According to Heartbeats International, a brand-communications company from Stockholm about seven out of ten companies are using only 5% or less of their marketing budgets on music while 97% of brand managers and directors believe that "music can strengthen their brand." So why the disconnect? Apparently, for some, it is "the difficulty in measuring the value of an investment in music" as well as legal issues. This serves as an extremely lame excuse in my opinion...how exactly are non-textual graphics measured? What you hear is just as important as what you see if not more in some cases. Sounds Like Branding, is a video presentation conducted by Heartbeats International that outlines the importance of music for a brand's positioning especially in this new advertising environment (I recommend watching only the first 15 min). Key points made included: (1) how brands now need to not only have consumers but real fans; (2) music is the best personality identifier and (3) 75% of people ignore advertisements. All of this makes sense because brands need to become more human and music is human, it's emotion, it's feeling and expression so voila we can potentially have the perfect marriage. Brands + Music = More Human brand. See Billboard.biz for more info.
Ciara and Justin Timberlake teamed up for a fiery performance in the new vid, "Love Sex Magic." Is it me or is Ciara starting to remind me of Janet Jackson here? From baggy pants and boyish swang to vixen leotards and high fashion, not to mention the high register singing. I love the vid however, for its shadows, colors and seamless direction. Kudos to Diane Martel who directed it. "Love Sex Magic" is off of Ciara's upcoming project, Fantasy World due sometime this spring.
Awesome performance by Kid Cudi at SXSW with the Crookers remix featuring Kanye jumping around alongside Cudi via The Fader. I wanted to share it in case y'all didn't catch it.
Melanie Fiona, coming out of Toronto is demanding that the brother's give it to her right. With a voice something inbetween Alicia Keys and Jazmine Sullivan and some soul sister swag, the 24-year-old songstress is making waves with her debut, The Bridge, which is scheduled to be released sometime this spring via SRC/Universal Motown Records. Check out Melanie Fiona performing "Give It to Me Right" on Carson Daly Right below. The track was produced by none other than Kanye West. Be on the look out for Melanie Fiona on the rise and I'll be sure to post some more treats from the Canadian-bred soul singer.
AdAge published an interesting article yesterday on the use of 2-D barcodes and the story of a Qdoba Mexican restaurant chain in Ann Arbor, Michigan who used the technology on promotional posters to attract college students to its new location. The promotional posters allowed students to use their cell phones to scan the barcode on the poster and generate a mobile phone coupon for a buy-one-get-one-free burritto. After reading this, I thought what if all those promotional posters I see around the city featuring a new album and/or artist had a barcode that people could scan allowing them to purchase the digital album electronically at a discounted rate for a limited time? Or what if as an added incentive those who purchased the digital album electronically via the scan got the chance to have first dibs at front row seats or floor seats to that artist's concert at a reduced price? Technology truly needs to be fully integrated into music and purchasing music should be made so easy along with having great incentives that people just want to buy the music. There is no more control, there is no way to make people buy the music, they just simply really have to just want to buy it.
According to Billboard, YouTube (Google) has failed to reach an agreement with PRS, the U.K.'s performing rights agency over acceptable rates per music video stream. Google opted and proceeded to remove music video content from the U.K. site. Google put out a statement saying that the new rates that PRS was proposing would put them at a significant loss per stream and the rate is much higher than what was negotiated before. The Music Publisher Assocation (MPA) of the U.K. is reportedly 'dismayed' at the decision that YouTube has reached and feels that it is a disservice to the YouTube community by "denying the content they most enjoy." While PRS is allegedly charging rates that are "in line with the 2007 U.K. Copyright Tribunal ruling on digital streaming rates," Google calls the rates "simply prohibitive." The managing director, Mark French of rival-video stream site (that focuses on music), Muzu.tv feels that YouTube is using its muscle to get its way. What do you think? Is this the proper way to negotiate?
According to Heartbeats International, a brand-communications company from Stockholm about seven out of ten companies are using only 5% or less of their marketing budgets on music while 97% of brand managers and directors believe that "music can strengthen their brand." So why the disconnect? Apparently, for some, it is "the difficulty in measuring the value of an investment in music" as well as legal issues. This serves as an extremely lame excuse in my opinion...how exactly are non-textual graphics measured? What you hear is just as important as what you see if not more in some cases. Sounds Like Branding, is a video presentation conducted by Heartbeats International that outlines the importance of music for a brand's positioning especially in this new advertising environment (I recommend watching only the first 15 min). Key points made included: (1) how brands now need to not only have consumers but real fans; (2) music is the best personality identifier and (3) 75% of people ignore advertisements. All of this makes sense because brands need to become more human and music is human, it's emotion, it's feeling and expression so voila we can potentially have the perfect marriage. Brands + Music = More Human brand.
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