Entries in music (4)
The Sound of Color from the Gap
Sunday, February 24, 2008 at 5:54PM Earlier this month, the Gap launched The Sound of Color. For the effort, they invited up-and-coming musicians Dntel, Swizz Beatz, Raveonettes, the Blakes and Marié Digby to write songs inspired by colors of the spectrum, and then gave those songs to five directors to create music videos. The music and videos are available for viewing and download at the Sound of Color site. The site also includes interviews with the band and "making of" videos for each song. The campaign will run for a month and include ads on music websites. After 30 days, the artists will retain the rights to the songs for future use.
The result is five excellent songs and videos that I will be adding to my iPod. The Sound of Color is a fresh and modern approach from a brand that has recently been ailing in both areas. By empowering artists to create their own vision, then allowing them ownership, Gap is increasing its creative and urban appeal in a way that its recent marketing has not.
However, it seems like Gap missed the opportunity to add a social media element to an already appealing project. Free downloads is a great way to spread the word on this, but I was surprised not to see a MySpace presence, Last.fm partnership or Pandora channel. As AdRants points out, Gap's in-store display, although a great translation of the idea, looks lonely without an event around it. Music lovers want to talk about music, but it takes more than banner ads to get them talking.
Gap Goes Viral for Coordinated Campaign (billboard.com)
iPod = hitmaker
Wednesday, December 12, 2007 at 3:18PM In spending a few hours with my car radio a couple weeks ago, an "alternative rock" station's rundown of the top ten songs of the week featured CSS's "Music is My Hot, Hot Sex" at #3, followed by Feist's "1,2,3,4" at #2 (#1 was Radiohead's "Bodysnatchers"). If you watch more than twenty minutes of TV a week, you would recognize Feist and CSS from Apple's recent iPod spots.
iPod ads have always (fittingly) had an ear for good music, choosing to feature U2, Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney, along with lesser known artists, such as Rinôçérôs and The Fratellis. For artists like CSS and Feist, an appearance in a iPod commercial is the break they have been waiting for. The Google trends graph below shows the immediate impact in queries following the premier of the ads. "1,2,3,4" premiered on September 9th; "Music is My Hot, Hot Sex" premiered on October 28th. 
Although an increase in queries, does not always translate into sales, there has been a noticeable upswing for both of these artists and has led the San Francisco Chronicle to consider Apple, not MTV, the new way for brands to break through.
Before the ad, CSS was averaging sales of 340 albums a week. Following the premier, CSS sold 2,000 albums in the next two weeks, climbed to No. 15 in song downloads and has since broken into Pop-100 chart. Feist, although already with a following of its own, saw album sales jump from a 6,000 per week average up to 28,000 three weeks into the campaign.
Jean-Phillipe Freu of Rinôçérôs saw similar success when his band was featured in Apple's ads. "To be in an iPod commercial gives you credibility. Thousands of bands would do it for free." So Apple is now able to create demand for an artist, sell you their tracks and ring tones and then have new bands beg you to use their music for free in your advertising. Good luck, Zune.
iPod advertising through the years (Wikipedia)
Site Review: tourfilter
Thursday, December 6, 2007 at 10:01PM When I initially heard about tourfilter, I rolled my eyes at another music site in a niche populated by Pandora, last.fm, iLike, Pitchfork, Metafilter, Elbo.ws and any number of excellent sites. I was interested to see what tourfilter could offer that the other sites couldn't. Upon my first visit, I knew the answer: a simple interface that cuts the clutter and makes tracking your favorite bands easy.
tourfilter is essentially an aggregator, pulling local club listings and music news from the web and allowing users to search that information. The interface follows a similar model to craigslist and del.icio.us, including only the information you need. Users input the bands they want to track and are served upcoming concert dates, music suggestions and access to users with similar tastes each time they log in. Bands with upcoming shows are called out at the top of your page, along with links to mp3s and band news from the web. And users control the bands that are listed. Even if your band only has one follower, it's on tourfilter.
Your upcoming concerts can be tracked with an RSS feed or be imported into your calendar (Google or iCal). Since my life pretty much runs through both of these items, this is probably my favorite feature.
If you are tired of hearing about a concert the day after you missed it, catch them the next time around with tourfilter. 
