05–06 Tools Feedlamp 07-08 Campaigns One Direction & Justin Bieber, Melissa Horn, Bob Dylan 09-13 Behind The Campaign Iron Maiden NOVEMBER 18 2015 sandboxMUSIC MARKETING FOR THE DIGITAL ERA ISSUE 145 WINDOW SHOPPER THE NEW WAVE OF WINDOWING COVERFEATURE Windowing used to be about keeping songs and albums off streaming services in order to squeeze as much out of download and CD sales as possible. Now, as Ellie Goulding and One Direction are showing, streaming services – for singles, at least – are the priority and YouTube is the new place to draw the curtains on. While big acts can pick and choose which digital services they go with, smaller acts risk making themselves invisible if they pursue a similar strategy, almost creating a new two-tier windowing class system around leverage and “impact points”. Beyond the arguments about windowing fuelling piracy, a more nuanced notion emerges that it can work well for singles but less so for albums. We speak to those having to choose between flinging open or bricking up windows about the intricacies of exposure versus revenue and what the real pay off is. WINDOW SHOPPER THE NEW WAVE OF WINDOWING hen it comes to releasing new count towards the chart in the US.) music, traditional industry thinking So, by making your video available on Wholds that the more digital YouTube you may be creating greater platforms you can hit, the better. Your exposure for a track at the expense of its music should be available for consumers UK chart performance. By withholding to find wherever they are, be it iTunes, your album from Spotify you may gain SoundCloud or the latest messaging app; the greater reward in download sales. to hold your music back, the thinking Or you may be infuriating your fans and goes, is to miss out on plays, exposure encouraging piracy. And so on. and money. To muddy the waters even The problem with this is that further, digital music services are not all platforms are equal in understandably keen for bands to give terms of financial return and them exclusives on their new work (or, as First it was Spotify exposure. A download sale is worth far is sometimes the case, semi-exclusives, windowing, now it’s YouTube exclusive on Drake and Future’s What A more than a play on Spotify, which in turn where a song is kept off certain Time To Be Alive mixtape for Beats 1 and is worth more than a play on YouTube. platforms). Windowing releases – that’s to say iTunes. What’s more, not all platforms are In return, they will give the band a keeping them off certain platforms for a But recent months have seen a eligible for the charts. In the UK, for push – homepage placement, social length of time – is nothing new: Coldplay’s couple of examples of windowing that example, YouTube plays don’t count media campaigns etc. – sending Mylo Xyloto and Adele’s 21 were both are notable not just for the artists towards the OCC chart, while Spotify consumption rocketing on their platform initially kept off Spotify on their releases in question – Ellie Goulding and One streams do. (YouTube plays do, however, and putting a lot of noses out of joint. in 2011; more recently Apple secured the Direction – but also for the platform 2 | sandbox | ISSUE 145 | 18.11.15 COVERFEATURE initially avoided, in this case YouTube. One heavily on Spotify’s playlists, as well as Direction’s ‘Drag Me Down’ made its social media. debut on Apple Music, Spotify and other The result was 4.75m streams on streaming services on 31st July, but was Spotify on the song’s day of release and withheld from YouTube until 20th August, 17.7m streams worldwide in the first when the official video was released. week, each paying more than a YouTube On 17th September, Ellie Goulding’s play. The song was also a chart success, ‘On My Mind’ debuted on radio, topping Spotify’s global chart and debuting streaming services and download stores, at the top of the overall singles charts in with the official video hitting YouTube the UK, Ireland, France, Austria, Australia on 21st September. This delay in itself and New Zealand. was not unusual: official videos are often This Spotify success doesn’t appear released days after a song makes its to have unduly harmed the fortunes of debut, with labels typically uploading a the official ‘Drag Me Down’ video, which basic audio clip (or stopgap lyric video) was released to YouTube on 20th August. to YouTube in the interim. But Universal It has reached 185m views since then, didn’t do this. Instead, it uploaded a beating the 160m of their previous single, 30-second snippet video of ‘On My Mind’ 2014’s ‘Night Changes’, and the 40m of to YouTube and Facebook, pointing ‘Perfect’, which premiered on Vevo on 20th viewers to Spotify and Apple Music, while October (with all the appropriate caveats policing the platform to keep fan-made about ‘Night Changes’ being the fourth videos from appearing. single from an album and ‘Perfect’ having If that doesn’t sound that peculiar, then less time to build views). consider this: YouTube is the most popular One Direction’s label, Syco, did not music consumption platform in the respond to interview requests for this world, its popularity particularly marked piece. And yet it has been suggested that among young people. It has more than of European label relations Kevin Brown newer material does appear, for example on the label used a staggered approach to 1bn monthly active users and 10 music recently told Music Business Worldwide. the official Warner Bros. YouTube account). this video release to build expectation. videos to date have generated more than “I freely acknowledge that the strategy That’s Prince’s right, of course. But whether First we learned that One Direction hadn’t 1bn views in total. Advances in YouTube’s of not going to YouTube first isn’t this staunch approach has really benefitted made a video for ‘Drag Me Down’; then Content ID system may have made it a lot necessarily the right one for every release,” him in the long run is hard to assess, there were reports that the band were to easier to keep your music off the platform he added. “But the simple question should particularly now that YouTube plays count film a promo at a NASA base; finally, – “Back in the day,” one digital marketer at least be asked: at what point should towards the US chart. as interest hit fever pitch, the explains, “the reason that you had to go new music go onto YouTube?” video was released. In this way, to YouTube was because your music was A simple question it may be. But it The chart uptick the video release allowed the label going to be there whatever you did” – but does not bring a simple answer. The most to stretch out interest in the song it is still extremely rare for new songs not extreme case – not allowing your music Keeping your new music off YouTube over several weeks, boosting its to be present there. on YouTube at all – doesn’t seem to be the temporarily, though, could prove beneficial, impact. “The strategy of putting music answer. Prince is about the only major artist as One Direction have shown. Spotify “In a world where Spotify streams peak on YouTube first has become the to have come close to such an approach threw its full weight behind ‘Drag Me at six-to-eight weeks after release, having prevalent release paradigm in and it is, as a result, hard to find many of his Down’, which was featured as a takeover more impact points is really important,” the music industry,” Spotify’s head classic hits on the platform (although some ad across the platform and promoted says one A&R and marketing executive. 3 | sandbox | ISSUE 145 | 18.11.15 COVERFEATURE “It is not just about day one of week one, Even worse, by keeping their music would be no great surprise to see some so this makes perfect sense. Maybe you off YouTube, new bands run the risk of of the public ire traditionally directed at want a boost when the album becomes antagonising their own fans, who may ELLIE GOULDING Spotify shift in YouTube’s direction. available to pre-order. Maybe you want find their amateur videos removed from “[YouTube] is being seen as more of a your video to come out later so it can have the platform for breaching copyright (a In the UK, Ellie Goulding’s the song actually debuted bad guy among the industry,” one label more impact.” familiar plight for Prince fans over the last ‘On My Mind’ debuted at lower in the US streaming marketing source says. “I don’t know if Windowing in this way also gives artist few years). #7, peaking at #5 a fortnight charts (at #44, with 4.6m launching a subscription service [YouTube and label leverage with other platforms. Then there’s the wider effect on the weeks later – a solid, if streams) than on the Hot Red, which debuted in the US in October] “The more you can leverage a particular industry: windowing is a controversial unspectacular, showing. 100 overall. Globally, ‘On will change that. It may do, in some service, the more you can get what you policy that some observers claim In the US, ‘On My My Mind’ has topped 65m people’s eyes. But it is really early days to want,” the A&R and marketing executive encourages piracy.