Here’s an example of an organization who’ve embraced the new world to absolute advantage.
Rock band the Barenaked Ladies, achieved a reasonable level of commercial success in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. A song of theirs you may know is ‘One week’ – you can click here to watch it and jig your memory.
Their success enabled them to do what most bands can’t – secure a record deal with the large record label Warner. But in 2003 they sacked them. They thought they could a better job – and they have. They just cut out the middle man and began to have a direct relationship with their passionate fans.
Here’s some of the cool stuff they’ve done:
They have a ‘dynamic’ websites & myspace– not static pages
They blog ‘daily’
They include fans in ‘every’ film clip
They built a permission database
They provide ‘free’ downloads of their music
Allow ‘free’ sharing of their music (Youtube / File sharing)
They sell their records direct and collect all revenue
They have ‘band days’ and ‘invite only concerts’
They provide photos of the days events
They run cruiseship holidays for fans
(Yep, 300 of their fans socializing, eating, relaxing with them for a week or so, where they provide the entertainment for them every night)
The net result is this. Their fans feel like they have a real connection, which they do. Their revenue per album sold is now approx $6.00 to the Barenaked Ladies, versus the previous $1.00 while with Warner. They have pure creative control of their work and don’t have to worry about being dropped by their record label.
Their site link is here: http://www.bnlmusic.com/default2.asp
Kudos BNL.
