Marketing Country Music Online

By Mark Crawford

In the past several years, Country Music has deepened its understanding of how online marketing can enhance the success of the industry, from music sales to gaining new listeners and even reducing piracy.
"Digital marketing is no longer looked at as something that should be focused on but an area that must be focused on," said Craig Dunn, Senior Client Manager, Music City Networks. "Many Country Music consumers are just as online savvy now as any other demographic and expect their favorite artists to have a strong online presence."
There is also an increased awareness among record labels regarding the importance of driving traffic to online sites where listeners can purchase both physical and digital versions of the promoted music.
"This has led to an increase in the use of affiliate links to online music destinations that sell the promoted music," said Lucas Hilbert, Managing Editor, Music, amazon.com. "It also generates an additional revenue stream for the originating Web site that made the online referral."
As a result, investment in digital space for artists and labels has risen to an unprecedented level. "Two years ago, an artist could succeed without a digital strategy," said Heather McBee, VP, Digital Business, Sony Music Nashville. "Today it's become a key component to the marketing plan that builds a presence for the artist and helps establish a meaningful relationship with fans."
Digital vs. Traditional
Digital marketing is well on its way to assuming the same level of importance long enjoyed by print and broadcast media. The nature of its appeal and the methods by which it makes its impact differ dramatically from those that have been in play within more traditional channels.
"It's all about associations," explained Ashley Heron, Senior Manager, Marketing, Lyric Street and Carolwood Records. "Traditional radio, print and television advertising relies on a shotgun approach, repeating messages over and over and hopefully targeting a fan at some point during the run dates. Digital marketing allows us to communicate directly with only interested customers, such as MySpace friends, Facebook fans, YouTube subscribers, fan clubs and street teams. That's the power of digital marketing: targeted and efficient use of marketing dollars."
"Digital marketing is borderless, interactive and worldwide," added Tawn Albright, GM, echo, Ticketmaster Entertainment's Nashville based digital entertainment marketing firm. "It offers direct relationships and a variety of marketing channels, which changes the economic model. Although digital differs somewhat from traditional materials, it is similar in the sense that it serves to stimulate interest, awareness and fan involvement."
The differences are what drive the expanding digital realm, not in the least by providing more room for experimenting with different marketing ideas. An example of leveraging digital media for traditional marketing is the creation of online listening parties, where fans can listen to a new album and vote on which track should be the first single.
"We've seen some very strong participation in this kind of forum," said Hilbert. "The listener participation allows the label to get direct feedback before spending traditional marketing dollars or pitching a single to radio. Since radio is still the number-one medium for launching a new Country artist, it's more critical than ever for the radio single to be the right one, so online experimentation in advance of a proposed radio single is a smart move."
Marketing becomes that much more interactive in cyberspace, with the effect that relationships that feel much more personal develop between artists and fans, whether through innovative games, puzzles or other content and activities.
"It can be as simple as good, timely information, like a text to register for upcoming announcements about an A-list artist they really want to know more about," said Eric Arnold, an agent specializing in digital media for the William Morris Agency. "It can be as valuable as a new, free song download if they register online for a new artist's e-mail list."
"We always try to have some incentive for users to engage with an e-mail form that leads directly to the official artist site and database," added Tim Putnam, VP, Marketing, Music City Networks. "This control is important for the artist. If MySpace, Facebook, Digital Rodeo and the like go the way of Friendster, all those 'friends' could be lost forever."
With e-mail addresses and mobile phone numbers so easily captured and filed into databases, almost any group of fans and potential consumers can be reached instantly online and via mobile. Putnam specifically claimed success with pre-order campaigns through one artist's official Web site that accounted for more than 40 percent of that artist's first week of sales.
"Digital marketing is often used to drill down and target specific demographic groups with very specific messages," he noted. "For example, fans within a radius of a venue can be targeted to purchase tickets to an upcoming show, or new merchandise can be targeted directly to the appropriate demographic."
Heron took it a step further: "In a single day, we can communicate to well over 1 million unique fans of Rascal Flatts for free. Even with a read rate of 10 percent, that's powerful communication."
Digital Drivers
MTV Networks' CMT group is at the forefront of Country pioneers in the digital frontier, with Web operations at CMT.com, digital downloads via Rhapsody America, digital television via "CMT Pure Country," high-definition television via MHD, 3G video streaming via CMT Mobile, gaming via "CMT Presents Karaoke Revolution Country," e-commerce at Shop.CMT.comand related media franchises such as Music City Madness, a fan-voted online contest, and "CMT Unplugged," where hundreds of exclusive online performances are archived.
The most popular medium for digital marketing, though, is social networking. Certainly, Taylor Swift provides the model for a savvy strategy of creating a profile, uploading music, building a list of "friends" and ultimately parlaying these efforts into creating and powering a commercial juggernaut. And while official sites remain the artist profit centers as the place to visit for fan club memberships and sales of merchandise and tickets, sites such as Facebook, MySpace and YouTube can generate up to 100 times more traffic in any given week, according to Heron.
"These sites are rarely a direct line to transactions," he observed. "But they are fantastic bulletin boards."
Social networking sites, including Eventful and iLike, have experienced rapid audience growth over the past few years. New media formats are also emerging in the form of mobile, especially CMT Mobile, and streaming video services on Verizon V CAST and other wireless carriers.
"One of the most positive shifts we've seen in digital media is the selling of digital downloads in MP3 format rather than in DRM protected format," said Albright. "That's a huge win for music fans."
From established acts such as Dolly Parton to the generation represented by Dierks Bentley, Rascal Flatts and Keith Urban, more Country artists than ever before are getting personally involved in building their digital presence - including every artist on the Sony Music Nashville roster.
"Our new duo, Caitlin & Will, spent their Christmas holidays posting blogs, recording video clips and responding to messages from fans, just to start gearing up for the launch to radio and a digital EP that's coming out," reported McBee.
"We have also developed several viral campaigns with Toby Keith that led to huge sales of his new records through his official Web site," added Putnam. "Brad Paisley posts blog entries and has the ability to upload photos to his Start page. At the end of a show he can upload a batch of new photos, so the huge background images on his Start page are always insanely current."
"Capitol Records has also done a fantastic job with Lady Antebellum," observed Nick Rogers, Coordinator, New Media, Midas Records. "Last year they ran a Rock Band promotion through CMT, giving fans the chance to win a trip to Nashville to see if they could 'out-rock' Lady A. And if you fly into Nashville International Airport, you are greeted by Dave Haywood's voice over the speakers, saying, 'I'm Dave Haywood from Lady Antebellum and I want to welcome you to Nashville.' I'm not sure it's 'new media,' but it's a pretty great way to advertise."
Challenges Ahead
It has never been easier to get music in front of people, thanks to the digital marketplace - and for that reason, competition there is heated and only getting hotter. "Anyone can do it," said Putnam. "You know your neighbor's kid's band has a profile on MySpace. So the challenge becomes how to stand out in a crowded online marketplace and convert those 'friends' and 'views' into fans and consumers that the artists can touch."
Even though Country fans, particularly those on the young end of the scale, are catching up to their peers in other genres in terms of Web literacy and accessibility, much of the bedrock of the Country demographic, those who have followed the music for years, remains beyond the reach of virtual media.
"We have a lot of blue-collar, hard-working Americans who may not have high-speed Internet, Blackberries or iPods," said Rogers. "With retailers like Wal-Mart and Target limiting the number of physical albums they are placing on their shelves and replacing them with iTunes gift cards, it is forcing more [mainstream] consumers to go digital."
Heron agreed. "Country Music customers are historically awful at adopting new technology or even old technology," he said. "This is illustrated by the Wal-Mart customer, who still represents our largest vendor both in units and in revenue. Wal- Mart states that more than 20 percent of their customers still don't have a checking account. They are a long way from credit card shopping on iTunes or reading our blog on MySpace."
And that, according to McBee, remains the biggest conundrum to confront the Country Music industry at the dawn of the digital age. "The bulk of the consumers are still not there," she said, referring to the digital realm. "We have to educate the Country consumers to the digital outlets. We need to build more Country fans out of the music users that are on the Internet. Based on some of the research we've seen, our consumers are still learning that there are legit services for downloading music. As an industry, we need to invest in educating Country consumers more about the digital space and drawing them into that world."
Putnam believes that social networks, as the hottest digital media sectors, provide the keys that can unlock the digital door for the Country Music industry. "Many of our member communities are leaning toward niche social networks - communities within the artist's official site, where fans have their own profiles, contacts and so on," Putnam said. "Our job is to get technology out of the way so these communities are seamless and provide a closer relationship to the artist."
Mobile phones promise to be another fruitful medium for marketing artists and their products - better than e-mail, in fact, since many users only check their e-mail once a day or even less frequently.
"But everyone carries their cell phones with them at all times," Arnold pointed out. "If artists can reach fans on their mobile phones who have opted in and want to be connected to the artist, that becomes an even more valuable tool than e-mail because you can call people to action at that moment. Hitting fans with a text message in real time and asking them to call and vote on a reality TV show or purchase advance concert tickets is much harder to do and less effective with e-mail."
Finally, the solution to combating illegal music distribution may lie in strategies applicable to the online universe - those same seas sailed by today's digital pirates. But defining and implementing those strategies isn't going to be easy.
"Country Music will have to find something that will beat an album that costs 'free' dollars," Rogers said. "Music is available everywhere, and a lot of places give it away via downloading. A lot has been tried to stop pirating, but whenever one of the large [illegal] music sites gets shut down, it seems like 25 more open up. And on top of those sites, you have bloggers posting downloads on their personal music review sites, programs that allow you to capture a streaming MP3 on MySpace's stand-alone player and the age-old problem of friends sharing music with other friends."
Countering this trend involves developing new concepts of what adds value to album purchases. The music in and of itself retains its appeal - and as far as digital distribution is concerned, that fact is integral both to the problem and its solution. The music will get to fans one way or another; what may affect their decisions about how to acquire it involves enticements that add value to legal means of distribution, whether it might be an exclusive video, unique concert tickets or some sweetening.
"Integrated digital is a boon for marketing the whole music ecosystem - fan, artist, label and venue," Albright explained. "For example, at echo, our marketing services can support an artist throughout their entire lifecycle and be further enhanced during touring season when we work very closely with our parent company, Ticketmaster Entertainment. When it comes to digital commerce, it gets very interesting as we allow fans to purchase physical merchandise such as a T-shirt or CD, digital merchandise such as a download, a concert ticket and a subscription service such as fan club membership in a single transaction. Building successful communities in the future will mean elevating the level of communication not only between artist/brand and fan, but also the fan-to-fan relationships that exist within those communities."
Or, as Rogers described it, "Music can no longer be just an album or a song; it needs to be an experience."

©2009 CMA Close Up® News Service; Country Music Association®, Inc.