Remember the days when a band’s music was released on a physical item, such as a CD or cassette?
Back then, bands and music brands only really had three options for promotion – gigs, television and magazines. The consumer got their music fix from the pages of Smash Hits, or by switching on MTV for the latest music videos. How bands reached out and interacted with their audience was limited very much by the technology available.
In 2006, everything changed, as Gnarls Barkley reached number one in the United Kingdom with Crazy, the first song ever to reach number one in any country on downloads alone. That moment connected technology and music in a new way and since then, bands and brands have been focused on expanding their reach in new and wonderful ways. Video games, mobile phone apps, mobile games and digital releases: none have been out of reach of bands and brands looking to expand their reach, with some developers even leveraging the bands and brands to their own ends, as you will see from our selection of examples below.
Online Games
Many bands have explored the possibilities of reaching new audiences by releasing their own online games. One that instantly springs to mind is Fall Out Bird, a clone of the popular game Flappy Bird featuring the emo band Fall Out Boy. The Chicago quartet is not the first band to exploit online gaming as a way of connecting with fans though; Britney Spears’ American Dream is just another example amongst hundreds of titles.
Developers can also use the bands and brands for their own ends. Games such as Rock Hero 2 are not released by the bands themselves, but they are only successful by featuring the band’s music, which has benefits for the bands, or companies holding certain artist’s back catalogues.
Online Slots
The online slot market is booming, and with such flexibility afforded to providers with the right development skills, there is little surprise that bands have featured in their own slots. Within this sector, there is as much benefit to the developer as the bands – the likes of Guns N’ Roses, KISS and Megadeth perhaps do not need to connect with audiences as much, but they do benefit from the commercial exposure.
The online slot market is not only for artists and bands who are living and active. Indeed, some artists who have long since passed are also used in online slots, benefitting both parties. A developer certainly benefits from having a huge name connected to their slot, such as the King himself. Leading slot platform Gala Bingo features Elvis The King Lives amongst their titles, whilst legends such as Jimi Hendrix and Johnny Cash also have an online slot dedicated to them. In those instances, with little new music ever likely to be released or discovered, the brand’s estates and owners benefit from selling a commercially attractive name and imagery as an additional revenue stream.
Mobile Apps
For those left amongst the living, a mobile app can be a great way to deliver new music, or for those experimental bands who want to transcend a genre and deliver an experience, not a song, they offer wonderful possibilities. One artist who has always pushed the boundaries of the music world is Björk, and her Biophilia app is a perfect example of an artist using mobile media to expand on the experience, not repackage it. Biophilia is partly an album and partly a science lesson, a concept completely unique but not unexpected from the former Sugarcubes lead singer. Similarly, Radiohead’s PolyFauna is similar, somewhere between a game and a multimedia experience that typifies the sort of experimentation that fans expect from Thom Yorke and the band. The difference between this and their music experiment is that mobile media has allowed them to take a turn away from just producing music, and veer off into interactions and encounters with fans, which was completely impossible during their nineties heyday.