The music industry is suffering. Trust me, I should I know. I started off in the music industry in 1988 and left in 2002 after seeing Napster happen and the industry do nothing. Then BitTorrent. Then iTunes. Then MySpace_ then, enough was enough. I keep referring to the line Don Tapscott (author of Wikinomics) dropped at the CMA – Canadian Marketing Association – National Convention and Trade Show 2007 when he said, “how sad that the same industry that brought us The Beatles is now suing their consumers because they could not figure out a new business model.”
Well, leave it to social media and people like Christopher S. Penn (from the Financial Aid Podcast and the man I lovingly call, “Ninja”) to do something about it. First off, Chris was involved with Bum Rush The Charts and now he’s taken things a step further with the launch of Virtual Hot Wings.
Virtual Hot Wings is a new “authorized” bootleg recording by Podsafe music artist, Matthew Ebel. Virtual Hot Wings can only be grabbed in a digital format where you get: thirteen tracks, two ringtones and three concerts (all recorded live in Second Life). You also get a 300 DPI image that you can print up if you still like having a physical CD. Virtual Hot Wings costs twenty bucks (US) or five thousand Linden Dollars in Second Life.
What makes me love this idea so much? Virtual Hot Wings is one hundred percent fan generated. Penn just loves Matthew Ebel’s music, so he was grabbing the songs on his Mac for his own use when he thought, “hey, why not release this music for everyone to enjoy?” He spoke to Matthew and is giving him one hundred percent of the proceeds.
This is a big idea. This is also a marketing game changer.
A fan recorded this “bootleg”, spoke with the artists, made an arrangement and is putting out said artist’s latest release. Either we live in a world that has completely gone upside down or this is one of the best examples I can think of for User Generated Content that also creates revenues for the brand it is attached with, and leverages all kinds of social media platforms (Blogs, Podcasts, Second Life, etc_) to spread the word.
After reading this your mouth has got to be watering.
Can I offer you some Virtual Hot Wings to make you feel all better?
Check out the micro-site, read the story and be a part of the new music industry by purchasing your own copy of Virtual Hot Wings by Matthew Ebel – his first 100% fan generated album here: Virtual Hot Wings.
Virtual Hot Wings Is One Of The Best Examples Of Social Media Marketing
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Was definitely not just me, either. Michelle Wolverton, a longtime fan, was actually the project lead for the Second Life side, bringing in her team of builders, like Lawrence Simon and Dedric Mauriac. CC Chapman brought the PR guns and graciously allowed us to tie Virtual Hot Wings to Virtual Thirst, co-branding the launch of the album with the conclusion of crayon’s campaign.
VHW and Bum Rush the Charts are templates. That’s what I’ve said all along, and what I hope to continue to reinforce – these shouldn’t just be anomalies, but the norm, and as time goes on, I’ll pitch in what I can to help diagram out the process we took so that others can replicate it.
Thanks for the clarification Chris. In all honesty, it’s a better story if it was just you.
I’m kidding.
Thanks for adding in the other fans from the fan generated product.
Tapscott’s a little off the mark with his Beatles reference. The “industry” pretty much ignored the Beatles at first. Legend is they were turned down by plenty of record execs before George Martin signed them at EMI. The music industry has been falling ass-backwards into successes for years and then trying to manufacture copy-cats.
It would be great if companies actually saw an evolution taking place and attempted to participate rather than trying to sue it out of existence.
Dr. Jones… you are all-knowing.
Although lots of record labels dissed The Beatles, it still, over time, did embrace them.
The trouble is, the industry doesn’t know what to do, so they’re doing everything and nothing.
It’s become an ego game. IMHO.
Yup, still bitter that it has come to this.