Recently, there has been wide controversy since posters for the upcoming Lou Reed/Metallica collaboration have been banned by Transport for London, which oversees the London Underground.
When asked about the scandal by Rolling Stone, Lou Reed posed the question, “What would Andy Warhol or Jean Michel Basquait say of this type of frivolous censorship?”
The cover is of a mannequin, limbless. The mannequin has a very human expression on its face. The music for the album is inspired by plays of German expressionist Frank Wedekind. There have further been reports that Reed’s powerfully poetic lyrics had moved Metallic’s singer and guitarist to tears.’’
The album is set to release on Halloween.
References:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/posters-for-lou-reed-metallica-album-banned-in-london-20110920
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/metallica-and-lou-reed-announce-album-title-20110823
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Friday, September 9, 2011
Biophilia: UPDATE
Björk’s new album, Biophilia, is a new innovative way to listen to music. She has taken the music experience and made it interactive and, at times, educational. For the iPad/iPhone, the album is interactive. You play games and some of the things you do in the game can alter the music. The prices are the same as if you were buying a song or album on iTunes. This is a great way to get people interested in an album and a good way to follow current trends.
Björk’s most recent application is for her song “Moon”. “Moon” is a music sequencer that was initially inspired by the similarities between the cycles of the moon and cycles in music. It has an “instrument-mode” where you can change the pitch of audio in the song.
Björk continues to push the boundaries of the music industry. This could help create an entire new trend and could eventually be the new big advancement in music. Not only has Björk created an application and studio album but her website is interactive and the album features custom-made instruments, and she has incorporated education into her music now.
We are certainly in a time where the best way to grow is to be as innovative as possible.
Björk’s most recent application is for her song “Moon”. “Moon” is a music sequencer that was initially inspired by the similarities between the cycles of the moon and cycles in music. It has an “instrument-mode” where you can change the pitch of audio in the song.
Björk continues to push the boundaries of the music industry. This could help create an entire new trend and could eventually be the new big advancement in music. Not only has Björk created an application and studio album but her website is interactive and the album features custom-made instruments, and she has incorporated education into her music now.
We are certainly in a time where the best way to grow is to be as innovative as possible.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Learnings
I learned a lot from David Lavinsky and Theo Afkoudias, which I will be able to apply to my business.
After what learned from David, I saw that it is imperative to have the right marketing and sales strategy. We plan to use many forms of marketing, including undercover marketing. We will create mobile ads that will appear in other applications. We also plan on our first application to also be promoted by the artists that create music for it. This will create a strong word of mouth.
We also understand how important it is to communicate. We want our consumers to know our message and follow our innovation.
We will look at our competitors and reverse engineer their success and apply it to SabreSound. We believe it is important to understand our competition and learn whatever we can from them.
We are always thinking ahead and are constantly planning our next move. We would like to always be a few steps ahead of our competitions and with a smart staff and a good consumer bass, we can achieve success.
After what learned from David, I saw that it is imperative to have the right marketing and sales strategy. We plan to use many forms of marketing, including undercover marketing. We will create mobile ads that will appear in other applications. We also plan on our first application to also be promoted by the artists that create music for it. This will create a strong word of mouth.
We also understand how important it is to communicate. We want our consumers to know our message and follow our innovation.
We will look at our competitors and reverse engineer their success and apply it to SabreSound. We believe it is important to understand our competition and learn whatever we can from them.
We are always thinking ahead and are constantly planning our next move. We would like to always be a few steps ahead of our competitions and with a smart staff and a good consumer bass, we can achieve success.
Friday, August 5, 2011
A Proper Plan
David Lavinsky
President, Growthink
Growthink is a company that has created over two thousand successful business plans. They have worked with a number of different clients since they began in 1999. Each of Groupthink’s clients have continued on to become incredibly successful, raising more than $2.5 billion in funding.
David begins naming two reasons why companies create business plans. He sates that the first is to “determine the optimum strategy and game plan to grow their business.” Of course, the second is to raise money.
He discusses that most business plans actually fail to raise money, stating that venture capitalist fund less than 1% of the business plans they see, while Angel investors only fun about 11%. With the state that the economy is in, it is becoming harder and harder to raise money for your business. He shows that most business fails within 5-10 years and only 3.9% actually make it to one million dollars while only .6% make it five million.
However, some companies continue to thrive due to their strong business plans. Growthink has five attributes that separate successful business plans from others.
Growthink’s Five Attributes:
1. The Right Overall Value Proposition
• It is imperative offer a product and/or service that consumers actually want
2. The Right Marketing and Sales Strategy
• Marketing and Sales plans must be incredibly detailed
3. The Right Business Model
• According to a study at MIT, your business model takes priority over your industry
• Think of all the possibilities
4. Action Plans Developed from Reverse Engineering Success
• Think about where you would like to be in the future, five years from now.
o Where will your business be?
• Revenue, Profit, Sales, etc.
o Reverse Engineer
5. Communicate Brilliantly
• You need to effectively communicate
• Any strategy is useless if it is not understandable
• Think about your audience and who you are marketing towards
Theo Afkoudias
Theo states that Strategy is the backbone of the business plan; but, before you can have a good strategy you need to do a good analysis of yourself and your business and even an external analysis: competitors, industry, market, etc.
Resources:
http://www.growthink.com/businessplan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aydy3Pv-rCM
President, Growthink
Growthink is a company that has created over two thousand successful business plans. They have worked with a number of different clients since they began in 1999. Each of Groupthink’s clients have continued on to become incredibly successful, raising more than $2.5 billion in funding.
David begins naming two reasons why companies create business plans. He sates that the first is to “determine the optimum strategy and game plan to grow their business.” Of course, the second is to raise money.
He discusses that most business plans actually fail to raise money, stating that venture capitalist fund less than 1% of the business plans they see, while Angel investors only fun about 11%. With the state that the economy is in, it is becoming harder and harder to raise money for your business. He shows that most business fails within 5-10 years and only 3.9% actually make it to one million dollars while only .6% make it five million.
However, some companies continue to thrive due to their strong business plans. Growthink has five attributes that separate successful business plans from others.
Growthink’s Five Attributes:
1. The Right Overall Value Proposition
• It is imperative offer a product and/or service that consumers actually want
2. The Right Marketing and Sales Strategy
• Marketing and Sales plans must be incredibly detailed
3. The Right Business Model
• According to a study at MIT, your business model takes priority over your industry
• Think of all the possibilities
4. Action Plans Developed from Reverse Engineering Success
• Think about where you would like to be in the future, five years from now.
o Where will your business be?
• Revenue, Profit, Sales, etc.
o Reverse Engineer
5. Communicate Brilliantly
• You need to effectively communicate
• Any strategy is useless if it is not understandable
• Think about your audience and who you are marketing towards
Theo Afkoudias
Theo states that Strategy is the backbone of the business plan; but, before you can have a good strategy you need to do a good analysis of yourself and your business and even an external analysis: competitors, industry, market, etc.
Resources:
http://www.growthink.com/businessplan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aydy3Pv-rCM
Friday, July 22, 2011
Björk and the Biophiliacs
Good morning, Biophiliacs!
Now I’m sure you’ve all gone to iTunes and downloaded the latest Björk single: “Cosmogony (Serban Ghenea Mix)”. Setting the mood with a vocal build and emotionally bending horns, Björk shows a new side of her upcoming album Biophilia. Melodically, this song warms your heart. It reminds you of laying the grass as a child and staring at the sky, pondering what is beyond the stars. Björk revives her childlike curiosity by pondering the history of the universe in the lyrics of “Cosmogony”.
The Biophilia [due in September] application itself will be free for purchase. The app is said to be more than a “half-galactic, half-fractal” malleable menu screen. Every song in the album is tied to a star. Currently, the only song and light able to be explored is Biophilia’s first single “Crystalline”. However, the full album will be out in September and will be $10.99, which is really the same price as any album and you get more for your money and learn a little something.
The “Crystalline” app allows you to manipulate a growing sphere of crystals down a hallway and by tilting the iPhone you are able to collect crystals from the wall. The sing itself is a beautiful, minimalistic composition with an intense ending. On top of that, being able to use it in an iPad/iPhone application form is the kind of innovation that we need today.
For our Biophiliacs stuck in the 20th century, do not fear: the album will see a conventional release as well. To pour a little more maple on your waffle, Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) has directed the music video for “Crystalline” which will be released on YouTube next week. However, we’re all waiting to be able to listen and play with Björk’s track “Virus”.
References:
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/rocks/2011/07/biophilia_bjork_releasing_the.php?page=2
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Biophilia: Update
As I have mentioned in a previous post, Björk is moving forward towards the ultimate release of Biophilia. The first app to be released was meant to start building hype. It was called “Solar System”, teaching users facts about our solar system. Recently, Björk released the first official single, “Crystalline”. A video of Björk driving in her car while listening to “Crystalline” on the stereo was posted a couple weeks back which created a lot of hype for the single’s release. The use of YouTube videos & webisodes is a great digital marketing tactic.
For those of you who are just now hearing about, Björk’s highly anticipated new album, Biophilia, it will be released through the iPad (after collaborations with Apple) and through standard album distribution too. So one could buy it through either formation (although, the iPad version will be quite fun for those with an open mind and idle hands). The iPad version makes the album interactive and even educational at certain point. The album will focus on themes of cell-life, outer space, the infinity of the universe, and many other mind-opening concepts.
Biophilia will be made up of ten apps, housed in one “mother” app. Each app correlates with a different track on the album. You will be able to interactive with the theme of the song and even make a new version of them. We may finally be looking at the birth of the future of music.
Right now it seems that the main form of marketing that will take place is a three-year educational tour where Björk will perform Biophilia [in other words a tour], along with various performances at the Manchester International Festival. Björk & co. have continued to post YouTube videos on the Björk Facebook page, continuing the generation of hype for Biophilia. Unfortunately, it seems that things move a little bit slow as this is all very new territory for Apple and Björk: interactive music. It seems that both parties are dedicated to making the application perfect. However, from what all sources are saying, Biophilia will be groundbreaking and hopefully will “reinvent the wheel” when it comes to music. Of course, now the wheel has Bluetooth and a Touch-Screen.
References
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