Epic Records has announced the adoption of some fairly new but popular and cost effective net marketing tools including RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds and podcasts to enhance the web presences of their artists.
Yesterday the label announced 35 RSS feeds for its established and emerging artists, including Incubus, Fiona Apple, Tenacious D, and Natasha Bedingfield. The label is the first among the majors to adopt RSS feeds for a wide array of its artists. Really Simple Syndication is an XML feed used to share news content throughout the web.
Fans of Epic Records acts can use these RSS feeds to pull the latest news headlines from their 
favorite artist websites directly into websites such as MyYahoo! or Google, their personal weblog, or an RSS news reader without having to visit the artist's web site. The majority of the RSS feeds pull news content directly from the artist websites' news pages or blogs. A full list of Epic Records RSS feeds can be found at http://www.epicrecords.com/rss/.
"These emerging technologies allow (fans) to connect with the artists they love on their time and in a much more dynamic and engaging manner," says Cory Llewellyn, Epic Records Vice President of 
Digital Media Marketing and Promotion.
Epic Records has also begun to launch Podcasts. A 3-episode Franz Ferdinand Podcast about the recording of the band's new album, You Could Have It So Much Better, was launched late last year. INXS is working on a Podcast to coincide with the launch of their world tour. More Podcasts will be scheduled for the first half of 2006.
