I’m on the way back from the ILMC (International Live Music Conference) in London and during this, my second brief visit to the city, I was struck by how much more pervasive and creative music and music marketing is throughout the British media than in the US.
Most US industry pros are familiar with the numerous live performance opportunities for music on British TV as well as the diverse Indy label and club scenes. But I was stuck how much farther the Britts also seem to take their music marketing than we do in the US.
At least three of the daily papers we’re giving away great 10 or so track sampler CD’s stuffed inside their expansive entertainment sections. One featured mostly new music (The Killers, etc) where as another was more thematic – pop crooners if I remember correctly – and features a bunch of classic tracks by the like of Dobie Grey and Chaka Kahn.
A sizable upstart cell phone provider named
3 has centered their entire marketing pitch around the ability of their network and phones to deliver music (in the form of mp3 downloads and streaming full length videos) and sports (news and videos of game highlights) to subscribers. In fact, later this month they are streaming an entire concert by up and comer Natasha Beddingfield exclusively via the 3 mobile network. I don’t know how many people will actually watch a full concert on their phone, but it certainly seems like a win for all concerned promotionally. Wouldn’t it make sense for some savvy US provider (T Mobile?) to target this same market and for US labels and artists to trade content for direct to consumer exposure?At the ILMC I also heard a lot about efforts to improve the fan experience (much like what we’re hearing about in the US from Clear Channel) including providing
(and charging for) value added services that go beyond the usual premium seating to a things like a ticket that includes an InstantLive post concert CD’s or downloads. Floated was the idea of exclusive pre-show backstage video delivered to ticket holder’s mobile phones in the lead up to the performance or during breaks.
The overall result in the UK seems to be that music is a much more pervasive and important part of daily life than it us in the US. To try to achieve that here, it seems that US music marketers could learn a lot just by looking across the pond and around the world.
