Many brands want deep and long-lasting relationships with their customers. Social media makes these interactions even more likely, because it encourages customers to speak up and to connect.

Seth just blogged the above as part of, yet another, insightful post on consumer marketing.

As we prep the upcoming Wakey!Wakey! release for next February/March, and continue to work Casey, Pearl and the Beard and set up Lacrymosa, the main quest is to develop an ongoing relationship between the artists/Family Records and our listeners/customers.

Business 101 tells us that it’s more expensive to gain new customers than it is to continue and grow your relationship with existing customers. How can we put this knowledge to use in the music business? One thing we’re looking into for the Wakey!Wakey! project is to launch a subscription service. I have written about the idea of a record label subscription before, but the difference here is that it would focus solely on one artist, and that it involves material outside of the mainstream album release. Where the album release will focus on new customers, casual listeners and existing fans, the subscription service will target those listeners that are looking to engage beyond the level of just buying the album. By getting a W!W! subscription this niche group gives us permission to engage with them beyond the one-time purchase event of the album release, and lets us come into their inbox once a month to provide them with more music or merch, and grow our relationship with them.

In line with the principles from ‘Getting Real’ we’re looking to set up as simple a service as possible for an immediate launch, rather then making it a complicated, multi-tiered proposal to fans. We can always grow the service once we learn more about the user behavior and satisfaction level. It might look a little bit like this:

“Get a limited edition Wakey!Wakey! subscription for under $2 per month! Each month you will receive an MP3 in your inbox that only subscribers will have access to. These recordings will not be available on “Almost Everything I Wish I’d Said The Last Time I Saw You…”, and range from exclusive demos to live recordings, new songs, and more. Additionally you will receive a Christmas package containing a poster, sticker and limited edition 5 song EP, access to a quarterly give-away contest, and a personalized birthday video message. Limited to 500 subscribers. $19.99 for one year. (That’s less than $1.67 per month!)”

Exploring this possibility now for a possible January Beta launch. Thoughts?

People Love iTunes.

• The grand majority of purchases last night went to iTunes, and the song charted in two different genres. We intentionally released an acoustic version the day of the tv appearance, to compliment the full band version we released earlier, give us additional charting possibilities, showcase the different sides of the band, and provide more opportunities to support the band for the fans.
• Brooklyn # 18 on Alternative Singles
  Brooklyn/Manhattan #4 on Alternative Albums
  Brooklyn (Full Band Version) # 48 on Pop Singles
  The War Sweater EP #12 on Pop Albums
• Overall Album Charts: Brooklyn/Manhattan #61, The War Sweater EP #64

People Love Lyrics

• Wakey!Wakey! and different lyric fragments took up #5, 8, and 13th spot of most popular searches on Google the night of the episode.
• Lyric fragments were also scattered all over Twitter, even during the episode.
• As a reaction we posted them on Wakey!Wakey!’s tumblr blog right away and they were retweeted a ton.
• Sidenote: months after “War Sweater” aired on OTH, people are still tweeting lyric fragments that touch them personally, which is a really amazing feeling for team Wakey!

Twitter Is An Amazing Feedback Tool

• I was able to track people’s conversations during and after the episode aired by using the search functionality and using keywords like “wakey!wakey!” “I have made mistakes today”, etc. Some folks were wondering who the artist was, some which the song played was, so where to buy the music. I was able to engage a lot of these folks and drive them to the right places.
• We didn’t make it to the top list of trending topics, which was interesting in light of the google surging and my assumption that most young people watching OTH would be into twitter. We did gain about 300 followers.

People Love Video

• We were fortunate enough to have a beautiful performance of the single “Brooklyn” captured by the good folks over at Athens Soundies. It shot up from 611 views, to nearly 25K and counting. See below.

Miscellaneous

• Our plays across different platforms, like MySpace, went up by 498.3%
• Our fans/follower/friend counts across different platforms went up 759.2%
• Our page views across different sites went up by 2922.5%

Update: Second video has Mike playing through the piano parts a bit.

An exclusive interview with Wesley Verhoeve, manager of artists Wakey!Wakey! and Casey Shea, highlights the 65th edition of the podcast. Wes talks about the role of an artist manager.

Denise and I had a chat for the latest episode of the One Tree Hill podcast that she presents. One of the most fun talks I’ve had in an interview setting. Hope the OTH fans aren’t bored by the music biz talk!

A successful artist who will stand out in a crowded marketplace should always be thinking about how each song and album helps create a brand. Verhoeve says he encourages the artists he works with to think about creating an album with an overall theme, message or story that reinforces the band’s brand. Casey Shea, an artist who works with Family Records, often makes short videos for the web that deal with the issues of the day – videos that might seem irrelevant to creating and selling music, but that help him reach out to new audiences online.

“It doesn’t really matter what he talks about in those videos; what you’re getting is Casey,” Verhoeve says. “It’s just a way to extend the brand and try to get it in front of as many eyeballs as possible.” (full article here)

While his daily routine might not be predictable, his go-to look for work is. In the five years since Wes moved to New York, his style has evolved into a tailored uniform that reads business not boring; urban but with a European sensibility. Button-down oxford shirts, skinny ties with a tie bar, and fitted jeans are standard form for Wes. He avoids the quirky yet ubiquitous pairing of Converse sneakers with business wear in favor of the traditional—he sticks to brown or black leather shoes for a polished look. “For the most part, I aspire to pursue a timeless look, with hints of the modern age in terms of cut,” explained Wes. “On a style level, I admire guys like Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Robert Downey Jr., and Daniel Craig.”