Congtratulations on reaching a release milestone go out to one of our record label clients this month. SOUNDZ, the forward-thinking deep house and techno imprint – for whom Alchemy Content provide online profile and promotional services – celebrates it’s 50th release with a corking track from the prolific Hakan Lidbo, featuring haunting vocals from Melpo Mene.
The package contains no less than 3 different remixes from X-Press 2 and has already been given full support by the trio in their sets and charts, plus picked up on by a wide range of international DJs since first emerging at Miami WMC back in March. For this key release, content assets include streams of the track, images and a doc containing interviews with Hakan and Rocky for press/bloggers to use for quotations or in their entirity. All supported across Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and beyond.
There’s plenty more to come from SOUNDZ and it’s legendary house music-focused sister label, Slip N Slide, over the coming months. As online streaming, Twitter and mobile all become increasingly central to the promotion of new tracks, the importance of a good content generation and management package becomes ever more obvious.
Yesterday’s gossip about the alleged ‘closure’ of Fabric raises plenty of the big digital media issues of our time.
@buzzin_fly DJ Ben Watt posted what turned out to be the first online news of redundancies at the vitally important London venue. Within an hour there was plenty of RT action of his original post and the usual overexcited Twitter chatter confusing the issue. By the end of the afternoon things were getting fairly heated on the clubbing forums, forcing Ben to make a statement earlier today.
The one voice that everyone wanted/needed to hear remained deafeningly silent. In fact, as opposed to posting a statement on either their homepage news feed or blog, @fabriclondon contacted Ben and asked him to remove his earlier tweets. As anyone using Twitter (and indeed any web media tools) should really be aware, this is an utterly pointless exercise. It also fuels the gossipmongers no end.
There is still no mention of the rumours – which have of course now spread far beyond Twitter and the forums – on any of Fabric’s online profiles. This late reaction will do more damage to their reputation than gossip ever could. We questioned why it took so long for an official statement to go up on the Matter website last week, but with the venue’s closure and staff being given their marching orders, it was understandable that getting online was probably not the most pressing issue. It’s different this time though. The Fabric blog is still being updated with info about this weekend’s parties, so the wall of silence makes the situation seem dire, when clearly every effort will be being put into making sure the club continues to open as usual, if this is possible.
During times of internal turbulence, no company really wants to have to stand up in front of the public and make a statement until the dust at least begins to settle. But it’s an absolute necessity these days. And it can be done quite effectively in 140 characters. A chatty “will clear up all rumours shortly, open as usual” would have been good. Instead there is confusion leading up to one of the most lucrative holiday weekends in the clubbing year, inflicting both short and long-term damage to the club and it’s fantastic international brand.
It serves as a stark example of how even the most apparently slick, youthful media operations – that are fully blogged, Twittered and Facebooked up – are still a long way off having the digital strategy required to react properly to today’s real time web.
It is not enough to simply be using all these tools, our entire approach towards communications needs to be rethought in order to cope with them. Adapting is proving difficult for most people aged over 25 and most companies with managers over 25, but this absolutely needs to be embraced.
Hopefully Fabric and the many observers of this incident will use it to improve their digital strategy in the ways we often advocate here. Long may the club continue.
Electronic music’s most legendary mix CD series and its associated record label, Global Underground, has just completely relaunched its online presence, with Alchemy Content now providing regular editorial feeds and social media management for the brand.
GU was way ahead of the game in terms of building a passionate fan community on its site over a decade ago, but little much had changed about the basic site design over the years.
The brand new Globalunderground.co.uk has a completely fresh visual identity, a strong new Heritage section telling its history via those infamous City Series mix CDs, less intrusive but more comprehensive e-commerce for buying music and merchandise, plus new Tours, News and Forum sections to make the most of the strong community, rather than hiding it away as before.
The famously acerbic regulars on the GU forums have been quick to make their opinions felt, but the 2-way conversational approach of the new site is already paying dividends, opening up a real dialogue with the loyal fanbase to help provide the facilities they actually want. It’s a really exciting project that should see the label fully take advantage of today’s digital media tools to build upon its amazing international following.
Alchemy Content will be producing short regular magazine-style content and social media activity for GU, with the next big milestones being the return of the club residency at London’s Ministry of Sound on March 6th and the annual WMC party at Mynt in Miami on March 24th.
Reverb is an exciting and strikingly different series of concerts starting this week at London’s Roundhouse, bringing together a genre-bending selection of performances from dynamic classical orchestras to inspired saucepan bashing.
A key aim of all this ecleticism is to bring classical music to a younger audience by breaking away from some of the more stuffy conventions of such events. Therefore performers will join the audience for informal chats at the bar, everyone can bring drinks in to the main space and the music will be accompanied by striking visuals.
Having spent recent weeks working on the social media campaign for the series, and in the process interviewing many of the key artists, we’ve been inspired by the wide variety of creativity and enthusiasm there is towards removing these historical barriers.
These stars of the classical world are very keen to engage their music with a thoroughly contemporary audience, and judging by their approach, there is no reason why the crossover need be awkward or contrived. They are more in tune with today’s young audiences than many pop or obscure underground artists of the moment. And you’ll find them Twittering about it too…
Join the Reverb @ The Roundhouse Facebook Group for daily updates and links to some amazing examples of what’s in store. There’s also a group ticket discount and some events are free for under 26’s. For full program details plus info on the workshops and talks around the concerts, check the Roundhouse website.
I can’t help feeling disappointed observing the glee many people are taking in the ‘battle’ to get Rage Against the Machine to Christmas No.1 over the usual syrupy X-Factor ballad. Yet again, a virtual-pitchfork wielding mob springs up on Facebook/Twitter, overexcitedly spitting bile about ‘sticking it to Simon Cowell’ and clearly relishing being members of some achingly cool, subversive arbiters of taste and democracy.
But since when was buying 3 copies of a track (that you may well already own) to push it artificially to Number 1 a victory for democracy? And when did subverting the mainstream Saturday night TV populism of X-Factor become about a pop music popularity contest of equally silly, mainstream proportions?
I suppose at least people are buying the music. Downloading ‘Killing In The Name Of’ from a torrent site would kinda miss the point (but I bet it’s still doing briskly on those too this week). Much has been made of the fact that Sony is behind both of the No.1 contenders anyway, so can’t lose, no matter how much ‘people power’ is exerted with a couple of lazy clicks of a mouse.
Odeous as Cowell can often seem, slagging him off on social networks just makes the “I’m buying RATM, yeah!” brigade seem more disenfranchised rather than powerful. Downloading singles is not ‘sticking it’ to any ‘man’. This over-excitement feels like the early days of email, when it seemed incredibly big and clever to send jokes to all your contacts. As the platform (or rather, its users) matured, the childish approach to its new thrills wore off. In 2010 we can expect plenty more mobs to spring up, since the social web is such a new cultural phenomenon. You get the feeling the possibilities are only just beginning to be realised.
Yes, this does give ‘the people’ some considerable new empowerment – the freedom of speech Twitter mob against Trafigura highlighted just how difficult it is for companies attempting to silence the free press – but the faux-rebellious #ratm4xmas campaign also proves how easy it is to mobilise huge numbers of people to join a ‘cause’ they have not thought very much about.
Culturally this is hugely negative. Comedians fear making their most cutting jokes without a ‘campaign’ springing up (@jimmycarr was satirising the lack of weapons for troops but still got pilloried for mocking disability) and politicians have to speak in such bland, cautious terms as to render most interviews pointless. And socially there are potential problems too. With the mob acting as real-time moral police, will groups advocating attacks on ‘peados’ whip up the necessary critical mass online to go and start throwing stones at the local ‘loaner’ without checking the facts of the case – almost certainly.
But this is all inevitable cultural fallout from the rapid assimilation of powerful new communications technology into the core of our daily lives. The mobs will spring up, but the excitement that a Christmas No.1 mob, or a ‘let’s get a rich celebrity sacked’ mob, and particularly the more extreme, hate-driven mobs can bring will surely wane once we’ve all got over how easy it is to make a shallow statement by adding your name to a Facebook group.
What interests me is what comes next. When we’ve collectively grown tired of the latest example of ‘people power’ hitting the headlines, how will these tools be used properly? Simon Cowell’s own ideas of a political X-Factor sound more than a little scary, but he certainly knows that asking the crowd in real-time is going to be far more significant in how we are governed, and by whom, in the near future.
And what forthcoming technological developments will have come along by the time we’ve all got used to these latest ones anyway? The playing field is likely to have changed repeatedly before we’ve had a chance to get comfortable. Living in this new world will require a high degree of media savvy of us all. So, if #ratm4xmas acts as the UK’s ‘email joke’ moment in the evolution of social media campaigning then it might yet prove to have had a little bit of substance. And ok, it has belatedly become a charity fundraising project too, so I don’t want to sound entirely like Scrooge here. Merry Christmas!
We were over in Holland for the Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE09) recently, and despite growing in size and importance since I was last there in 2004, the conference and associated parties still really do deliver.
The dance industry generally, begrudgingly, agrees that their once traditional meeting place of Miami in March has been hijacked by the need for that city’s many nightclubs to turn a huge profit over WMC week from flash spring break kids, rather than cater to hob-nobbing industry professionals. And with other calendar fixtures like Popkomm in Berlin not happening in ‘09, expectations for ADE as the year’s real business-focused event seemed higher than ever.
This and the wider economic situation gave a real sense of urgency to the business meetings out there, with people keen to strike deals rather than simply talk a load of big talk.
We were speaking to lots of labels and artists about their digital content strategy, from to creating and managing mobile phone apps (a platform all are keen to be involved in), to social media marketing and producing bespoke, branded magazine-style content. It looks to have been a very productive trip.
The nightlife is also a real joy, with hassle-free doors and crowds, plus stunning industrial spaces like the new Trouw ensuring that Amsterdam is an ideal destination for such a dance music event, one that now brings over 90,000 people into the city to party.
Every party we checked out was happily full. Read the selection of ADE party reviews I wrote for Resident Advisor here, and plan your visit for 2010, whether for business or pleasure…
Trevor Lovey’s new double mix compilation, ‘Body Jack’ (out now on Music Response) is filled with his best productions and remixes to date, plus some of the killer tunes in his DJ set and a host of exclusives. This is a journey through the sound that has established him as a global tour de force, from the deeper style of his Lil Bo Tweak projects through to Speaker Junk and his own unique take on party beats, featuring the likes of Bloc Party, Roisin Murphy, Bent, Switch, The Chemical Brothers, Alexander Robotnick, Don Diablo, and many more. BUY THE MIX on BEATPORT
‘Skoolin Tings’ is a brand new Trevor Loveys track, released exclusively on the ‘Body Jack’ compilation. It’s available for streaming via Soundcloud on blog sites now. Check it out: Trevor Loveys – Skoolin Tings by AlchemyContent “Skoolin was a track I did loosely based around a Schooly D and Code Money record from back in my youth,” says Trevor. “I always loved that beat. And I also used the snare off the ‘Big Beat’ 1970s tune, I guess again I’m trying to mix up those old ideas with new bass sounds and melodies.”
ARMIN VAN BUUREN
DAVID GUETTA
ABOVE & BEYOND
SEBASTIAN INGROSSO
SANDER VAN DOORN
GARETH EMERY + More to be announced…
Nearest Tube: Elephant & Castle / Charity Donation: £10
The votes are in and the numbers are being tallied as dance music readies itself for the biggest awards night of the year. We can now reveal that The Top 100 DJs Poll Party powered by Trackitdown.net will take place at Ministry Of Sound on Wednesday 28th October.
2009’s party is the biggest yet – with a line-up to match. Armin van Buuren, David Guetta, Above & Beyond, Sebastian Ingrosso, Sander van Doorn, and Gareth Emery will be taking to the decks, with more names to be announced shortly.
The ceremony itself will be held around midnight. In addition to the award for the No.1 DJ, awards will also be presented to the highest DJ in each genre, the highest climber, and the highest new entry.
Held annually as a charity event, this year’s beneficiary is the Royal National Institute For Deaf People (RNID). Donations will be taken at the door.
Please note, the Top 100 DJs Poll Party sells out every year and always turns into a roadblock – make sure you arrive early to avoid disappointment.
BE AT TV TOP 100 DJS PARTY BROADCAST
Be At TV is the world’s first web TV community for global clubbing; connecting fans of electronic music with the world’s top DJs, bars, clubs and live events. www.be-at.tv broadcasts exclusive audio-visual content – from multiple camera angles and in HD – for its members to access wherever and whenever they want and for free. The b@ community means you can personalise and even upload your own content and meet like-minded clubbers.
Partnering with DJmag this year, b@ will be broadcasting the whole Top 100 event the next morning at www.be-at.tv. Its the only way that music fans who can’t be there can catch entire sets from the DJs topping this year’s poll. While those lucky enough to get in can capture and share their best bits through video tagging.
ABOUT THE TOP 100 DJS POLL
Since the early 1990’s, the Top 100 DJs Poll powered by Trackitdown.net has grown to become the biggest annual event in dance music. Inclusion in the illustrious ‘100’ is the dream of every DJ, from rising stars to the likes of global heavyweights such as Armin van Buuren, Tiesto, David Guetta, and beyond.
The Top 100 DJs Poll now attracts hundreds of thousands of voters from every corner of the globe, reinforcing the fact that dance music is a truly global culture. To put it simply, there is no other music-related poll like it in the world.
The Top 100 DJs Poll is a public vote where voters are given the chance to name their Top 5 favourite DJs in order of preference.
Alchemy Content is working the digital/social media campaign for the poll.
Alchemy PR is running the traditional press and TV campaign.
Alchemy Radio is handling radio promotion of the event.
On Saturday 12 September at London’s Roundhouse Jem Finer (of The Pogues) directs the firsxt ever live performance of a section of his epic work Longplayer.
It will consist of a 1,000 minute section from its 1,000 year duration. A tiny fragment from its great expanse, Longplayer Live will be played by a 26-strong all-star orchestra on a unique 20-metre wide instrument effectively a giant bronze age synthesizer, with highly resonant singing bowls for tone generators and humans for power.
Based on Jem Finer’s graphic score for 234 bowls and six players, the concert will start at 08.20 am this Saturday and finish the following morning at 01.00 am.
This year’s Artangel Longplayer Conversation takes place in the adjoining Roundhouse studio, an epic relay of one-to-one discussions inspired by the philosophical implications of long term thinking and related issues.
Jeanette Winterson will begin the 12-hour talking marathon featuring leading writers, filmmakers, scientists, academics and technology activists. These include Cory Doctorow, Marcus du Sautoy, Sophie Fiennes, Daniel Glaser, Bonnie Greer, Mark Haddon, Susie Orbach, Robert Preston and David Toop.
Alchemy Content has been providing social media marketing for this unique event. For a special discount of a third off the ticket price, click this link to the Roundhouse and use promo code 144.
We’re currently working with exciting new band Burn The Negative on their digital content strategy.
The guys are playing at festivals every weekend throughout the summer and are active social media users, so we looked for a way of making the most of their stories to grow their fan community.
We designed a new ‘feeds’ section on their website which pulls in anything posted on their Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, MySpace etc in a nice real time feed.
Lifestreaming like this is not exactly new, however many artists have leapt onto the social media bandwagon quite randomly, sending their fans off to Facebook groups or Twitter profiles, then blasting out/repeating promotional messages across all these networks (often next to ads for which they receive no revenue), without paying attention to their own ‘shop front’ on the web.
Not long ago, many even spoke of abandoning their expensive flash websites in favour of simply pointing everything to MySpace. In retrospect (and really, at the time too) this should never have seemed a good idea.
We think that using each network for a specific type of content, then filtering everything back through the central hub of an artist’s own website, makes much more powerful use of all these great tools. It also gives a better sense of a single fan community than idle, spammed and poorly branded pages elsewhere.
The feed allows us to easily pull out the photos and tweets from each road trip, using the cool Storytlr tool, to tell a short story that is instantly compelling, visually attractive and easy to use. It’s even geo-tagged so you can plot the bands travels on a full screen Google Map.
All digital content is best served up at the top level as a feed, but how this information is aggregated and presented is vital, otherwise quality content will simply be lost in all the noise.
With an ever growing array of social media platforms requiring a presence, artists and brands need to find new ways of bringing these together as part of a coherent strategy for their own websites and mobile apps. Then, rather than struggling to keep up, they can really start to connect with their whole fan community.
