THE FAME HOUSE STACK Technology for Thenew Musicindustry the FAMEHOUSESTACK Marketing &E-Commerce

THE FAME HOUSE STACK Technology for theNew MusicIndustry THE FAMEHOUSESTACK Marketing &E-Commerce

1 THE FAME HOUSE STACK

FAMEHOUSE.NET TABLE OFCONTENTS Marketing Stack The FameHouse 07. Simpler for Everyone Make Commerce 06. E-Commerce Stack The Fame House 04. Introduction 01. Analytics Marketing StackSpotlight: 10. Web Development Stack The FameHouse 09.

Lessons Marketing Technology 19. Fall Will Album Release Mountain The Study: Fame HouseStackCase 15. Email Marketing Marketing StackSpotlight: 13. Social Contesting Marketing StackSpotlight: 12.

DJ Shadow -

2 THE FAME HOUSE STACK that transcends theplatformsthemselves. represented inthisdigitalageshouldbeto buildabrand beyond anysingularmedium.Thegoal ofanycompany company. Itmeansthattheartist’s branditselfreaches utilized atFame Housesincetheearly days ofour branding approach? Thisisalsosomethingwehave What doesitmeanto have an omni-channeldigital evolving digitallandscape. we needto buildourbusinessesto adaptto theever- new platformsandtools thatemerge almostdaily, and must remain nimblewhenitcomesto tech.There are working withDJShadow;itmeansthatinthisera, we one andissomethingIlearnedthrough five years of a strategythatFame Househasemployed sinceday What doesitmeanto betechnology-agnostic?Itis music industry. buzzwords isthefoundationforsuccess inthenew jargon, butIbelieve thesubstancebehindthese branding strategy, combinedwithan managers mustembracea To labels,and thrive inthisnewparadigm, artists, storyline thattranslatesacrossartist-driven platforms. message, andthemessage mustspeakto abroader regularly, In anerawhere newdigitalplatforms emerge management, andmonetizationisking. comprehensiveindustry—where digitalaudiencegrowth, We are nowfirmlyintheeraofmusicandtechnology tools andsocialmediahave enabledthisshift. proliferation, andmassadoptionofdirect to consumer days ayear, omni-channelapproach. Theemergence, album cycle-driven marketing strategiestoward a365 away fromaudiences, steeringtheindustry traditional, buildand activate theirhas transformedhowartists lot haschanged.Therapidpaceofdigitalinnovation YEARSSINCE IN THESIX By Mike Fiebach, INTRODUCTION approach. Thismay soundlike alotof the medium itself is often as important asthe the mediumitselfisoftenasimportant Founder &CEO IfoundedFame House,a technology-agnostic omni-channel digital

BRANDING APPROACH. DIGITALAN OMNI-CHANNEL STRATEGY, COMBINED WITH A TECHNOLOGY-AGNOSTIC MUSTEMBRACE AND MANAGERS PARADIGM, ARTISTS, LABELS, TO THRIVE INTHISNEW 01 02

If you implement the cutting edge use of digital tools, the messages they convey through their art would be while integrating a consistent brand approach across much less powerful if that art were initially exhibited platforms, you will set yourself up for success to grow, in a museum, rather than on a wall on the street. The engage, and monetize your audience. innovation can derive from the medium (of course, I must give credit where credit is due for the “Medium The medium as a powerful tool is one of the primary is the Message” theory generally). The artists and reasons tech companies have had so much impact on early adopters who utilize new technology in innovative the music business; at a certain early-adoption point, ways benefit from using the medium as the message. they brought something to the table that did not exist elsewhere. These new tools and platforms become Fame House expands upon the “medium as the a necessity to an artist’s marketing, branding—and, message” strategy by working with artists and their increasingly, their monetization portfolio. Simple teams to ensure they properly engage, grow, and examples of this pattern include Snapchat releasing manage their entire digital presence with a consistent a disappearing message for the first time, Musical.ly strategy. When an artist has a holistic approach to innovating with UGC-powered short form video synced brand and voice across their properties, they are in with music, and even going back to Twitter releasing an optimal position to resonate with their audience 140-character text-based broadcasting, Medium comprehensively. How a single social media tool is innovating in-stream blog commenting, Instagram utilized is inherently very different from how other releasing everyday photography tools, and Spotify social media platforms, tools, email lists, websites, and others enabling on-demand music streaming. An and web stores are leveraged; but the visual and tonal expansion of this concept is Instagram building upon representation should be consistent across all of its foundation to release 15-second, then 60-second them. The ultimate leverage artists and digital brands video; Instagram releasing their version of “stories;” and have over the tech companies is the fact that they Facebook implementing 360 video and photos. Each (the artists and brands) own and control their voice medium can have new media-delivery tools to expand on and their brand regardless of the medium; they are the initial technological competency, thus broadening its the only representatives who can convey how their brand is communicated within the specific platform

STACK STACK use cases for creators and consumers. or message mechanism. Without those unique Fame House's expertise in how each platform is voices, brands, and their engaged followers, the tech specifically utilized enables our clients to leverage companies’ platforms would be useless. Fame House each tool uniquely. This is a strategy that can calls this the “storytelling paradigm”—the profiles enable the technology medium itself to become the controlling this paradigm are the artists and message in certain instances, which can be incredibly brands themselves. powerful. I analogize it to Banksy or Shepard Fairey— THE FAME HOUSE FAME THE 03

The combination of the medium-as-the-message strategy and the storytelling paradigm enables artists, Check out our Fame House Music Marketing & managers, labels, and their marketers to break out of E-commerce Stack on Product Hunt Here the shell of outdated approaches. This is no longer about an album cycle—it is about the Artist Cycle. Now, Follow Fame House on Medium for more updates more than ever, that cycle never stops and is constantly and insights from our team. evolving. As the Artist Cycle moves forward, the cutting edge, technology-adaptive businesses that optimize engagement through the use of technology and branding will generate ongoing revenue opportunities for direct to consumer commerce, streaming, and sponsorship. WE ARE IN THE ERA OF AUDIENCE MONETIZATION Access to the audience is more direct than ever. We are in a world where the enablers of the connection to the audience are mighty tech companies, but because of that intermediary, the artist and rightsholders control their voice, brand, and destiny more than ever. Those who build a technology-agnostic strategy while prioritizing omni-channel storytelling and brand marketing are the entities that will succeed in the new model. I am just happy that Fame House is a key part of this ride. We believe we are innovating and defining what it means to be a digital agency focused on audience monetization in the new music business. Fame House is sharing some of the lesser known pieces of our music marketing and e-commerce stack by releasing this @Product Hunt collection in an effort to share some of our technology tools beyond our walls, and to open a dialogue with other marketers and artists about the tools they are using within this new paradigm. If you have experience with any alternatives to these tools, or if you are a founder with a new tool that you think is best-in-class, drop me a line: twitter.com/mfiebach STACK STACK THE FAME HOUSE FAME THE THE FAME HOUSE STACK able to spinupastore inunder24hours,ifnecessary. alike, andissoflexiblethat insomeinstancesweare andbrands entertainers, across theneedsofartists, client. Ourcustom Shopifystackisbuilt to benimble experience to matchtheaestheticandgoals ofeach themes, layouts, styling,purchase flow, andoverall user built ontop ofShopifythatallowsusto customize We’ve invested inacustom robust technologystack functionality coupledwithaflexibleenvironment. solution foritsperfect mixofsolidcore commerce Currently, commerce platform Shopifyisourprimary and more. Magento, Miva, Gumroad, Clickly, custom platforms, used Woocommerce, DrupalCommerce, Bandcamp, inthemusicbusiness.We’vefor itsexpertise also In theearlyFame Housedays, TopSpin wasafavorite commerce onnearlyevery majorplatform outthere. Throughout theyears, we’ve managedartist OF SHOPIFYISITS OPENAPI..." "ONE OFTHEPRIMARY BENEFITS superstars,andbrandsalike. needs ofemerging artists, commerce stackthatisnimbleandadaptive to meetthe Utilizing ourtech-agnosticapproach, we’ve builta warehousing, order logistics,andcustomer service. and development, product designand production, operation, including:store management,store design manage, andevolve anartist’s entire e-commerce FAME THE HOUSEHAS By DanConway, E-COMMERCE STACK THE FAMEHOUSE Director, D2C in-housecapabilitiesto build,

04 THE FAME HOUSE STACK building, growing, andmonetizingtheiraudiences. business, wecancontinueto ourclients– serve ourselves asatech-agnostic,service-focused opportunity, butalsocomplexities.Bypositioning and technologyisaplacefilledwith ton of technology solutions.Thecrossroads ofmusic researching improvements andemerging current needsandbusiness,weare always While thiscommerce stackisperfect forour operation. in; and the abilityto printapparel on-demandasorders come with ourmanywarehouses; the communicationandlogisticsofcustomer orders digital contentdelivery; applications onShopifyare: build custom solutionseachtime.Someofourgo-to cater to specificclientneedswithouthaving to always applications andresources. Thisgives ustheabilityto API, whichhasledto ofpre-built anenormouslibrary benefitsofShopifyisitsopen One oftheprimary Zendesk , which powers our customer service , whichpowersourcustomer service Shipstation Jakprints Sendowl , which manages , whichmanages , which powers , whichpowers , which gives us , whichgives us 05 THE FAME HOUSE STACK way... it's inspiring...andit's agreat of. thingto be a part yearsfew ago becausethetechnologygotin short That manyofthesethings weren't possibleeven justa own creations outinto theworld. products webuildandputtheirspinonitto pushtheir away (andhumbled)by howourcustomers use the others buildtheirownthing,andwe're constantlyblown morning. We're focusedonbuildingthethingsthathelp That missioniswhatgetsmanyofusoutbedinthe of thepeoplewhouseit. software, butasaway to dramaticallyimprove thelives because wedon't justseeitasaway to make better Every teamatShopifyisdedicatedto thisvision, custom functionality. canuseto create eventechnology partners more cool shop, to thecontentwedevelop, andeven theAPIsour store to easilyinstallnewfunctionalityforyour online that's builtfortheday to day operations,to theapp It influencesevery level ofwhatwedo,from theadmin "Make commerce simplerforeveryone." guidingprincipleweallfollowreligiously is important "Get shitdone" and"Act like anowner," butthemost SHOPIFY ISBUILT ON By GuestPieceTommy Walker, A FLEXIBLEE-COMMERCEPLATFORM FOR EVERYONE SIMPLER MAKE COMMERCE a few core principles,suchas

Editor-in-Chief, Shopify

06 THE FAME HOUSE STACK audiences. use emerging tools to effectively connect withtheir Live), ourclientshave always beenamongthefirst to with them.From Snapchatto Huzza (now Kickstarter emerging platforms,and weconstantlyexperiment We make itourbusinessto stay ontop ofnewand help themfigure outwhatwill. or even thesameartist—tomorrow, andit’s ourjobto todayworks foroneartist may notworkforanother— meaning forfansandthebroader media.But what ofthestory,itself isapart helpingto shapeits success. AsourCEO, Mike Fiebach,putit,themedium the righttools canhave onanartist’s oraproject’s Time andagain,we’ve seentheimpactthat picking stack isoursecret weapon. isn’t meeting ourgoals,marketingperformance achieve thatend,orhowbestto shiftcoursewhenthe we needto make aquickcallonhowto effectively our clientssuccessfullybringtheirvisionsto life. When tools—our marketing stack—whichweleverage to help has builtupamassive andever-changing arsenalof To navigate thesedynamicssuccessfully, ourteam we invest resources. they emerge, andto make quickdecisionsaboutwhere pivot theirstrategyonadime,to actonnewtrends as culture meansmarketers needto always beready to digital world.Thetechnology-fueledadvent ofreal-time as they were originallyenvisioned—especiallyinthe The reality isthatplansare almostnever executed strongest assets. change coursemid-stream isarguably amongour or adjustingto shiftingclienttimelines,ourabilityto we’re responding to changingtrends inthemarket success isourabilityto adaptquickly. Whether ELEMENTSONE OFTHEMOSTCRUCIAL By Katonah Rafter, MARKETING STACK THE FAMEHOUSE VP, MARKETING ofour it help us strengthen the bond between artist andfan? it helpusstrengthen thebondbetweenartist the artist’s existingaudienceis already active? How will • ittomakes themto itworth doso? existing behavior, orto changeit?Ifthelatter, what asking themto dosomethingconsistentwiththeir • criteria: important internally orpitchingto aclient,welookatfew When evaluating testing whetheranewtool isworth Will ithelpusreach new fans,oristhisaplacewhere Does theexperienceaddvalue forfans?Are we 07 THE FAME HOUSE STACK insights orcapabilities? by saving themtimeorgiving themaccessto new • valuable assets,like fandata—after thecampaignisover? show ourclientaclearROI—whether inactualrevenue or the potentialto actually drive revenue? Willwebeableto • brand? experience anddesignto ourclient’s add to it,ordistractfrom it?Are weableto tailorthe • BUSINESS. TO SUSTAIN AHEALTHY EVERGREEN KEEPING FANS ENGAGED YEAR-ROUND THAT BONDFUELSTHEARTIST CYCLE, larger campaign? media coverage to helpgenerateawareness fortheir they ableto useitinaninnovative way? Willitgarner • marketers willfindinteresting? • • TOOLS. STACK HERE’SASAMPLINGOFOURCURRENT MARKETING COLLECTIVELY YEARS,OURTEAMHAS SIX AFTER TESTEDHUNDREDSOF + + SmartURL + AdRoll + + Gather + SuperPhone + AdHawk + AdStage + Funnel.io + + Litmus + Fanbridge + + + DATA COLLECTION CRM /PAID / MEDIA Will this tool help ourteam bemore effective, whether What isthespecific value forourclient?Doesithave Doesit telltheirstory? Will thistool helptheartist Is there afirst-mover advantage forourclient?Are Will fanscare, or isthissomethingonlyother Linkfire Vertical Mass Audience Center Google Analytics/ MailChimp ExactTarget /Salesforce Hive.co Marketing Cloud

• • + + + + + Supercoil + + MOBILE APPS+ FAN CLUBS + Curalate + SocialRank + Domo + + Brand24 + Flurry + + + + Nielsen + BuzzAngle ANALYTICS Bold Commerce Membership 2 Social Ladder Mobile Roadie Top Fan Disciple Simply Measured Mixpanel Google Analytics Next BigSound

essential to initiate andcultivate that bond. healthy evergreen business.Theright mixoftools is Cycle, keeping fansengaged year-round to sustain a feel ThatbondfuelstheArtist to musicandthe artist. theemotionalconnection fans brand—their story—and Everything comesbackto thestrength ofanartist’s making quickdecisionsabout where to invest resources. starto navigate bybrand, aswellanorth when us thefreedom to experimentwithoutdilutingtheir and whatthey wantto achieve. This combinationgives things, and(2)they have aclearvisionfor theirbrand two thingsincommon:(1)they are new opento trying Our clientswhoare mostsuccessfulindigitalhave business goals. andto helpourclients reach their the musicandartist, experiences forfansthatstrengthen theirconnectionto which tools weuse,always seekto create amazing to GoogleWildfire to Radian6 to Woobox. Nomatter tested andworked withcountlessothers,from Topspin As trends have comeandgoneover theyears, we’ve future projects. becoming solutionswe’ll gobackto timeandagainfor successful, butthosethatare getaddedto ourstack, likely weare to give itashot.Notevery experimentis compellingly answeraboutanewtool, themore The more oftheabove questionsourteamcan CREATION • • • • + ThingLink + + + VideoPad + + Snaps + + Canva + Giphy CREATIVE /CONTENT + Hive.co + Lemonade + CONTESTINGSOCIAL /UGC + VR /AR + LIVESTREAMING Everyday Slomo Design Pickle KnowMe AppMoji /MojiKeyboard Metablocks Vantage VR Live (f.k.a.Huzza) Kickstarter

• • + Show.co + CrowdAlbum + Bandsintown + Songkick + Stanza EVENT MARKETING + Like2Buy + Publicfast + Linktree + Pinterest + WeHeartIt + Flipagram + + + Tumblr + Instagram + Snapchat + Twitter + Facebook ETC. SOCIAL,

Musical.ly /Live.ly Medium

08 THE FAME HOUSE STACK With theBandsintown plugins,thesiteadmin canpost fans needto beupdatedfrequently onnewtour dates. constantly beingaddedto their itinerary, which means Bands are always touring and newtour datesare Bandsintown Plugins socials, andredirects. Additionally, thepluginsprovide tools to optimize videos, SEOtasks. meta descriptions,andotherimportant helps thesiteadminoptimize pagecontent,imagetitles, providing areal timepageanalysisfunctionalitythat way to easilyoptimize theirsite with onetool while The Yoast SEOpluginsgive thesite administrator a implement theYoast SEOpluginsduringsite builds. best practicesinmind.SEOisanongoingtask,sowe At Fame House,webuildourclients'websites withSEO Yoast SEO Here are important. someofourrecentalso very favorites: S Developer Tools –Wordpress, Zapier, Beanstalk Prototyping Tools –Sketch, Invision,Webflow (Photoshop &Illustrator) Design Tools – AdobeCreative Suite2017 Some newtechnologiesthatweutilize include: weserve. ultimately—disruptive intheverticals technologies thatmake usmore nimble,adaptive, and— Our teamhasstockpiled modernandforward-thinking user experience(UX)becomesmore effective. new possibilitiesare discovered, workflow isstreamlined, and technology evolves andimproves onaweeklybasis—where a statementontheweb.We live inanagewhere digital STAYING AHEADOFTHEDIGITAL By ZaakirCarter, Creative Project Coordinator STACK WEB DEVELOPMENT THE FAMEHOUSE taying nimble with our plugins for web development is taying nimblewithourpluginsforwebdevelopment is

curve is crucial to making iscrucialto curve making

highlighted to ensure they seetheevent closest to them. links foreach event. Also,userswillsee localevents tour datesthrough Facebook andsettingupcustom tour datesto thewebsite automatically whilemanaging VISIT HERE VISIT HERE 09 THE FAME HOUSE STACK driving traffic to ourwebsites,how fansare engaging showcasinghow we’rewith Google Analytics, further Website analyticscallforourmostnotable go-to rarely worked welltogether. Automated sentimentanalysisandsarcasm have limitations inwrittenemotion interpretation. sentiment isfrequently skewed by technological though thisoftenrequires amore criticalview, as tracking alsoprovides someinsightinto sentiment, are conversing aboutourbrandsonline.Keyword highlighting thevolume andcontextinwhichfans are helpfulforhashtagandkeyword tracking, talking aboutourbrands.Platformslike Brand24 and engagesondigital,wediginto howfans are Beyond understandinghowourmarketing reaches How doesouraudienceengage? new platform. based onhowwellouraudiencealignswiththatofa objective, oreven assessnewplatformopportunities channels basedontheaudiencedefinedforeach better determinehowcampaignswilllookacross With ouraudiencesnapshotassessment,wecan channels into one,cleandashboard. Measured thatcanaggregate datafrom several various needs.Then,there are platformslike Simply similar data,oftenpresented inunique ways for snapshot.” Numerous resources existthatpull seek every level ofdatawecanaddto our“audience based onpurchase behavior andbrandaffinity),we demographics), to more in-depth (lifestyle habits the more obvious (age,genderandlocation analytics are always agreat From placeto start. When analyzingwhothefansare, native social Who isouraudience? driven factors, andaskchallengingquestions,suchas: each clients’ businessobjectives withinkey, data- available to us.We needto thinkstrategicallyabout it’s criticalthatwedosoby usinganyandalldata WHEN WEASSESS By DebKeller, ANALYTICS MARKETING Senior Manager, Accounts STACK SPOTLIGHT opportunities forourclients, opportunities

it, whento distributeit,whatmarketing channels what typeof contentto create, where to distribute audience engages,wecan betterstrategize around With more contextaround where andhowour competitive analysis. over time,includingtheabilityto top-level perform tool forexploringdataacross streaming andsocials multiple setsofanalytics.NextBigSoundisagreat data pointsinanycircumstance where there are apps. Aggregators are key whenhandlingvarious helps usto analyze metricsforclientswithmobile to grow similarly ormonetize theaudience.Flurry on them,andwhere wemighthave opportunities 10 11

will drive the highest impact for each initiative, how to expand our messaging beyond our immediate audience, and more. How does our marketing impact sales? There will always be a variety of business objectives that we set our digital marketing goals against, the most typical KPI being sales. Outside of UTM and conversion tracking that more directly indicate sales performance, we always want to think critically about how our digital efforts can indirectly move the needle. Outside of Nielsen Soundscan POS data, BuzzAngle helps us to analyze music sales data across demographics, breaking down sales, streams, spins, and views, whether daily or historically, and by market, including retailer breakdowns. With this data, we can bridge the gap between trends in our digital marketing with trends in sales, determining the correlations to continue driving sales objectives. It’s not enough to brainstorm, develop, and execute campaigns. It’s not even enough to simply report on how successful (or not) a campaign performed. By critically analyzing the data available to us, we can make informed decisions on content distribution, campaign strategy, media placement, acquisition tactics and market opportunities. It almost goes without saying that, as an agency, we pride ourselves on our data-driven approach. STACK STACK THE FAME HOUSE FAME THE THE FAME HOUSE STACK and engagement. Anapplicationshould always might lackthecapabilities to drive conversation achieve. Aplatform geared towards fanacquisition goal’ anddefinewhatexactly you are looking to campaign, it’s to firmlyestablishthe‘end important To choosetheplatformthatisrightforyour specific marketing goals. can leverage atleastoneoftheirtools to meetour Depending ontheclient’s businessobjective, we Tweematic applications, andSpotifySweepstakes. robust applications,suchasphoto/meme generators, Metablocks hasallowedustheabilityto build more future advertising. targeted emailcampaignsandre-marketing listsfor searchable CRMsystem,allowing us to buildhighly The informationisseamlesslyaggregated into a and socialhandlesifthey optinto connectthem. consent to contact),aswelllocation,interests, we are ableto viewtheirname andemail(with For eachfanthatentersoneofthesecampaigns, links. widgets, email/socialgatedcontent,andsmart the technologyto buildemailformediadownload House. Inadditionto contestingwidgets,wecanuse Hive.co haslongbeenapreferred ofFame partner capture more valuable data. to create fullycustomizable contestingapps,butalso and identifyafew key platformsthatnotonlyallowus testing, wehave beenableto cutthrough thenoise and muchmore. However, afterseveral years of apps promising uniqueexperiences,fanacquisition is noeasytaskthough,given therecent explosion of of ourmostdedicatedfans.Actuallyselectingatool data andallowusgreater insightinto theonlinehabits social contestingtools canbeutilized to capture fan IN ADDITION TO GREATER By Katonah Rafter, SOCIAL CONTESTING MARKETING STACK SPOTLIGHT VP, Marketing audience engagement,

or sweepstakes willmake animpact. easy to use(andunderstand) experience,your contest compelling incentive andclearmessagingwith an you’re offering fansforentry. Butifyou combine a experience caninstantly negate whatever incentive Regardless ofyour campaign’s goals,aclunkyuser where mosttrafficfrom socialwillcomefrom? complete it?Doesitfunctionsmoothlyonmobile, mechanismandtounderstand theentry easily will enjoy engagingwith?Isitsimpleforthemto experience. Istheendproduct somethingafan Above all,though, you mustconsiderthefan’s for ourclients’ needs. creative teamto create bespoke conteststhatwork don’t force it—weoftenwork withourownin-house to facilitatingitssetup.Ifit’s nottherightfit,we be fullyvetted againstthecampaignneedsprior 12 THE FAME HOUSE STACK smaller artists. and thepricetagcanoften becostprohibitive for set isn’t foranartist’s always necessary emailprogram, e-commerce operation. ExactTarget’s advanced feature features withahealthy are especially usefulforanartist time-intensive beavery process.otherwise These sends, andautomate listsegmentationthatwould allows usto create complexcustomer journeys, trigger far andaway more advanced thanotherplatforms,and preferred ESPhere atFame House.Thefeature setis ExactTarget (Salesforce Marketing Cloud)isour ExactTarget /Salesforce Marketing Cloud of ourgo-to ESPsbelowto begintesting. occur. From here, itisjustasimplecopy pasteinto one versions oftheHTML to keep tabsonrevisions asthey live-preview anemailaswebuild,whilesaving multiple in aplatform’s HTML editor. Brackets allowsusto gives usmore flexibilitythanbuildinganemaildirectly using When buildingouremails,manyofMarketers are The Build business objectives. providerservice (ESP),are traditionallybudgetand The biggestfactors ofhelpingclients findanemail email campaigns. inclass platform, while upholdingbest email solutionsallowsusto beflexibleplatformto a significantsalesdriver forourclients,offering bespoke monetize ourownedaudience.Asemailcontinuesto be covered themethodsinwhichweboth cultivate and Audience, BuildingaDirect-to-Fan Strategy IN OURPREVIOUSWHITE PAPER, By BrianAranda, EMAIL MARKETING MARKETING Brackets

astheirHTML editor ofchoice.This STACK SPOTLIGHT Senior Manager, Data&Engagement

Owning Your

in2016,we 13 THE FAME HOUSE STACK of platform. a highdeliverability to your listofsubscribers,regardless quirks, butbuildingasolidfoundationforsendswill ensure many others.Every platformhasdifferent nuancesand encountered, including Aweber, ConstantContact,and regularly, there anumberofplatformsthatwehave Though theseare thethree platformsweusemost devices. emails are rendering accuratelyacross emailclientsand are optimized, linksare accurate,andmostimportantly, rigorous testingvia Once ouremailsare ready to go,werunitthrough Testing Full Feature Set whoare justbeginningtoartists buildtheirsubscribers. with agrowing fanbase,andhasagreat free tierfor heavy liftingforyou. easyto MailChimp isvery scale here, asthedraganddropnecessary editor doesallthe it ishelpful,anadvanced knowledgeofHTML isnot ofanysize. Thougha fantasticsolutionforartists are justafew oftheoptionsthatmake MailChimp A/B testing,custom forms,andflexibleemailtemplates much isactuallyunderthehood.Robustautomations, is sneaky, inthatitssimplicityoftenovershadows how notleastisMailChimp. Thisplatform Last butcertainly MailChimp Full Feature Set and isbasedonnumberofsendspermonth. the road. Intermsofpricing,FanBridge reasonable, isvery thatspendamajorityoftheirtimeon fans forthoseartists box solutionsforintegratingtour dates,andto geo-target the value ofevery singlesend.There are alsoout-of-the- exchange forasubscriptionoremail address, increasing to gatecontentin SoundCloud andSpotifyallowartists specifically forcontentcreators. Built-inintegrationswith FanBridge isalsooneofourgo-to ESPs,asitisbuilt FanBridge

Litmus , whichensures thatimages

14 THE FAME HOUSE STACK marketing strategy withthefollowingapproach: Records onacomprehensive digitalpre-order andrelease In order to achieve this,wecollaboratedwithMass Appeal seat to album-related content asitwasreleased. album whileallowingDJShadow’s afront row superfans video, ouraimwasto establishthesignificanceof throughout thecourseofrelease. From first thisvery fans were prompted to opt-into exclusive updates This videodirected to TheMountainWillFall.com, where 15 secondsofnewmusicfrom thealbum’s titletrack. cover andsimply statedthenameofalbumatop socials 29th, 2016with We begantherollout of first beganworkingwithhimin2006. profile year forShadowinthetimethatweat Fame House The MountainWillFall #Radioface, to anewBBC EssentialMix,to theworldwide Run theJewels From thesuccessofleadsingle in June2016to great acclaimfrom bothfansandcritics. The MountainWillFall conversation betweenheandhisfans. full-length in5years, compelling albumtitle.Asaresult, DJShadow’s first One fanpointedoutthatthelastbitwouldmake fora process. Heconcluded: challenges oftheartistic in Julyof2015,hetook to Twitter to describethe When DJShadowbeganworkingonhislatestalbum By NickRizzuto, ALBUM RELEASE DJ SHADOW-THEMOUNTAIN WILLFALL FAME HOUSESTACK CASE STUDY thatutilized brandingelementsfrom thealbum’s , Senior Manager, Marketing &Strategy

a cryptic videoacrossa cryptic Shadow’s to Shadow’s newrecurring Beats1show tour, 2016wasperhapsthehighest wasreleased almostoneyear later The MountainWillFall The MountainWillFall “Nobody Speak” with “Nobody Speak”with

beganasa onMarch 3. audience. marketing momentsto spread thereach ofDJShadow’s up thesignificanceof release andcapitalize on with awidepre-order windowinorder to build 2. specifically to the avid DJShadowfanbase. 1. get theirhandson. pre-order itemsthatweknewfans wouldn’t hesitateto So, wesetoutto create multipleuniqueand premium who gravitate toward highquality, limitededitionitems. (like hisfansare fiendishcollectors Shadowhimself) release ofShadow’s classic sincethe the mostdie-hard fansinthemusicindustry behaviors ofhisfans,whohave beenamongsomeof have cometo deeplyunderstandthedynamicsand In theyears thatwe’ve worked alongsideShadow, we Premium Offers forthe Heads iTunes Electronic music charts. Shadow, resulted ina#1positionontheBillboard and This strategy, incombination withgreat newmusicfrom Shadow’sand convert ownedaudience. 6. by leveraging creative assets. tent polesatkey strategic timesto sustainmomentum 5. etc. performances, existed around milestones like musicvideos,latenight 4. pre-order onTheMountainWillFall.com all DJShadowchannelsaswellacentralhubforthe Create cohesive brandingaround thealbumacross Institute alongtailalbumrelease campaign Tailor direct-to-fan offers andmessagingtailored Leverage ourmarketing stackthroughout to grow Between thesekey marketing moments,create new Amplify key marketing momentsthatalready

Endtroducing

. We knewthat

15 THE FAME HOUSE STACK micro-content and MassAppealcollaborated onover order window. To amplifythesemoments, Fame House pre-that wouldnothave beenpossiblewithinashorter around the albumresulted inanadditionalspike insales Following theinitiallaunch,eachnewpiece ofcontent sales momentum. using contentsurrounding thealbuminorder to sustain and release week,however, wasto create moments of thealbum.Thechallengeinbetweeninitiallaunch that saleswouldpeakagainaround theactualrelease these premium bundlesimmediately, andwealsoknew Mountain WillFall,” We knewthatthe excitement from thenewsong, of time. of salesthepremium bundlesinthissameamount order salesoccurringinthefirstweekalone,and60% This approach resulted inabout album inconjunctionwiththeirfirstlistenofnewmusic. album sothatfanswere given theabilityto purchase the com) aboutthree monthsbefore therelease ofthe the pre-order (viaasplashpageonTheMountainWillFall. The teamalsomadethestrategicdecisionto launch A LongTail Pre-Order Approach were released over thenext three months. downloads ofallothersinglesfrom thealbumasthey instant downloadoftheinitialalbumsingle,aswell CDs, andposters.Allpre-order customers received an standard, less-expensive pre-order albumssuchasvinyl, These premium itemswere offered alongsidemore ultimate collector’s itemforShadowfans. run offlannelgrounds crew jackets asthe thatserved We limited alsocollaboratedwithEbbetsFieldforavery Insect, whichcamesignedby Shadowhimself. designedbyposters thatleveraged Paul theiconicalbumart The first of these items was limited quantity of vivid screenprint , suchasGIFs andvideos,derived from

would drive superfansto goafter 40% ofoverall pre-

30 piecesof

“The These momentseachstoked theexcitement ofexisting and “NobodySpeak”). album’s singles(“TheMountainWillFall,” “TheSideshow,” andtheamazingvideosfrom the the albumartwork and videosthemselves. received messaging focusedmore onthenewmusic 2014/15’s Renegades ofRhythmtour withCutChemist) that hadsubscribedto hislist from recent tours (e.g, larger contextofShadow’s career, whereas newerfans of the campaignthatfocusedonupcomingrelease to ~2011were provided withmessagingthroughout into recent andlegacyfans;fansthatsubscribedprior We thendivided theremainder ofShadow’s emaillist throughout thecampaign. subscribers withupdatesbefore anyothersubsetoffan beginning inMarch andprovided theseparticular from thepre-order pageonTheMountainWillFall.com As mentionedabove, wecollectedemailaddresses drive specificsegmentsoffans toward conversion. leveraged segmentingofShadow’s emaillistto Throughout thepre-order period,wealsoheavily Segmented &Behavioral EmailMarketing release flight. termpre-order or substantial ifwehadappliedashorter We believe thatthisgrowth wouldhave beenmuchless over thecourseofTheMountainWillFall and streaming platforms whole, Shadow’s onlineaudienceacross social,e-mail, ashookstoserved acquire newpotentialfans.Onthe fans andprovided themcontentto share thatthen The MountainWillFall grew by atotal ofover 12% as amilestone withinthe

campaign.

16 THE FAME HOUSE STACK anticipation for thefullalbumrelease amongfans. in 12k+views ofthevideosandaheightened level of viewed from DJShadow’s profile. Themosaic resulted display thefull second videoscomprised a mosaicthatcombinedto an Instagrammosaic(see below),where nine30-45 album, sowedecidedto tease theremaining tracksvia At this point,fanshadheard 3-4singlesfrom the Will Fall featuring anastronaut carefully dismantling followed upthispremiere witha Fresh album’s standout tracks, This weekkicked offwithapremiere ofonethe release week. tacticsandcontenteachday of conversation-worthy spike asmuchpossibleby deploying avariety of the entirety ofthecampaign.We soughtto amplifythat naturally beoursecondlargest peakinsalesthroughout and across ourclientbasethatrelease weekwould Again, weknewfrom previous pre-orders withShadow Release Week contributed to thetotal pre-order sales. of thisapproach, eachlist-wideemailblastdirectly theremainingto fansto convert purchasers. Asaresult over-message orannoy themandto continueto work to exclude fansthatalready per-ordered soasnotto to justaboutweekly, butleveraged Shopifysalesdata album’s street date,weincreased theemailfrequency items were more effective, etc.Asweapproached the line, whetherphotos, GIFs,orcollagesofthepre-order (vinyl, CDs,posters,etc.)were mentionedinthesubject purchasers andtestedvariables suchaswhichproducts thesedifferentto convert subsetsoffansinto pre-order We alsoconductedasubstantialamountofA/Btesting , onBeats1withZaneLoweaMonday. We then vinylandCD (produced by MassAppeal).

The MountainWillFall “The Sideshow”featuring Ernie packaging reveal video albumcover when The Mountain The Mountain

Beats 1,entitled#Radioface,whichfeatured longerform by thelaunchofShadow’s newradioshowserieson Thursday, the day before albumrelease, wasmarked album campaign. video andthehighest-engaging socialmediapostofthe to Facebook. This resulted inaround 60kviewsonthe using OBSto broadcast apre-recorded videodirectly via FacebookLive Next, weconductedthe distributed across hissocialplatforms. note writtenby Shadowto thankhisfans,whichwas Finally, webeganalbumrelease day withapersonal previews oftracksfrom

forShadow’s videofor“TheSideshow,” first ever musicvideopremiere The MountainWillFall . 17 THE FAME HOUSE STACK release of The highestimpactpost-release milestone was the drive awareness around thealbum. new creative assetsacross Shadow’s digitalchannelsto we continuedto utilize segmentedemailmarketing and Shadow’s latestworkto newlisteners.Aftertherelease, Fall onlymarked thebeginningofourworkto amplify However, theactualstreet dateof Post-Release website traffic. days onrecord intermsofsocialmediaimpressions and of TheMountainWillFall wasoneofthehighestimpact impact of all of thepressand fanexcitement, therelease app. Betweenthesemarketing tacticsandtheorganic across hisemaillist,socialmediachannels,andmobile amplified through Shadow’s sizableownedaudience The albumrelease, newvideosandcontentwere all and acappella versions ofthetrack. release, whichfeatured never-before-heard instrumental 12” vinylofthe single of RuntheJewels.Lastly, wereleased anew, exclusive combination withthesalacious, tongue-in-cheek lyrics capitalized onthesignature lookandfeel ofthevideoin Giphy to generateaseriesof social mediato rave reviews. We with also partnered It wasthenquicklyspread across theblogosphere and Shadow, RuntheJewels,andMassAppealproperties. on August 24th,andthenwaslateruploadedto DJ The videowasfirstpremiered digitally by Funny orDie from “NobodySpeak.” featuring Shadow, KillerMike, andEl-Pposingwithlyrics videowithpoliticalcampaignposters the forthcoming release ofthevideo,weteasedtone ofvoice of since garnered over 7.5millionviews.Leadinginto the featuring RunTheJewelsonAugust 24th,whichhas the officialvideofor“NobodySpeak” in conjunction withthevideo “Nobody Speak”GIFsthat The MountainWill

• • throughout thecourseofcampaign: The followingplatforms/tools were included Technology Stack direct-to-fan merchandise salesever. periods ofdigitalaudiencegrowth, fanengagement,and approach resulted inoneofDJShadow’s highest At theendofday, ourcontent-heavy, longtailrelease that garnered over 100kviews. form ofananimated content derived from the albumcreative assetsinthe tour. We alsocontinuedtherelease ofcustom creative regions to purchase tickets fortheirnearest stop onthe and mobiletour marketing to drive fansinspecific album. We leanedheavily ongeo-targeted social,email, world-wide TheMountainWillFall ofthe tour insupport From here, ourfocusturnedto marketing around the eaming Platforms:SoundCloud, Bandcamp, AppleMusic, Spotify • • • • • • •

Genius Brand24 Str Social Platforms:F Shopify OBS (OpenBr Linkfire Google Analytics GIPHY

oadcast Software)

The MountainWillFall tour trailer acebook, Twitter, Instagram

18 THE FAME HOUSE STACK tech vendor. you’re gettingbefore you signonthedottedline with a vil canbeinthedetails.Tech salespeople the terms,andmake sure you fullyunderstandwhat offers somethingthatitmay notfullyoffer. Read are slick,andthey canbefastto say theirtechnology • everything thenative platformshave to offer. publishing tools, andweneedto beableto utilize sustaining feature paritywitheachplatform’s native emium socialpublishingtools the are notworth investment. We’ve yet to findasolutioncapableof • is generallytrue. resources to maintain.There are exceptions, butthis beyond theplatformfees andlicenses,dedicated they oftenrequire significantadditionalinvestment their promises to save ourteamtime.When they do, each client’s uniqueneeds,andthey rarely live upto they typicallyaren’t flexibleenoughto accommodate right fitforourteam,orclients. For theprice, • polish andprofessionalism, wedonotuseit. omization iskey. Ourclientsandtheirfanswant and ifsomethingdoesn’t alignwithourownstandards of experiences thatare tailored to theirbrandandstory, • See ourwhitepaperonownedaudiencesformore. solutions ourteamwillcomebackto againandagain. valuable forourteamandclients.Theseare ools thatfacilitatebetterways to capture quality fan data(e.g.anemailaddress) are amongthemost • By Katonah Rafter, VP, MARKETING MARKETING TECHNOLOGYLESSONS LEARNED LEARNED A FEWTHINGSWE’VE

The de Pr Enterprise-le Cust T vel solutionsare almostnever the

THE FAME HOUSE STACK

FAMEHOUSE.NET CONTRIBUTORS Shopify Editor-in-Chief, By Tommy Walker Guest Piece

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