Here you go guys! The last report of the year is an interview special, where we pick the brains of senior industry executives, artists, lawyers and investors on the key themes of this year, and what they mean for 2017. Rob Wells: “Without sounding like a smug ba**ard, it kinda vindicates a lot of what […]
It’s finally here – Sandbox’s pick of the best music marketing campaigns of the year. Last year, we had 29 shortlisted campaigns. This year, due to an overwhelming number of entries, we felt we had to increase this. So in our bumper edition, the editorial team’s Eamonn Forde and Lil Patuck whittled the entries down […]
It’s finally here – Sandbox’s pick of the best music marketing campaigns of the year. Last year, we had 29 shortlisted campaigns. This year, due to an overwhelming number of […]
Lead: Music Ally has heard that at least one major label is threatening to pull its content from YouTube before Christmas. This could prove to be a negotiating strategy/last resort, but what would happen if they actually went through with it? We look at the history of withdrawals, assess how easy (and effective) this direct […]
(This is a sponsored feature) Where are your fans? It’s one of the most important questions in the modern music industry. Not just in terms of which social networks they’re […]
Lead: Most acts want as many fans as possible, but the super fans are the first to flock to them and will often be the ones still there long after the stadium shows and #1 singles have dried up. Holding and cultivating them in a time when there are so many other distractions has never […]
This issue we’re diving into YouTube and its most recent updates that you should know more about. No, it’s not about resolving its disputes with the music business over the “value gap”. It’s a lot more functional than that – and a lot less thorny.
First up: YouTube Community. Let’s face it, as incredible as YouTube is, every time you want to actually talk to your subscribers, you’re having to hit up another platform – Facebook for live videos, mailing list for merchandise, Instagram for cat pictures and gifs.
Lead: Just as there are now major playlist brands doing the heavy lifting in streaming, so it follows that there is a new wave of companies stepping forward to both make sense of what is happening on them and reveal how labels and artists can turn all this to their advantage. We speak to three […]
Straight from the 2016 MidemLab startups contest winners’ podium, Stagelink is a Berlin-based startup that offers a tour-building platform for musicians, based on crowdfunding.
It’s a direct rival to Bandsquare, which we also recently covered in our Sandbox digital music marketing report.
Both have their unique selling points nailed down, but a direct comparison between them gives some interesting insights into the power of fanbases and how they can be harnessed in this sector of the industry.
Lead: In the second part of our special look at music, digital and branding, we speak to the record labels about how their dedicated divisions are adapting to online and mobile by securing the right partnerships deals. We also take a look at some of the best and worst brand marriages. Campaigns: Sigur Rós drive […]
In our cover feature we look beyond the noisy chatter about VR concerts to consider where else digital is really impacting on the live business. From the rise of non-live companies using ticketing to turn themselves into full-stack operations, through opening APIs and into real-time data bringing in a new type of dynamic pricing, there’s […]
Our cover feature surveys the startup boneyard to try and understand precisely why so many music services, all promising a fizzing new future at their launch, hit the wall quickly, found out they were in the wrong lane when it was too late or simply ran out of juice. It’s a difficult, sometimes painful read, but unless […]
