- I'm Alex Berman,
and you're watching Selling Breakdowns.
Since its beginning, the music industry has
been heavily dominated by mainstream pop acts.
Every single and album is supported by huge
marketing budgets, and it's never clear where
the PR ends and the artists' private lives begin.
This means it's almost impossible for artists
to reach the top levels of success without
this kind of planned marketing campaign behind it.
When Justin Bieber released a single called
What Do You Mean in 2015, a different celebrity
promoted it every day on social media.
From skateboarding legend Tony Hawk to comedian Kevin Hart.
This is the sign of a very careful
and very expensive promotion.
A report from 2014 estimated that on average,
record labels spend 11.4% of revenue on marketing alone.
So it's refreshing when someone
comes along and breaks the mold.
Deadmau5, whose real name is Joel Zimmerman, is one of
the biggest electronic music acts in the United States.
And even though he's not competing directly
with these traditional pop acts, he's had two
top 10 albums on the U.S. Billboard charts,
as well as regularly topping the dance charts.
But it's his approach to self-promotion
and the way he interacts with his audience
that we're interested in today.
Although some of this is unique to music,
there are interesting lessons to be learned
about honesty and openness with your customers,
as well as getting the balance right
between promoting but not overdoing it.
The modern music world is very different
from what existed just 15 to 20 years ago.
For many years, the albums and the
singles were the core products.
Tours existed primarily as a way to promote
the recorded media because that's where the money was made.
This is no longer the rule.
For many acts, the recorded music is a way
to get people to come to the concerts
and festivals, as well as buy merchandise.
Licensing for movies, shows, video games, and ads
has also taken on a more prominent place than before.
This means that fans' desires have changed.
Before, they were a traditional market.
Artists made some music, fans bought the music.
Now, fans are looking for an experience.
Music has always created communities,
but these were normally entirely in the
hands of fans, who started fans clubs
and played tribute concerts and so on.
Today a musician's key responsibility is growing
a community, and this is where Deadmau5 is king.
Because he treats his market like real
people and presents himself as one.
In a blog post, Joel makes the analogy with a rollercoaster.
Even if everyone loves the rollercoaster,
they're eventually gonna get sick of it.
We know this is true.
Products and services have a life span.
They either reach saturation or a competitor
creates a better or cheaper option.
This is why you need a theme park.
A rich variety of experiences, some small, some big.
Not only does this attract a wider audience,
but it also keeps the core audience more engaged.
It's all about building a world.
For businesses, the point of creating this world is that
your customers feel like they're getting more from you
than just the product or service that they paid for.
And the benefit works in two ways.
For the customer, they get better support
and advice as well some entertainment,
depending on the kind of world you build.
For you, the business, you create a core audience
that you don't really need to sell to.
They're already involved, they know what new things
are coming up, and when they're gonna be available.
They're practically marketing you to each other.
But, and this is a big but, building a world
is hard and its key ingredient is honesty.
A touch of humor probably helps too.
And this isn't just honesty about the product or service.
It's the honesty that you are a
business made of regular people.
Deadmau5 is the antithesis of a pop diva,
who's only really ever seemed fully styled
and fully trained for their media appearance of the day.
He live streams red-eyed in front of his computer,
showing the long process of making music.
And we, the people of the world, want the real,
the unpolished, the half thought through ideas.
We want to see these become the product,
because when that happens, you won't need to sell it to us.
We're already invested in the journey.
If you want evidence of this,
look at the rise of crowd funding.
Especially the kind on Kickstarter and Indiegogo.
Sure, some of the audiences are looking for a good deal on a
product that will be more expensive when it comes to the
market, but most of the backers are buying into the world.
To be part of the creation of something
they want or they think the world needs.
When it comes to Joel's honesty,
he combines it with a dry sense of humor.
Just look at his album titles.
For Lack of a Better Name,
>Album Title Goes Here<
W:/2016Album/
What he's saying here is that he doesn't
know how to dress it up and sell it.
All he cared about was the music,
and he put all his effort into creating it.
Not on planning how to make money out of it.
The fans are in on the joke.
Joel's honesty is not always a smart business move,
but that's a big part of why his audience believes him,
and why they know he's telling the truth.
For one album, the 2016 album,
he said on Twitter, don't even like it,
and that it felt, quote, slapped together.
When asked why even released it,
he replied, 'cause I got mad f'in bills.
I wouldn't say criticizing your product is ever a
smart move, but his commitment to the truth is certainly
a key part of his success in creating the Deadmau5 world.
Okay, so how do you go about creating a world?
What matters most is that you put
real faces and names to everything.
Rather than hiring a 25 year old
spokesman to be the guy on your YouTube channel,
get Dave from the development team to chat
about what he's currently working on.
Rather than using one Facebook account
with a faceless logo, get your customer service team
on there individually to talk to customers.
Also, talk openly about issues and limitations
within your company so everyone in your world
knows that you understand their concerns.
We're not saying to go full Deadmau5 and slam
your own product on Twitter, but hiding away
from criticism is just another form of dishonesty.
For smaller businesses, blogging and vlogging
are probably your go-to options,
as well as the various social media channels.
You can begin to build your world
by interacting in the comments sections.
Wanna learn more about business theory and pop culture?
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