Lead: SoundCloud is (finally) moving towards moentising its platform and Mixcloud is adding new premium subscription tiers. Both have prided themselves on the part they play in giving underground and cutting-edge musicians an early leg up – but the smell of money could change how the bigger acts and labels view these services as marketing and monetisations channels. Unless handled carefully, they could lose everything that made them compelling and exciting in the first place.
Tools: PledgeMusic is five years old and is no longer just a way for artists to circumvent the label model. We speak to founder Benji Rogers about what works, what doesn’t work, where labels are partnering up, how the users are becoming more proactive and why offerings have to be carefully planned and managed.
Campaigns: Hashtag Etienne de Crécy’s ass; Paloma Faith’s design competition; Transgressive’s 10th anniversary giveaway; and Rolling Stones movies go on Facebook.
Behind The Campaign: Sinfini Music was set up with a specific remit to push classical music to a broader audience. We look at how it has gone about this, where its international expansion is shaping up, how online comic strips are being used to broaden the audience and why classical is still struggling to slot neatly into digital services.
Tools: platforms to help you reach new audiences
Tools: Kaiber
In the year or so since its launch, AI startup Kaiber has been making waves,…