Shazam's Marketing Prowess

05 Tools Audiosocket 06-07 Campaigns Selfie, Iggy Azalea, Damon Albarn, Garth Brooks 08-11 Behind The Campaign Romeo Santos JULY 30 2014 sandboxMUSIC MARKETING FOR THE DIGITAL ERA ISSUE 114 tag team Shazam’s marketing prowess COVERFEATURE TAG TEAM: Shazam’s marketing prowess Shazam is much more than just a way of identifying tracks and maybe clicking f you want an example of how big through to purchase them. As it has Shazam has become you can look Ibeyond its 93m monthly active users evolved from a service using a 2580 and 475m total userbase to the simple shortcode a decade ago into a highly fact that – much like Hoover before it and Google now – the company’s name has flexible smartphone app, how it works entered the lexicon as a popular verb. In with artists and labels has come on in fact, in 2014 the idea of saying anything other than “I’ll Shazam that” when using leaps and bounds. Advertising is one your mobile to identify an unknown track component and editorial and competitions sounds faintly ludicrous. offer increasingly powerful strings to its For labels, too, Shazam has become incredibly important, largely driven by the bow. But it is in dissecting and harnessing popularity of its charts, which are a key Big Data that it is really coming into its point of reference for media partners. Radio 1’s head of music George own – a fact only underscored by the Ergatoudis even told Record Of The Day recent move by Warner Music to use it as earlier this year that Shazam was “the a real-time A&R tool. most reliable new data source of recent times” in the market. “It’s a genuinely useful measure of audience passion and we trust the data at the top end of the chart as the user numbers are now in the multiple thousands,” he added. Beyond the tag: getting the most out of Shazam in marketing No wonder, then, that labels are so keen to drive Shazam tags and appear on the service’s various run downs. But the 2 | sandbox | ISSUE 114 | 30.07.14 COVERFEATURE flip side to this devotion is that labels and examples. Warner, meanwhile, has musicians may be missing out on other promised to provide Shazam “with ways in which Shazam can be used for exclusive content and other benefits to promotion. augment the user experience”. With this in mind, we spoke to Will “This area of the business has ramped Mills, Shazam’s VP of music & content, to substantially with Shazam Sessions from find out how labels, artists and managers Clean Bandit, George Ezra, Magic, Nico & can work with Shazam to promote their Vinz, Rixton and Passenger in the last few music in 2014 and beyond. months alone,” Mills says. “Plus there are The most obvious point – and, to exclusive video interviews from artists be fair, something labels have already such as Ed Sheeran, Charli XCX, Jamie N largely cottoned onto – is plain old Commons and many more.” advertising. Shazam ads can be as simple For Shazam, this content will as a clickable banner or as involved as a entice users to spend longer Listening Screen Takeover, an initiative in the app. For labels, it means launched in 2010 that allows advertisers additional exposure for artists to “own” the Shazam listening screen to the social network, the company can importantly, the redesign offered “direct among the thousands of people while a song is being identified. When service adverts through Facebook. access to the music video and additional who have Shazamed their songs, the tag result is then displayed on the videos related to a song”. driving awareness, downloads next screen, the advert becomes an The growing power of and streams. What’s more, the fact expandable, interactive banner. editorial Label partnerships that this initiative is relatively recent “Shazam is a logical place to promote means that Shazam is open to new ideas. your music, to target people who have Shazam is also increasingly creating Shazam has already premiered videos “If you are a new artist with a Shazamed your artist but also [to serve its own editorial content, following the for both Chromeo’s ‘Come Alive’ and compelling piece of content, we can push up] similar sounding acts,” Mills says. launch of a redesigned app in February Wiz Khalifa’s ‘We Dem Boyz’ as part of that out to people who have Shazamed On the one hand, Mills explains that a with News Feed. At the time, the company a wider strategic alliance with Warner your music,” says Mills. “It is a very new, large percentage of people who have said the idea was to make Shazam Music Group that included the launch of fluid space. We are open to ideas if they Shazamed your music will be new fans “the beginning of the journey, a Shazam-branded label and a “highly are interesting.” and therefore very important to reach not the end – whether people are integrated” marketing relationship (see out to. But Shazam advertising can interested in music, TV shows or box). also be used to target similar brands”, essentially encouraging users The mention of “additional videos” sounding, and typically more to spend more time in the app, rather should not be overlooked, however; these successful, acts. than just quickly using it to identify songs. editorial changes means Shazam now “We have labels coming in who have “We want to be an app that people needs its own unique video content – got a budget and a lot of the time they open a lot more,” adds Mills. “You know and labels and artists are in the perfect are targeting banners around similar that when you open Shazam there will be position to provide it. acts,” Mills adds. “For example, a lot something interesting and relevant for This content can take a number of of rock bands want to target their ads you.” forms, from footage of Nico & Vinz around the 1975 [and other rock] bands On a musical level, editorial changes performing at the company’s offices in that have broken.” Shazam also offers include the addition of song lyrics when New York and London to Ed Sheeran off-network targeting on Facebook, so tracks are identified as well as improved filming an exclusive video message if a Shazam user connects their account biographies and discographies. More for Shazam users, to take two recent 3 | sandbox | ISSUE 114 | 30.07.14 COVERFEATURE recent examples of that.” downloads decline and streams become Promotions and Competitions can even extend to an ever-more-important, not to mention competitions serious data-based initiatives that shape chart-worthy, part of the recorded music the artist’s promotional schedule, as business. Competitions are another intriguing was the case with a recent Demi Lovato This could make things rather more way that labels can use Shazam to promotion. In this, fans were encouraged complicated. Shazam has click-to-buy promote their artists, Mills explains. to tag the singer’s Neon Lights single, links with iTunes and Amazon within its “These [competitions] have been very with the data from these tags helping to app, meaning the conversion from tagging popular with Shazam to win such determine which cities Lovato played on a song to monetising it is very simple (i.e. experiences as flying to New York to meet her European tour. tag and buy). But streaming music is less Ellie Goulding, partying with Pitbull in about one simple purchase decision and Vegas on NYE, to more esoteric prizes, Big data and driving sales more to do with consumers returning such as winning the deformed arm prop as well as repeated streams time and again to a song (effectively from a Franz Ferdinand video,” he says. tag and stream and stream and stream “Content-based promotions such as It is an example that not only shows is typically associated with); it also again). offering a free remix or DJ mix also work how a Shazam promotion can work for illustrates the importance of Shazam data Shazam has number of streaming well, with Rudimental, Chris Malinchak musical stars (as well as the upfront for the promotional process (A&R too, partners in place, depending on the and Goldfish’s Organic House being dance and hip-hop acts that the service although that’s a whole different story). territory (Deezer and Rdio in the UK), and Data can, of course, come from recently agreed a partnership with Rdio hundreds of different sources in the that allows full-song playback within digital music sphere but – in collecting its app (previously users could tap a WARNER MUSIC GROUP AND SHAZAM data from people who have actively button to play a song within the relevant reached for their phones in response streaming service’s app). Mills doesn’t In February Warner Music announced “We are also eager to use our deep to a tune – Shazam can pretty much say it but the press release announcing plans for a Shazam-branded label data and advanced promotional guarantee that its numbers comes from the Rdio deal earlier this month referred within WMG and “enhanced solutions combined with exclusive engaged music fans as opposed to those to “full song playback, currently powered marketing” for Warner acts. content from WMG to help artists who might casually follow an artist on by Rdio”, leaving the door open to other engage with their fans and sell more Twitter. in-app streaming partners – an intriguing Shazam CEO Rich Riley called the music.” “Getting your phone out to thought for the future.

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