I read an interesting article today in the latest Fortune magazine entitled Big musicians flex their muscle with record labels. Basically Devin Leonard, a senior writer at Fortune, discusses how the record companies used to be the gatekeepers between the artists and the audience. Used to be if you wanted your video played on MTV, you needed a major label. If you wanted your CD displayed at Tower Records, you had to have a big record company.
But the Internet has changed that paradigm, just as it’s done across industries. Artists and musicians are using the Internet to promote their music, without the backing of the record companies, and they’re succeeding. For example, in July, Thom Yorke, Radiohead’s lead singer, released a solo album, The Eraser, on an independent label – promoting it on the homepage of Apple’s iTunes Music Store and became the no. 2 record on the Billboard 200. And Ice Cube’s latest promoter (not a record company) got DJs to urge listeners to check out the rapper’s singles on his MySpace page, and the number of Ice Cube’s “friends” climbed from 2,000 to 150,000.
We see the same paradigm shift in the usually slow-to-adopt HR marketplace. Print advertising, the once powerful oligarchy controlling most HR suppliers’ marketing dollars, has been on the decline and Internet advertising and marketing have increased – and the trend continues (previous blogs include Internet Ad Spending Outpaces Print Spending and Internet Advertising Is Growing).
And don’t forget your marketing PR that we’ve been promoting for the past year! According to Pew/Internet Internet penetration has now reached 73% for all American adults, and Internet users note big improvements in their ability to shop and the way they pursue hobbies and personal interests online. So combining marketing and PR tactics to create lead-generating activities online using press releases – i.e., sending out press releases via a wire service (like HRmarketer’s Direct2Net service) to cost-effectively promote your products and services, white paper offers, webinars – you name it. Effectively promoting your wares with marketing PR will also help your overall organic website SEO, helping you generate more publicity, website traffic, and sales leads.