The music industry has developed overtime to integrate into the ever changing modern society. This has helped artists to promote, market, and sell their products by interacting with fans, offering their music instantly and allowing anybody around the world to listen to them.
Lady Gaga is a prime example of how digital technology has boosted her career by making her more well known and also it helps keep the millions of fans she already has. Lady Gaga is the worlds 2nd most followed person on twitter with 33610937 followers who read and respond to her tweets and are interested in every way- Lady Gaga, unlike many celebrities replies to her fans and calls them her 'little monsters' this gives the fans gratification because they are inspired by her and by speaking to her they gain social interaction. Through social media the fans are able to find out every detail about Lady Gaga's life and the type of person she is, Parasocial interaction has been created here, even though she knows nothing about her fans she often thanks them and reminds them that they are the reason she has achieved so much- this can only make her fans love her more. Lady Gaga was recently interviewed by google, one of the most influential search engines in the world, and she has been named as one of the most searched artists ever this shows her popularity and how the internet enables people to find out who she is- increasing the number of fans she has through free publicity.
Itunes, Youtube and Spotify have all worked to Lady Gaga's advantage allowing people to download and listen to her music instantly through the internet. Over 3 and a half days she was asked 54000 question via her Youtube channel also giving her fans social gratification as they are able to find out more about their favourite artist whilst listening to her music. Since 'The fame' was released in 2008 it has sold 12 million copies world wide consisting of mp3 downloads and WAV download.
Similarly Radiohead have been more successful as a result of digital technology. When releasing 'The king of limbs' they promoted via the bands website as the band had no record label and self-released the album making digital technology such as the internet even more important. On the 14th february 2011 the band announced the release of the new album, the 19th february on the website. However the promotional video 'lotus flower' and the album were released a day earlier- a decision made by the band themselves. On the 18th the only available copy of the album was a MP3 download or a WAV priced at just £6 from their website as a result of this the internet(digital technology) was the most important factor when selling this album. Radiohead were not able to sell this through itunes etc as the price was too low, however it did have a set price unlike their previous album which was available at what the customer wanted to pay for it. Later the physical edition of the album was released through the bands TickerTape imprint on XL, showing that the internet was not the only fact contributing the success of 'The king of limbs' and a small record label like XL was useful and was able to distribute the physical edition well and on the 9th of May 2011 a wider digital release 'newspaper edition' was released via AWAL.
However unlike Lady Gaga and Radiohead, Nirvana was unable to access as much digital technology. As their album 'Nevermind' was released in 1991 the internet wasnt common and very few were able to access it, but satellite channels were available and instead of promoting through social networking sites, or youtube they performed on channels such as MTV and their music videos were shown around the world. Aswell as satellite channels they always appeared on programmes such as top of the pops and The Jonathan Ross show. Even though the band are no longer together they still promote their music through social networking sites and by using Youtube and Spotify etc. they are able to gain new fans as a new generation can listen to their old music, 'Nevermind' is available to download instantly. This may have contributed to the fact they have now sold 30 million copies. On the 20th anniversary of the album they repackaged the album and marketed it as a special anniversary copy through social media, satellite channels and by replaying music videos.
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