Metablocks http://www.metablocks.com Social Media Applications for Music Sun, 13 May 2012 21:38:28 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Album Premier using Partner Widgets + QR Codes http://www.metablocks.com/2012/05/album-premier-using-partner-widgets-qr-codes/ http://www.metablocks.com/2012/05/album-premier-using-partner-widgets-qr-codes/#comments Wed, 09 May 2012 15:36:05 +0000 admin http://www.metablocks.com/?p=956 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

blog Album Premier using Partner Widgets + QR Codes

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.

widget Album Premier using Partner Widgets + QR Codes

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.

blog2 600 Album Premier using Partner Widgets + QR Codes

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.

pistol iphone1 600 Album Premier using Partner Widgets + QR Codes
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.

iphone mock 600 Album Premier using Partner Widgets + QR Codes

]]> http://www.metablocks.com/2012/05/album-premier-using-partner-widgets-qr-codes/feed/ 0 The Band Perry Pinterest Application In Action http://www.metablocks.com/2012/05/the-band-perry-pinterest-application-in-action/ http://www.metablocks.com/2012/05/the-band-perry-pinterest-application-in-action/#comments Wed, 09 May 2012 02:23:13 +0000 admin http://www.metablocks.com/?p=948 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).

results The Band Perry Pinterest Application In Action
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..)

example The Band Perry Pinterest Application In Action
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.

ss2 The Band Perry Pinterest Application In Action

]]> http://www.metablocks.com/2012/05/the-band-perry-pinterest-application-in-action/feed/ 0 Mobile Music Applications http://www.metablocks.com/2012/05/mobile-music-applications/ http://www.metablocks.com/2012/05/mobile-music-applications/#comments Thu, 03 May 2012 16:05:04 +0000 admin http://www.metablocks.com/?p=943 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.
 
 toby1 Mobile Music Applications
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) 
]]> http://www.metablocks.com/2012/05/mobile-music-applications/feed/ 0 How Music Artist are Using Pinterest http://www.metablocks.com/2012/05/how-music-artist-are-using-pinterest/ http://www.metablocks.com/2012/05/how-music-artist-are-using-pinterest/#comments Thu, 03 May 2012 13:47:33 +0000 admin http://www.metablocks.com/?p=934 main pinterest4b How Music Artist are Using Pinterest

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:

 

]]> http://www.metablocks.com/2012/05/how-music-artist-are-using-pinterest/feed/ 0 Staring your Own Mix Competition! http://www.metablocks.com/2012/04/staring-your-own-mix-competition/ http://www.metablocks.com/2012/04/staring-your-own-mix-competition/#comments Wed, 25 Apr 2012 23:07:13 +0000 admin http://www.metablocks.com/?p=931 The brilliant marketing minds at EMI CMG took our Facebook Remix Application and by creating a contest component, added more virality to our application. Always love when our clients come up with brilliant marketing ideas that perhaps we didn’t think of. Our Remix App supports and generates unique short URLs (http://2mix.es/tobymac-504, http://2mix.es/tobymac-537, i.e.) for each remix, which makes contests like this possible!

competition Staring your Own Mix Competition!

In addition to their marketing efforts on Facebook, the team also took their message to Twitter, promoting both the contest and winners via @TheRealTobyMac

t2 Staring your Own Mix Competition!

]]> http://www.metablocks.com/2012/04/staring-your-own-mix-competition/feed/ 0 Campaign Overview: Like for Love? Faebook Application http://www.metablocks.com/2012/04/campaign-overview-like-for-love-faebook-application/ http://www.metablocks.com/2012/04/campaign-overview-like-for-love-faebook-application/#comments Fri, 20 Apr 2012 16:17:46 +0000 admin http://www.metablocks.com/?p=926 Last year we helped launched a great campaign for Island Def Jam artist Jennifer Lopez to help promote her new album LOVE? The ideas was simple: Fans could unlock new singles from the album early on iTunes by “Liking” them. We used an innovative “JLOVE? Meter” to measure the number of likes as part of this “Like It To Unlock It” campaign.

The Facebook page we designed had a number of unique campaign components that all worked together to spread the word. These included:

  • “Like It To Unlock It” Module: Each week for 3 weeks fans were able to watch a YouTube video of a new JLO single, and like it, in order to help unlock it on iTunes.
  • “Share and Enter to Win” Module: Fans were able to enter a sweepstakes for a chance to win a trip to the finale of American Idol in return for sharing information about the promotion.
  • “Unique Link Sharing” Engine: Fans were able to generate and share a unique link to the promotion. Each “share” counted towards an entry in the sweepstakes. Fans were able to keep track of how many people clicked on their shared links and a console allow them to share their link via email, social networks, and even text messaging.
  • Discussions: Allowed fans to post comments. These comments were also posted on their newsfeeds and linked back to the promotion.

main Campaign Overview: Like for Love? Faebook Application

]]> http://www.metablocks.com/2012/04/campaign-overview-like-for-love-faebook-application/feed/ 0 Marketing Applications for Pinterest: An Introduction http://www.metablocks.com/2012/04/marketing-applications-for-pinterest-an-introduction/ http://www.metablocks.com/2012/04/marketing-applications-for-pinterest-an-introduction/#comments Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:27:50 +0000 admin http://www.metablocks.com/?p=909 We recently started developing a platform for deploying Pinterest marketing applications. Those of you familiar with Metablocks, already know about our industry-leading Tweematic (Twitter) marketing platform and our broad range of Facebook application offerings for music labels and other entertainment brands. Our “Pin It” suite of Pinterest applications, builds on our strong background in social media marketing and technology and is probably the first attempt by any technology solutions provider to automate marketing on this new social image sharing service.

Although Pinterest doesn’t yet have a publicly available API (its private one is used internally by the company), you can expect our platform to grow and improve that public API’s become available. Our current offerings for Pinterest represent current best practicies so you can expect them to grow as we deploy future marketing campaigns. Here are some drafts of applications we currently have in beta. In you are interest in Pinterest applications or have ideas on how our platform can enable a campaign you would like to launch, please feel free to drop us a line.

Big Machine Records – The Band Perry
“Pin” It to Win Sweepstakes + Post Card Engine

bb11 Marketing Applications for Pinterest: An Introduction

Overbrook Entertainment  –Willlow Smith
“Pin” It to Win Sweepstakes + Fan Board Engine

willow Marketing Applications for Pinterest: An Introduction

Overbrook Entertainment – Jada Pinkett Smith
 “Pin” It to Win Sweepstakes + Photo Voting Enginebb31 Marketing Applications for Pinterest: An Introduction

IDJ – The Wanted
“Pin” It to Win Sweepstakes + Fan Board Engine

bb21 Marketing Applications for Pinterest: An Introduction

]]> http://www.metablocks.com/2012/04/marketing-applications-for-pinterest-an-introduction/feed/ 0 How Music Labels are Using Pinterest to Market Music: Examples & Best Practices http://www.metablocks.com/2012/04/how-music-labels-are-using-pinterest-to-market-music-examples-best-practices/ http://www.metablocks.com/2012/04/how-music-labels-are-using-pinterest-to-market-music-examples-best-practices/#comments Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:32:07 +0000 admin http://www.metablocks.com/?p=878 main pinterest3 How Music Labels are Using Pinterest to Market Music: Examples & Best Practices

No doubt, by now, you have all heard about Pinterest, the hot new pinboard-style social photo sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections.  Pinterest is still new and brands, including music labels, are still figuring out how to make the best marketing use of it. In the 1st post in our 5–part “Pinterest for Music Marketing” series we took a look at a list of music labels already active on Pinterest. This 2nd post examines in more detail how some of these music labels are using Pinterest, in hopes of sharing examples and best practices with others in the industry. Here is a run down (by category) of Pinterest usage examples and best practices when it comes to music marketing:

Best Practices

  • Go for the low-hanging fruit: Album covers, photos, artwork. When posting include item description, release dates and don’t forget a link to buy it (you can also link images directly to iTunes, a great way to drive sales)
  • Generate lyric graphics
    • Easy way to turn music into pictures. Pinterest equivalent of lyrics videos on Youtube
  • Signup all your artists
    • One VP of marketing smartly asked his marketing folks to signup all their artist. Great idea since having a presence and avoiding “land grab” problems such as name swquatting helps.
  • Focus on the best fit
    • If you can’t (or simply don’t want to) sign up all your artist – then proceed artist by artist and focus only on artists that have a good fit with Pinterest.
  • Go International
  • Build relationships
    • A number of labels are pursuing strategic relationships with Pinterest to better promote their artists
  • Consider creating boards for artists, themes, and genres
  • Please don’t follow too many fans
    • A carry over from Twitter: Follow me and I’ll follow you, just don’t do it!
  • Please follow your artists and your sister (or mother) labels
    • Help fans find more
  • Obviously, get the basics right.  Create an account, upload a decent logo, enter your profile info, connect your account to Twitter and Facebook, create some boards (and put something in them!), tag artist when posting
  • Add Pinterest sharing capabilities to your social media apps (we do that on as many applications that make sense, and some that don’t)
  • Engage with fans, see who is pinning your stuff (http://pinterest.com/source/interscope.com, i.e)

See Entire 5 Part Pinterest For Music Marketing Series…

 

]]> http://www.metablocks.com/2012/04/how-music-labels-are-using-pinterest-to-market-music-examples-best-practices/feed/ 0 Music Labels Using Pinterest: Overview http://www.metablocks.com/2012/04/music-labels-using-pinterest-overview/ http://www.metablocks.com/2012/04/music-labels-using-pinterest-overview/#comments Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:02:52 +0000 admin http://www.metablocks.com/?p=868 main pinterest2 Music Labels Using Pinterest: Overview
This post is part of our 5 part series titled: Pinterest For Music Marketing

Pinterest has nearly five million users and is growing rapidly. Nearly 1.5 million unique users visit Pinterest daily, spending an average of 15 minutes a day on the site. That’s enough to make anyone care, including music labels. Many labels have already started using Pinterest. As one of our clients at UMG put it “Right now it’s about having a presence and hoping that it helps with referrals”. A marketing executive at Big Machine, one of the music labels already putting their Pinterest account to good use, has found that visual representation of artists including album artwork and lyrics or quotes can easily be shared and pinned. The label has already started using Pinterest to share quotes, album covers, awards and events photos (most of which brilliantly link back to iTunes). A number of labels have embraced Pinterest by creating themed Pinterest boards to promote their artists (Dress Like a Rock Star, Born This Way, Inked, i.e.) and individual artists boards. Others are encouraging their artists to use the site. Some labels like Sony and EMI have gone on an international land grab, creating Pinterest accounts for even the most obscure geographic markets, while others are playing wait and see.  Still, most labels are trying to figure Pinterest out and understand its effectiveness.  Music labels we spoke with that are not yet on Pinterest have it on their to-do list or are pursuing Pinterest opportunities on an artist by artist basis.

There is a list of music labels using Pinterest to market their artists and their music. Be sure to check out “How Music Labels are Using Pinterest“ – the 2nd post in our 5–part “Pinterest for Music Marketing” series. Be sure to signup for our newsletter if you haven’t already done so.

Music Labels Using Pinterest:

Examples:

cc11 Music Labels Using Pinterest: Overview

cc2 Music Labels Using Pinterest: Overview

cc3 Music Labels Using Pinterest: Overview

See Examples of  How Music Labels are Using Pinterest…

]]> http://www.metablocks.com/2012/04/music-labels-using-pinterest-overview/feed/ 0 Music Artist New Facebook Cover Gallery: 101 Examples http://www.metablocks.com/2012/04/artist-facebook-cover-gallery-examples/ http://www.metablocks.com/2012/04/artist-facebook-cover-gallery-examples/#comments Mon, 02 Apr 2012 20:45:09 +0000 admin http://www.metablocks.com/?p=814 It’s official, as of March 30th all Facebook pages have switched to the new timeline/cover format.  Most music labels (and artists) have had time to spruce up their new Facebook pages (last week we looked at examples of  music label cover pages).  If you are still looking for ideas, or are wondering what is out there, here is sample of 101 artist cover pages. Vote for ones you like and we’ll share the results in future post!

feature1 Music Artist New Facebook Cover Gallery: 101 Examples Other Cover/Timeline Related Articles:
]]> http://www.metablocks.com/2012/04/artist-facebook-cover-gallery-examples/feed/ 0