Guest Post at Pollenizer

I was invited to do a guest blog post for the guys from Pollenizer. For the uninitiated Pollenizer is firm which helps startups grow bigger and better. Both through consulting services and also taking long term positions with the companies. It’s really worth a browse around the Pollenizer site.

My post is a very cool one on Startup Lessons from Rock Bands.

AC DC Its a long way to the top if you wanna rock n roll

It also includes a video interview I did with Mick Liubinskas who is one of the smartest start up guys I know (ex Skype & Kazaa) where we cover off Startup School for which there are still some Sydney tickets left for the event.

Click here to check it out.

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Barenaked Ladies embrace new world

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.