It’s big no secret that artists need to focus on web and mobile initiatives to promote, market and distribute their music in a dramatically changed music industry. Even the major labels now understand that you need to embrace, and not fight, technology in order to successfully engage the modern music fan. But, it’s particularly refreshing to see a legendary jazz musician embrace this concept.
Jazz master Dave Holland has enlisted the help of music technology platform, Topspin, to launch a new digital marketing campaign that includes a solid new website, an array of widgets, and direct-to-fan distribution of creative bundles and premium offerings. For those of you unfamiliar with Topspin, the platform helps artists generate direct-to-fan demand using three channels: viral marketing, target marketing, and direct marketing, as well as, providing data-driven feedback.
To kick things off, Holland is releasing a new downloadable Archive Series of live performances. The first installment is an hour-long, four-song recording from a 2007 European tour with his water-tight quintet. If you’re into moderately acidic, yet organic modern jazz, you absolutely need to check this out! The concert is a nice amuse-bouche for the Dave Holland Octet’s upcoming live release “Pathways,” which is also available for pre-order on Holland’s site. What a great way to give fans some very special content and to build up interest prior to a new release. And, the best part? The 320 kbps MP3 download costs only a buck, and you can stream it for free!
What’s particularly interesting here is that Dave Holland is 1) legendary and 2) a jazz musician. Generally speaking, legendary musicians and jazz musicians think that they are in a special category of artists, where for marketing, promoting and distributing their music, they can just do what they’ve been doing for years — put out records and tour. They tend to think that because they’ve already built a fanbase over the years, that they’re immune from the effects that take place if you avoid using technology to engage with fans. Some even say that their fans aren’t using the web and mobile devices to discover and enjoy music.
But this can’t be further from the truth, and these artists are missing out on a massive opportunity to not only develop stronger bonds with current fans, but to also expand their fanbase. And the longer they hold out, the more irrelevant they will become with the modern music fan. So, Dave Holland, we salute you!
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