marketing to trends

Everyone knows gas prices are a concern in this country. In fact, the constant stream of stories about it moves it quite solidly to trend status. That’s where marketers come in.

Marketers are looking for an angle. Many try to do it by making sure their product has a purpose, or a story, and then look to build on that every day. But many others identify trends and continually weave their message around the trends.

I just heard a radio ad for Napa Auto Parts explaining why a visit to Napa could make my car ever more efficient… in these times of rising gas prices.

I’ve long held the belief that if NewTunes is going to make it, it’ll be because of what we bring to the table. But I have to say, the alternative is certainly entertaining.

• No endangered species were harmed in the making of this website (well… very few, anyway).
• The NewTunes staff has stopped breathing carbon dioxide to cut down on pollutants in our office.
• Staying home and discovering music on NewTunes saves the environment from you driving to the grocery store to find new music.
• No one on the NewTunes staff has dated Joslyn Morse (look it up).
• NewTunes has hope that nothing will change the future ahead of us, and providing a faster and more efficient way for unsigned bands to be heard is our way of supporting that.
• If any of us had lapels, you can be damn sure there’d be an American flag pin stuck straight through it and well into our chests.

discover new music… in the frozen foods aisle of your local grocer

Our purpose at NewTunes is to provide a fast, efficient and reliable way to discover new music by providing a search engine that blends machine logic with human opinion.

Having written that, we are aware that there are many sources for finding new music. In fact, we celebrate them whenever we can and hope to not only provide new music, but point you toward other sources, as well.

For example, while at the grocery store last Sunday (listening to Bon Jovi’s “Have a Nice Day”), I rounded the corner into the frozen foods aisle and was greeted by a big display for Edy’s Slow Churned Rich & Creamy Light Ice Cream Hot Tracks (yes, it was surprising there was that much room in the aisle for all that text).

In the display was this CD…

I can see where the marketing department was going with this one, because of all the aisles in the grocery store, the frozen foods aisle is the one in which I am usually most likely to be looking for new music.

The eight artists featured on this CD are all apparently American Idol artists, though the words “American” and “Idol” are conspicuously absent from anywhere (even the finest print) on this disc. I’m guessing Edy’s couldn’t get them to sign off and finally just went with it.

As we continue to develop our marketing plans for NewTunes, we’ve come up with some pretty outlandish ideas – and will probably come up with even more. But I think that when you’re developing ideas, it is good to, at some point, have a filter.

That said, the music of American Idol is far more mainstream than the music people are discovering on Pandora. These kids on this CD probably have more mass appeal than The Nice Outfit. And everyone likes ice cream, right.

Besides, I noticed it, and am now promoting it within this blog.

However, my final assessment would be that I still don’t see the relation between Edy’s ice cream and eight American Idol also-rans. You can only get the CD when you purchase two Edy’s Slow Churned Light Ice Cream products. Not sure how many people will find this CD as their motivation to make that purchase.

I’d love to see what the numbers look like on this one.

six degrees of sinead o’connor

I was driving home from NewTunes last night and my iPod served up “Kingdom of Rain” – a song from The The featuring Sinead O’Connor.

This is not only one of my favorite songs from The The, but one of my all time favorites, in general. And it got me thinking about Sinead O’Connor.

I’ve never been a huge fan. I enjoyed the first album, but nothing she did after really resonated with me. However, she somehow has been involved in some of my favorite songs from other artists who’s music I’ve always enjoyed.

Check out her work with The Edge on “Heroine,” a song from his soundtrack album for a film called “Captive.” (no video for this, but someone did put it to YouTube)

Thanks to Julia Turner, who turned me onto this album – and specifically, this song – while at college. The rest of this album is very moody and ambient and not really like this song. But this song made it on most of my college mix tapes and still stands as one of my favorite.

It is the feeling one gets from discovering a little known song like this that attracts me every day to the potential of NewTunes. It is my hope that people have experiences like finding a song like this every day on our site.

But, back to Sinead O’Connor. One of Peter Gabriel’s more moving songs – Blood of Eden – featured none other than our own Sinead O’Connor.

O’Connor’s first album, The Lion and the Cobra, was released in 1987. While working on that, she also provided backing vocals for Karl Wallinger’s band, World Party. Not only did she sing on the song “Private Revolution,” but she also appeared in the video.

As I said, I’ve never been enough of a fan to purchase any of her music past Lion and the Cobra, but I’m fascinated by how entranced I am every time she performs with someone else. I don’t want to fill this post with videos, but here’s a short list of others with whom she’s been involved…

• Enya
• Jah Wobble
• Anthony Kiedis (Red Hot Chili Peppers (but that was dating))
• Dave Stewart (Eurythmics)
• Wyclef Jean
• Moby
• Prince
• Bono
• Roger Daltrey
• Elton John
• Roger Waters
• MC Lyte
• Transvision Vamp
• Kris Kristofferson
• Bob Dylan
• …and I’m sure I’m missing even more

But I wonder if she knows Kevin Bacon.