Case Study: How Shpongle Went From Yelling At Fans To Embracing Fans

from the a-case-study dept

Over the last month or so, things have been quite busy at Techdirt, and we haven't had time to add to our case studies section, even though we have a few more lined up. However, Bas Grasmayer, sent over the following case study (also posted on his blog), which is a part of his thesis (which we've mentioned before). The case study is about Shpongle, a much respected group of musicians in a very specific niche, psychedelic chill-out, but it has attracted many fans of other genres too and is generally categorized as 'electronica'.

A while before they released their latest album 'Ineffable Mysteries From Shpongleland,' it leaked onto filesharing networks and fans of Shpongle started discussing the new album on the internet forum of Shpongle�s record label, Twisted Music. Obviously, Simon Posford, the main person behind Shpongle and owner of the Twisted Music label, was very unhappy about this and lashed out:

"So some fucker has released the album on the internet already.... thanks a lot, whoever it was... Maybe twisted will still recoup, maybe not... all i know is that we are teetering on bankruptcy, and are seeking deals elsewhere.... the 12 loyal fans on this forum are not enough to sustain a record label.... How much do you think Twisted has in the bank account? Have a guess? More than $10,000 ? More than $20,000 ? Well it is actually less than $1,000..... Raj and i haven't even been paid our advance for this album.... All the artists on twisted are seeking deals with other labels now... We can't pay a label manager, and we can't pay the artists.... always putting our hope in 'just ONE more release'.... "We'll be ok if the DVD sells"...."Surely the Shpongle CD will sell, right?"

This sucks, for Twisted, for myself and Raj who have spent 3 years working on the album.... Just as i started looking around and posting on this forum again, i remembered why i shouldn't bother.... I'm outta here... Soon to be followed by Younger Brother [another project by Simon Posford] and probably Twisted...

Enjoy."

He got understandably emotional, but misdirected his anger towards perhaps the most dedicated fans: those who really cannot wait until the release and decided to preview it. After all, Shpongle hadn't released an album in four years and their following is quite fanatical about their music. Later in the same forum topic, he adds some more thoughts, which are also relevant to this case study:

"It's all very well to speculate, but i can tell you as a fact, we made more money before file sharing... we could survive... now not so.... and i think you will find it the same all over the music business... the argument that "file sharing is promotion" is probably valid.... in fact, i agree...in a way it serves a similar purpose to radio.... but the argument that "file sharing is promotion and therefore you will sell more CDs" is clearly absolute bollocks, otherwise the music industry would be booming right now!

Also i'm sorry that "And if it weren't for the internet, I would have given up on music entirely".... for me, the internet makes me want to give up music wink But i guess i'm from a different generation.... I started making some of the trance that probably fills your 100Gigs hard drive before i'd even heard of the internet... and i didn't need the internet to find a deep love of music... the rush of buying a new vinyl, of collecting every release/picture disc by my favourite artists�. discovering new music i liked, all underground, no radio-plugged mix CDs or whatever... ALL without the internet!"

Later on in the topic, which currently carries over 600 replies, fans started to suggest ideas to Simon. They encouraged each other to buy more merchandise, to replace old t-shirts or hoodies, to buy an extra album to give to a friend and they came up with ideas to help out Simon Posford, Shpongle, and Twisted Music.

And it seems Simon has also learned from the fact that you indeed will not sell more CDs even when filesharing is good promotion, as he noted. Being a fan myself, I was very delighted to receive a newsletter, one year after the leak, which featured some interesting new business models and experiments. It does a few things very well and I'll highlight this bit by bit. The opening paragraph is as follows:

"Dear Twisted fans,

The new Prometheus album has been doing very well on Beatport with 4 of his tracks reaching the Top10 of the electronica charts. If you haven't got your copy yet then Benji and Twisted would be happy if you could get onto Beatport and purchase at least the electronica tracks. We'd love to see him get to Number 1!

Ott is beginning his 6 date tour of the USA starting tonight! You can see and buy tickets to all his tour dates at the bottom of this newsletter. You can also join his Facebook Fan Page here.

We've also got two new tracks of Younger Brother and Shpongle available as a free download, keep reading to find out how to get hold of them."

What a dramatic change of tone, compared to the rants on the forum. This is how you connect with fans! First of all, it acknowledges fan support in terms of chart positions and makes a polite request (as opposed to lashing out or guilt-tripping fans, like on the forum). Also, it tries to unite the fans and give them a purpose; a mission. People love accomplishments, individually or in groups, if only for the little dopamine rewards our brains release.

They then give the fans more information and ways to connect with one of the labels artist's and finally reward fans with free music. That's a great way to open a newsletter.

As for the free tracks, the newsletter featured two images with links to the place to download the song. Once on the page, the page showed a download button, which when clicked, becomes a box in which people must enter their email address (as seen on the left). So actually, they can see which email addresses support which artists, but also, when people choose to use one of the share buttons, they help Twisted Music get more email addresses than just the ones they already had for the newsletter.

Younger Brother's page was a little more complex (see screenshot on the right), with more information, but basically boils down to the same thing.

The newsletter then continues with another exciting way of dealing with the reality created by the internet, which is crowd-funding:

"Many of you have already pledged on the Younger Brother album 'Vaccine'. We're working with pledge to raise money and to set up the best possible foundation to promote and release the record next year.

We're calling on the loyal and faithful to help. In exchange we're offering loads of interesting things from studio time with the band to limited artwork and access to rehearsals."

Again, a great way to involve fans and to offer them something exciting. It basically offers them a reason to do it for themselves, instead of telling them to please buy a CD because the label needs it (see forum post). Some of the 'items' on the list for people that pledge: signed CD (£15), new album and entire back catalogue (£25), coming to one of their rehearsals (£40), studio workshop (£300), being in one of their videos (£150), a unique personal remix of your favourite track of the album (£600), and much more.

The newsletter closes with more standard stuff, such as tour dates and the like.

RECAP

The strategy here is simple, yet complex. First of all, the label releases some very unique, high-quality music, which has given them a fanatical and evangelical following (Seth Godin would call this a tribe). Secondly, this following, together with the label, has turned into an ecosystem; when things were not going well, the ecosystem started figuring out ways in which it could survive as a whole. Thirdly, Simon Posford started paying close attention to his tribe and started catering directly to their needs. When reduced to a communication and business strategy, it becomes the formula of CwF (Connecting with Fans) and giving fans a RtB (Reason to Buy).

Giving away free songs is a good example of connecting with fans by rewarding them. The clearest reasons to buy in this mailing are the mission to get one of the label's artists to number 1, as well as all the rewards for pledging money for the new album.

It is important to note that this should not be done to generate profit, but should genuinely be done to please the fans and to give them what they want. I thoroughly believe that if you betray your fans' trust, you will lose them and your (potential) income.

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By Nigel Bradley

“Knowledge is Power” is a quotation that dates back to 1597 and is attributed to Sir Francis Bacon. And there lies the reason to conduct market and social research. Surveys, focus groups and observation allow us to build gaps in our knowledge, to identify demand and thereby supply what is needed (or wanted). Research information minimises risks in decision making, it saves money, increases productivity and is generally valuable.

The Labour government recognised the importance of information and directed thousands of pounds of money into research projects. Tax payers’ money was used and so this research was made largely available to the public in the name of transparency. The Office of National Statistics and the research institute IPSOS MORI both have numerous examples of such studies. We have some indications of the amounts spent on research – the Central Office of Information alone spent more than £27m in 2009/2010. The numerous satisfaction surveys for the NHS, the Police, in transport and other areas give food for thought.

The next government came along in 2010 and immediately implemented spending cuts. The BBC summarised these as follows:

– £81bn cut from public spending over four years

– 19% average departmental cuts

– £7bn extra welfare cuts

– 7% cut for local councils from April next year

Research was also cut heavily, we see the impact in government departments – the COI shed a third of its staff, posts in research agencies serving the sector were lost.

Tony Blair’s government was criticised for over using research. Sometimes it seemed that decision makers would refuse to make decisions without results from focus groups or surveys. Decisions would be postponed until research was made available. Sometimes there was “information overload” and a sort of decision paralysis.

In 2004 Oxford City Council commissioned a market research agency to find out how residents thought it should spend its budget in the next year. A method was proposed which led to interviews with 28 people and involved a day of “community discussion”. The fee was £15,000. The agency described it as a “powerful day”, but angry taxpayers, who funded the project, called it a waste of money. One councillor said: “We could all have written this report in 30 seconds, and for free.”

Under the new government the tables seem to have been turned. Decision makers have been given back their skills of using instinct, intuition and persuasiveness. Some would say their integrity and raison d’être have been restored, others would say they have been stripped of up to date information.

The recent Student Fees issue is a good example. In an ideal situation the policy would have been tested with different people: 16 year olds, parents, academics, undergraduates, postgraduates, school teachers, union representatives. Individual depth interviews and questionnaire analyses would have identified the good and bad points.

Focus groups would have sensed the frenzy that we have seen on our streets that results from person triggering another person into action. Careful consultation would have identified the best ways to communicate unpalatable ideas; indeed this would have guided the package. All of this was missing and so we saw an attack on Prince Charles, the hospitalisation of demonstrators and police alike. We saw dignity and common sense stripped away. Penny pinchers will have seen an unnecessary expenditure on policing, medics and repairs. This is an amount of money that surely exceeds efficient pre-testing research.

Perhaps that research took place? If so, something went terribly wrong. We can only wait to see similar mistakes.

Meanwhile the new government have decided to pump research money into a continuous study which will monitor “well-being” of the British public (we are told not to call this happiness). Cameron said: “It’s time we admitted that there’s more to life than money, and it’s time we focused not just on GDP but on GWB – general wellbeing.” Measure for Measure not a good start methinks.

Nigel Bradley is a senior lecturer in marketing at the University of Westminster in London and a Fellow of the Market Research Society. This year Oxford University Press published the second edition of Nigel’s textbook: Marketing Research – Tools and Techniques. He has previously written this post for OUPblog.

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Sunday, December 19, 2010

Making Money Ideas

Case Study: How Shpongle Went From Yelling At Fans To Embracing Fans

from the a-case-study dept

By Nigel Bradley

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