Rolling Stone Plucks Artists From Obscurity, Offers Cover & Record Deal As Prize – #BigMediaFail
Rolling Stone has plucked 16 unsigned acts from obscurity and pinned them against each other in a crowdsourced contest that determines which of them will appear on the cover of their print publication.
The winner will also make an appearance on an Augest episode of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and be signed to a label deal with Atlantic Records. And if in a few months after the competition you never heard from said act again and a year later they're quietly dumped from said label to sister label to the street, well, don't say you didn't see it coming. While this may be a hopeful idea, it's woefully outdated.
Jeff Howe, the Wired magazine writer who coined the term crowdsourcing, did so in 2006. Therefore, the fact that Rolling Stone is just now testing out this idea feels nearly 5 years late. Being that they're a print publication, in need of selling issues, it's somewhat understandable that in their 44-year history that they've never asked readers who or what should be featured on the cover. Nor, to be clear, has Rolling Stone ever featured an unsigned band or artist on the cover.
But in making this bold move Rolling Stone fails to realize how sad the terms "Rock & Roll Star", "print publication", "record deal", "magazine cover", "A&R executives", "late night talk show", and "multiplatinum-selling record producers" all sound when used together. The only hip word they used is five years old.
A record deal is nothing to sneeze at, but why not a management deal and digital marketing initiative instead? Even a spot in an Apple iPod ad would've been more hip, yet still outdated, than every single prize in this contest. And sadly, the ad on TV probably would've sold more music than Late Night with Jimmy Fallon will.
Please, let me buy the CD in Wal-Mart too, there's one down the street. Look, this band is going to be pumped and dumped. Big media has failed yet again.
2050 – Rolling Stone starts reader-funded record label and asks for pledges…
haha 2050 was a nice touch.
If the “winning” band already has enough fans to vote for them in this contest, they don’t need a label deal. Especially with a WMG label who will more than likely insist on making it a 360 deal.
Very interested in seeing how many issues of the Rolling Stone mag actually sell with an unknown band on the cover.
Desperate times call for desperate measures…
I think this is just a ploy by Rolling Stone to seem hip and with it like Atlantic. These two giants (or should I say dinosaurs) of the music industry have no idea which way to go next.
I will say though that for any “unsigned” band or artist this is of course a big push and a great because any marketing is good marketing, especialy for musicians!
Free album download at http://www.facebook.com/chancius
they could also give the cover and some cash, that would be useful.