If you want people to actually buy your music, sometimes, good music just isn’t enough.
You must also have an innovative way of marketing your album.
If you want inspiration, here are six bands with innovative album releases:
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#1. CUT COPY – FREE YOUR MIND
Back in 2013, the concept of Pokémon Go may have been a fever dream for a lot of technophiles.
The idea of media changing depending on where you are is such an out of this world thing a few years back and that’s how Aussie group Cut Copy’s marketing campaign made noise.
Billboards were put up in different places like Australia, Chile, Detroit, Mexico, Wales and the Californian desert.
Then fans were told to visit these billboards and while doing so, they had to open the group’s website on their phones. Since phones at that time already had location services built in them, fans got the chance to preview the band’s newest track Free Your Mind.
The marketing strategy definitely worked because their album sales was massive in the US.
Of course, this was ten years ago.
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#2. CREEPER – ETERNITY, IN YOUR ARMS
You never really know what’s cooking up in the minds of the creatives, huh?
After playing at the Reading and Leeds festivals in 2015, every Creeper-affiliated social media profile was suddenly deleted and the members were reported missing.
Simultaneously, a website magically appeared spouting things that tied their disappearance to the unsolved case of James Scythe, the missing paranormal detective.
They really lived up to their music genre, creating a horror-like atmosphere for the fans. If I was their fan, I’d absolutely feel the creeps reading through the website.
And that was a good thing because they really made noise with that marketing campaign. As Gould said, “…By going missing we were making more noise than by saying nothing at all.”
When fans got a good grasp of what was really going on, they were stoked and got even more invested in the band.
After that ruse, the band culminated the campaign with an announcement of the release of their album Eternity, in Your Arms.
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#3. APHEX TWIN – SYRO
The Aphex Twin has been known for their retreatment from the limelight and love their comfort of just working in the shadows.
With their 2014 marketing campaign for the album Syro we can see how their values were turned into an innovative way of music marketing.
The promotional campaign for Aphex Twin’s sixth studio album Syro started with a blimp bearing the Aphex logo seen flying in the skies of London.
It was then followed with graffiti of the Aphex logo all over New York City.
Additionally, their Twitter account posted a link that can only be viewed on the deep web. And upon access, the album’s information, like the album title and the tracklist, was presented.
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#4. BOARDS OF CANADA – TOMORROW’S HARVEST
Boards of Canada’s fourth studio album Tomorrow’s Heart was like something out of a mystery film with morse codes and numbers that would lead to passwords that can open anything and everything.
In April 2013, the band released a 12” vinyl record pressed with a single track titled —— / —— / —— / XXXXXX / —— / ——.
This caused speculation to arise from Reddit users like how this release was the first of six and that when they’ll be combined, they would complete a puzzle or the sound clip.
The record contained a 20-second snippet that ended in an empty space and before the snippet ended, the numbers 9-3-6-5-57 were recited in a robotic voice. Days passed and more numbers were revealed.
Once all the numbers were made known, the band’s website immediately changed requiring a password to be entered.
Finally, when the password was cracked, it was announced that the band will be releasing their fourth studio album after eight long years.
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#5. ARKELLS – RALLY CRY
The Canadian rock band has been known for their genius minds when it comes to music marketing campaigns.
One of their most memorable yet is their campaign for their album Rally Cry.
They started out the campaign with an unexpected live performance of their first track in a karaoke bar.
But what really made the campaign a success was the leak of their second track American Screams through a phone hotline.
They advertised this with a billboard reading, “Can’t Sleep Off Those American Screams? Call 1-888-426-8856”.
The number was toll-free and so when fans and curious people tried calling the number they got a preview of the song.
It was such a successful campaign thanks to the Arkells capitalizing on the fact that most people have this innate fear of missing out and have intense urges of wanting to know what happens next.
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#6. ARCADE FIRE – REFLEKTOR
Much like what Aphex Twin did, Arcade Fire did their campaign for Reflektor by making graffiti of a cryptic symbol composed of diamonds within a circle with letters in each one of them that spelt ‘reflektor’.
The graffiti was seen in a lot of cities all over the world.
They made an announcement through a large mural in downtown Manhattan spoiling a surprise in September.
And when September came, the band released the details of their album which was to be released on October of the same year.
Pretty cool, huh?
Of course, these examples are just for inspiration. You can’t just have these gimmicks without thinking it through with your PR and marketing team.
It could easily backfire, you know, if not executed well…and of course, if it doesn’t match your brand and your target audience.
So yes, get creative and crazy, but you need to have good research and strategy, too.
In case you need help making CDs, custom vinyl records, cassette tapes, posters, and merch, we’re here for you!
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James Hill is a veteran of the music industry. He first worked at Warner Reprise Records then later joined Interscope/ Geffen Records where he managed producers and songwriters and got his first platinum record for Keyshia Cole’s The Way It Is. He is now helping indie artists with branding and manufacturing through his company Unified Manufacturing, a CD/DVD, custom vinyl records and merch company in LA.
