Lots of bands give music away free, but few superstars do it. Coldplay did and did it right. This guest post from Australian music industry veteran Nick Crocker shares some lessons learned.

 

Earlier this year, Coldplay gave away a free mp3 of "Violet Hill", the first single from their album "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends". By delivering genuine value to fans in an original way, Coldplay generated press coverage worldwide. It was the act of a band at the top of its game and extended Coldplay's fan database, almost overnight, by 300,000.

 

A Coldplay single in exchange for an email address and a postcode is a fair swap. But the true value of the exchange lay in the connection Coldplay made with those 300,000 fans. From that initial exchange, the challenge was how to use email to turn that list of email ad-dresses into a global tribe of passionate Coldplay advocates.

 

When done properly, email marketing is about the recipient – not the sender. For a band...

 

it's about engaging fans in conversation by delivering anticipated, relevant and personal messages to them. Following Coldplay's model will make sense for a lot of bands so here are the ten things the Coldplay model can teach us about email marketing in music.

 

1 - Keep your promises.

 

After submitting details, the download link took three days to arrive. Coldplay can be forgiven for not anticipating such an overwhelming response but other bands should make sure they are prepared for an immediate exchange.

 

2 - Hit me with your best shot.

 

The email link arrived in the form of a text email and a long URL link. Even at the automated response stage, bands need to engage. Make the download link nice and simple ('click here' for example) and then add value by running a competition, delivering a link to a personal message from the band or letting fans pre-order the album.

 

3 - Ramp up pre-orders.

 

The free mp3 is a terrific hype generator for an album's release. Why not channel that hype into immediate sales by letting people pre-order the album on iTunes/Amazon mp3 or a direct-to-consumer mini site while they are downloading the free mp3? Better still, to motivate fans to pre-order, include exclusive content or merchandise in the deal.

 

4 - Nail your timing and style.

 

Coldplay send roughly one email a month to their fans. That's the perfect frequency. And they keep things stylish, even in the notoriously ugly world of HTML. Perfecting the frequency and appearance of the emails is a threshold requirement for effective email marketing.

 

5 - Geo-target your message.

 

If you take postcodes in the download process, use that information to segment your database geographically. Coldplay send blanket news of ap-pearances on US TV and shows at French music festivals. With segmentation they could target their message and make it more relevant. When fans in Brazil are informed about TV appearances in the UK, they are distanced. That distance increases the likelihood the email won't be opened next time.

 

6 - Remember, it's about them, not you.

 

Since the download, 70% of the calls to action within Coldplay's emails outlined what fans could do for the band. Only 30% related to Coldplay doing something for fans. Email marketing, like a friendship, works best when the exchange is 50/50. When you give people more value, you increase the chances they will talk positively about you to others.

 

7 - Cater to uber fans.

 

Premium packages are a great alternative to merely announcing the album's release in an email. For example, Coldplay could have offered tiered pack-ages ranging from a digital only album to a deluxe offering including a t-shirt, a digital copy of the album, a CD, a DVD, some vinyl, signed cover artwork, and a ticket to an upcoming show. Fans come with different needs and wants and it can be profitable to cater to them all.

 

8 - Embrace diversity.

 

Fans consume information in different ways. Don't assume one mass email is the best way to go. Offer SMS or direct mail updates and a range of opt-in content categories like tour information, free mp3s and video content at a customizable frequency.

 

9 - Two ears one mouth – to be used in proportion.

 

300,000 fans on a database is a golden opportunity for market research. Find out what fans want, where they go for music news, where they buy or download music and what social networks, forums and blogs they engage with. Listen and learn.

 

10 - Attention is everything.

 

Coldplay did a good job of engaging fans' interest. But your band could do better. Attention is the real opportunity of the digital age and maintaining that attention over time is the real challenge.

 

http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/62427/35184487

http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2008/10/10-things-music.html

interesting. but i think they're being too nit-picky, especially about the VH download. of course they did it for album hype, but i think the intent was to make it NOT attached to anything else, like an album preorder. they wanted to truly give back, not con people into buying it. besides, they're probably 100% aware of all the illegal downloading anyway.

 

i agree with #7, or a variation of it, but to me, that would require an official fan club with a small task-force of dedicated employees. i'm beating a long-dead horse with that one, but they really need to get on that. and i still maintain that it would be my dream-job to go to london and spearhead the organization of it :P. i've got connections into the pearl jam fanclub, and their model is amazing and has worked effectively for years, even going beyond the call of duty. i think to be a superband like coldplay these days without an official fanclub is kind of insane. it would just make sense for them (and for all of us). how i want to set that up... :lol:

maybe coldplay's fanclub should be called fortytwoclub :lol:

you're just a little organization freak, aren't you???? :P

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

having said that i would totally join the fanclub if you were leading it!!!!! :D

Very interesting article, Ian :)

 

Just my talk!

Sometimes I get the feeling that the record labels are not at all interested in the power of a well informed fanbase. There's so much potential in it ...

maybe coldplay's fanclub should be called fortytwoclub :lol:

 

hahaha! :laugh4:

 

(ok, i don't know if that was intentional or not, but it must be, because the pearl jam fanclub that i mentioned is actually called the tenclub! fortytwoclub would be hilarious!)

 

you're just a little organization freak, aren't you???? :P

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

having said that i would totally join the fanclub if you were leading it!!!!! :D

 

haha, yes, i most definitely AM an organization freak! :D

 

i know it's never going to happen, but i would seriously kill to run an official coldplay fan club. my mom's in the pearl jam one, and the benefits she gets from that are incredible (christmas gifts, special newsletters much like the old e-zines, FIRST CHOICE OF TICKETS AT ALL CONCERTS, special merchandise, etc etc). i almost get a bit jealous that my favorite band doesn't have something like that, and i think they really should. and the people that started the fan club were just two regular fans back in the '90s and they've made it into something amazing in junction with the band itself. i want to do that :P

Interesting :nice:

wooowww............ she gets cool stuff!!!!

 

mmmm....... maybe something could be done, but it would be really tricky if the band don't see the point of it.............. :thinking:

i would bet that with the right convincing, they'd see the point of it too. it really helps both parties (they make some serious money off the deal, i would assume). i think it's more a a matter of whether or not they'd pick a couple of diehard fans to get it up and running, or if they'd turn to professionals :lol:. they'd probably turn to professionals, but i think that could get ugly quickly.

 

i could go on about this topic all day, so shut me up if i'm ranting :P

i like your ranting better than the article <sorry Ian!!! :P>, so keep on going!!!! :D

 

i thought about asking this to the oracle, but hasn't something in that matter been asked before???? :thinking:

oh, i've asked it twice now. no reply :dozey:

 

someday when i'm a bit older and when i look more than 12 years old, i might just get my act together and start banging down the EMI office door in london (maybe with debs's help :lol:).

Aren't you moving to the UK next year????

 

That should make it easier!!!! :P

That was a very good article. Thanks for posting it.

haha, i am, but only for a year. i'll definitely be back, but i have to come back to america to finish up my last year of uni :sad:.

 

and keep in mind that i'm YOUNG :lol:. even if this whole thing somehow worked out and they agreed to let fans do it, i HIIIIGHLY doubt that they'd let some random teenage american girl uni student set it up! :P. maybe when i'm like 23, at the soonest :D

hey!!! coldplayer organizational skills count more than age!!!!

 

this is probably the one job where you could post "organization of hundreds of people in the PFFA project" on your CV and get away with it!!!!! :P

haha, good point :D. believe me, i know age doesn't matter, but i sincerely doubt anyone would be that thrilled with handing over any important job to an 18-year-old american, just based on prior knowledge of what teenagers are like :P

 

not that i plan to try out any sort of move next year! :lol: i'm just saying that they really need a fanclub and i'd kill to run it, whenever that is :P

I'd love to get my hands on the soundboard collection, especially if they come in their own cardboard packets :smug:

9 & 10 added to the list!

Thanks Ian. I'm actually writing about music and marketing at the moment for some coursework so this will be helpful.

i'm all for #9...STALK COLDPLAYING, BOYS :D :P

That was an interesting article.

"i'm just saying that they really need a fanclub"

 

Why exactly?

 

To me, in a way it seems not having an "official" fanclub fits better with Coldplay's philsophy of dealing with their fans.

 

Most (if not all) "official" fanclubs require a membership fee to join. Fair enough, I guess, but in most cases what you get for the money is the opportunity to spend more money (and maybe a membership card, or perhaps the ever popular "tabloid sized quarterly newsletter":thinking:)...

 

Anyway, what I'm getting at is that it always seemed a bit crass to me to make people pay to be "fans" of your band. After all, fans pay you a great deal of money as it is, why squeeze them for more, just to prove they are more of a fan than other "non-official" fans (Just MHO...)

 

It seems to me that the way Coldplay does it is more reasonable. Sure, they collected fans information with the VH download (among other times), but I really think with them it was about thanking fans for support as opposed to squeezing fans for every possible drop of revenue...