The document discusses the evolution of music distribution in the era of social media, illustrating how artists like Arctic Monkeys and Nine Inch Nails leveraged online platforms to promote their music and engage directly with fans. It emphasizes the shift from traditional record labels to a more decentralized model where artists can build loyal fan bases by sharing music for free and fostering community interaction. The insights underline the importance of connectors and mavens in the music discovery process, suggesting that supporting these influencers can help artists gain broader recognition in the mainstream media.

1. Music 2.0

2. Music Channels Chart Shows Record store Mate’s Recommendation Music discovery Used to be… Gigs Radio

3. Music Channels Chart Shows Record store Mate’s recommendation Music 2.0 Discovery + Gigs Radio

4. What has changed.. Music 1.0 was a production line with few distribution channels Music has always been a social glue its just this has been amplified by the new social tools In a world where your audience has access to an unlimited source of music why yours? Its not only about the end product but also the shared experience of the process It is that shared experience that creates a bond that inspires loyalty

5. The Process: Artist Artist Fans Previously the record label was part of the closed channel to push promotion and music to your fan base. Now through social media the artist and fanbase enjoy a two way conversation and exchange of music Record Label Social Media Fans Mono Media Channels

6. Genesis In 2006 the music landscape changed Following on from The Libertines innovative approach to using social media; giving their music away for free, chatting with fans directly through forums and asking their hardcore to go advocate elsewhere… The Arctic Monkeys achieved two number 1 singles with their first two releases, the fastest selling debut album of all time. Whatever You Say I Am was released in January and clocked up sales of 360,000 and outsold the rest of the top 20 albums combined in its first week. The previous holders Hear’Say, the ultimate manufactured band, through a TV show vehicle and extensive marketing to average TV audiences of nearly 10 million for several weeks.

7. Arctic Monkeys Casestudy: They gave their songs away for free by posting them on Myspace The name Arctic Monkeys began to spread on chatrooms across the internet. Their fan base grew as times and dates of gigs posted online enabled the group’s followers to turn up, who already could sing every word to their songs. The band’s demos began to sell in large quantities on Ebay and they were finally picked up by a major label. “ Physical product has its place, but using the internet is a faster way of searching for and validating talent.” Jac Holzman of Cordless Records, It is the sheer volume of physical music sales that has been the most startling feature of the Arctic Monkeys story. With so many of their songs available for free on the internet, it might have been expected – particularly by those music business executives who believed the internet and piracy would be the death of the recording industry – that they would achieve lacklustre CD sales. But it would appear that the generosity of the group - allowing their content to be heard free of charge online, has been rewarded by their already fiercely loyal fan base.

8. A quick intro to social media science… Connectors - These people seem to know everyone. By merely knowing so many people, if an idea comes across to them, they’ll be able to spread the word to all the people they know. Mavens - These people accumulate knowledge and seem to have detailed information on the newest product, or the newest thing AKA the ‘early adopters’. Salesmen - These people convince us to use the a product or a website or try something out.

9. Arctic Monkeys Mavens who passionately follow emerging music trends (Remember the characters played by John Cusack and Jack Black in the movie, “High Fidelity?") began spreading the word about the band in August. True to form, nobody heard them because mavens don't know anybody. In October, the next level of mavens caught wind of the band, but still the excitement stayed contained to a relatively small number of music geeks. But in mid-January, something happened that helped the Arctic Monkeys absolutely explode. The connectors finally were exposed to the band. The mavens were finally being heard. After all, the ultimate mavens of this decade most surely are blogging about their passions and interests. They may have a relatively tiny sphere of influence compared to a columnist with a daily newspaper, but the blogging maven is far more likely to identify trends within their area of expertise.

10. Arctic Monkeys: Discovery Period: period leading up to the January Tipping Point: Start of February. This coincides with the "discovery" of the band by the ultimate connectors: the mass media. The revelation is the mavens began to lose interest as soon as the mass media began to get a clue. Once discovered, the Arctic Monkeys lost their sizzle. They were no longer the next big thing, they were the big thing. The lesson: You must foster the support of the small, typically insulated and not particularly social group of mavens who are the experts in your marketplace. Only by earning their passionate support will you gain the credibility needed to convince the connectors -- the mainstream media -- that you're for real. All these ebbs and flows are driven by a combination of maven passion and connector confidence. Unfortunately for the Arctic Monkeys, the Technorati graph clearly indicates the mavens have moved on to the next big thing. They have deemed the Monkeys to be mainstream even before most of America has heard of them and in the midst of intense media interest painting them as the breakthrough band of 2006.

11. Recent Headlines: Radiohead ditch their record label EMI They then sold their next album ´In Rainbows’ exclusively through their website where fans could name their price The average price paid was £4 Sales are estimated at £4.8 million NIN give away album for 100% free and received $1.6 million from album sales The band even uploaded their album themselves to file sharing sites like Bit Torrent The average teenagers iPod has 800 illegally downloaded tracks Around 63% - download music over P2P networks. 42% allow others to upload music from their hard drives - the same hard drives that 58% of them are swapping with their friends Four out of every ten social network users have music embedded music in their personal profiles, rising to 65pc among teenagers

12. NIN (Nine Inch Nails) NIN give away album for 100% free and yet make $1.6 million dollars from album sales The band confirmed that they had uploaded the album themselves to sites like The Pirate Bay, Waffles.fm and What.cd NIN are on Facebook, Myspace, upload their videos to Youtube, upload their images to Flickr, Trent writes posts on the NIN site for his fans and even has a digg this! button on posts. NIN also allows fans to collaborate with them. Very social projects like the Nine Inch Nails Ghosts Film Festival where they invited anyone and everyone to create visuals to accompany the album’s music show they get it. NIN even created Remix.NIN.com, an interactive community for creating, sharing, and listening to NIN remixes.

13. Riff Raff An ‘independent’ band of teenagers set up a Bebo Channel probably pushed by their management company Asking fans to play a part in helping them create their debut album Through Bebo fans get to watch each song come together as they travel to 10 destinations that the community chooses, you can decide which songs you like, and who they should meet to add the finishing touches to the music- from an array of other musicians At the end of each week fans get to download the finished track first - exclusively through Bebo! They only have 10 weeks and arrive back in the UK to a homecoming gig and tour, to which all the community are invited. The profile allows fans to chat directly with the band and other fans They already have 68,000 fans since starting in June http://www.bebo.com/riffraffmaketracks

14. Conclusions : Social media's only threat is to record labels because it has made them redundant You have to make your music free with the option to ´pay what you want´ as otherwise people will find a way to obtain it for free anyway If people like the music they will pay Your music is now in many ways the marketing collateral for YOU the brand. Money is recouped through tours, merchandise & ´pay what you want´ micropayments.

15. Typical Brand Community Dialogue Strategy Identify Community Emotional Needs Develop community personas Concept ´tools´/ ´ideas´to fulfil desires Develop a key message Choose best media channels / partnerships Craft feedback loop for learning Develop rapid response mechanisms to customer feedback Use consumer feedback to deliver innovation

16. Our approach 1. Discover 2. Build 4 & 6. Engage 3. Join 5. Listen Feedback Loop