How community builds audiences and makes discovery stick

At a music marketing event in London a couple of days ago, Scott Cohen, Co-founder of The Orchard (and on the left in the collage), presented a nice thought experiment that demonstrates the importance of community and narrative in making sure that discoveries stick in the mind of audiences. What if Simon Cowell (on the right in the collage) just cut to the chase on The X Factor and presented only one show in each series, saying "we've done the research, we've done the auditions, we've consulted audiences, and here's the winner"? The result would be the same — a winner like Leona Lewis (middle of collage) — but would this winner sell as many records? Answer: No, because it's the backstage access, the community that grows around the competitors, and the story of the winner's rise that engages the audience interest. They make an emotional connection with the artist and the song, and buy it to help it succeed.

Yet, as Scott went on to say, record labels do all the research and auditioning that X Factor and its equivalents do, but they hide it from view, and just say, "here's the winner we've identified: please buy their records". The solution to this is not to create some contrived competition for every new signing (personally I hate it when art gets turned into sport), but it may be to find other ways to involve the audience and give them "backstage" glimpses of artists that help people engage with them. Even a simple blog is a start.

Meanwhile — and this goes to show that nothing is certain in this field — at the same event Rhodri Marsden gave an example of YouTube success (and blogging) which led to the kind of discovery that doesn't stick. With £500 Rhodri commissioned a video, below, to promote the song he'd recorded as The Schema. Having notched up 250,000 plays on YouTube and blogged about his progress.

He was naturally eager to find out how this impressive attention-share would convert into success on iTunes. The answer: 58 sales.

Perhaps Rhodri's wry commentary and cool detachment from his own success undermined the emotional connection with an audience?

Comments

[Rhodri Marsden]

hello David - coincidentally I bought your book last week while wandering through Waterstones; enjoying it very much.

I think that 99.99% of people who watched the video (and I think that's a pretty accurate percentage, not just a clichéd one) didn't really have any idea of any wry commentary or cool detachment. They just either didn't like it, or didn't know how to get hold of the mp3, or didn't feel the need to get hold of the mp3 because they could just listen to it again by pressing "play" on YouTube. And all manner of other reasons.

BTW, when the feature ran in the Independent, and was syndicated by the Daily Mail, my sales tally doubled! Up to 120. Drinks are on me.

[David Jennings]

Thanks, Rhodri.

And, yes, you're right -- I think my analysis was maybe a bit glib there; apologies for that (though the 'wry commentary and cool detachment' was intended as a reference not to the video but to your blog, which is interesting and entertaining writing -- good journalism -- that throws light on the area, but for that reason it doesn't whip up an audience into a spending frenzy).

When I do presentations, I often show a few frames from the OK Go treadmill video, and I ask people to raise their hands if they've seen it, keep them raised if they can name the band, keep them raised if they can name the song, and still keep them raised if they bought the song. I've yet to find someone who still has their hand up at the end, which echoes what you're saying.

For saying kind things about my book, drinks are definitely on me.

[Rhodri Marsden]

I met someone who bought an OK Go album the other day. No, really.

[S.deCampou]

Interesting to read the full story.
Speaking of effective sales, can we draw the conclusion that viral isn't as efficient as said?
I'm wondering if the Sellaband.com business model works.. It's an other way to "use" the community; in both aspects : discovering artists and building audience.
Have you any figure?

Other question. Was iTunes the only platform to sell your song Rhodri?
My question behind is do you think multi-plateform selling generates more sales?

Sorry for my Froggy English

[David Jennings]

Hi Sylvain,

Regarding the efficiency of viral, I'd quote Paul Marsden (from Connected Marketing — see bibliography on this site):

viral, buzz and word of mouth campaigns don't create word of mouth in a vacuum; they unlock, stimulate and accelerate the natural word of mouth potential of your product

So, if you're product is one that isn't going to sell in large quantities, viral methods will just efficiently get you to that point quicker, they won't remedy it.

I've written about Sellaband elsewhere on this site. For those 'believers' in an artist or band who invest in their success, Sellaband certainly engages them and involves them in the backstage story, creating a community. The question then is how well the artist and believers together can enlist the support of non-believers. I don't have any figures on that, and I imagine Sellaband keeps fairly tight control on what figures they release.

If you check Rhodri's Schema site (link above), it says "iTunes and a load of other online stores".

[S.deCampou]

Hi David,

Tx for your answers. You're confirming my point of view on viral; much more effective in terms of "quality" than quantity..