Category: music

10 billion apps downloaded from Apple, vs 7 trillion txt messages sent in 2010. Which is more powerful? Which gets more hype? How should you talk to your fans on mobile?

The app store hitting 10 billion downloads is impressive, and it happened fast. There is no denying apps have been the story of 2010, and probably 2009. So its no surprise when most bands and managers ask me about mobile, it is about an iphone app.. But lets take a look at the big mobile picture.

MAKING A PLAN: THE NUMBERS
This info is widely available but I’m pulling my core stats from a great in depth article on year end stats over at courtesy of Communities Dominate Brands. (A blog you need to read if your involved in mobile).
The CTIA site also has good us numbers for the US market:
http://www.ctia.org/media/industry_info/index.cfm/AID/10379

SMS
Globally SMS reaches 79% of mobile users. The US is closer to 70%
4.2 Billion active users of SMS text messaging worldwide. In the US, 12 months ending June 2010, more than 1.8 trillion text messages were sent and received (or 4.9 billion per day).CTIA stats

MOBILE WEB
26% of mobile users world wide access the mobile web. In the US it’s 38%. This translates to 1.2 billion people worldwide, close to 100 million in the US.

APPS vs MOBILE WEB
Worldwide:
1.2 Billion mobile phone users surf the web on their phones. 500 million use apps. Mobile web has more than twice the reach globally.

http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2011/01/time-to-confirm-some-mobile-user-numbers-sms-mms-mobile-internet-m-news.html

But its closer in US according to comscore:

In August, 2010, 75.6 million mobile subscribers ages 13 and older used downloaded applications, with Smartphone users representing 60.4 percent, up from 43.6 percent in August 2009. For the same period, 80.8 million mobile subscribers used their browser, with Smartphone subscribers comprising 55.5 percent, up from 41.4 percent a year ago.

Comscore Statistics 2010

So how do you make a plan?

REAL WORLD EXAMPLES IN MUSIC

The numbers I’m seeing show more music fans are on the mobile web. I’ve launched over 15 artist apps and have data on over 50 artist sites. The monthly uniques from mobile web beat the total app download numbers for each artist.

For major artists, downloads of 100,000 apps is not a given, but considered good, even when the app is free. I’ve seen the same type of artists deliver over 200,000 unique mobile visitors to their site in just one month. Out of the top 20 artist sites on WBR, most have 20-30% uniques from mobile already.

App downloads vs uniques is not an exact comparison, but it shows the number of fans already using the mobile web is too big to ignore. I’m not surprised many music fans are already getting most of what they need and want from the artist mobile site. New tour dates, photo, classic fan drivers that work perfect on a mobile website, with a fraction of the cost and development.

None of this should stop you from an apps strategy as long as you use the info. Apps need to go to the next level. They need to be more than aggregators or they will simply be integrated by more powerful aggregators.

MAPPING OUT YOUR MOBILE PLAN
Start by making sure your site works on the most popular handsets.

Optimize for mobile. Deliver a light weight mobile specific sites to fans, content optimized for at least the main handsets.

Make sure content tailored for the behavior of mobile users. Less options are better, focus on core news, tour dates, and photos.

Build SMS lists. It’s hard. Start now. Use SMS as a viral mechanism along with your “tweet” this buttons.

Learn what your mobile users want and optimize again. Making the experience tailored to fans is even more important with mobile so make sure your watching behavior.

App upsell – figure out how to use the unique properties of apps to take your fan further down the “path”. Recognize them if you have an app on their platform and push them from mobile web with choice of app “upgrade”. Make sure its worth it if they take you up on it!

Talk to apps – finally – make sure your web site and social networks properly feed mobile aggregators with mobile links (facebook app, rss apps) so you can capture your fans everywhere!

Jack Isquith brings his real world expertise to the digital music blog scene. It is needed. I’m biased as I used to work with Jack, but It means I know this is a very real look at the space from someone who’s been in the trenches. Theories? Yes. Speculation? Yes. But I guarantee it’s coming from someone who’s dealt with the reality of digital music from artist and managers big and small, to the business models of “startups”, down to being responsible and under pressure to deliver real dollars. Your getting the real deal, realer than real, and realer than most others blogs out there.

http://www.digitalmuiscinsider.com

One of the most popular series on this blog is my experiments with QR codes. Since my first campaign with Green Day in 2009, the use of QR codes evolved. 2010 saw the “official” explosion of smart phones and apps, and the number of innovative and user friendly QR campaigns. These factors combined to make 2010 the year QR codes moved from early adopters to mainstream social users.

CALVIN KLEIN
Great play on censorship!

http://mashable.com/2010/07/13/calvin-klein-qr-code-billboard/

IRON MAN
http://2d-code.co.uk/iron-man-qr-code/

BEST BUY
They are really trying to tap into customer needs here. And as a retail technology powerhouse this makes total sense for Best Buy.

VIBE MAGAZINE COVER LINKS TO EXCLUSIVE CONTENT:
http://www.vibe.com/posts/vibe-digital-cover-jay-z

See the mobile site the VIBE QR code links to from their cover:
http://icreatenergy.com/vibe06_JayZCvr/

Even the creative nature of code presentation is becoming polished as transmedia art! While this campaign is not technially a pure QR code campaign, it shows the art of the medium:
Universal Pictures Repo Men movie sells organs via bar code scanning

You can see QR codes are happening! And this is a global trend…

But what are the results of these campaigns?

I first deployed QR codes on the green day campaign for 21st century breakdown in 2009 and while it was cutting edge at the time, the results showed a very small with a low number of users activating the code. So I’m out to be innovative in 2011, but also to show the goods worked!

Metrics and benchmarks are new territory for QR Code campaigns. 2011 will be the year of both, with enough adoption for the numbers to justify the expense and targeting.

Ill have more to share in 2011, with at least 2 new QR projects kicking off before the summer!

I thought the Rolling Stone top songs of 2010 made a great mix, and fair sampler of the years best.

Listen for yourself right now via playlist via the new Myspace Music where you can stream almost all of them in order, for free. Click Here!

You just need to log in. No account? Try the facebook connect, its quick and easy, and youll be right and listening in under a minute!

I also made a subscription playlist link for MOG. The superior MOG service is worth the money! Check out the MOG playlist of the top 25 songs here: http://mog.com/playlists/443034

Runaway (Feat. Pusha T) by Kanye West

Soldier Of Love by Sade

Teenage Dream by Katy Perry

We Used To Wait by The Arcade Fire

You Are Not Alone by Mavis Staples

White Sky by Vampire Weekend

Tightrope (Feat. Big Boi) [… by Janelle Monáe

The Ghost Inside by Broken Bells

Monster (Feat. Jay-Z, Rick … by Kanye West

Tighten Up by The Black Keys

Click here for full list!

Wrapping up the year, traveling from LA to Hartford, to Detroit, to Green Bay (go pack!) and then from Chicago back to LA.

I recommend BOOQ bags if you have laptops, ipads, plugs, back u hard drives, cellphones, etc. The have bee road warrior bags and i travel alot and am hard on things.

Looking forward to 2011, ill post streaming links to top 20 albums this week!

The goal was to create an online interactive music experience to promote the launch of Disturbed’s new album “Asylum”, and use it to help get the word out on the new album in ways a traditional music video could not. Make it social, dark, fun, scary, and if it feels authentic and emotional, you can drive sales.

We decided to mash up Disturbed’s Music, facebook, webcams, video, and gaming, into an expereicne that complimented Disturbed’s sound, tour and exiting visuals.

The first thing you’ll need if your creating an effective and authentic experience around a single asrtist or release, is artist that’s willing to participate and get creatively involved. No matter how cool the tech, or the social connect applications, it’s the band’s vision, music, and art – the energy that that sells out arenas and millions of records, that needs to be “baked” in. Disturbed was great an letting us tap into their culture and brand, giving feedback on what was cool and what sucked, and ultimately, helping to get this off the ground.

The second thing you’ll need is an understanding of gameplay mechanics and interactivity. Just slapping facebook conect on cool graphics and music wont cut it. Try and work with developers who get this – and add in expertise where you need it. Our developer BKWLD put in a lot of extra hours while we at WBR figured out the creative, and learned what we didn’t know! It was eye opening to

Did we succeed? The fans seem to love it and it’s worth exploring for yourself! Enter the “Asylum” at http://disturbedasylum.com.

From his album of the same same, Neil goes the online route to premier his new film. Great idea, and it looks amazing.

Check out the man himself deliver the film to you tube!

Now Watch the film. The WHOLE thing – i know your ADD too, but its worth it. Produced by Daniel Lanois!

Myspace launched their new embedable player today. The first time you’ve been able to embed myspace music content. Enjoy – with one of the best new albums you’ll hear in 2010! Its an album experience, and its all here in one stream!

Head over to hulu and grab some content! The embedable player is great!

The 2010 Bandwith music and tech conference ended last week, and I am still thinking about the great time I had there! I was lucky to be invited to speak and participate with a great group of people. It felt intimate, and there was lots of variety. Jac Holtzman’s presentation was a real highlight!

My session was entitled “COMING TO A SCREEN NEAR YOU – How visuals are changing artist marketing and artist development”.

I vividly remember a moment five or six years ago that changed my perception of the explosion of video screens on our culture, and ultimately its effect on music. I was driving in Los Angeles and I pulled up next to a family in an SUV. It was one of those big hunks of metal, tricked out with a big screen in every seat. I watched as the family was driving along next to me watching a movie together (something we see in every minivan commercial now…). Something about that really effected me and a voice in my head said “this is wrong”. The car was meant to be driven while listening to music, not watching TV! The fact a generation of kids were going to be driving around watching movies instead of listening to music made me mad! Some of my favorite music moments were driving along with my favorite tune, while my mind explored the terrain around me!

But my natural curiosity kicked in and I’ve been spending a lot of time at Warner Bros trying to understand the new world of visuals. What does it mean for music when there are screens everywhere, in all the devices we listen to music with? Is the future of music apps? You Tube? Lyric Videos? Or is it something we haven’t seen or discovered yet? Artists are starting to ask the same questions and it’s getting exciting!

My goal at Bandwidth was was to have a conceptual talk about all this, share data from projects I am working on, and get into some specific tactics on how to harness a new visual world to market and develop artist careers. The original presentation was 80 slides! But to everyones benefit, it was a discussion, not a one way presentation and we let the conversation guide us.

Here is the part of my keynote presentation I covered. You can read some highlights and play by play on Digital Music News. Theres is also a lot I didn’t get to that I will post later. Thanks to Eric Garland and Lisa Lum for helping with stats, and pulling it all together!

Im very lucky to have a slot at the Bandwidth Music conference in San Francisco later this week. The conference is this Thursday and Friday, August 19-20. The conference is trying a new format this year, and it’s a welcome change to standard panel based format. Each presenter gets one hour to discuss a topic with a smaller group and hopefully generate some new ideas and conversations without the buzzword and standard pr.

My talk is entitled “Coming to a Screen Near You: How the influence of visuals is affecting music marketing and artist development”. Now I need your input to make it complete.

What’s your favorite music based you tube clip? Best artist taking advantage of visuals in a new visual world? The worst artist on you tube? I’d love some of your links to include in my presentation, and ill give you a shoutout and maybe some great music. Hope to see you there!

Jeremy Welt, SVP, New Media, Warner Bros. Records
Topic: “Coming to a Screen Near You: How the influence of visuals is affecting music marketing and artist development”

Yes, devo is using QR code technology for their release in Japan. On the back of the cd you can use any qr reader to go to a Warner Japan mobile store, with more products and product info. If you read Japanese tell me more!

Here is a close up! And it will work from this page so try it out – (links too http://wmg.jp/artist/devo)

Weve heard the fans (winner coming soon!) and now hear an unfair tease of the bands version of “The Catalyst”.
With Sick Visuals! Arrives in itunes 8/2/10