Sandbox

MUSIC MARKETING FOR THE DIGITAL ERA Issue 8 | 22 Apr 2010

Social media everywhere INSIDE…

This report is registered to: joacotroniks joaquin.fernandez@warnermusic.com Joaquin Fernandez

CAMPAIGNS
PAGE 3:
The latest projects from the digital
Data, data, data. It’s been a marketing arena >>
music industry mantra for a CAMPAIGN FOCUS
couple of years now. Making PAGE 4:
the most of your online fanbase Hail The Villain - Interactive Website >>
requires getting and mining as MOBILE CAMPAIGNS
much data as possible. There PAGE 5:
The latest handheld apps and marketing
are plenty of startups looking initiatives >>
to help. INTERVIEW
However, the debate is already PAGE 6:
shifting, due to the fact that there are Jeff Jank, Stones Throw Records >>
companies who already have a wealth HOW TO
of data on individual internet users – PAGE 7:
and equally importantly, on how they Lessons from other sectors >>
relate to one another. TOOLS
The so-called ‘social graph’ overseen PAGE 8:
by firms like Facebook, Twitter and Guguchu >>
Google is set to shake up online music CHARTS
marketing. How? By letting millions of PAGE 9:
websites – artist sites included – tap This weeks digital engagement charts>>
into those social connections, to fuel
WIDE ANGLE
online word-of-mouth around new
music and content. PAGE 10:
It pays to have plays >>

continued…
“The so-called ‘social graph’ is set to shake up online music marketing”
The key change is about letting fans sign
into your sites using their existing social
media profiles, rather than forcing them to
register just for your site (or not register at
all). Once they do, their actions can be fed
back into those social networks.
Facebook’s system for this is called
Facebook Connect, Twitter’s is called
OAuth, and last week chat firm Meebo
launched a rival called XAuth, which has
the support of MySpace, Google, Yahoo
and other social sites. In a nutshell, these
services are about letting people take their
social networking identity to the websites
they visit.
Both Facebook and Twitter are building on
this technology, too. At its Chirp developer
conference last week, Twitter unveiled its
new big idea, which is called @anywhere.
It’s designed to help sites allow their users
to interact with Twitter without leaving
that site.
The company suggested some examples:
“Imagine being able to follow a New York
Times journalist directly from her byline,
tweet about a video without leaving
YouTube, and discover new Twitter
accounts while visiting the Yahoo! home
page—and that’s just the beginning.” All of
these examples can be applied to music
sites, naturally.
Facebook’s f8 developer conference is
taking place this week, and will herald a
similar move to make the social network a
presence on millions of external websites
– even more so than it is with Facebook
Connect.
Its announcements include a less fiddly
sign-in process for sites using Facebook
Connect, and a Facebook toolbar capable
of hovering at the bottom of the screen
when people visit other sites. There are
also plans to allow any site to embed
‘Share’ and ‘Like’ buttons alongside their
content.
Relating this to music, a band could
have a ‘Share’ button next to streaming
audio or video on their site, allowing
fans to easily share the link with friends
as if they’d found it on Facebook itself.
Meanwhile, use of the ‘Like’ button could
help bands grow their Facebook Fan
followings from their own site(s).
These developments come alongside
another change in the way Facebook
deals with bands and brands. It’s just
started asking users if they want to
convert the interests listed on their
profiles into links to official fan pages,
when available.
SANDBOX | 22 Apr 2010 | Page 2
What that means is, in theory, everyone
who’s listed Coldplay, Lady Gaga, Eminem
or whoever in the favourite music section
of their profiles will now be invited to sign
up as a fan. It could drastically swell the
Facebook fanbases of artists, making the
social network even more important as a
marketing platform.
Even so, the wider thrust of what
Facebook and Twitter are doing is all about
competing to make themselves the social
backbone of other sites, while maintaining
control of the all-important user data that
makes it all work.
This is where some hard thinking is
required by music marketers. Letting fans exchange for a free download – while
log in to your site (or increasingly your tapping into the viral power of Facebook
mobile app too) using their Facebook and/ and Twitter to promote the offer.
or Twitter credentials will increasingly Meanwhile, the data held by the social
become the standard. Not least because networks has plenty of scope for intelligent
it’s easier for consumers than having to mining, for example to segment fans by
register umpteen different identities for location, or identify your keenest and most
different sites. influential fans.
It does mean that those social networks In short, the knee-jerk reaction to the
retain the valuable data, though. Which ever-extending ambitions of Facebook and
is where savvy marketers will earn their Twitter would be to see them as a threat. In
keep. fact, they’re an opportunity to make music
marketing more relevant and effective
There is nothing to stop you, for instance,
than ever.
asking fans for their email addresses in

CAMPAIGNS:
The latest projects from the digital marketing arena
Natty threads
The idea of tying music to
merchandise isn’t new, so
news that people who buy
the new EP by Natty will be
able to get a Fair Natty Trade
t-shirt isn’t hugely surprising.
However, it’s part of a much
more interesting experiment
with fan-funding.
Natty isn’t an unsigned artist: he has
a deal with WMG subsidiary Atlantic
Records. However, Natty and Atlantic are
working with UK fan-funding firm Pledge
Music to promote an acoustic EP, which
is being released to plug a gap between
albums.
Fans who pledge £8 will get the EP
download when it’s released, as well as
video updates from Natty on the project’s
progress. However, there are a range of
premium options, starting with signed EPs
for £10, that EP+tee combo for £25, and a
two-disc CDR of rehearsals and demos for
£32.
For higher rollers, £70 gets the chance to
introduce the star and his band from the
stage at one of their gigs, and pledges
between £600 and £5,000 get a private
acoustic concert in their own home. A
portion of the proceeds will go to the
Sarcoma Unit at the Royal Marsden
Hospital, to commemorate the late
Johnny Dollar, who produced Natty’s first
album.
http://tinyurl.com/y3cnum4
SANDBOX | 22 Apr 2010 | Page 3
INQy hands
Spotify’s latest marketing deal is with a
brand rather than a band. The streaming
music service has hooked up with mobile
handset maker INQ, which is sponsoring a
monthly three-hour radio show on Spotify,
Class act complete with DJs. They’ll be playing
songs suggested by INQ’s customers
UMG has kicked
and fans on Facebook. This deal could spark labels to follow
off a campaign to suit. If INQ can have DJs on Spotify, perhaps artists can also
find ‘the classical launch shows, playing their own tracks as well as those of their
Gorillaz’, around favourites? http://tinyurl.com/ybge7zk
its new signing
ERA. Described as Ch-ch-changes
‘progressive classical’, Unsigned Indian bands are
it seems the band getting the chance to make
won’t be starring
in their next video.
a video starring Bollywood
actress Priyanka Chopra,
through a competition
Instead, UMG, are arranged by Levi’s India. Artists
looking for filmmakers have to upload songs to the
and animators to Change Your World website, Mflow charts
create a conceptual where the tracks will earn
New UK music service Mflow
music video for the points - one point for being is like iTunes with a Twitter-
track, with characters
played and ten points for style social recommendations
being downloaded. The winner
to represent the gets to make the video, while
layer built on top. Island
Records was the first label to
musicians. Facebook also winning a label deal. It’s endorse it with a marketing
and YouTube will be the latest example of a brand campaign for new artist
used, with the winner looking to boost its music Lauren Pritchard, and the
getting their film
credibility at a grass-roots label says it was so successful,
level. http://tinyurl.com/y28ec64 it’s planning a follow-up.
premiered in London
Pritchard used Mflow to
in late May, then recommend her favourite
shown on music video
songs to other users, so
channels and online presumably the idea will be
for Lawrie to do the same.
video portals.
http://tinyurl.com/ http://tinyurl.com/ydtov3z

Campaign Focus:
Hail The Villain, Interactive Website
“Fans who see this will think ‘these guys are really big’ even though they’ve only just come out.”
“We always come up
with these ideas that are
absolutely stupid,” says
Bryan Crouch, frontman of
Canadian rock band Hail
The Villain. “Most people
aim for what’s attainable;
for us it’s about aiming for
what’s unattainable.”
HTV has been aiming high since forming
in 2003, setting out to be ‘more than a
band’. How? By creating a universe for
their fans that includes not just music,
but also animated videos, comic books, a
rich website and eventually a movie.
The band’s latest project is the website,
which has been put together with the
comic book and animation. It began
when guitarist Joe Stamp came up with
the idea of piecing together the 12 songs
from the band’s latest album to create
a “tale of hate, lust and deceit”, which
could be played out on the website.
The result has the feel of a classic
point’n’click adventure game, based
around the scene of a hit and run
murder. Users can navigate around
the scene Matrix-style at the moment
of impact, playing detective to piece
together the motive. For example, rifling
through the victim’s pockets reveals a
matchbox with a phone number written
inside, which can later be dialed from a
phone booth.
As players hunt for clues, they are
occasionally rewarded with special
content from the album, including a
stream of the music a month in advance
of its release, and a PDF of the lyrics.
There’s also an in-game TV showing
streaming webcam footage of other
fans playing, and a picture salon where
players can ‘villain-ise’ photos of
themselves, to be shared on Facebook,
or included in the Book of Souls – a
discoverable item within the game.
It’s a genuinely impressive site, although
within a few seconds of arriving, you
can’t help but wonder how much it
cost HTV’s label Warner Music Group.
However, the label’s digital marketing
manager Rob Bolton says the cost can
be justified.
“It’s like in the past when you’d spend a
large amount on a flashy video,” he says.
“We’ve just taken that budget and given
it to a design team to come up with an
array of interlinking digital assets”.
Canadian firm Rune Entertainment
created the visual elements of the site,
while Grand Creative was sub-contracted
to handle the coding and Flash
development. Is there an argument that
such a complex and immersive site could
be a problem for fans who just want
information on the band, though?
Bolton says not. “The website is there to
be appreciated as a work of art,” he says.
“Fans will know that there’s Facebook
and MySpace for checking up on
practical things like tourdates.”
Talking of social networks, there’s a spin-
off widget that fans can embed into their
profiles on those sites. Its main function
is to relay a stream of news, videos and
sound clips, which are played within the
widget itself.
However, the interesting thing is the
way each fan’s widget changes its look
and reveals different levels of content
SANDBOX | 22 Apr 2010 | Page 4
depending on how much they and their
friends interact with it. In effect, it’s a
reward programme that encourages fans
to use and spread the widget.
All this usage is tracked to high levels
of details, with the campaign managers
able to get information on the number of
widgets embedded, the top users, time
spent, primary and viral impressions and
other metrics.
It’s an ambitious project, and one
that you might not expect to see for a
relatively new and unknown band (at
least globally). But Bolton argues that
this is the reason for the outlay.
“We had to come in all guns blazing to
establish the band at a Foo Fighters level
from day one,” he says. “Fans who see
this will think ‘these guys are really big’
even though they’ve only just come out.”

Mobile Campaigns:
The latest handheld apps and marketing initiatives
Sheer Glee
iPhone developer Smule has
carved a lucrative niche for
itself in the music apps space,
with successes including
Ocarina, Leaf Trombone and
I Am T-Pain. Its latest project
is an official app for hit TV
drama Glee, which builds on
the musical and connected
features of its previous
releases.
The $2.99 Glee app is essentially
connected karaoke. Users can sing
along to a range of tracks from
the series, with three preloaded:
Rehab, Somebody To Love and You
Keep Me Hanging On. Others are
available to download via in-app
purchase, providing an ongoing
revenue stream.
The app includes voice correction
technology that’s similar to the
official Auto-Tune tech used in I
Am T-Pain – although this time
round, it’s been developed in-
house rather than licensed from
Auto-Tune creator Antares Audio
Technologies.
The key feature is the connectivity,
though. Users can share their
recordings on Facebook and Twitter,
or ‘join’ the songs of other users by
providing harmonies. Success is
judged by the number of fans – or
‘gleeks’ – that you acquire within the
application.
Like Smule’s previous apps, Glee
is an excellent example of a more
interactive and playful approach to
iPhone apps. Its ideas could easily
translate to artist-based apps in the
coming months.
Hard Work
The future of Aerosmith
is distinctly cloudy at the
moment, but while the
dust settles, drummer
Joey Kramer has found
a way to occupy his
time: putting his name
to a new iPhone game.
Called Joey Kramer Hit
Hard, it’s a rhythm music
game based entirely
around drums. Kramer
recorded a bunch of
beats himself for the
game, which players
have to tap along to
at the correct tempo
using their fingers and
the touchscreen. The
game also has online
high-score tables and
monthly prizes for
the best players, be
they dudes, ladies or a
combination of the two.
http://tinyurl.com/yl3edhz
SANDBOX | 22 Apr 2010 | Page 5
By Jovi!
Bon Jovi has become the first band to
stream live footage to iPad, courtesy of
a deal with Ustream. Last week, iPad-
owning fans were able to tune in to
watch the first four songs of the band’s
Dallas gig plus pre-recorded footage of
an earlier show. According to Ustream,
more than 700 people had RSVP’d by Sunday morning to
receive the transmission. “Mobile products solve a fundamental
challenge for live events, which is being able to reach everyone
when the show starts,” says Ustream co-founder John Ham.
Beachy headz
We wrote about the digital
campaign around the new
Gorillaz album in a recent
Sandbox, but now there’s a
new phase. It revolves around
a web game called Escape To Doom and gloom
Plastic Beach, which has two
Underground metallers
free levels and then charges Novembers Doom might
fans £1.50 to play the rest. be the first artist to release
What’s it doing in our Mobile
Campaigns section? The paid
a dedicated iPad app. It’s
described as a “lyrical
elements are also being turned explanation book” created
into an iPhone game, which is by frontman Paul Kuhr, and
due to be released on the App is already available as a print
Store soon. The production book. The app includes lyrics,
values of its 3D visuals mean explanations, artwork and
it will slot in neatly alongside photos from the band’s seven
regular iPhone games on the albums, and costs $1.99. It also
App Store. http://tinyurl.com/ claims to include the band’s
latest album, although the
app’s 18.6MB file size makes
us think this must be on a
streaming basis,
http://tinyurl.com/y69frzj

Interview:
Jeff Jank, Head of Digital Strategy, Stones Throw Records
“With a few releases we’ve put them for sale online as soon as the mastering and artwork is finished”
Ironically Stones Throw experienced
its most considerable period of growth
just as the surrounding industry began
to nosedive. Jeff Jank, the man behind
the label’s web strategy is confident that
its online efforts are the key to its trend-
bucking success.
“We always stay busy on the web to
remain relevant and take care to adapt as
it consumes our industry,” he says. “I think
we go about it with a good combination of
curiosity towards online life and common
sense about communicating our projects.”
One example of this common sense is
Jank’s approach to release dates, which
has been influenced by the frequency with
Stones Throw Records which new albums leak online before their
is an independent hip intended release.
hop label based in LA “To almost all music fans on the web the
with an impressive release date is not when the CD hits the
roster of West Coast stores, but when the album leaks,” he says.
talent featuring J Dilla, “So with a few releases we’ve put them for
MF Doom and Madlib. sale online as soon as the mastering and
Founded in 1996, the artwork is finished, basically selling and
announcing them at the same time.”
label’s profile and fan
base has grown to Between releases, Stones Throw keeps
become one of the most fans engaged with a series of album-
stable independents length mixtape podcasts that put many
operating today. commercial releases to shame. Jank says
the label originally intended to use them as
promotions for specific album releases, but
decided that this felt wrong.
“Now, our approach has become much
more loose,” he says. “We just try to do
something fun that involves the DJs &
producers we work with, and basically
explore the music culture we love.”
This new approach falls neatly into line
with Jank’s wider efforts to communicate
a brand identity for Stones Throw. “The
sense I hope to bring to our online
presence is of it being a small, independent
company run by a few people with
interests and passions related to what we
do.”
This attitude extends into the company’s
approach to mailouts, which Jank says the
label only does when it has something to
say.
“We hate spam like everyone else, so I still
take care to approach this newsletter with
respect for subscribers, treating it as a
personal communication rather than ‘email
marketing’.”
This emphasis on personal communication
also dictates where this dialogue with fans
takes place. For example, label staff and
artists regularly post on the company’s
busy online forum. Meanwhile, Jank says
SANDBOX | 22 Apr 2010 | Page 6
that individual artist profiles on social
networks remain extremely important too.
“When Myspace came out, I saw it as
an extra duty that I didn’t care about
or want to be involved with. But it only
took a couple weeks to see that we were
connecting with real fans of our artists
who would never visit our website. That
made me an overnight convert to the idea
of fostering a strong online community.”
Jank works closely with Stones Throw’s
artists to maintain their social profiles,
while also creating single pages on the
label website to act as one-stop shops for
information about each artist.
Given the organic development of Stones
Throw’s digital presence, is the company
using any particular analytics tools or
techniques to judge its success and make
effective decisions?
“For us, it’s one big guessing game,”
says Jank. “I suspect that if we were a
larger corporate entity, we’d have to
work completely with methods that
could bequantified and proven on
paper. Instead, we have the freedom to
experiment and we’re small enough to
adapt quickly. When something works, it’s
obvious to one and all.”

How To:
Lessons from other sectors
When you’re planning your music
marketing campaigns, it’s often healthy
to look at what other industries are doing,
rather than just other labels or artists.
Here’s three inspirational examples.
Caterer.com
Link: http://tinyurl.com/yhwb38f
Catering site Caterer.com wanted to boost
their brand awareness, so worked with
Rebel Virals to shoot a series of short films,
designed to go viral on YouTube and other
social networks. The idea was to produce
videos that would appeal to a wide base
of people, but which would also have a
message for those in the catering trade.
Unruly launched a three-phase campaign
across a range of websites, social
networks and video portals over a six-
week period. Phasing the release of the
clips – starring ‘Little Gordon’ – a spoof on
chef Gordon Ramsay - enabled it to keep
the momentum going, as did its dedicated
microsite, YouTube channel and Facebook
fan page.
The series quickly generated more than
one million views on YouTube, and earned
the company coverage in a host of UK
newspapers, trade magazines and foodie
blogs. It was even covered on Radio 1 and
Radio 2, and in the US on the Tonight Show
with Jay Leno.
Blendtec
Link: http://tinyurl.com/yd5pqkm
When blender-maker Blendtec got a new
marketing director, they realized that
CEO Tom Dixon and his R&D team made
wooden boards to test the toughness of
their products’ blades. This seemd to make
an ideal subject for online videos.
The company’s main objective was to
raise awareness of the brand and the
quality of its products, which were under-
selling at the time, despite having global
distribution. Or, as marketing director
George Wright later told a conference:
“great products plus weak branding
equalled weak sales”.
With a budget of $100, Wright purchased
a white lab coat, marbles, a garden rake, a
McDonald’s Extra Value Meal, a Rotisserie
chicken and some Coca-Cola, before
mocking up a company room to look like a
laboratory.
The first ‘Will It Blend?’ video was shot
in-house, as a pastiche of infomercials,
starring Dixon blending the Coke can.
The Blendtech brand appeared on-screen
throughout, but it didn’t feel intrusive due
to the infomercial style. Within five days,
the video had been viewed six million
times on YouTube.
The company has now blended more than
180 items, including most recently an
iPad. Blendtec has featured other brands
like Nike in the videos, and has received
extensive TV and financial newspaper
coverage. However, most importantly,
retail sales have increased 700% since the
first video went online.
Coraline
Link: http://tinyurl.com/6delqr
The campaign for animated movie
Coraline kicked off by identifying
influential bloggers, who were sent
packages containing ‘relics’ taken from the
set of the movie.
The boxes included metal keys with
passwords that unlocked exclusive films
on the Coraline website. These online
influencers began sharing: nearly every
recipient photographed their box and
shared their password with readers,
inspiring them to dig deeper into the site.
Moviegoers who went to early previews of
the film and stayed through the end credits
saw another secret code, which let them
win a special prize.
The promotion has been described as “an
advertising campaign with a soul”, with
one fan moved to set up a website to track
all 50 of the boxes as they were opened
and blogged about. Unique visitors to the
SANDBOX | 22 Apr 2010 | Page 7
film’s site reached 845,000 before it went
on general release.
Lessons for music
If you’re reading Sandbox, chances are
you’re not selling catering services,
blenders or cartoons. So what can you
learn? A key lesson is to have soul and
heart in your marketing, which will help
fans to do your marketing for you.
Inspire them with gorgeous creativity
connected to the artist or release that
you’re marketing, and use the web and
social media to make fans feel a part of the
world – fictional or real – of the artist or
release.
Encouraging a sense of secrecy that the
web community will want to ‘break’ or
unravel can be hugely effective, as can
looking at unconventional angles, even
when using conventional digital marketing
techniques.

Tools:
Guguchu
Even for artists signed to
major labels, self promotion
is a key differentiator in the
success stakes. Most social
networks today have built in
apps and functions to help
artists market themselves
meanwhile services like
Reverb Nation and Topsin
are dedicated to this aim.
Now, US-based start up
Guguchu has launched to
help artists make it on the
live circuit with digital band
management tools designed
to get bands not booked and
promoted as well as manage
and sell their merchandise.
It currently has a database of over 12,000
US venues and promoters with the UK,
France, Germany and Canada targeted
next for full coverage. By way of a fully
customisable press kit, artists can make
use of these contacts immediately.
The press kit supports mp3 and photo
uploads and social network and press
links. The success of these mail outs can
be tracked with various reports detailing
open rates, media interactions, location
hot spots etc.
Guguchu’s mail client is currently limited
to one way communication, meaning
that messages can be sent but not
“Guguchu has launched to help artists make it on the live circuit”
replied to, so the provision of alternative
contact details at all times is a must. It’s
a drawback but one that the benefit of
having access to such a vast database
seems to outweigh.
The Guguchu dashboard used may seem
quite rudimentary for users familiar with
those of management sites Bandize or
Band Central but the focus on simplicity
and efficiency will be refreshing to
some. With a show successfully booked,
artists can create a new Facebook event,
tweet and Myspace calendar entry
by populating one set of fields from
within Guguchu. This connectivity also
allows users to see their social network
updates aggregated into one news feed
but, although this offers an easy way
to update all social networks in one go,
currently there is no way to engage with
the individual feed items directly.
Guguchu also provides a basic CRM
service for artists to segregate and
manage their fan base. By importing
contacts from your external mail client
or inputting addresses individually users
can categorise them by location, age,
gender, industry sector or any other
desired filter. There is a very simple
drag-and-drop newsletter composer
that delivers decent result and the
filtering system allows for targeted fan
mailouts. Recognising the importance
of geo-targeted marketing, Guguchu
uses IP addresses to update each of your
contact’s location information once one
of your emails is opened.
Using this data, Guguchu messages
artists with tip-offs and networking
suggestions using algorithms that
analyse fan activity based on geographic
locations. What this means is that if you
are achieving strong online sales from a
specific location, Guguchu will contact
you with suggestions of venues and
contact details of other similar artists
based in that area. It’s a helpful way to
increase your efficiency in the live sector
and to make important connections in
areas where you are getting the most
exposure.
Guguchu also offers a varied and
affordable range of ecommerce
opportunities. Through a partnership
with Amazon, it will distribute uploaded
artwork and .wav files for on-demand
CD printing. At $4 per CD it’s pricey, but
it’s a handy way to offer fans a physical
product without the worry of wasting
money on excess stock. To take care
of digital distribution, Guguchu has
SANDBOX | 22 Apr 2010 | Page 8
partnered with Ditto Music and has
established deals with every major
retailer taking 0% commission on Ditto’s
price point of 30 pence per track per
store. Soon, a range of scaled distribution
packages will be in place to cater for
artists at different career stages.
Whilst the site is still in beta mode, all
current services are free with plans to
port users to a tiered subscription model
once testing is completed. Coming
soon is the ability to advertise and sell
products from a Facebook tab or their
own website via Guguchu’s dedicated
webstore app or widget. These will act
as customisable microsites aimed at
rivalling established tools from the likes
of Reverbnation and Topspin. Guguchu
plans to encourage its users to integrate
these apps by offering a reduced
subscription fee.

Music charts:
4th Apr - 22nd Apr
LCD Soundsystem made a predictable
return to the top of the blog charts,
with a new album, tour and string
of festival headline slots. James
Murphy and the gang are closely
followed by the Baltimore dream
pop duo Beach House, following a
four song 12” released in support
of Record Store Day showing the
arrangements mutual benefits in
action. Plan B has been holding the
Shazam’s topspot for the past week,
making little suprise of this weeks UK
Chart victory. The rapper has been
courting the recent press attention
well by stating his intentions to make
a film with Guy Ritchie. Rather you
than me Mr B. Heading up the Elbo.ws
blog aggregation chart is Deer Tick, a
band that takes pride in proving that
a flashy website is an uneccessary
luxury. Californian rock band Train
return after 12 years away with their
most successful track to date, a song
that sounds like Jack Johnson leading
Vampire Weekend. Another artist
fitting into the center of a Vampire
Weekend Venn diagram of influence
is Darwin Deez a man that takes pride
in his Myspace background.
Hype Machine
1 The National
2 LCD Soundsystem
3 Beach House
4 Crystal Castles
5 Two Door Cinema Club
MySpace
1 Darwin Deez
2 Coheed and Cambria
3 The xx
4 MGMT
5 Bullet For My Valentine
Yahoo! Buzz Chart
1 Peter Steele
2 Rachel Stevens
3 Lady Gaga
4 Justin Bieber
5 Whitney Houston
Bebo
1 My Chemical Romance
2 Ian Erix
3 Samsung: Sound Matters
4 Basshunter
5 Lady GaGa
SANDBOX | 22 Apr 2010 | Page 9
Big Champagne Cumulative top 10
1 Usher ‘Little Freak’
2 Justin Beiber ‘Baby’ 22nd April
3 Lady Gaga ‘Telephone’
4 Rihanna ‘Rude Boy’
5 Usher ‘Hey Daddy’
Elbo.ws
1 Deer Tick ‘20 Miles’
2 Maps & Atlases ‘Solid Ground’
3 The National ‘Bloodbuzz Ohio’
4 Two Door Cinema.. ‘Something Good..’
5 The National ‘Afraid of Everyone ’
Last.fm 1 Rihanna - ‘Rude Boy’
1 Lady GaGa ‘Bad Romance’
2 Ke$ha ‘TiK ToK’ 2 Lady Gaga - ‘Bad Romance’
3 Lady Gaga ‘Poker Face’
4 Owl City ‘Fireflies’
3 Usher - ‘OMG’
5 Lady GaGa ‘Paparazzi’ 4 Plan B - ‘She Said’
iLike 5 Lady Gaga - ‘Poker Face’
1 Rihanna ‘Rude Boy’
2 Train ‘Hey, Soul Sister’ 6 Inna - ‘Hot’
3 Lady Gaga ‘Bad Romance’ 7 Ke$ha - ‘Tik Tok’
4 Jason Derulo ‘In My Head’
Justin Beiber - ‘Baby’
5 Lady Gaga ‘Poker Face’ 8
Shazam 9 Professor Green - ‘I Need You..’
1 Plan B ‘She Said’
10 Scouting for Gils - ‘This Aint...’
2 Usher ‘OMG’
3 Inna ‘Hot’ These charts are compiled by monitoring the published
daily user behaviour of all users of these different
4 Scouting for Girls ‘This Aint a Love...’
music environments. We’re not tracking sales, but
5 Young Money ‘Bedrock ’ instead monitoring consumer engagement with
music in other ways. The results are then aggregated
on a weekly basis to provide the charts you see here.
Charts: Million Media, Music Ally

Wide Angle:
It pays to have plays
Artists hitting the studio should get
paid in full, as a wise man once (sort
of) rapped. Much has been written
in recent times about the way digital
distribution and online communities
enables bands to make a decent
living even if they don’t have a label
deal. However, less has been written
about the last part of that process: the
payments.
Two separate stories brought this to the front of
our minds this fortnight. In Europe, the debate
around Spotify payouts has kicked off again,
reignited by comments by the chairman of the
British Academy of Songwriters, Composers
and Authors (BASCA).
Patrick Rackow criticised the “blanket of
secrecy” around Spotify’s payments to
songwriters, saying that “there is no clear trail
that can be established so that the songwriter
can trace back what they ought to have got”.
Some artists are saying similar things.
Spotify quickly hit back saying it has paid out
tens of millions of Euros in the last year, but the
row looks set to rumble on – only this week, a
member of indie band The Layaways blogged
about his per-stream Spotify payouts of 0.02
cents, 0.03 cents and 0.06 cents.
What this ongoing debate shows, though, is
that artists are much more interested in the
granular details of how much they get paid, and
for what – particularly in the digital domain.
For many, it’s a legacy of not asking enough
questions earlier in their careers, and a new
determination to stay on top of their digital
income.
However, the second story that made us think
about payments and artists came this week,
with a guest post on the SandboxFM blog by
US performing rights body SoundExchange.
It distributed nearly $52 million of digital
performance royalties to artists in the first
quarter of this year alone – 25% more than in
any previous quarter, thanks to the growth of
online and satellite radio in the US.
Yet as SoundExchange explains on the blog,
a lot of artists still aren’t registering to receive
their loot, for a variety of reasons including
worrying that there are strings attached, the
mistaken belief that these royalties are already
being collected by other bodies, or plain
disorganisation.
Artists are increasingly savvy about how
to promote their music online. While the
complaints about streaming payouts indicate
they’re also shrewder about how they’re getting
paid for that music, SoundExchange’s article
implies there’s still a way to go for some artists
on this. For SoundExchange’s guest blog post,
click here: http://tinyurl.com/2857vbx
Top Tweets:
What artists are Twittering about this fortnight
rickontour Feed a mole to starve a beaver...
(god I love Twitter, it’s like a stupid thought
bank)
iamlittleboots buying plant food
iamlittleboots i just want my courgettes to
grow, is that so wrong?!?!
questlove Imagine being 2 white women. In
the privacy of your hotel room. And suddenly
a 6”3 afro busts in your hotel door at 3am.
#justhappend
siamusic loved you guys last night.thanks for
being so awesome.especially the guy to my
left front row with specs who laughed at all
my shitty jokes.
Pink Just saw date night. Had a date day. It
made me laugh. A lot. Then I cried. But I cried
during anchorman, too. I like crying I guess.
lilyroseallen haddouken on newsnight.
I don’t think I’ve ever been more
uncomfortable.
PaulaAbdul We should all plan on getting
together sometime in the near future! ;) xoP
chamillionaire One anti Obama bumper
sticker = getting your point across. Three anti
Obama bumper stickers = unfashionably
retarded.
fatbellybella Going to go write on some shit
like Banksy.
yokoono Go on carrying heavier stones
SANDBOX | 22 Apr 2010 | Page 10
until they become so heavy that the whole
city starts to look lighter than what you are
carrying.
ricky_martin For the World Cup- 50 days 7
hours 36min
iamdiddy Get up. Get out. And get
something!!!!!!! Let’s go!
DonnieWahlberg As a kid... Today was
always the worst day of the week! So called
“spaghetti” lunch at school. Middle of the
week blues. Crap on TV.
Gilespeterson RT @jamiecullum: Stranded
in Oz with no flight in sight. Oddly liberating.
get a bottle of Half Acre Main Ridge Estate
Pinot and chill!
questlove Lord. i had a lunch so bland
the friggin cookie crumbs caught between
the keypads of this computer would rival
grandma’s cooking right now.
snoopdogg U know what ill be doin!!! moon
walkn like michael... CHUCHHHH!!!
djplastician What would you do if you
turned on one of them babechannels, and a
girl you sat next to in school was on it?!
iambenga If only i didn’t have a 3210 nokia i
would retweeted that straight off
ladygaga It reminds me of my commitment
+ love for u, and the deep unconditional
devotion I feel to write music that will liberate
you from prejudice
 SANDBOX | 22 Apr 2010 | Page 11

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