Pop Artist Collaboration
Here's an idea for the music industry that might make them some money:
Get a bunch of popular bands and artists who are interested in collaborating with another band/artist on an album. Create a list of the ones interested in this project (the reason they'd be interested will shortly become apparent).
Once you have the list of bands will to do this, put that list up on a web site, so that the artists are searchable by name. Get people to go the site, where they can pick from any two of the bands listed, combine them, and vote for them to collaborate on an album together. Collect votes from people for a little while, and at the end, the two artists with the most votes have to go into the studio and write/record twelve songs together.
There are some rules. First, each "vote" is actually a potential order. People voting provide their shipping and billing information, and do so with the understanding that if their pairing of artists ends up being the winner, they'll be shipped a copy of finished CD and charged $15 for it when it's done. Any votes for non-winning combinations don't get charged.
Second, the winner must get some minimum of votes...let's say 100,000. The online voting campaign will be slated to run for a month or two. It ends when one artist pairing reaches the target vote count or time runs out. If time runs out, and nobody's won, then the deal is off. Nobody gets billed, and the artists aren't on the line to produce an album.
When you come to the home page for this site, the top five runners are displayed, along with the number of votes for each. People can view the whole list of combinations created, along with the vote count for each. Each artist that's participating gets their own page on the site, where users can browse and sample their music.
I think this would work because the craziest, most inappropriate pair is the one that's going to win. Aren't you mildly curious what Willie Nelson and Lady Gaga would create if they had to write and perform an entire album together? I know I am, and I might even order (vote for) that CD.
The best thing about this is that you have the orders to incentivize everyone up front. If the winner needs 100,000 votes before anyone has to produce anything, and it's $15 per CD, that's $1.5 million of revenue they have to work with. If you offer each artist 15% of that, it's appealing enough that they might seriously consider it. And the producers would certainly be interested in working on a project with a guaranteed revenue stream.
What do the artists get? Exposure, for one. People looking to make a crazy combination of artists would browse around this site, listening to samples, potentially listening to things they never heard. And if they get voted to do a collaboration, then they get the payoff (for a little bit of work, of course.)
As for the money, the $1.5 million is just the beginning. That the minimum that the album is going to generate in sales, and it'll probably generate more, just because once the winner is announced, people will be talking about it. While the album is being recorded and produced, both of the artists involved could do interviews on YouTube talking about the experience working with the other person.
The great thing about this is the word of mouth. Whereas most CDs that are produced incur some promotional costs, this concept pretty much markets itself. Why? Because if I vote for two artists, I know that I need 99,999 other votes in order to have any shot at making it happen. So people who really want to see their pairing win are going to tell everyone they know, to get the word out. You just have to make sure the ad money you spend to create awareness of the contest and the site to begin with targets the right subset of people who love music, and love to talk.
There's a few ethical rules that I would lay down for the record company that does this, (since it's my idea):
1. For each vote, you're capturing and storing a lot of billing and contact information for a ton of people. As long as you're storing the credit cards, follow the PCI compliance guidelines and keep them secure. When you're done with them, and you've charged the winners for their order, delete them. Better yet, let PayPal handle the orders, they're professionals.
2. You'll have their email address: use it to contact them when the contest has ended to announce the winner, and to let them know when the winner's CD has been released, and don't email market them about anything else. Nothing.
3. You'll have a bunch of other contact data, too, like a mailing address for each customer. Don't sell this information to anyone else. I know you'll be tempted because it would be a great way to make some quick cash, but resist the urge.
Naturally, the artists that get involved have to have mainstream appeal or else you're never going to get 100,000 people to agree on a single combination. But what I like about this idea is the fact that you let consumer demand what it is that you choose to produce. I believe this was done by a manufacturer a few years ago: they unveiled a few product ideas, let people vote for them, and the winning idea was shipped to those who cast their vote for it.
If any of the recording companies did this, it would be a refreshing sign that they're finally ready to start seizing the opportunities provided them by the new rules, instead of whining and getting litigious because of the slow death of the last century.
Get a bunch of popular bands and artists who are interested in collaborating with another band/artist on an album. Create a list of the ones interested in this project (the reason they'd be interested will shortly become apparent).
Once you have the list of bands will to do this, put that list up on a web site, so that the artists are searchable by name. Get people to go the site, where they can pick from any two of the bands listed, combine them, and vote for them to collaborate on an album together. Collect votes from people for a little while, and at the end, the two artists with the most votes have to go into the studio and write/record twelve songs together.
There are some rules. First, each "vote" is actually a potential order. People voting provide their shipping and billing information, and do so with the understanding that if their pairing of artists ends up being the winner, they'll be shipped a copy of finished CD and charged $15 for it when it's done. Any votes for non-winning combinations don't get charged.
Second, the winner must get some minimum of votes...let's say 100,000. The online voting campaign will be slated to run for a month or two. It ends when one artist pairing reaches the target vote count or time runs out. If time runs out, and nobody's won, then the deal is off. Nobody gets billed, and the artists aren't on the line to produce an album.
When you come to the home page for this site, the top five runners are displayed, along with the number of votes for each. People can view the whole list of combinations created, along with the vote count for each. Each artist that's participating gets their own page on the site, where users can browse and sample their music.
I think this would work because the craziest, most inappropriate pair is the one that's going to win. Aren't you mildly curious what Willie Nelson and Lady Gaga would create if they had to write and perform an entire album together? I know I am, and I might even order (vote for) that CD.
The best thing about this is that you have the orders to incentivize everyone up front. If the winner needs 100,000 votes before anyone has to produce anything, and it's $15 per CD, that's $1.5 million of revenue they have to work with. If you offer each artist 15% of that, it's appealing enough that they might seriously consider it. And the producers would certainly be interested in working on a project with a guaranteed revenue stream.
What do the artists get? Exposure, for one. People looking to make a crazy combination of artists would browse around this site, listening to samples, potentially listening to things they never heard. And if they get voted to do a collaboration, then they get the payoff (for a little bit of work, of course.)
As for the money, the $1.5 million is just the beginning. That the minimum that the album is going to generate in sales, and it'll probably generate more, just because once the winner is announced, people will be talking about it. While the album is being recorded and produced, both of the artists involved could do interviews on YouTube talking about the experience working with the other person.
The great thing about this is the word of mouth. Whereas most CDs that are produced incur some promotional costs, this concept pretty much markets itself. Why? Because if I vote for two artists, I know that I need 99,999 other votes in order to have any shot at making it happen. So people who really want to see their pairing win are going to tell everyone they know, to get the word out. You just have to make sure the ad money you spend to create awareness of the contest and the site to begin with targets the right subset of people who love music, and love to talk.
There's a few ethical rules that I would lay down for the record company that does this, (since it's my idea):
1. For each vote, you're capturing and storing a lot of billing and contact information for a ton of people. As long as you're storing the credit cards, follow the PCI compliance guidelines and keep them secure. When you're done with them, and you've charged the winners for their order, delete them. Better yet, let PayPal handle the orders, they're professionals.
2. You'll have their email address: use it to contact them when the contest has ended to announce the winner, and to let them know when the winner's CD has been released, and don't email market them about anything else. Nothing.
3. You'll have a bunch of other contact data, too, like a mailing address for each customer. Don't sell this information to anyone else. I know you'll be tempted because it would be a great way to make some quick cash, but resist the urge.
Naturally, the artists that get involved have to have mainstream appeal or else you're never going to get 100,000 people to agree on a single combination. But what I like about this idea is the fact that you let consumer demand what it is that you choose to produce. I believe this was done by a manufacturer a few years ago: they unveiled a few product ideas, let people vote for them, and the winning idea was shipped to those who cast their vote for it.
If any of the recording companies did this, it would be a refreshing sign that they're finally ready to start seizing the opportunities provided them by the new rules, instead of whining and getting litigious because of the slow death of the last century.