Engage Your Audience Like Radiohead
Radiohead received widespread press coverage for their decision to allow fans to pay whatever they liked for their album, In Rainbows. Their recent decision to allow a remix album to be released should also be applauded and shows how a band can retain control over their material while still giving fans the opportunity to fans to create content and feel a sense of engagement.
Oakland producer/DJ, Amplive, had a cease and desist order stopping him from releasing his hip-hop remixes of Radiohead’s, In Rainbows. One plea on YouTube later and Radiohead allowed the album to be released free of charge.
Radiohead have shown they are willing to let their fans create user-generated content. They currently have a competition where animators can produce films for tracks off their new album.
Here are just a few ways you can encourage people to feel even closer to your band.
Encourage remixes
What would be really cool is if Radiohead had a remix competition. They could release a few of the master tracks and let people create their own compositions and then offer the 12 best tracks for free on their website.
The tracks don’t necessarily even have to be off the album, but could be from tracks that never made it to onto any release. There would be hundreds of producers who would love to remix original recordings.
Videos by fans
Much like Radiohead, you could ask fans to create videos for certain songs. There are lots of animators and filmmakers who would jump at the chance to make a video for their favourite band.
Location based
If you’re in a band and have a gig at a particular location, then why not use something like Socialight and use mobile phones to offer discounted tickets for anybody who walks by the venue. Ask them to subscribe to your channel on Socialight and add any interesting places you’ve visited on tour.
Album art
There are thousands of great artists and photographers on the web. You could ask your fans to design an album cover for you. If you still want to design your own cover then use your fans efforts for a remix album.
Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails are showing how you can engage your fans in a new and innovative ways. If you were in a band, what would you do to engage your fans? What else we can learn from bands that can apply to blogs, websites or products? Leave your comments below.
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Paul M. Banas
Another social media lesson from music would be to encourage the sharing of content. Long before Radiohead or Nine Inch Nails, the Grateful Dead encouraged “tapers” at their concerts, and even allowed them to sell the tapes of their shows, as long as it wasn’t done for profit.
By encouraging their fan base to record their shows and distribute copies, the Grateful Dead simultaneously cemented relations with their core fans while supporting the recruitment of others, especially necessary since they weren’t being played much on the radio.
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Apr 6th, 2008
Chris (admin)
Hi Paul, thanks for commenting. That’s a really good point about about the Grateful Dead. They’ve still got hardcore fans now buying up bootlegs and recordings.
Just seen this on Wired today as well. Radiohead have opened up their own social network.
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Apr 6th, 2008
Paul M. Banas
Thanks for the link to the Wired article. I can’t say I’m a big follower of their music, but how Radiohead is levering technology in general and Social Media specifically is truly innovative.
What’s also interesting is all the buzz and acclaim they get just from trying new things, irregardless of whether or not they have any new music out there.
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Apr 6th, 2008
metroknow - AlmostFit.com
Wow, I am loving your site so far (thanks for the add through BC) - when I saw the headline that made the connection with social media and Radiohead it really sucked me right in. Of course, I have a weakness for all things Radiohead but I must say you’ve got some excellent information here.
Along with Paul’s comments, Dave Matthews has been doing the same things for years (a trick which he no doubt learned from the Dead), and it has had a huge positive effect.
On Radiohead’s move, I wrote my thoughts about it on my blog long ago, but I thought the critics of the move were absolutely ridiculously out of touch with reality. They made more money than they ever, ever would have through a major label, they are now in complete control of their fate (vs. being in the hands of a soulless conglomerate), and they have a broader fan base than they every have before. Radiohead became a household name because of the buzz, as Paul mentioned.
Thanks for the insights - I’m already a fan of the site even after just my first visit.
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Apr 10th, 2008
Chris (admin)
Hi metroknow, thanks for commenting. I agree with you, if a band decides to produce and distribute their songs without a major label at least fate is in their own hands. I think Chuck D from Public Enemy said something like his ultimate dream was to see 1 million artists on 500,000 record labels.
I still go to small gigs now and then and I find it quite surprising that some bands still want to be signed by major labels when they could be far more in control of their material by doing it on their own.
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Apr 11th, 2008
Jones
Somebody else has launched a social network regarding Radiohead. It is at http://www.radioheadspace.com
Not much there yet, but I think it is quite new too.
Cheers
Jones
[reply to this comment]
Jun 13th, 2008