Results tagged “marketing” from Life's a Pitch

Via fellow ArtsJournal blogger CultureGrrl via The Onion, this attendance-boosting initiative from the Metropolitan Museum of Art:

NEW YORK--Hoping to boost attendance and broaden its base of supporters, the Metropolitan Museum of Art launched a new initiative this week that allows patrons, for the first time ever, to prod and scratch at the classic paintings in its revered collection.

"Though it contains more than two million pieces and represents a profound legacy of artistic achievement, most people remain completely indifferent to our museum," Met director Thomas P. Campbell said. "So we decided to try something a little different and give visitors a chance to experience our timeless works of art up close and personal."

Added Campbell, "Please, bring the whole family and smudge up our paintings as much as you want."

And the response?

Gerard Schmidt, a retired banker who lives near the Met, said he had never much cared for museums until he was given the chance to manhandle one of Monet's Water Lilies.

"At first it just looked like a picture of a bunch of lily pads, but then I started scraping at it with my pocket knife and the whole painting just sort of spoke to me," Schmidt said. "For the first time, I finally understand what Monet was trying to get across in her work."

A new trend?

And the cash-strapped Boston Symphony Orchestra has created a special "Jam Night" during which audience members can come up onstage to play along with the orchestra, improvise lyrics, or just twirl around waving colored scarves.

You may have heard somewhere that Gustavo Dudamel takes over as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic next week. There have been a couple small news items on the subject. It seems like only yesterday that he and Hilary were performing Mozart for The Pope's 80th birthday. They grow up so fast, don't they?

Much as it kills me softly to give the man more press, there was an interesting post over at Sequenza21 earlier this week about how Gustavo Dudamel is talked about in LA Philharmonic press releases. Here is the release excerpt from Sequenza21:

On September 24, 2009, the LA Phil launched a microsite celebrating the arrival of incoming Music Director Gustavo Dudamel. Introducing audiences worldwide to Gustavo in new and engaging ways, the comprehensive microsite, located at http://www.laphil.com/gustavo, features videos such as Gustavo's first rehearsal with the YOLA Expo Center Youth Orchestra, the LA Phil's video tribute "Welcome Gustavo," and the press conferences unveiling Gustavo's inaugural season and appointment as 11th Music Director of the LA Phil.  Visitors can also take a multimedia journey through Gustavo's life with tiling photographs, video and biographical text.  The latest Gustavo-related news and newly recorded audio and video content will be added to the microsite as Gustavo's exciting inaugural season progresses.

What's that you say? You got carpal tunnel from playing the Dudamel game all afternoon on Friday? Well then, there's no point in doing any work today now is there? You should really let yourself mend.

If you're in New York, you can spend this afternoon chasing down two tickets to Carnegie Hall's opening night concert, which is this Thursday, October 1 and has a major harp component, woot. Carnegie has been Tweeting clues here all day, and if you can find their people from 5-7pm tonight, you can enter your name into a raffle for a pair of tickets. The most recent clue is, "Duke Ellington and Grateful Dead performed on this stage. Today, concerts here promote young composers and conductors."

My friend Joe sent this over yesterday:



As the proud owner of Emma, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park and the BBC Pride and Prejudice mini-series, I can assure those of you whose DVD collections may not be as bumpin' that the way this preview is filmed is spot-on stylistically. I didn't think it was laugh-out-loud hilarious, but it does kind of make me want to read the book.

I've never actually seen a good trailer for an opera, have you? I've seen ads with performance clips that are nicely edited, but nothing produced and designed like this. Perhaps creating a movie-esque trailer for a play, musical or opera would be false advertising; people would show up and expect something closer to a film. Or maybe a professionally done YouTube clip would get the attention of potential audiences who are just more comfortable with the movie preview format, but would be willing to give live performance a try if it was creatively marketed to them.

I was en route to Molyvos last night and, even though I was extremely late and exceedingly hot, I stopped to look at the striking, massive images lining Carnegie Hall's 7th avenue wall. Just one other thing in the four years I've lived in New York (two of which were spent working next to Carnegie Hall) has stopped me outside that building, and that was when I was inexplicably, over-the-top attracted to one of Thomas Adès' press photos. Oh, here it is:

(I sleep with a copy under my pillow every night.)

Carnegie has been running a "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" ad campaign around the city this summer (most notably on subway platform walls), and frankly I'm thrilled to see them hemorrhaging money on such a worthy endeavor. The ads are eye-catching, contemporary and aesthetically appealing while not compromising Carnegie's existing image and what the institution stands for. Now, they've blown up the performance shots used in the campaign for the 7th avenue Zankel wall, and it really looks fantastic. Wallking by the building, you actually get a sense of what goes on in there, which is as it should be. Great things do go on in there! Great things that are not so much expressed by press shots of pianists in front of their pianos.  It's not TV screens or music, but I'll take it.


From the Hilton Corridor of Penn Station:

When the working week is done, I like to interview friends and colleagues about specific marketing and publicity topics. This week we have C.J. Camerieri, a frequent collaborator of my client Gabriel Kahane's, discussing how he's navigating the promotion of his new new-music ensemble yMusic. For an interview with yMusic co-founder Rob Moose from - coincidentally enough - exactly one year ago, click here.


C.J. Camerieri, a Brooklyn-based trumpet player, enjoys an active and diverse career as a freelance performer.  Since completing his classical training at Juilliard, he has become an indispensable collaborator for numerous indie rock groups. He has toured the world as a member of Rufus Wainwright's band and as the lead soloist in Sufjan Steven's horn section. Additionally, he has recorded extensively as a trumpet player, arranger, french hornist, and pianist with Sufjan Stevens, Rufus Wainwright, David Byrne, Antony and the Johnsons, Martha Wainwright, Loudon Wainwright III, Gabriel Kahane, The National, Julia Stone, Jesse Harris, Baby Dee, Diane Birch, Joan Osbourne, Sean Lennon, Harper Simon, Clare and the Reasons, Welcome Wagon, Anthony Coleman, Argento New Music Ensemble, Riverside Symphony, and the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra. C.J. was recently appointed principal trumpet of the American Composer's Orchestra, plays on numerous Broadway shows, and frequently performs with such groups as the New York City Ballet, Orchestra of St. Luke's, I.C.E., Riverside Symphony, and Argento New Music Ensemble.


All the members of yMusic play for other ensembles, orchestras and bands throughout the city. How are you cultivating a 1. unified and 2. unique identity as a group while, at least for the time being, you're all affiliated with other groups?

We feel that by working with other ensembles, orchestras, and bands we are strengthening our individual reputations as collaborators which in turn strengthens yMusic's collective reputation. One of the unique assets to being in yMusic is that we are all proud of the work each other does outside of the group and are happy to have ourselves represented through their work.


It seems to me that one of the selling points of yMusic is the diversity of your members' artistic pursuits. Do you think yMusic's profile in the, for lack of a better description, "new music" world depends on making your process and background accessible to the public? That is, when you're playing as yMusic on stage, do you want the audience to be thinking about how one group member may have just come from recording with Sufjan and the other may be coming from the South Pacific pit, or should they take the ensemble as singular entity?

I do think that our process and background should be made clear to the audience. We like to think that the Way in which we perform and What we perform will make it clear to audiences that we are comfortable and experienced performing in many different sorts of artistic endeavors. I feel like this is an important part of yMusic in that we approach "new classical music" from the perspective of a pop musician and we approach "pop music" from the perspective of a classical musician. This solves a lot of each genre's shortcomings in accessibility and quality.  


You recently launched a website on which members blog from home or on the road. Is everyone in the group committed to blogging? Do you plan when you're going to post, or is the idea that the yMusic site serves as a personal blog for all members and you post when inspiration strikes?
 
One of the things we discussed in our first meeting as a group was the importance of a dedicated internet presence that everyone must be involved in. If we have noticed that a certain member of the group hasn't posted something in a while - we may provide some gentle nudging - but the blog is generally reserved for when inspiration strikes.


Twenty - maybe even ten? - years ago, the extent of ensembles' and soloists' "audience outreach" was post concert discussions, CD signings, and press interviews.  Today, you're practically expected to live-Tweet while playing the trumpet. Do you think the expectation that artists will be in constant contact with fans has detracted from artistic pursuits?

I think that it has torn down the wall between an artist's life onstage and offstage. This has been good for the fans because they have greater insight into who this artist is - but it has also become quite invasive to the artist. I can certainly imagine that having your personal life invaded in such a way could infringe on your ability to concentrate on your work.


Presumably the point of hosting a blog is that current and future yMusic audience members will get to know the different personalities in the group. As a performer, can you tell when you're playing for an audience who knows you - even if they've just read your bio or one blog post - versus for an audience who knows nothing about you?  

Yes! One of greatest parts about playing "pop music" is playing music for people who have a deep love for the music and the musicians performing it. I'm glad that people like Nico Muhly or Jeremy Denk are also tapping into this resource to make contact with fans in a way that classical music hadn't done nearly enough of before them. People are interested in the music and in knowing the performers and it only serves the music and ourselves to give them an opportunity to get to know who we are and how the music comes to fruition.


How are you liking the administrative aspects of organizing/booking/marketing an ensemble? Obviously, the drawback is that these things are time-consuming. But what are the benefits of artist-driven organizations?

It is time consuming but so far it's been exciting and fun. Those administrative tasks are so important in molding the group around our artistic vision that it seems as integral as performing the music. It's also been an amazing opportunity to learn how the business works.


As previously mentioned, members of yMusic perform with other similar ensembles. In speaking and writing about it, how do you distinguish yMusic from the pack without putting down friends and colleagues in the process?

This can be a little tricky. Luckily each member of the group has a singular, almost peerless, musical identity that can be spoken of in a way that doesn't diminish the talents of others. For instance, one can speak about Rob [Moose]'s talents as a violinist, guitarist, mandolinist, without drawing immediate comparisons with other violinists. I personally have been working on my french horn playing and piano playing for the same reason. We also reside in a pretty unique place in the present musical landscape and want to continue to solidify our brand without comparing it to others.


Let's talk about you for a moment, shall we? How do you promote yourself as a solo artist amidst all this? When does self-promotion start to reflect badly on your collaborators and fellow ensemble members? What's the balance?

I haven't been especially interested, at least up to this point in my career, in developing a solo career. It's something that I've begun to contemplate and I am confronting those exact same questions. I feel that artists are wary sometimes of musicians who may be using them to promote their own solo career - and this is a problem I have avoided thus far with my lack of ambition in my own solo career. I generally am not a fan of solo trumpet music or musicians and so I am wary of jumping into that very shallow pool. That being said, I work with so many fantastic composers who write so well for me that hopefully it is something that happens at some point. I'm just hoping it happens organically.  


You've played in the pits for a lot of Broadway shows, though you wouldn't know it from the lack of preview tickets I've been offered. Do the show marketers ever enlist the help of the musicians in marketing and publicizing productions?

NO! and sorry......


Remember when your trumpet solo in 'Fake Empire' was blasted to the known universe on election night?  That was cool.

Indeed!

I'm sure you'll be shocked to read that I love when marketing matters come up in critical reviews. This is funny stuff, from writer Doyle Armbrust at Time Out Chicago:

Head over to the Harris Theater entrance on Randolph. Observe any instrument-lugging musician's reaction to the Lang Lang promo on the Harris's video screens. If it's anything other than eye rolling, chances are that musician is busy texting. Attempting to channel his inner Run-DMC with a pair of glistening black Adidas, the Chinese pianist's head is thrown back in a moment of perfectly staged, grotesquely self-involved ecstasy. It's not that classical music couldn't benefit from some image upgrades, but it's hard to see this as anything other than a product.

Not having seen it for myself in Chicago, I would guess this is the photo in question:

Armbrust goes on to write:

Fortunately, most classical superstars are more focused on the quality of their technique than on casting their eyes downward and mussing their hair. Susan Graham is one such artist.

...at worst, her publicity shots resemble your eccentric aunt from Santa Barbara.

...With her uninhibited navigation of the French texts and effortless movement among the cabaret, the salon and the grave top in these songs, the profundity is reserved for the concert, rather than the photo session.

It seems every time a classical artist gives themselves or gets that "image upgrade", they are criticized for it. Sure, glistening golden sneakers and a violin where a bra (or perhaps a shirt) should be may not have been the best photo concepts on the planet, but these artists are doing something different and presumably - for better or worse - accurately reflecting themselves. Lang Lang likes sneakers and that's how he plays the piano; truth in advertising, like the truth or not.

Susan Graham's "eccentric aunt" photos may have been her version of an image upgrade. An artist not wearing his or her glasses in a photo, or not sitting in front of a piano ("I play the piano, and to prove it, I will sit in front of one in this photo.") may be versions of upgrades.  But the drastic image changes, call them upgrades or even downgrades, are very quickly dismissed as distracting, as eye-roll generating. Susan Graham looking like your aunt in photos does not make her a great artist. She happens to be a great artist, but one thing has nothing to do with the other. 

Touring classical musicians are public figures, and with that should come a degree of image awareness and attention. Why then, when an artist has publicity photos that demonstrate an awareness of style, wears concert attire that he or she is comfortable performing in, or has a less traditional haircut, does it necessarily mean he or she is less focused or less committed to The Art? Anne-Sophie Mutter starts wearing strapless gowns and the press talks about it for a decade. Anna Netrekbo is style savvy and beautiful; surely that means she has a less powerful instrument.  But X Opera Star is overweight and hasn't taken a new press photo since 1976: now THERE's an ARTIST! Time spent shopping, at personal trainer sessions and at make-up consultations are not necessarily hours that could be spent at voice lessons. This Image Conscious v. Serious Artist debate seems exclusive to our special industry. Yes, an actor or actress may be criticized for a bad red carpet style decision, but that commentary does not extend to a discussion about his or her acting abilities or role decisions. 

Classical musicians are damned if they do and damned if they don't. Those who make new aesthetic decisions are criticized and mocked, while artists who remain aesthetically constant will garner complaints from - let's call it/us the "far left"; they're not reaching new audiences, they're catering to the old guard, they're boring. What I care about, as mentioned above, is honest reflections: if that photo/outfit/haircut is you, then go for it with the highest degree of quality you can, and pay no mind to the eye-rolls on either side of the divide.

What is even going on here.

I was reading my client Michael Gordon's Pitchfork review from 2004 to see if I deemed it worthy to put in a press kit just now, and I clicked on the 5 Gum banner ad in an attempt to send my friend James a link to the new "Zing" gum (he says "zing!" a lot, OK?). Instead of a Zing or a 5 Gum website, I got to this.


5 Gum's marketing campaign is just a super imeem page?? Fair enough: what could they possibly say about gum at this point? Might has well push Katie Perry and Lady Gaga associations and throw people off a bit. Also, The Brunettes, School of Seven Bells, and Fleet Foxes are actually cool; what the deuce kind of awesome marketing intern does 5 Gum have working for them??

This makes for a great argument for a complete lack of boilerplate marketing copy. When promoting a concert, why not just link to a playlist of the music? Actually, when marketing anything - a play, a dance performance, a museum exhibition - why not create a unique playlist? It's free and more interesting than any words you could possibly use.

5 has a playlist for each type of gum and is asking viewers to vote for their favorite playlists:

Solstice seems to be most squarely in my iTunes camp. I wonder what it tastes like. I guess I willl buy it and find out. Marketing logic dictates that if I like what it sounds like, I'll like what it tastes like, right?

For what it's worth ((nothing)), I'm declaring 5 Gum the Official Gum of Life's a Pitch. All three readers must now chew it exclusively.

I was out and about on the Lower East Side on Monday night and at one bar, my friends and I were greeted with promotional The Ugly Truth shot glasses and napkins.

[Yes, I was the girl taking pictures of shot glasses for her classical music PR blog at the bar. That is, in fact, how I get all the boys.]

Every time I see an expensive mainstream promotion like this I crack myself up thinking about how the same promotion would be applied to classical music (also how I get all the boys). For example, will Deutsche Grammophon be creating promotional Hilary Hahn Bach Arias shot glasses in January? One of my summer interns suggested King's Singers collectible shot glasses, each with a different guy's head on it (collect all six!). I told her that that was remarkably similar to my King's Singers bobblehead idea, which I'm still trying to sell to the team.

Shot glasses are so amazingly trashy, though, that coming across an A Flowering Tree at Mostly Mozart August 2009 one at some Lower East Side dive bar would just make my summer.

I missed the 2/3 train at 14th street at an embarrassingly late hour last night because I was taking a faux toe of the Public Enemies poster for this blog. Naturally, I left the house ("  ") today and forgot to bring the cord for my camera, so I will have to post said-picture at a later hour. Incidentally, probably after I get home from the midnight showing of that same movie tonight.

Public Enemies happens to incorporate all my favorite things: The Great Depression, Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Billy Crudup, Marion Cotillard, and Elliot Goldenthal(!), who wrote the score. Now, I don't expect The Great Depression, Elliot Goldenthal, or even Billy Crudup to be featured on the ads, but Christian Bale? And Marion Cotilard, Academy Award-winner? The posters in New York are JUST Johnny Depp: Johnny Depp's upper body, and the words "Johnny Depp" over the words "Public Enemy", I believe with the July 1 release date somewhere in smaller print. I have nothing more to say on this exact subject, except I think it's an interesting choice: does Johnny Depp really carry that much more star-power than both the rest of the cast and, essentially, everything else about the movie?

And typing of movies, I've been working with a gaggle of very talented publicists on an upcoming film called (UNTITLED), for which my client David Lang wrote the score. There were two screenings of the movie in the city, and when I sent the Grand High Publicist my press list, I included David's name on the lists for both nights. I just figured he'd want to see it on a big screen, and I always like hanging out with David. In response to my list, I was told very nicely, "No problem - but, I don't think it's a good idea for David to attend the press screenings.  It makes journalists uncomfortable when they are sitting in a film with someone affiliated with it."

Fascinating! It never occurred to me that writers wouldn't want to be watching something alongside "someone affiliated with it", because with the exception of those reviewing CDs, the journalists I work with are always in the same room with the artists they are reviewing; the soloists are on stage, and the composers are usually in the audience, often sitting in the same section of the orchestra as the critics. This led me to wonder what, if any, the psychological differences are between film critics, who are watching flat things on screens in dark rooms, and live performing arts critics who are reviewing artists in the flesh. Are performing arts critics, then, kinder? More compassionate? More affected by the reactions of those seated around them? If they hate a piece and then see the composer at intermission, does it soften them?

Thinking about it, I've never read a film review that included audience reactions, and yet music, dance and theater reviews incorporate the audience all the time. I remember a Bernard Holland Times review of the Chiara String Quartet from a few years back that was bascially all about the Quartet's interaction with and effect on the audience:

The excellent young Chiara String Quartet played at Rose Live Music in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on Friday, seated in the center of what must once have been a ground-floor railroad flat. To the players right was an outdoor garden of Friday-night drinkers; to their left a lively bar scene opening onto the sidewalk.

The space, curtained off but still the only thoroughfare for waiters and patrons on the move, was perhaps the size of two living rooms. I counted eight tables and about 30 people, most of whom were Friday-night drinkers as well. Clinking glasses and distant good cheer from the bar created a steady background. Maybe this is what chamber music means. At any rate, I was thoroughly enchanted.

Did any film critic note that I blurted out laughing when Remy the Rat was asked if he was a chef in Ratatouille? When I was hysterically sobbing at the end of Far from Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog ((not my finest moment))? When my friends and I sat in the dark theater for a full 20 minutes after Memento ended? No, because I don't think film critics see movies with the rest of us. They get "screeners" in the mail (I keep putting "screeners" in "air quotes" in my e mails to the movie publicists, like allegedly that's what they're called), or they go to screenings with other critics. So that's another interesting difference: performing arts critics are reviewing what I saw or could have potentially seen, in the same atmosphere I saw it, while film critics are seeing movies sans Junior Mints and plebeians.  Maybe that movie a critic ripped apart would have been better with Sno-Caps and strangers laughing. Maybe it would have been worse.

The dichotomy of screenings vs. screeners is interesting to me as well. If a critic can't attend a screening, the studio sends out a screener, so are film critics supposed to review the full-screen experience on their own small screen? (UNTITLED) doesn't have special effects, so the screener/screening issue isn't as relevant here, but I wonder if screeners were sent out for Star Trek? For Transformers 2?  It would seem unfair to have a review of Transformers 2 by a critic who was sitting on his couch.

I wonder when music critics will start reviewing concerts streaming live from their computers. The Met HD broadcasts are already reviewed like "real" productions in non-New York markets, so it's only a matter of time. And if/when live performing arts do start getting reviewed on movie/TV/computer screens, how will the critics' treatment of the art forms change when there's no risk of running into the composer in the bathroom at intermission or the soprano at Fiorello's after the performance?

...is when presenters ask for materials just for the sake of asking for materials. Are they redecorating their offices with these things?? Collecting Christmas gifts for their cousins?

Here's an e mail that came into IMG from one of The King's Singers' 2010 presenters:

We are still looking for the following materials and would greatly appreciate them or the appropriate forms as soon as possible.  The materials we are looking for are as follows. CDs, DVDs, TV and Radio spots, handbills, posters, the name of any opening act(s), and a play list if that is known at this time.

This e mail was forwarded to me, and I wrote back that I would put CDs and DVDs in the mail, and could design a flyer for them to print locally if necessary. The woman from the marketing department responded:

We are just looking for what was in the original e-mail that Brett sent you. Just incase you didn't see it, were looking for CDs, DVDs, TV and Radio spots, handbills, posters, the name of any opening act(s), and a play list if it is known at this time.

Oh I saw it, sister. But it's The King's Singers; they don't have an OPENING ACT. Or a "play list".  And are you really going to buy TV ad time? Because if you are, I will help you with a TV spot, but I'm not going to produce and send spots that have no chance of seeing the light of the TV screen. I just wish presenters would think about some kind of marketing plan before sending these e mails to management. "We'd love 50 posters to hang around campus." "Do you have radio spots for our local classical station?"

Help me, help you, help my artists.

My college roommate was in town this weekend and informed me about the completely nauseating Wal-Mart stampede incident. "I read it on the Times site this morning," she said. "It was in the 'Most E mailed' column; that's how I get all my news." Now, this is a girl who's getting her PhD in East Asianist History at Yale, so I strongly doubt the "Most E mailed" column is her one source of current event intel. That said, I see a "Most E mailed" list and I generally read through those articles/blog entries first, whichever site I'm on. Most presenter and orchestra websites already have "Send to a Friend" buttons on their concert listings, so why not have a "Most E mailed" section on their homepages? Other tabs could be "Most Blogged", "Most Read" and "Most Commented" concert pages, although Joe's Pub is the only presenter website I've seen that allows comments on their concert listings.

The New York Times Arts Section:

Pitchfork:

Perez Hilton dot com:

(It seems the most commmented posts on Perez Hilton are the ones with the most punctuation in their titles. A marketing thought for presenters? "Eric Owens at Carnegie Hall?!!!")

Atlantic Records' digital sales beat physical sales, so says The New York Times and lots of research-y people. HOWEVER:

This performance is sharply at odds with the trends in the music industry over all, where data show that sales of compact discs still account for more than two-thirds of music sales. Forrester Research does not expect digital music to reach 50 percent of the overall pie until 2011.

Fear not, gentle readers, Atlanta Records President Julie Greenwald has "figured it out", "it" being, presumably, how to sell records in 2008?

"I think we've figured it out," said Julie Greenwald, president of Atlantic Records. "It used to be that you could connect five dots and sell a million records. Now there are 20 dots you can connect to sell a million records."

It seems the 15 additional dots include extras (or, apparently, essentials) like ring tones, ringbacks, satellite radio and subscription services. I didn't know what a "ringback" was, so I looked it up. Ah yes, that explains the awful remix of "Take on Me" I have to listen to every time I call my cousin. I've never heard classical music while calling someone, though. Perhaps none of my friends select it (possible), or perhaps classical labels haven't tapped into it? I would make my ringback "Clapping Music", should it become available. "Please enjoy the clapping while your party is reached."

The Times article also explains that, record labels not being as "flush" (seriously, that's the word used) as they once were, spending on album marketing, tour publicity and music videos has been cut. Music videos, and my childhood, are dead anyway, or didn't you hear?

Atlantic chairman and CEO, Craig Kallman, clarifies what record labels have to do, by way of...Leonard Bernstein?

"Today you have to be like Leonard Bernstein," said Mr. Kallman, "making sure everyone is hitting the right notes at just the right millisecond. The tipping point, if you will, is when everything converges and your timing with everything is impeccable."

Mr. Kallman is perhaps more right than he knows: record labels do need to be like Leonard Bernstein, but not simply like Bernstein-as-name-dropped-stand-in-for-orchestral-conductors-everywhere. Like Leonard Bernstein insofar as connecting with communities, educating listeners in a non-patronizing way, creating original content, being a force of personality and brand identity, and shattering preconceived notions of what their role in the music industry is and can be.

Monday is the new black/Friday.  Each week, I'll post an interview with a special person far more knowledgeable than myself on specific marketing and publicity subjects. This week, label New Media Manager Denise McGovern on pitching placement, digital-only releases and what we're going to do when the record stores close for good.

Denise McGovern is the New Media Manager at Universal Music Classical/Decca Label Group. She is responsible for digital sales to accounts such as iTunes, Rhapsody and Napster.
 







How long have you been at Universal?
 
Five years.

 
How has your job changed along with the technology since you started?

I started working in marketing (when marketing meant simply booking ads), but I had come from an online classical music site so I kept interjecting ideas about email marketing and banner ads into the mix. Right about that time iTunes launched, and they needed someone Stateside to look after how our music was featured there. It soon became a full-time job and now I'm in charge of most of our digital music accounts.
 
 
Which digital music platforms does Universal service?

We're just about everywhere - from iTunes, Rhapsody and Napster to mobile OTA providers and new deals like MySpace Music.
 
 
Are certain platforms ever given exclusives? Pre-"street" date releases? Who initiates those kinds of deals, Universal or iTunes/Rhapsody/etc.?
 
Yes, we do provide exclusives. Sometimes that means a window of time where they are the only place where that album is available (like a pre-release exclusive) and sometimes it means bonus content (like an extra track, a video or an artist interview).
 
Who initiates the deal usually varies depending on the project. In many cases, I know what kind of content is available so I'll offer it up to see what kind of interest there is. In other cases, the artist is of such interest to the account that they will ask if there's something special we can do with the new release.
 
 
Obviously, good placement on  iTunes is extremely important for album sales. How is placement on the main page, the main page of the genre section, etc. decided? Is it pitched like a story is pitched, or bought like an ad?
 
It's pitched like a story. And just like a publication, there are layers of editors/programmers. The entire team looks at what's available that week and programs based on what they think will be of the most interest to their users and what will sell the best.
 

What iTunes placement is considered The Placement Holy Grail? What's the best placement you've ever gotten for an album, and what kinds of sales resulted?
 
For classical, the Holy Grail is to be considered on the same level as a pop album. I'd say that's positioning on the first page and a descriptive page about the record with art that really gets the audience interested in that release. But it's not an exact science. Sometimes you get that Holy Grail and it turns out to just be a cup - at the end of the day, the release has to be interesting and connect with the people who see it.
 
I'd say there are a few placements that were pretty spectacular. Lang Lang's Beethoven release in particular had a banner on the main page right next to Tim McGraw and 50 Cent. The combination of many things (within and outside of iTunes) made that record have a stellar first week with over half of the scans coming from digital.
 
But talking about placement, you have to realize that all of this positioning comes down to conversations and relationships with people over there. That one week shot of fantastic placement usually takes weeks of talks with different people and having folks on the iTunes side really carry your flag. It's very much a team effort on both sides of the game.
 

Some iTunes pages look ridiculously nice and designed,

and others look normal:


Again, is that something artists/record labels can pay for, or does iTunes just decide which albums get special aesthetic treatment and which don't?

They absolutely decide themselves and no one buys anything. We provide them with the publicity shots and any art available and their designers go to work. It's an iTunes editorial decision.
 

Do you feel increased pressure to sell albums digitally every time another record store closes?

I feel increased pressure to make sure that the digital accounts do the best that they can and sell what's best for their audience. When we first started selling digitally, people really saw this as a marketing tool rather than a sales vehicle. More exposure than sales. As time has gone on, you don't get a pat on the head for the exposure. The sales figures are really looked at. But I'd say that since I've started doing this, we've learned what works for each account, and we've learned what titles can do strong digital figures. This is true of any sales vehicle or publicity outlet - if you know your market and your audience, you can make things a success in that particular outlet, even if it's not the expected.
 
 
Was it exciting when Deutsche Grammophon's digital-only La Philharmonic recording debuted at number 1 on the Billboard classical chart a few months back? Do you think that will encourage/has encouraged labels toward producing more digital-only releases?
 
It was incredibly exciting! We had been working on the DG Concerts program for awhile, and the very first one would have charted if the rules were different. Then Billboard changed the rules and digital-only releases were now eligible. It was only the second week after the rule change that the concert hit #1. It was so gratifying for all of us who had been working in the digital space to see these products on the chart.
 
Labels were already looking at digital-only releases, but this certainly gave digital-only releases legitimacy. The charts are a stamp of approval. You don't see marketing copy that says "The #1 Classical Album if Only Digital Albums Could Chart!"
 

Let's say I'm an artist and I'm going it alone: I have no manager, no publicist, no marketing team and no record label, but I've worked very hard on recording and self-producing my own album. How do I even begin to place it digitally?

There are a number of digital aggregators that help independents get their music on to digital services. That makes the music available. After that, it's just marketing -- generating interest through your website, emails, publicity hits and live appearances.
 
 
Worst thing to happen to the record industry in the past five years?

Enhanced CD products like SACD - there was so much time spent for so little adoption.
 
 
Best thing to happen to the record industry in the past five years?

More and more music online through discovery and retail services - from iMeem to iTunes. You have no idea how many albums I've purchased from artists I had never heard of a year ago. Or passed on purchasing super-hyped albums because they truly sucked.