Year of the Whitesnake

Many artists have released live albums recorded at music venues in Japan. These artists include B.B. King, Deep Purple, George Harrison and John Coltrane, among others. Going on their 35th year together, British Hard Rock band Whitesnake have just added their name to that list with the release of Made In Japan this week.

Whitesnake played a set during Japan’s Loud Park Festival in 2011, which was recorded and originally only intended to be broadcast for Japanese TV and Loud Park promos. However, after three songs were heard on Loud Park promotions, the band received an overwhelming number of requests to make the entire set available for general release.

Made in Japan features classics as well as new material for which fans everywhere have been starving. Ax slingers Doug Aldrich and Reb Beach, who are both celebrating their 10th anniversary with the band this year, bring the blazing riffs and the face-melting solos we all know and love. Whitesnake‘s rhythm section (aka “The Wrecking Crew”), featuring Michael Devin on bass and Brian Tichy on drums, bring the pain with the hard-hitting beats and deep bass lines, further adorned by the lush atmosphere created by special guest keyboardist, Brian Ruedy. Of course, all this harmonic and rhythmic alchemy gives way to lead singer/founder David Coverdale and his powerfully seductive vocals.

In addition to the live tracks featured on Made in Japan, the band decided to include soundcheck recordings from the various venues at which they played during their 2011 Japanese tour.

The release of the record falls just in time for the commencing of Whitesnake‘s “Year of the Snake 2013″ World Tour, on which it’s certain the band will play even more historic, awe-inspiring shows.

To prepare yourself for the awesomeness (if that’s even possible), check out this video:

Welcome, Jenn!

Introducing Jennifer Schwartz, Assistant Programmer, The Orchard Video Network

Hello everyone! I’m excited to be joining The Orchard’s New York team. I recently graduated from Fordham University with a degree in Communications and Psychology, so I’m a total Audience Behavior nerd.

Most recently I interned in Digital Advertising at NBC Universal and in New Media at Roadrunner Records before that. At Roadrunner, I helped develop the online presence of Metal and Hard Rock artists, which I’m thrilled to be continuing here at The Orchard.

Music is my biggest passion. From the time I learned my multiplication tables, I’ve been composing, playing flute, and singing. In college, I was the Entertainment Reporter for a niche on-campus paper, interviewing everyone from Minus The Bear to Slipknot’s Corey Taylor. Last year I even helped execute CMJ Music Marathon.

By 2014 I plan to dabble in guitar and piano. I also love animals and baking. My specialties include bacon brownies and Blue Moon cupcakes, but I’m always looking for a crafty new recipe.

I look forward to meeting everyone on The Orchard’s New York team, and making beautiful music together.

Get Gone with Some Perfect Travel Tunes

So you’re going on an epic, cross-country road trip with your friends, just loaded up the car with all the essentials — endless Red Vines, Slim Jims, and Hawaiian Punch — and are feeling pretty impressed with your packing prioritization skills. But after fifteen minutes of static radio noise on the highway, you realize you’re missing something. That’s right, you forgot the essential road trip playlist. Now, your best friend in the passenger seat is belting Celine Dion and there’s no end in sight for your aural misery.

Well, this nightmare is no more with the Get Gone “American Backroads Discovery” Series. You supply the destination; they provide the tunes for your trip. If you’re headed on a stretch across Alabama or Georgia, check out Southern Loop, Vol. 1. You’ll get enough Blues, Country, Jazz and Roots music to satiate your appetite for all the sounds of the South. Or, if the West Coast is your destination, Get Gone Music has you covered with Coastal Beaches, Vol. 1. It features hand-picked Reggae music that will transport you to the beaches of the Caribbean in no time (piña colada not included).

What’s that? You don’t have anywhere to go? Fear not idle homebodies, as Roadtrippers — a road trip planning service that helps build your itinerary and map out your travel plans — can take care of all the heavy lifting. Last week, the travel service featured two of Get Gone’s playlists, and this match made in Kerouacian heaven will have your travel plans covered from the drawing board to your destination.

So kick back, relax, and let Get Gone supply the sounds to your next trip’s soundtrack. Make sure to snag a copy of the Southern Loop and Coastal Beaches compilations over on iTunes before you pack though.

YouTube Playbook Gets a Music Facelift

If you’re a savvy YouTuber, you may already know about YouTube’s Playbook. Of course, if you’re a savvy YouTuber you already know everything in it. For a while, I’ve grumbled that it could use some reapplication to multiple types of creators. After all, not everyone is making cool episodic series or pioneering animation on YouTube. Therefore I’m sure the new Playbook Guides are all due to my influence!

They’re not yet converted to a user-friendly website, but you can download them as PDFs. Probably of immediate interest to most of The Orchard family is the music guide. While it’s not as heavy on strategy as the main Playbook, it does go in-depth on numerous successful tactics for promoting music on YouTube. I highly recommend it. Pay particular attention to the section on increasing watch time starting on page 27. It’s relevant to my last post on increasing engagement and helpful in mentally getting you over the hump of focusing on view counts.

Of course a big part of The Orchard family includes action sports. YouTube has a sports guide just for you. In particular, I recommend the section on programming starting on page 20. This is an area upon which I believe many of our sports clients could improve and the guide is fairly concise in this regard.

There are three other guides, one for educators, one for media companies, and one for nonprofits. I also recommend reading these. At first glance you may think they’re irrelevant, but you never know where a tactic used in one area could have applications in another.

You Asked, We Answered: Sales Strategy and Tips

One of the questions we get a lot in our midsts is how to improve your sales. Whether you’re just starting up or have a rich and exciting catalogue, there are always things you can do to get that extra something something.

On that note, we got Brandon Becker, one of our expert Retail Marketing Managers, to tackle the answer to our latest “You Asked, We Answered” below:

My sales have decreased recently and I need your help to raise them. Can you give me some advice for the strategy of my sales?

Sales numbers are quite liquid when it comes to music, meaning these numbers fluctuate regularly based on a variety of variables. It can be frustrating to see sales on your catalogue drop after the holiday spike, the economy takes a downturn, during a lull in your release schedule, or simply when marketing drivers are not present.

I’ve provided a short list of things that can help raise awareness of your catalogue in order to stimulate sales growth.

1. Price your catalogue strategically to increase visibility through promotions. This can be achieved by small discounts of 20-30%, where with the right promotion, your incremental revenue will show growth.
2. Create fun, timely and unique playlists for streaming and mobile partners.
3. Cut ringtones for all key tracks in your catalogue.
4. Drive traffic to buy links from all available social networks (artist, friends of artist, label, etc.). Check out GeoRiot for an easy way to centralize and monitor the clicks on these links.
5. Create ads that point to a retailer — and communicate ad spends to your Orchard Client Manager so they can share with the appropriate rep at that retail account.
6. Point all promotional assets to one retail account in order to show your focus with that retailer and garner support through their store and/or social media outlets. Make sure to discuss these options with your Orchard Client Manager for proper posting techniques.
7. Create a landing page for pre-orders and purchase options on artist and label websites.
8. Participate in catalogue-themed promotions on all retail accounts.
9. Discount an artist’s catalogue releases (and drive traffic to them) before and around a new release from said artist.
10. Use the suite of marketing and business tools provided in The Orchard Marketplace to create a Press Kit, connect to SoundCloud, build a D2C store, and more.