Marketing and community management are always difficult tasks, and managing fanatical music fans poses unique problems: Your product isn't being used right away, you have a very limited inventory, and you're selling to an extremely passionate group of consumers who have a sentimental attachment to your product. How do you mitigate sudden traffic issues for major sale dates or popular events, and keep fans happy without pissing off promoters or clients? How do you meet these specific needs without creating unfair advantages for the most persistent fans?
AMY MILLER has been lucky enough to manage the communities of two exciting companies in the music/ social marketing space- SonicLiving and Ticketfly. Currently the voice of Ticketfly, Amy was the first hire at SonicLiving.com. Ticketfly is quickly becoming Ticketmaster's biggest competition and currently lists Merriweather Post Pavilion, The Independent in SF, and Austin City Limits Live amongst its clients. Amy has seen the best and worst of managing a community of live music fanatics online at two brand new companies. She can't live without Dolly (Parton) or Stevie (both Nicks and Wonder) and she definitely does not like Phish.
COREY DENIS has been pioneering digital music marketing for twelve years using everything from ListServs & forums to social networks and MMORPGs. She got her music industry start at What Are Records? where she leveraged online street teams, increasing sales and broadening fan bases for Frank Black, Figurine, Stephen Lynch, Maceo Parker, The Samples, innocence mission, & many others. By 2003 Corey was Director of Online Marketing at What Are Records & published the label’s first online music sampler as a podcast. In addition, Corey built W.A.R.?’s digital strategy, helping the label became one of the first independent record labels to sign a direct deal with iTunes. She moved to San Francisco in 2005 to work at IODA where she helped create and market Promonet, the promotional distribution source for licensed mp3s out of the IODA catalog designed for music bloggers and online promoters. She went on to lead the marketing efforts as VP of Marketing at boutique digital distributor reapandsow, creating a digital segue for Dr. Steel, Charlie Hunter, Rotary Downs among other performing artists. Corey currently runs her own consulting firm, Not Shocking, where clients include Opus Music Ventures, Luce, Charlie Hunter, Inu and literary project P William Grimm. She is the founder of Musician & Promoter Workshops in San Francisco and enjoys advising New Music Seminar. Corey can play (but totally sucks at) violin, guitar, autoharp & dulcitone, has one patent, two cats and 6 ipods.
ANDY GADIEL has been helping music fans Go See Live Music for more a decade. Best known for starting the definitive fan site for the band Phish (Andy Gadiel's Phish Page), Gadiel evolved his musical tastes in 1998 to launch JamBase, the leading concert information and marketing company.
ETHAN KAPLAN has worked as the lead technologist in the music business for the past five years, and a band's lead technologist since he was 16. This works out well since the two things Ethan loves most in the world are music and technology. At Warner Bros. Records, Ethan's was responsible for all consumer facing web properties, new technology initiatives, consumer data technology and research/development. Ethan comes from a background of conceptual art, film and technology. Prior to working at WMG, he received two Masters degrees in art from UC Santa Barbara, and pioneered the usage of the Internet in a large newspaper chain. He also, at 16 years old, created the first R.E.M. website. He and Michael Stipe are now good friends. Accordingly, “Almost Famous” is his favorite movie.
ALEX KREIT is an Associate Professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law where he has taught Criminal Law, Property, and Controlled Substances Law. Alex's articles have appeared in journals including the American University Law Review, the University of Chicago Legal Forum, and the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy.
