SubscribeStrategy: How to Market Music on imeem
January 16, 2008 – 10:36 am
By John Cantwell
Today we’re looking at the social media network imeem to show how it can be used to promote new music releases.
Some background info
In September 2007, comScore declared imeem the fastest-growing social network of the past year, after the site posted a monster 1600% swell in unique visitors from September 2006-2007.
imeem features a number of useful stats tools. Users can track their total number profile hits, comments and ratings, along with the number of times a playlist or song was commented on or added to a user’s list of favorite content. imeem’s stats tools are a key component of the site’s marketing value – see below for some ideas about implementing the tools.
Musicians promote themselves on imeem in two main ways – through official artist-generated pages, and through playlists.
Official pages, for the most part, aren’t very different from the band pages on MySpace. An artist can post their songs or a complete album, and add videos, blog entries, etc. It’s not always easy to find an official page – search results from imeem’s shaky search engine lack the specificity that users expect from more refined engines like Google. It’s far more likely that a user will discover a new artist through another user than from the band itself.
The best artist pages are, naturally, the ones with the most content. Radiohead has a beautiful page loaded with videos, pictures and a full streaming copy of their latest album. The rapper Lupe Fiasco has a page as content-rich as Radiohead’s, and also features a unique “The Cool” artists section that promotes Lupe’s favorite artists. In turn, a “Featured by Lupe Fiasco” box appears on the imeem page of every artist he recommends – it’s a win-win.
(Here’s a side note that’s worth considering: in the course of researching imeem, it became apparent that rappers generally have a far better imeem presence than most rock acts. This is (at least in part) because rappers are way more accepting of open distribution channels. They understand an important fact in today’s music economy – having your music known is sometimes more important than having it bought.)
How can imeem be used to promote music more effectively?
imeem is very good at what it’s built for – spreading media throughout its community and the Internet. As a marketing tool, imeem is best used to distribute content and track buzz. The site’s stat tools allow artists to interact with each other and their fans in more targeted ways and let marketers show word of mouth measurement to their clients.
Specifically, here are a few things marketers and artists can do on imeem to push music:
- Use the stats tools - Because the stat tools allow users to track embedded content and user views, it’s easy to pinpoint fans that are effectively distributing content on your behalf. Bands should actively cultivate relationships with these fans – send them CDs and t-shirts, etc. Users should always be rewarded for contributing to the community – this a central principle of the Web 2.0 experience, and one that will certainly cultivate greater loyalty towards a band.
- Cross-promote - Marketers should not be shy about endorsing other bands on their clients’ official imeem pages. Lupe Fiasco provides a particularly effective example of cross promotion – his “The Cool” artists section serves as a taste indicator for him and the artists he endorses, and it also provides a concrete link between the two artists’ pages.
- Post your own music - Some may still think it is a bad idea to post music FOR FREE on a site like imeem. This, of course, is a losing argument – unless you’re a Beatle, there are few restrictions to prevent others from posting your music. More importantly, posting your own music allows you to control the initial tags on songs. Given imeem’s shaky search function, this is vital – it greatly increases the odds of your song being found on a single search.