Thursday, 3 February 2011
Conclusion
To conclude, I have realised how the long tail theory applies to this case study. Even though Michael Jackson is extremely popular and there are a limited number of popular artists, with the growth of the internet, artists like D-Pryde can also have his own fanbase of a few hundred thousand, and with many other independent artists having the same amount of fans, it shows that the long tail theory works in real life, as people consume more of less popular things.
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
Downloading (Mainstream)
With MJ being signed to a major label, they seek to make profit, so in order to download his music, you would have to pay for it. On Amazon, the prices vary from 69p for a single download, to £4.99- £9.49 for albums. Play.com is also very similar with its pricing, with singles downloads at 89p, and albums from £8.49.
Downloading (Independent)
Like most independent artists, D-Pryde has decided to give away his music for free in the hope that people will listen to it, like it, and become a fan of his. This website has 163 different D-Pryde songs which are available for free download.
Other Forms Of Promotion
Due to the financial disadvantage, D-Pryde can't have his songs playing on popular radio stations, or put his music videos on TV channels, like MTV, meaning he has to find other ways to promote his music, which has been made easier with the emergence of YouTube. D-Pryde used this platform to gain an audience who have now become his fans after 2 years of posting videos and songs. His first upload attracted 136,464 views, which was of a remix of Kanye West's song 'Good Life'. His latest upload is of a music video he shot, which has attracted 653,338 views, which is a huge increase in 2 years, using simple viral marketing.
Social Networking (Mainstream)
Even though D-Pryde has managed to get a respectable amount of friends on Facebook without any finances, he simply can't compete with mainstream artists. Even with Michael Jackson's death, he is still holds the record for the most friends on Facebook, with over 27 million, beating the likes of Barack Obama, Eminem and Lady Gaga. Also, unlike D-Pryde's Facebook account, MJ's account has a store section were you can buy merchandise and albums. This clearly shows the huge difference in popularity between mainstream and independent artists, which is affectively down to the money spent on promotion.
Social Networking (Independent)
DPryde has Facebook, MySpace and Twitter accounts to promote himself. For each site, the amount of fans/followers is vital to how many potential people he can reach without expensive advertising costs. On Facebook, he has 72,477 friends, 24,295 followers on Twitter, and even though he hasn't visited his MySpace account since August 2010, he has still achieved 2,298,767 page views, shows his potential audience without any financial backing.
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