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15.06.12 MusicWeek 23
key releases, whilst working with labels to organise exclusives with stores. The digital space is fluid, and so is Believe’s
approach to strategy design; keeping flexible and ready to adapt to the fast pace online, and the changing needs of the client as they get on with what they do best, developing artists and releasing great records.
BELIEVE DIGITAL: A FLUID APPROACH TO STRATEGY
By Lee Morrison, Head of Sales & New Business
Services include:
Digital Marketing Strategies Analysis of your online presence and social media. Building a plan to maximise your release online according to your label needs.
Individual Video Strategy Optimising your video revenue and channel views.
Specialist International Trade Marketing
Support in promoting your releases to stores internationally.
Synchronisation We can get your music placed in film, TV, adverts and computer games both locally and internationally on a non-exclusive basis.
Marketing Tools
Free tools to optimise your reach to fans, and find out more about who your fans are.
To us, ‘label services’ means helping labels get the most from their releases. We specialise in the digital space, which is an increasingly crowded and fast-paced environment. It’s not enough to be on Facebook and post Efliers to push releases online. We provide technologies; expert insight into best practice; and design tailor made strategies to help manage release campaigns more effectively online. Broadly speaking our services fall into
providing user-friendly technologies and flexible marketing support. Our technical system allows labels control of their release’s distribution. It provides daily sales statistics so labels are able to respond to how well their record is selling internationally and in real time. We have embeddable marketing tools they can
use across their social networks and a digital marketing and social media team to help labels organise their online presence. The team identify and plug any gaps in a label’s online presence and develop strategies making the most of online activity to increase brand strength and ultimately, sales. A growing area is our Video Strategy Service,
an increasingly important revenue stream for our clients. We monetise tracks, analyse accounts for channel customisation and organise video metadata to attract more hits. Our system is centralised, which means labels don’t need to upload a video more than once for it to appear across platforms, and we are also able to block videos using your music without permission. Trade Marketing is another key service we
provide across territories through our international team. We use our relationships with the digital stores to gain visibility of our clients’
User Friendly Backstage Labels have control up uploading their releases to the system. Once in the system, your tracks can be used however you want, for example, to create a catalogue compilation.
Daily Statistics
Find out how your release is performing, and where - in real time. Have the knowledge and adapt your marketing plans accordingly.
Online Payments
You can request payments direct to your account either monthly or quarterly, with detailed reports available.
LEFT
Believers: Believe Digital has worked on artists such as Sonic Youth (left) and MC Solaar in collaboration with its label partners
ESSENTIAL: FULL PRODUCT DISTRUBUTION – AND EVERYTHING IN-BETWEEN
By Mike Chadwick, MD
Rather than being a recent-ish addition to Essential’s offering, label services are fundamental to why the company was set up in 2003. Essential personally works each release, and
this means being flexible enough to work across the spectrum of different label and self-releasing artist set-ups. So the services delivered vary from distribution through to full product management and everything in between. Some case studies are listed below but at all
times the Essential goal is to maximise every retail and marketing opportunity. Essential recently became the only independent UK distributor to have an office in the world’s biggest music market [the US], so can now offer services across the pond too. Labels and artists with service deals with
Essential include C.W. Stoneking; Cheap Thrills; Chris Robinson Brotherhood (Black Crowes); Cosmo Jarvis; Duran Duran; DragonForce; Ed Harcourt; JME; Marilyn Manson (US Digital Marketing); Primus; R&S; Sophie Ellis-Bextor; Scorcher; Stones Throw and Vagrant Records.
Case Studies:
Scroobius Pip Services: Core Label Services, Physical and Digital Sales, Digital Retail marketing, D2C Scroob’s debut solo album Distraction Pieces came out Pip’s own Speech Development label, via a services deal with Essential. This was a great team effort, accomplished on the tiniest budgets, with Scroob working his social media to perfection, getting two videos made for the equivalent of a night out, putting his beard up for
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