Both Nirvana and Radiohead have used digital technology to gain promotion and benefit themselves financially. Radiohead are a multi-award winning band from Oxford, UK, their music and marketting is considered experimental, progressive and innovative. Radiohead have created debate and stimulated further industry thought regarding innovative ways to sell albums in a digital age. The 'pay what you want' approach highlighted the importance of the fan-musician relationship to profit.
Radiohead have released 8 albums, their latest being 'King of Limbs', released in February 2011. Before this, they released an album 'In Rainbows' via the 'Pay What You Want' approach.
Lady Gaga released the album 'Born This Way' in 2011, the 5 singles were released over an 8 month period, these were Born This Way, Judas, The Edge of Glory, You and I & Marry The Night. The album topped the charts in 23 countries and the single Born This Way set an iTunes record, selling 1 million copies in 5 days. The album was so successful due to the usage of digital technology.
Lady Gaga embraces technology to form a parasocial relationship with her fans, she has a close relationship with them, built by her heavily promoted ideology of self-acceptance. Gaga used social media based fan interaction to reward fans to continue to buy into the artist. This strategy suggests a two way relationship between the artist to the fans, however, 'parasocial interaction' is a term to describe one sided. Parasocial relationships are ones in which one party knows a great deal about the other, but the other does not. This seems to be required to enable a singer to turn into a pop star.
Gaga writes tweets thanking her fans and she retweets people who compliment her. Marketting experts believe 'Born This Way' makes a third of her cash through social media sites. In March 2012, Gaga launched an invite-only social networking site for her fans, LittleMonsters.com. On the site users can download her music, buy tickets to her concerts, talk with each other and occasionally talk to Lady Gaga herself.
Lady Gaga advertises and sells via the most popular digital music platform of all, iTunes. She pays a tonne of money just to be on the first page. Gaga released a music video for all 5 singles, they are flamboyant and often contain an extended narrative. The themes feature sexuality and outsider art, all of which are available to purchase on iTunes.
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