Here in the Product department, we’re always busy building cool stuff to make life (and business) easier for our clients. This time, we’re very pleased to announce the launch of a brand new Accounting section. Please, everyone, calm down. Excuse me, sir, can you put your shirt back on? This …
Videos are by far the most engaging form of social content. This isn’t exactly a new discovery, but there’s a lot of missed potential by bands that claim to have a YouTube presence. The common misconception is that your music videos go up on YouTube and you’re done. Although MTV …
Plugging — it’s a word we often hear in relation to promoting something, recommending it, giving it your stamp of approval. iPluggers does just that for your music, and it does it all around the world. With a 100% airplay guarantee (or your money back), iPluggers provides the platform for …
Meet our latest partner: Conduit Mobile. The mobile app creator is getting all kinds of press these days, and it’s not without good reason. Their sexy app offers every function you could dream of with the ease of use you’ve always wanted. What’s more, they’re compatible with all major mobile …
Goals
With Somewhere Else being the Swedish italo-disco duo’s first release in four years and the knowledge that the band does not perform live, our goal with this worldwide campaign was to revitalize their social presence and develop alternative ways for them to interact with fans.
Tactics
First step: refreshing Sally Shapiro’s Facebook page with new cover art, app reskins and an updated About section. On the apps front, we implemented FanRx, a Facebook app that shares music, video, tour dates and more; Viinyl, an app that creates a website around a single song; and Urturn, a fan engagement platform.
Next, we offered an email-for-download premiere on Nylon Blog through SoundCloud Email Unlock, and later through the Viinyl tab on Facebook and its corresponding landing page.
To engage local fans, we partnered with the best local music service: Spotify. We offered a one-week pre-release stream on Spotify Sweden, as well as an interview on Spotify’s blog. In addition, Spotify promoted the release in their weekly newsletter and on their Facebook page, and we ran some ads on the local service for additional support.
To get fans excited globally, we threw a Soundrop-powered “release party” that was accessible both within Spotify and a YouTube-powered Facebook app. The event included an hour of live chat with the band and was promoted on Spotify’s home page and Soundrop’s native Spotify application.
Tying the campaign together, we launched two ad campaigns. The first targeted a specific set of music blogs and websites; the second reached friends of Sally Shapiro Facebook fans who liked Electronic, Pop, Dance and/or Indie/Alternative music via Facebook Sponsored Page Ads.
Results
For your viewing pleasure:
Introducing Jonathan Sirlin, Operations Manager
I’m very excited to be joining The Orchard in this new capacity after five beautiful, gorgeous, unforgettable months with Compilations. I’m originally from New Rochelle, NY and graduated from Wesleyan University in 2008. I currently live in Sunnyside, Queens, where everything’s cheaper and the apartments are bigger.
Music has consistently been the central focus of my life. Prior to coming to The Orchard, I worked as the Operations Manager at Turtle Bay Music School for four years. If you were around for the holiday party this past December, you may or may not have seen me attempting to publicly re-teach myself how to play the violin in the Battle of the Bands. I started classical violin lessons at the age of 8, and stopped practicing once I got good enough to sit far up enough in orchestra to play the better parts, but still far back enough to goof off and not pay attention during rehearsals. This is when I tell people I started playing “jazz and bluegrass” violin, which is really code for “I stopped practicing scales and other pretty boring music and learned to have more fun with the instrument.” I took up guitar shortly after starting violin and have since played in various bands in a few different capacities, most notably along fellow Orchardites Max Horwich and Zac Meyer during our collective time at Wesleyan University.
I’m a Randy Newman fanatic, I still play video games (ladies), my brother-in-law is a professional Russian-Israeli weightlifter, I recently wrote a musical for children about a depressed turtle, and I can’t believe how the last season of Breaking Bad ended (WHAT IS TAKING SO LONG NEW EPISODES LET’S GO). These are the most interesting things about me, and if you take anything away from this email, let it be this sendoff.
Thanks to everybody for the warm reception these last few months, and I’m thrilled to be given this new opportunity!
The Orchard Sports has opened up a whole new world for Action Sports Filmmakers. You see, the Action Sports genre primarily consists of propaganda pieces that are used to showcase a new snowboard, an athlete, or communicate the culture of a brand. The sponsor dollars that are devoted to these projects could have been allocated to print, web, or even events for marketing.
But now, more than ever in the last 5 years, dollars are pouring back into the film space because we’re able to provide a clear path to distribution. Bigger and better projects are being funded because the reach to the consumer is greater than ever. Brands can devote funds to films specifically distributed by The Orchard Sports because they know the film will be seen and available on all the major digital video platforms worldwide. Brands like Oakley, Rockstar Energy and Racer X view The Orchard Sports as an extension of their marketing department, a conduit to the reach. Coupled with our extensive marketing support, its a true partnership in every way.
Additionally, The Orchard Sports has put the “Mo” back in “monetization.” By collecting revenue from all angles, we’re able to maximize the eyeballs and the revenue for the brand. Whether its EST, VOD, Ad-Supported, or Subscription VOD, we’re collecting every impression and dollar for the sponsor. This ultimately goes right back into future production budgets. And it doesn’t stop at just new releases. Catalogue releases continue to generate revenue year after year, and as the digital universe expands, we’re seeing this revenue tick up year over year, even though titles themselves are are getting older. It’s proving to be a great model for brand funded films; the caliber of films on the slate for 2013 and 2014 are proof that the model is working!
Coming up, we have Lakey Peterson: Zero to 100, a project funded by Hurley to showcase the talent and rise to fame of women’s surfing sensation Lakey Peterson. The film will be available on iTunes starting April 20th. Other projects on the horizion include Into the Mind, sponsored by The North Face; Oakley’s Naturally; and #Recoil from Monster Energy. Take a minute to check out the teasers — these projects are taking action sports film making to the next level.
Tripwires is a band from Reading, UK that has been rocking venues with its reverberating, shoegaze grunge for the past six years. Though there are a handful of bands out there with a similar tag line, Tripwires are somewhat of an anomaly. Though the band was conceived in 2007, they have yet to release their debut album, which has been in the works for the past six years. To put that into perspective, Tripwires has been writing and recording this forthcoming album since the announcement of the 1st generation iPhone. Though this seems like centuries ago, Tripwires have taken the time to carefully hone their sound and will release their long-awaited record, Spacehopper, on June 18th via Frenchkiss Records.
Let’s look back in time a little, shall we? The town in which longtime friends (frontman, Rhys Edwards; guitarist, Joe Stone; bassist, Ben White; and drummer, Sam Pilsbury) grew up was placid and quaint. However, though the town may not seem enchanting by any means, the four friends found a musical refuge in it and took their time to pen this upcoming record. They claim that the sound of Spacehopper is influenced by a wide scope of artists including Neil Young, The Flaming Lips, Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo, and Talk Talk. Nevertheless, between all these sonic layers of inspiration, they found their own voice.
It’s evident that the members of Tripwires are closely-knit. Maybe it’s that they’ve successfully collaborated together on creating a record for over half a decade, or maybe it’s the fact that they used to cover Slipknot songs together during their lunch breaks in grade school. These guys have grown up and matured with each other not only in their personal lives, but musically as well. The strong relationships that exist between them have helped them craft their own, diverse sound that is sure to be well worth the wait.
The weekend is here, which means it’s time to turn off your email and turn up your stereo. Whether you’re hitting the road for a quick getaway, hosting an epic dance party, or just looking for an aural escape this weekend, you’ve come to the right place. We have tons of new music that is guaranteed to make your weekday hiatus a truly raucous event.
To start things off, AM & Shawn Lee spin a cosmic cover of a Joe Jackson classic, Black Star Riders share a feel of summer with the premiere of their newest single, and PVT gets turned up a notch with a remix by The Antlers.
What’s that? You want a full album to jam out to this weekend? Well you’re in luck, as Young Man spreads infectious Pop sounds and Little Tybee wanders into the atmosphere with their respective full record streams. Both albums drop next week, so be on the lookout.
If you’re looking for visuals, The Lovely Bad Things have you covered with the music video premiere of “Fried Eyes.” It features fireworks, mini-bike races, and enough party vibes to get your weekend kicked into gear.
But the feel good story of the week comes from Funk maestro Charles Bradley. The cook-turned-James-Brown-impersonator-turned-Soul-singer ignites NPR Music’s All Songs Considered, a weekly podcast hosted by Bob Boilen, with the track “You Put The Flame On It.” The redemptive story of Bradley’s career and his newest single are both bound to lift your weekend spirits.
AM & Shawn Lee: “Steppin’ Out” via NYLON
La Musique Numerique out May 7 on Park The Van
Black Star Riders: “Bound For Glory” via Classic Rock Magazine
All Hell Breaks Loose out May 28 on Nuclear Blast
Young Man: Full album stream via Rolling Stone
Beyond Was All Around Me out April 9 on Frenchkiss Records
Charles Bradley: “You Put The Flame On It” via NPR Music’s All Songs Considered
Victim of Love out now on Daptone Records
PVT: “Nightfall (The Antlers Remix)” via Stereogum
Homosapien out now on Felte
Little Tybee: Full album stream via Paste
For Distant Viewing out April 9 on Paper Garden Records
The Lovely Bad Things: “Fried Eyes” music video premiere via Death and Taxes
The Late Great Whatever out now on Volcom Entertainment
