Engaging Your Audience

Social media and the internet have completely changed the way we discover, listen to, interact with and purchase music.

Radiohead created shockwaves when they released In Rainbows as a digital download, for a pay-what-you-can price. They also invited fans to pick any song from the album and create a video to go along with it. Fans from all over the world participated, and in the end, four winners were announced. This is a brilliant way to engage fans and boost band loyalty. Allowing fans to showcase interpretations, and have other fans vote on them, is a great way to drive traffic to the band’s site. It’s also a good way to get songs played over and over. My favourite video was from a semi-finalist. I listened to “Reckoner” four times before settling on my favourite entry.



Trent Reznor followed in Radiohead’s footsteps soon after, but took it one step further. When Reznor released Ghosts I-IV, he split each song into four tracks, allowing fans to create remixes. The response was so overwhelming that extra servers had to be added to handle the demand for download. Instead of handing over tons of cash to a producer to remix a track, artists can invite their fans to create remixes for them. This is an excellent way to encourage fan interaction, increase website traffic and raise brand awareness.

The French duo Justice became popular by winning a remix contest for a Paris college radio station. They remixed “Never Be Alone” by Simian. The track became so popular that Justice was soon signed to Ed Banger. Their remix of “Electric Feel” by MGMT has also received international acclaim.

Since March 16th, Beatport users have been able to download the separate parts of Fatboy Slim’s “Weapon Of Choice”, and then remix it, before uploading it to Beatportal for the voting round. The prize for the winning track is a two hundred-dollar gift certificate to Beatport, and an Open Lab drum machine (worth over $4,000). Beatport has offered similar contests featuring many artists since 2008.

As more and more artists leave big-name labels, it will be interesting to see what happens in the digital-release trend next.