We have talked about our integration with SoundCloud in the past. Our platforms support multiple integration points with SoundCloud in both our Tweematic and Facebook applications, this includes support for SoundCloud at a content, widget and API level.

Tweematic – Listening Party
Our Tweematic platform is one of the best options for hosting Twitter (and Facebook) based online listening parties. While most of our listening party applications use our own secure music player that leverages the same Amazon S3 back end that SoundCloud does, client have a broad range of options to choose from. Our Tweematic applications are able to leverage both the SoundCloud API or the SoundCloud player widget itself, as well as other third party options.

The My Darkest Days Listening Party Tweematic we developed for Island Def Jam is a great example of this type SoundCloud integration.

Our The Wanted Stream and Share Jukebox application (also built on our Tweematic platform), demonstrate an even tighter integration in which the SoundCloud API is used to both stream tracks and populate the message field fans use to share their favorite The Wanted tracks using Twitter or Facebook.

Facebook – Song Premieres
We have done several multi-day song premiere applications (including this Radio Co-branded one for Kellie Pickler) that utilize the SoundCloud player.

This is another Facebook application for Sony Nashville artist Casey James that combines a Co-branded multi-day song premiere application that uses a SoundCloud player in conjunction with our custom sweepstakes application.

We have also integrated the SoundCloud player into a broad range of other social media applications for both Twitter and Facebook.

Perhaps our most popular (and successful) photo booth application of all times, the One Direction photo booth application was build on the latest version of our photo booth application platform.  Launched 2 weeks prior to Valentine’s day 2012, this application allowed fans to upload pictures of themselves, select a band member and then create and share a composite photo of them being kissed (or kissing) a member of One Direction. Some of the high level features include:

Main Application:

Gallery:

We have done a couple of rather successful partner widget campaigns with a unique twist (QR codes). The idea is simple: give media partners (sites with large amounts of traffic) song premiere music widgets that they embedded on their sites.  For example, with the Pistol Annies album launch, we had 5 different song widgets (one for each song) on 5 different sites. The widgets, which were promoted by each site, allowed fans to hear a new single from the album for the first time. Once they listened to the single in its entirely they were able to scan a QR code or click the widget in order to unlock and collect one of five badges. Once they unlocked and collected all 5 badges, they were able to enter in a sweepstakes for a chance to win a flyaway to meet with the band.

This is also a good examples of some of the multi-component comprehensive campaigns we have been involved in. Here are some of the components.

Microsite:
We designed a microsite, hosted on the Pistol Annies website, that served as the start-point and

Widget:
The widget itself was developed in Flash and delivered via the Amazon CDN to ensure it would reliably and cost-effectively deliver over a million views during a week period.  The widget featured a pre-order link to iTunes, as well as links to the rules and information about the promotion. Once a user finished streaming a song, it unlocked a QR code/link they could use. This encouraged users to listen to the whole song.

Partner Sites:
The widget was premiered on 5 different partners sites (one each day) including the Pistol Annies website. Partners included: US Magazine, Country Weekly, The Boot (AOL) and Billboard Magazine.

Mobile Sweepstakes Application:
The QR code on the widget linked back to a “universal mobile application”. This application allowed fans to unlock, collect (and share) Pistol Annies badges. Badges could be shared on Facebook or Twitter.

Once all five badges were collected, fans were then able to enter the sweepstakes. The mobile application automatically remembered who they were, so logging in was not necessary.  The application was built on HTML5 and jQuery mobile and was accessible from the broad range of both desktop and mobile browsers.

We recently deployed one of our first Pinterest applications on The Band Perry Facebook Page. Although the official Pinterest API is not yet available, we have tried to develop marketing applications for the platform sooner as opposed to later, to try give our clients a competitive advantage (aka head start). Pinterest is not nearly as big as Facebook or even Twitter, but we feel that establishing a beachhead early on is always a good idea.

You can checkout some of the results of our first automated “Pin-It to Win It” Pinterest sweepstakes that uses our “pincard” engine here: http://pinterest.com/source/2pin.in/ (we have developed other engines including: the fan pinboard, photo framing applications, and voting engines for use on Pinterest).

The idea behind the application is simple: Have fans create and share user generated content (postcards) in order to participate in a sweepstakes. The “user generated” content builds on The Band Perry branded postcards and allows users to select their favorite lyrics and adds their own photo to make the postcards personal and unique. By pinning and sharing them on Pinterest (and other social networks) and by following the client (BMLG), they are automatically entered into a sweepstakes to win an autographed The Band Perry CD.  The application also allows and encourages fans to listen to a snippet of the song (from SoundCloud) and purchase the album on iTunes, Amazon or listen to it on Spotify.  Also clicking on the postcard on Pinterest takes you directly back to the application! (See Here..)

Another unique feature of this implementation is that we are hosting it as a Facebook tab and are also promoting The Band Perry nomination as part of the 2012 CMT Music Awards.

We recently developed a mobile music application for EMI CMG that was designed to reward TobyMac’s Moze mobile mob fans by allowing them to stream his new single “Me Without You”. This web-based application leveraged jQuery Mobile (a touch-optimized web framework that provides a HTML5-based user interface all popular mobile device platforms) and a HTML5 to allow universal access from both mobile and desktop devices. Since the link to the application and the message was going to go out as a mobile text (SMS) message to TobyMac’s mobile fan, it was essential the application work on as many mobile devices as possible. Leveraging jQuery Mobile ensured universal accessibility on the broadest range of mobile and desktop platform and supporting secure audio playback on these platforms was accomplished using our custom HTML5 music player.  The application also supported sharing on Facebook and Twitter (through our Tweematic engine) as well as the ability for fans to “Like” the link (or artist) directly from within the application.
 
 
Key features and functionality included:

• Universal platform support via jQuery Mobile (desktop, mobile, i.e.)
• Custom HTML5–based secure audio player
• Sharing via Twitter and Facebook
• Facebook “Like” support
• Tracking and analytics
• Scheduling support (song was only available for 7 hours)
• Email support (for resolving access issues) 

We recently started a series on Pinterest for Music marketing. We touched on which music labels were using the new social image sharing service and how they were using it to promote their artists and music.  In addition to their own marketing efforts, labels are encouraging some of their artist to become active on Pinterest.  Pinterest definately makes sense for artist, such as Reba, who have their own fashion lines or strong merchandise offerings. Others like Martina McBride have a fashion flare they want to share with fans, but as the list below demonstrates, there are a lot of other ways artists can promote their music on Pinterest.

Here are some examples of artists currently using Pinterest:

• Lady Antebellum
• Lyrics, Music Videos, Webisodes, Tour, Individual Band Member Boards 
• Keith Urban
• Official Photos, Lyrics, Merch, Things I Love
• Sara Evans (Sony Nashville)
• Products I Love, My Style, Books, Music, Merch
• He is We (UMG)
• Large number of boards and followers
• Reba (Big Machine)
• Focused on fashion merchandise
• Martina McBride (Big Machine)
• Videos, Makeup, Recipes, Home Decor, Quotes, Cool Stuff
• Neon Trees (IDJ)
• Cool, Music, Style, Art
• Canaan Smith (UMG)
• I Love My Fans, My Favorite Things, Humor, My Fashion
• Rascal Flatts (Big Machine)
• Favorite Places & Spaces, Products I Love, My Style, Music
• Carrie Underwood (Arista Nashville)
• Carrie Underwood (0 pins)
• Ronnie Dunn (Arista Nashville)
• Kix Brooks (Arista Nashville)
• Train (Columbia Records)
• Our Favorites, Wine, Music, San Francisco
• Backstreet Boys (Jive)
• Large number of boards and followers
• Alanis Morissette (MCA Canada)
• Alanis’ Scrapbook, Alanis Recommends…, Candid Videos, Favorite Quotes, Music Videos, Articles, Live Performances
• Fueled By Ramen (Fearless Records)
• Music Videos To Watch!, New Fueled By Ramen Merch, VersaEmerge Merch, A Rocket To The Moon Merc, Cobra Starship Merch, Paramore Merch, Panic! at the Disco Merch, Fun. Merch, Gym Class Heroes Merch
• Michelle Branch (Reprise Nashville)
• Art, Favorite Places and Spaces, Food and Recipes, Photography, Things I Like, Now Playing, Random