Myspace and Artist Website Deconstructions

Dizzee Rascal's Website

• Uses his new album font
• Pastal coloured theme in a wide variety of colours showing his craziness
• Lots of advertising of his new album encouraging fans to order it
• Gives links to websites you can buy his album from again encouraging the audience to buy it
• Links to his blog so his fans can keep up to date with him
• Allows fans to contact him in order to gain contact
• Allows fans to download wallpapers etc therefore marketing him as a brand
• Centered around his new album
• List of his dates down the right hand side encouraging fans to buy tickets and advertising them
• Main page is all latest news items about him so people can keep up to date with him and encourage them to view everything about him
• Links to view photos of him
• Link to a special page with all his records advertising them to the public and encouraging people to buy them
• Link to his own TV show DirteeStank TV which allows fans to watch him personally as he lives his life like reality TV which gives them a personal insight
• Gives a link to his myspace page to allow them to work together to market him
• Very wacky and fun which represents him

Christina Aguilera's Website

• Candy pink stripy pink background
• Pop art theme which is bright and eye catching and exciting for the audience
• Gives the latest news about Christina allowing fans to stay up to date
• Shows tour dates encouraging fans to buy tickets
• Advertises various products by her therefore using her and her music to market her other products etc her radio station and perfume
• Advertises her greatest hits album encouraging fans to buy it
• Allows fans to join her mailing list therefore becoming more personally involved with Christina Aguilera
• Gives links to her calender, press and news allowing fans to keep up to date with her
• Gives the audience a link to her music allowing them to listen to it and encourage them to buy it
• Link to her biography so they can learn more about her
• Gives the audience links to ringtones allowing them to download them therefore marketing her
• Loud and eccentric style which represents her
• Quite feminine using the pink but yet not too feminine which shows her personality
• Main image is of her kissing a pink panther looking glamourous which shows off her fun and flirty but yet stylish side
• Gives links to photos of her showing off her image to fans
• There is a forum where fans can discuss and give feedback on Christina Aguilera therefore making it a more personal experience
• Link to her store which sells her merchandise therefore marketing her other products and encouraging the audience to buy them
• Shows all the different charities which Christina Aguilera supports therefore giving a good impression to fans and encouraging them to take part too

Katy Perry's Myspace

• Red and green background showing off her different side as these two colours arent normally seen together
• Banner at the top of the page advertising her new album, new single available to download and buy, her store, her new video and her latest tour date therefore encouraging fans to buy all of her things and marketing her
• Allows people to listen to her latest singles and up and coming releases and therefore would encourage people to buy them when they are released
• Shows her blog posts keeping the audience up to date with her latest stories
• Advertising her main website with the enticement of a free song when you visit it
• Allows fans to add her as a friend/message her etc therefore making the fan base more intimate
• Gives links to pictures and videos of Katy Perry
• Shows her tour dates encouraging fans to buy tickets to go and see her
• Has a link enabling fans to vote for her at the MTV EMA's making fans feel inclined to do it
• Gives fans a number which they can call/text and leave Katy Perry a message making it more personal and allowing them to get involved
• Allows fans to sign up to her mailing list
• Has her 'Waking Up In Vegas' video on it in order for fans to view it for free and therefore advertising it
• Links to her twitter page therefore encouraging people to get more involved with her
• News stories about Katy are there allowing fans to keep up to date with her
• Clips of her past videos are also available to watch and therefore sell her previous singles
• Allows fans to get Katy Perry ringtones
• Very personal as there is a 'Things to Know' list and 'Influences' list therefore making fans feel closer to her and therefore more comfortable
• People can post comments on her wall giving her feedback or talk amongst each other about her therefore making it a more personal and interactive experience
• Lots of close up shots of Katy Perry to sell her to the audience

The Black Eyed Peas' Myspace

The 4 P's of Music Industry Marketing

a) What band/artist related products can audiences buy?

They can buy CD singles, albums, merchandise e.g. t-shirts, key rings,

b) Where can audiences buy/listen to music/merchandise/hardware?

Internet stores, the band website, myspace.com, music downloading sites, record stores, radios, television on specialized music channels, gigs and concerts, music festivals, adverts for the band

c) Give 2 or 3 examples of paid-for/subscription based and free products.

Examples of free products are free music downloads, free episodes to watch online, free tickets to a gig when you pre order a CD.

Examples of paid for/subscription products are CD'S or albums bought from music stores or online, music magazines which you can subscribe to, merchandise such as clothing.

d) List between 5 and 10 examples of creative music marketing strategies (including at least 3 internet based examples).

• Topman CTRL: FRUKT brought the band closer to the audiences by inviting audiences to take over Topman for a month, program their own gig, and blog on the CTRL page.
• Nokia International Rights: Used music, song titles and artists to advertise their phones as they had mp3 players on them. They were both TV adverts, magazine and poster adverts.
• CocaCola: Using a interative YouTube webisode to promote their drink Sprite. It is called 'The Green Eeyed World: Reality Remixed' about up and coming musicians. There will be 5 seasons of 4 episodes. Related adverts may appear on TV and so might some episodes. It will also be included on Sprite packaging encouraging people to watch the videos.
• National Homeless Advert: Raising awareness to homeless people by using Radiohead's track 'It can happen to anyone of us'.
• Gatrorade: They are marketing their drink with the famous rapper Lil Wayne to fit in with the new gangster image.
• TicTac: Taking a musical approach to their campaign giving away free downloads with Sony BMG, using viral marketing to help a 16 year old boy create a TicTac orchestra by having a website which contains free ringtone downloads, examples of different instruments and a TicTac Guitar Hero game.
• KangaRoos: Pairing up with the band The Dolly Rockers in order to promote their new single and the shoes. Involves a competition where fans have to come up with a dance routine to the new song and post it on their Bebo page. The winners will receive lots of Dolly Rocker goodies plus KangaRoo trainers.
• Samsung: Bebo and Samsung are teaming up to promote their new Beat phone over the internet in a online series. It will be interactive and allow the audience to interact through blogs, upload track reviews, share music news and win chances to appear in episodes. They will also be trying to find a co-presenter for the show and are also offering live performances from White Lies and The Maccabees to promote the series.

e) Who is frukt uk and what is their mission statement/company ethos?

They are a specialist music marketing agency. They develop and create ideas that use music as a way to market products. Their ideas are creatively bold and distinct and created with a collaboration of their team and other agencies. They deal with music alone and use both on and offline ways to market products.

Lady Gaga Case Study

1. Summarise the changing image of the band/artist as it has developed over time. It might also be useful to summarise the music genre also.

• Mainly influenced by glam rockers such as David Bowie and Quenn, pop artists such as Madonna and Michael , artist Andy Warhol, poet Rainer Maria Rilke and fashion icon Grace Jones.
• Her music structure is very similar to 1980's pop and 1990's Europop.
• Music that is a mixture of both dance and rock.
• Said to be extremely into fashion and inspired by her mother.
• She has her own creative team called Haus of Gaga who put together all her costumes, stage props and hair dos.
• Said to have drawn inspiration from Christina Aguilera, Gwen Stefani and Madonna.
• Considers her muse as Donatella Versace.
• She is seen as the rising gay icon and a lot of her success is down to the gay community.
• Markets herself a lot to the gay community as some of her first performances were to the gay community. One of her early performances was singing 'Just Dance' at the San Francisco Pride event and a later on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, two hugely rated events by the gay community therefore setting herself up as a gay icon.
• Early in her career she decided to focus on pop music to differenciate herself from the underground rockers of New York and took part in burlesque shows where a lot of her fashion inspiration still comes from.
• Was nicknamed 'Lady Gaga' early in her career after the Queen song 'Radio Ga Ga' due to her vocal style similar to Freddie Mercury and is still compared to Queen now.
• Begun performing with fellow burlesque dancer Lady Starlight and their show was known as 'The Ultimate Pop Burlesque Rockshow'. People still say her music has a rock n roll edge and compare her style to burlesque dancers showing she has not changed for the public very much.
• Used her history to help to market her nowadays and make her stand out from the crowd.
• Was dropped from her original record label Def Jam Records but maintained her trashy image in order to come up with her own record label.
• Her label Haus of Gaga supports up and coming people in the industry by getting them noticed through her fame.

2. Who are the fans? Do you have any sense of how the music companies have segmented the audiences? To what extent has the branding of a band been linked to target audience?

• The gay community are make up the majority of Lady Gaga's fans.
• Performed two of her debut concerts to target the gay community specifically, one at San Francisco Pride event and one on The Ellen DeGeneres crowd.
• Outrageous clothing, makeup and hair which appeals to the gay community.
• Her lyrics have underlying bisexual meaning which the marketing companies draw on in the videos and therefore appeals to the gay community.
• Her revealing and provocative clothing appeal to the male audience.
• The dancing and pop theme throughout her songs appeal to the younger generation.
• The influences from older bands appeal to the older generation.
• The use of male models in her videos appeals to both the female audience and gay audience.
• She markets herself in a feminist way which appeals to women.

3. What marketing strategies can you identify? What kinds of stategies can you list?(above/below-the line? unexpected promo stunts? etc). List any examples of the use of synergy with other industries to promote other media/products in connection with a band/artist.

Lady Gaga has achieved her prestige through a variety of different marketing strategies. She has her own official website, the look of the website is very trendy and bold - mirroring her personality. An image of the official website is shown below. Here is the link http://www.ladygaga.com/events. She also as her own myspace page www.myspace.com/ladygaga which automatically starts playing music as soon as you log onto her page. This promotes her music straight away and allows her fans to become aware of her latest tracks which they may or may not be aware of yet. Furthermore she has her official fan club on http://www.facebook.com/ where she currently has 105,527 fans. Furthermore she works in synergy with 'Heartbeats' to promote 'high resolution in-ear headphones' -http://www.ladygaga.com/