherwise non-social media user took to Twitter to answer some of his fans’ burning questions. In that, Mr. Carter was asked why his song “Open Letter” was not featured on the album. He replied saying, “vinyl only, handled by Jack White”. In an industry where digital is considered most acceptable, the hip-hop mogul himself is set to be “re-releasing” the MCHG album with the demanded song, on vinyl. Of course Mr. Carter couldn’t just feature the demanded song on vinyl, “Open Letter” will be in the form of a letter, and you will have the ability to “play the card like vinyl”. Jack White, a band member from The White Stripes is no stranger to using and releasing music on vinyl. In fact, Mr. White and his label, Third Man Records, have opened their very own recording booth to the public in Nashville, TN—making it the only vinyl-recording booth in the world. Again, in an era where digital is important to sell music, people are craving for the physical sound that only vinyl creates. The idea of Jay-Z and Jack White working on this together is one for the books. Mainstream vinyl will make a mark, if not now, soon.
What to Do If You’re a #DeerintheHeadlights
by Sarah Grin
Ever get caught in a situation that you just don’t know how to handle? Here’s what not to do…Don’t go on live television and tell the world that we need to create education better.
But for all of you people out there that still struggle in these situations, here’s a few tips to help!
- Take a deep breath! There is no need to panic and just start spewing out words that make no sense without formulating decent and legible sentences!
- Stay calm and make sure to keep your facial expressions relaxed and certain rather than looking nervous and jittery.
- If you need time to think of an answer, take a sip of water (if you have any) or stand up slowly to give enough time to formulate a sentence.
- Try to keep something in your pocket that you could play with to calm your nerves long enough to focus on your thoughts.
- Sometimes it’s okay to ask for a question to be repeated. This allows you to process the question and gives time to think of an answer.
Hope these help!