Devo’s Song Study

Posted on | April 30, 2010 | 2 Comments

Yesss…you read correctly.  DEVO.  In other words, these guys.

Anyways, they’ve been in the labs recently working on a new album and have recorded 16 songs, 12 of which will make the record.  They are allowing the fans to choose, which of those 12 will make the cut.  The contest is facilitated on here, so take part, but choose wisely.

When you get to the site, you’ll be greeted by Greg Scholl (former CEO of The Orchard)

Then you’re lead to a page with a nerdy hipster-looking fellow in a suit telling people how it works.  You can sample snippets of the songs and choose the 12 you think should make the record as well as which song is your #1 favorite.  My two main issues with this are that you have to choose 12 songs and that they’re only samples as opposed to the whole track.  Ideally, the user should be able to choose up to 12 without being forced to do anything and listen to the whole song before decided their favorites.

Finally, they ask for you name, email, and location as well as for you to upload a photo.  From a user’s perspective, demanding every piece of that information without allowing them to proceed can seem a little annoying.  However, from a marketing/band’s perspective, having that information is helpful for newsletter growth and to portray a locational breakdown of your fan base.

Why the photo upload you ask?  Well that’s because they use the pictures for a graphical representation of the results.

After going through the process a few times to get a good feel for it, I rapped with the Community Director of New Media for Warner Brothers Records, Mike Fabio, via email.  This way, I could hear the label’s perspective on this unique marketing experiment:

Was the idea the band’s, WB, or a combination?  How did it come about?

The whole campaign is the creation of DEVO, Inc.  It may come as no surprise that DEVO prophesized de-evolution over thirty years ago.  Today, we know that de-evolution is real, and DEVO is taking advantage of this new reality, fashioning a campaign that truly is something for everybody.  Whether it’s online apps, videos, toys, merchandise, live performances, or the album itself, every piece of the puzzle is painstakingly scrutinized – by DEVO and the fans – to ensure it appeals to the widest spectrum of people.

What is WB doing to promote the site?

The Warner Bros. Records community team is promoting this site through a variety of social media outlets – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and MySpace – as well as through the band’s official website.  Our digital promotions team works with a huge base of partner sites and blogs to get the word out.  We even did some street marketing at Coachella.  We are lucky to have such great promotional content to work with, which is developed by DEVO, Inc. advertising partner Mother.

-I understand the photo upload was necessary for the results, but why did you make it mandatory for people to give their email address as opposed to give them the choice?

Email addresses are, without a doubt, the most powerful tool available for online marketing.  We’re excited to offer up the incredible content in the Song Study – a whole album’s worth of songs! – for which an email address is a small price to pay.

-What was your rationale for asking for people’s location?

As DEVO, Inc. is dedicated to creating something for everybody, it’s important that we understand where our fanbase comes from.

What’s your favorite song of the 16?

I can only speak for myself – I’m a big fan of “Fresh.”  (editor’s note:  It’s my favorite TOO!)

However, please don’t listen to anything I say until you try it out yourself regardless if you think you’re a fan or not of Devo.

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