Sandbox Issue 238: Remixes Hit Saturation Point
October 17, 2019
Lead: Lil Nas X might have broken on TikTok but it was his deft use of multiple remixes (and collaborations) that kept ‘Old Town Road’ in the air throughout most of 2019. He claims he has 25 remixes of follow-up track...
Sandbox Issue 237: VIEWTUBE. When Music Video Plays Get Juiced
October 3, 2019
Lead: Sony Music India artist Badshah claimed to have broken the 24-hour record on YouTube for 75m plays of his track ‘Paagal’ in July. Then people started asking questions. It eventually emerged that the track’s success...
Sandbox Issue 236: Power Plays. THE NEXT STEP FOR PLAYLISTS
September 23, 2019
Lead: Playlists are still enormously important for breaking acts and for building careers – but they are increasingly a moving target that gets harder and harder to hit. As they change what they are, how they work and what...
Sandbox Issue 235: Talking TikTok Triumphs
September 5, 2019
Lead: TikTok is an essential consideration for artist marketing in 2019, particularly for pop acts. But for all the strategies and careful coordination, the best things on the app are often those that blindside everyone....
Sandbox Issue 234: The New Era Of Music Videos
August 8, 2019
Lead: In the 1970s, “pop promos” (as they were called) were the preserve of the mega-star act, but after the launch of MTV in 1981 they became standard practice across the industry. The arrival of YouTube in 2005 may...
Lead: Working with D2C experts is one part of the business, but changes in how social media sites are structuring themselves can offer acts new ways to sell products to fans of all stripes. We look at where social platforms...
Sandbox issue 232: Music Marketing in Trigger Cities
July 11, 2019
Lead: This issue we have a special extended feature looking into the phenomenon of Trigger Cities. These are places outside of the obvious music markets that are now – due to streaming and how algorithms are fed – playing...
Lead: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half,” is a quote commonly attributed to Philadelphian retailer John Wanamaker in the 1800s and it has haunted the advertising...
Lead: Email marketing is far from dead. We look at why it is still relevant, how email tools and platforms are getting smarter and where they are allowing users greater ways to target audiences, segment audiences and personalise...
Lead: Collaborations have long been a staple in the music industry, but something different is happening today as social media and analytics become key parts of marketing campaigns. In the “old days”, labels would trade...
Sandbox Issue 228: Marketing on a Budget
May 15, 2019
Lead: You can throw cash at a campaign and make headlines for how much you actually spent. But what about the other end of the spending spectrum where there is a tiny (or non-existent) budget? We look at some of the main...
Lead: TikTok is far more than a novelty app for people to whip up memes that have a shorter shelf life than a carton of milk. It is now breaking acts and songs in a way that other platforms cannot. We look at what the music...
