In 2010, I hope to ease back into music marketing through one of the companies that I am working with.
Think of the diagram above as the conceptual framework for a website. Outer boxes guide and constrain each of the inner boxes.
For your feedback, here are eight things I plan to put into this website:
1) The merged efforts of many…
As I have written here in the past, I am a big believer that artists should be working together to build brands on the Internet. The network effect of numerous artists promoting one brand is far more powerful than one artist attempting to build a brand by his or her self. Moreover, numerous artists working together can deliver the “this site entertains me” value proposition (and other highly valued propositions), while a standalone artist usually cannot (learn why).
2) The will to inspire versus the inclination to impress…
The Internet is a transparency machine and music (all media) is the most naked product on earth. Things that impress people may generate a single click, while things that inspire people generate as many clicks as it takes to complete a meaningful action (share, buy, attend, join, subscribe, proclaim, etc.). A shallow crust of impressive things will not cover our site (that’s the goal at least). Everything will have to pass this test: does it truly inspire or does it momentarily impress?
3) The delivery of a focused value proposition…
Our brand will feature numerous artists from many cities. As fans move from city to city, we want them to seek out our brand and not necessarily the sites of our participating artists; that comes second; in this regard, the site will be informative (who, where, when). The combination of artist and fan-generated content will be relatively entertaining, as competing with all other forms of online entertainment is challenging at best. However this site will deliver the “this site helps me to meet people with shared values, interests and desires” value proposition (more on this below), which should motivate fans to return to the site often. The other value proposition this site will deliver is the “this site filters stuff (artists, songs, video, people) for me” value proposition. Click here to learn more about the importance of delivering a value proposition.
4) Acknowledgement that it’s not about us…
When I speak (publicly) about effective and inexpensive ways to increase web traffic, I use the title to Andrew Dubber’s post “It’s kind of not about you.” to describe the powerful effect of leveraging a community to build a brand on the Internet (think about how Music Think Tank works). Our site will be as much about fan control, fan generated content, and fan-to-fan engagement, as it will be about the content we feature. In addition, we’ll also consider premium membership (inclusion) as a product to offer once the brand is established.
5) Value, 6) Interests, 7) Desires…
When digitized, all of the photos, images, text, comments, sound, video, songs, lyrics and any media that’s posted on a site - represents the sum of the values, interests and desires (the V.I.D. DNA) of a web site’s contributors and users (this is true for any website where humans have a voice). Google repeatedly indexes this media, and then makes it easy for humans to find humans with similar V.I.D. DNA. This is how people find and form communities on the Internet, not by demographics but by shared V.I.D. DNA (learn more). I believe we will shape the process of forming our own V.I.D. DNA by trimming around the edges, but eventually the community will dominate (and grow) the brand, and this exactly what we want to happen.
8) Media…
Using our own collaborative filtering technology, industry experts, site contributors, and eventually community members that have accumulated trust and authority will control everything (artists and all content) that goes onto the site. The site will not only act as a quality filter (as determined by those using the collaborative filter), the mechanisms used to populate/update the site will enable the community to establish and control the V.I.D. DNA of the site.
Side note: Our collaborative filtering technology is under development and will be available for anyone to utilize.
Other related items and questions…
The question - how do you make money always comes up, so here are some quick answers: Contributors of popular content will be part owners of the brand and share in the profits. See how Music Think Tank (informally) operates. The entity (that owns the brand) will sell merchandise, large inexpensive bundles of songs (possibly), inclusion/membership, a unique wireless application, and it will eventually take on sponsors. The question - how will you begin (initial artists, songs, pictures, V.I.D) also comes up, so here’s another quick answer: we may run multiple sites / brands, and initially we will rely upon paid music industry and branding experts to get the ball rolling; however as I stated above, the goal is to enable the community to ultimately control the V.I.D. DNA (the brand).
I am hoping to get this site built in 2010, partly as a showcase for our technology (once completed). Per usual, I share ideas here to obtain critical and insightful feedback prior to final commitment. Thanks.
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