I was researching the Adobe site to learn more about the Flex platform and I stumbled across this presentation by Eric Snowden discussing what Atlantic Records is doing to promote their artists via Social Media networks and web pages. Even if you have no interest in developing a Flex application, this presentation will give you many ideas to think about if you are promoting a band or artist (or if you are a band or artist promoting yourself). I will likely blog about some of these topics further, but I wanted to share the link now, in case it’s a few days before I am able to comment further.
Atlantic Records: Connecting Fans with Bands by Eric Snowden
You may possibly need to install Adobe Media Player 1st to watch this. If you are interested in HDTV streaming to PCs and MACs, you’ll want to download Adobe Media Player anyway.
I think the most important thing is how Snowden details how exactly he connects artists to fans. When it comes to social marketing there is a lot of talk about overarching strategies and abstract concepts, and less talk about the actual nitty gritty details of how to make it happen. This is a good resource to learn a bit about how to implement a social marketing plan.
I agree with you Mason. The applications Snowdon and Atlantic are building are a great way for fans to stay connected directly to an artist/band controlled portal. It is also interesting that by building an application this way, a fan may be able to connect from their workplace even if there are network filters blocking fb and myspace (many corporations are now doing this … probably not so much out of a concern for the cost of bandwidth, but rather, out of concerns about worker productivity). Not likely that a band would reach many new fans through this app, but the platform serves as a direct portal to existing fans. Logically, using adobe tools would allow to one to extend easily into android, nokia, palm and other non-iPhone mobile platforms. What if you allowed exclusive content via an app like this? One could conceivably brand a phone around a artist/band much like there used to be a U2 branded iPod awhile back…and you could potentially allow a app specific data feed to a user that does not count against data usage charges (for those who can not afford an unlimited data plan).