Pekka Hartikainen: The Use of Storytelling in Music Artist Promotion

Pekka Hartikainen: The Use of Storytelling in Music Artist Promotion
Department of Media | Aalto University School of Art and Design
Pastori – where medieval pathos and future storytelling collide.
The Use of Storytelling in Music Artist Promotion
Pekka Hartikainen
The Use of Storytelling in Music Artist Promotion
MA Thesis / Department of Media
Aalto University School of Art and Design
Instructors: Mika Tuomola, Antti Ikonen
Kiitokset
perhe
Mika Tuomola
Antti Ikonen
Teemu Korpilahti
Erik Mashkilleyson
Mikko Mutanen
Aura Suviranta
Henri Weijo
MA ‘07, Medialaboratorion opettajat, henkilökunta ja pingispöytä
& kaikki Pastorin ystävät
giving the audience and individual artists the possibility to gain more power. For a consumer, more music is
available easier and cheaper than ever; for an artist, it is possible to distribute music worldwide without an
expensive retailing network.
At the same time, easy availability has changed the monetary value of an individual recorded album to vary
from everything between a free download to an expensive collector’s edition. This has led to the ABSTRACT
question:
what
have
to be other
Authorexactly are musicians selling these days? If music can become almost free, there
Year of
publication
ways for
an artist to monetize their work. Listening to music is only one way to ”consume”
Pekka
Hartikainen
2011 an artist – videos,
documentaries,
news and various social media servicesDegree
are important
Department
programmeto fans as well.
Media
New Media
This study suggests that, to stand out from the huge selection of musicians, artists have to be able to tell
Title
meaningful stories to reach a loyal and lasting relationship with their audience. In addition, artists have to
The Use of Storytelling in Music Artist Promotion
be available more and more frequently to the fans. A strategy wherein musicians remain distant – providing
Type of work
Language
Number of pages
only major album releases, tours and limited communication via regular interviews or such – has proven to
MA
Thesis
English
be challenging
nowadays. This strategy can still be chosen,
but artists have to be 100
aware of the choice and
Abstract
its
pitfalls.
The revolution in music retailing has affected the power relations between the actors in the music industry,
giving the audience
and individual
artists
theprovide
possibility
to more
gain more
power. for
Forthe
a consumer,
more
music
is
Controlling
and planning
an artist story
can
many
possibilities
audience to
interact
and
available easier
cheaper
than ever;
an artist, itand
is possible
to distribute
music
worldwide
without to
an
participate
in theand
story.
Both major
recordforcompanies
independent
musicians
should
pay attention
expensive
retailing
network.
this
shift from
a retailing
and brand-oriented era to the content era, where high-quality, relevant and
valuable information and stories to fans are as valuable as the music itself.
At the same time, easy availability has changed the monetary value of an individual recorded album to vary
from everything between a free download to an expensive collector’s edition. This has led to the question:
what exactly are musicians selling these days? If music can become almost free, there have to be other
ways for an artist to monetize their work. Listening to music is only one way to ”consume” an artist – videos,
documentaries, news and various social media services are important to fans as well.
This study suggests that, to stand out from the huge selection of musicians, artists have to be able to tell
meaningful stories to reach a loyal and lasting relationship with their audience. In addition, artists have to
be available more and more frequently to the fans. A strategy wherein musicians remain distant – providing
only major album releases, tours and limited communication via regular interviews or such – has proven to
be challenging nowadays. This strategy can still be chosen, but artists have to be aware of the choice and
its pitfalls.
Controlling and planning an artist story can provide many more possibilities for the audience to interact and
participate in the story. Both major record companies and independent musicians should pay attention to
this shift from a retailing and brand-oriented era to the content era, where high-quality, relevant and
valuable information and stories to fans are as valuable as the music itself.
Keywords
storytelling, transmedia storytelling, digital storytelling, music industry, social media, cross-media
Contents
1 Introduction
11
1.1 Hypotheses..........................................................................................................................13
1.2 Research goals and methodology.........................................................................................13
2 Literary review and case studies
15
2.1 MUSIC: Industry revolution from the late 1990s to 2000s....................................................16
2.1.1 Music 1.0 and retailing...............................................................................................16
2.1.2 The shift in revenue sources........................................................................................16
2.1.2 Binding the innovative distribution and promotion into the artwork: case NIN.............17
2.1.3 Major labels as gatekeepers: case Peter Gabriel..........................................................19
2.2 STORYTELLING: Definitions and appliance in interactive narratives.......................................21
2.2.1 Aristotle’s drama theory in interactive narratives.........................................................21
2.2.2 Music as a storytelling tool.........................................................................................22
2.2.3 Digital storytelling.......................................................................................................23
2.2.4 Transmedia storytelling...............................................................................................24
2.2.5 Cross media and other definitions...............................................................................24
2.3 MEDIA: Communication, interaction, tools and services.......................................................25
2.3.1 Personal or mass media?............................................................................................25
2.3.2 Channels and interaction............................................................................................28
2.3.3 Mediatizing stories: tools and services.........................................................................28
3 Benchmarking
37
3.1 Popular music, international................................................................................................38
3.1.1 Elvis, Beatles and Michael Jackson – From 1950s films to 1980s music videos.............38
3.1.2 The Monkees – the TV-made pop stars in the 1960s...................................................39
3.1.3 Spinal Tap – A story too good to be true....................................................................40
3.1.4. Anvil – Are you a believer?.........................................................................................40
3.1.5 Julia Nunes – Generation Y and superior social skills...................................................42
3.1.6 Arcade Fire – The Interactive video experiments..........................................................44
3.1.7 Lady Gaga – Total domination....................................................................................46
3.2 Popular music, Finnish.........................................................................................................46
3.2.1 CMX – Consistent interaction with the fans................................................................46
3.2.2 Mokoma and Stam1na – The story of an independent label........................................47
3.2.3 Lordi – Taking the storyworld seriously........................................................................49
3.2.4 Anssi Kela – From mainstream success to down-to-earth storytelling...........................51
3.3 Reality Shows on TV............................................................................................................52
3.3.1 Idols / Popstars...........................................................................................................52
3.3.2 Not Born To Rock – A reality show on Sub..................................................................54
3.3.3 Other musical genres..................................................................................................54
4 Getting involved: the 70-day experiment
57
4.1 The Project..........................................................................................................................58
4.1.1 The Goals, timetable and tools...................................................................................58
4.1.2 One man – many roles................................................................................................59
4.2 The Personal experiences.....................................................................................................59
4.2.1 Time management and the working environment.......................................................59
4.2.2 Combining the different roles.....................................................................................61
4.2.3 The Promotion and the communication......................................................................61
4.2.4 The Emotional side.....................................................................................................61
4.2.5 An Enriching community is crucial..............................................................................62
4.3 The Outcome......................................................................................................................63
4.3.1 The Releases...............................................................................................................63
4.3.2 Overall reception and the reactions.............................................................................63
4.3.3 The Learning experiences and the potential................................................................63
5 Strategies for storytelling
67
5.1 The Usual............................................................................................................................69
5.2 Distant diva.........................................................................................................................71
5.3 Epic opening.......................................................................................................................73
5.4 Multiple POVs campaign......................................................................................................75
5.5 Real-life story.......................................................................................................................77
5.6 Stream of releases...............................................................................................................79
5.7 Word-of-mouth...................................................................................................................81
5.8 Friending and feedback.......................................................................................................83
5.9 Fictional storyworld.............................................................................................................85
5.10 Transmedia story . .............................................................................................................87
5.11 Just publish.......................................................................................................................89
6 Findings and conclusions
91
References
94
List of figures and pictures
Figure 1. Two-axes model illustrating the relationship between personal media and mass media
(Lüders 2008)................................................................................................................................27
Figure 2. The communication channels and interaction in music industry (Hartikainen, 2011).........29
Figure 3. Story universe (Golick, 2010)..........................................................................................34
Figure 4. The Usual strategy.........................................................................................................68
Figure 5. Distant diva strategy......................................................................................................70
Figure 6. Epic opening.................................................................................................................72
Figure 7. Multiple POVs campaign................................................................................................74
Figure 8. Real-life story................................................................................................................76
Figure 9. Stream of releases.........................................................................................................78
Figure 10. Word-of-mouth...........................................................................................................80
Figure 11. Friending and feedback................................................................................................82
Figure 12. Fictional storyworld.................................................................................................... 84
Figure 13. Transmedia story.........................................................................................................86
Figure 14. Just publish.................................................................................................................88
Picture 1. Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2008) movie poster................................................................41
Picture 2. Julia Nunes . ................................................................................................................43
Picture 3. Arcade Fire...................................................................................................................45
Picture 4. Stam1na...................................................................................................................... 48
Picture 5. Lordi in 2011................................................................................................................50
Picture 6. Pastori..........................................................................................................................60
Medieval illustrations on pages 10, 14, 36, 56, 66 and 91 are all from material printed prior to 1923
and are in the public domain, retrieved from karenswhimsy.com.
1 Introduction
T
he significance of a physical product in
the form of a compact disc or such has
decreased significantly in the music
industry during recent years. Live performances
and merchandise have become more and more
important sources of income to many musicians
(Young & Collins, 2010). The revolution in retailing
has affected the power relations between the actors
in the music industry, giving the audience and
individual artists the possibility to gain more power.
For a consumer, more music is available easier and
cheaper than ever; for an artist, it is possible to
distribute music worldwide without an expensive
retailing network.
At the same time, easy availability has changed the
monetary value of an individual recorded album
to vary from everything between a free download
to an expensive collector’s edition. This has led to
the question: what exactly are musicians selling
these days? If music can become almost free, there
have to be other ways for an artist to monetize
their work. Listening to music is only one way to
”consume” an artist – videos, documentaries, news
and various social media services are important to
fans as well. The audience usually wants to know
more about the whole process of making the songs
and being a musician.
12
I suggest that, to stand out from the huge selection of
musicians, artists have to be able to tell meaningful
stories to reach a loyal and lasting relationship
with their audience. In addition, artists have to
be available more and more frequently to the fans.
A strategy wherein musicians remain distant –
providing only major album releases, tours and
limited communication via regular interviews or
such – has proven to be challenging nowadays.
This strategy can still be chosen, but artists have to
be aware of the choice and its pitfalls.
Controlling and planning an artist story can
provide many more possibilities for the audience
to interact and participate in the story. When
the audience gets to know a bit more about the
personality of a musician, it is easier to sense
the nuances and the purpose of the music. The
interactive element of music has been forgotten
in some occasions, although it is present very
strongly in some live performances. Both major
record companies and indie musicians should pay
attention to this shift from a retailing and brandoriented era to the content era, where high-quality,
relevant and valuable information and stories to
fans are as valuable as the music itself.
1.1 Hypotheses
1.2 Research goals and methodology
The hypotheses for this research are the following:
The goals of the research are described below.
I. Music, interaction with fans via multiple
channels, and meaningful stories form an entity
which an artist represents.
1. To make a literary review:
• Introduce new revenue sources in the music
industry with case examples
• Introduce contemporary storytelling
techniques, tools and services
• Discuss the nature of interaction in different
media channels
II. This entity can be popularized in various
ways, selling music being only one approach.
III. The use of digital and transmedia storytelling
in artist promotion combined with high artistic
standards helps gain a wider audience and expand
the industry.
2. Benchmark the storytelling used by
international and domestic music artists.
3. Get involved with storytelling through a 70day artist experiment.
4. Suggest strategies for the use of interaction
and storytelling in artist promotion.
The focus of the research is in new concepts and
models for storytelling. The research does not focus
on new revenue models. The research does not
concentrate on concept albums, but on how stories
are built around actual recordings. The paper is not a
deep review or analysis of storytelling, but presents
the elected inspirational storytelling examples on
the subject.
13
2 Literary review
and case studies
I
n this section, I conduct a short review of
changes in the music business, with case
examples of Nine Inch Nails and Peter
Gabriel. Then I take a look at storytelling in
interactive narratives and a few contemporary
storytelling terms and definitions. Lastly in this
chapter, I discuss personal and mass media and
their different interactive dimensions, and present
different storytelling tools and platforms.
2.1 MUSIC: Industry revolution from
the late 1990s to 2000s
2.1.1 Music 1.0 and retailing
2.1.2 The shift in revenue sources
The 20th-century recording industry was built on a
model in which record labels identified, nurtured,
and marketed musicians, providing them the
resources to create and record their music and
finding ways for them to distribute that music
via radio and record stores. The model itself was
successful until the digital revolution in distribution
in the 1990s.
An album recording can these days be done at a
home studio for a lower price than ever before.
The hardware and software costs have come
down, although producing an album still requires
professional skills even when done at a home studio.
However, the music industry is much more than
just the recording industry. Live performances,
publishing,
licensing,
and
merchandising
are growing areas (Young & Collins, 2010).
Traditionally, these have been seen as alternative
revenue sources by record companies, but today the
interest towards them has grown. The competition
today contains events, promotion, merchandise or
even marketing companies.
Today, the same industry is apparently in crisis.
The sales of physical products such as CDs have
fallen dramatically (Adegoke & Dobbyn, 2009).
The major record companies are losing ground as
industry gatekeepers. When the music industry
tried to hold back piratism with Digital Rights
Management (DRM) software, consumers grew
annoyed with copying restrictions, different file
formats and the poor usability of legal download
16
stores (Ailamo, 2008). The idea of downloading
digital copies of music has shifted to streaming
services, in which consumers can access millions
of songs anywhere, anytime (Cohen, 2010).
Streaming services like Spotify (The Guardian,
2010) and Pandora (Yahoo.com, 2010) have gained
wide popularity online. Not all songs are available
via streaming services due to copyright issues, but
they certainly provide a vast selection of music with
great usability for consumers compared to digital
downloads.
During 2007, several famous artists came up with
successful experiments in using alternative business
models. Madonna was one of the first superstars to
choose an all-in-one agreement with a tour company
over a traditional record company. The agreement
with Live Nation gave the company rights to all of
Madonna’s music-related projects, such as albums,
tours, merchandise, websites, DVDs, sponsorship,
TV shows and films (BBC, 2007a). Radiohead
released their album In Rainbows on their website
and let the fans choose how much to pay (BBC,
2007b). According to the Seminal estimate, they
made up to $10 million on album sales (Van
Buskirk, 2007). At the time, the band was without
a record company, so they made more money per
sold download compared to a traditional record
deal. As a third example, Prince gave away his
album Planet Earth for as a free bundle with The
Mail on Sunday newspaper. Afterwards, the artist
sold out 21 concerts in London in just minutes
(Mail Online, 2007).
2.1.2 Binding the innovative
distribution and promotion into the
artwork: case NIN
Nine Inch Nails (NIN) frontman Trent Reznor is
a pioneer in utilizing digital channels in the music
world. The band has had a very active and different
online strategy compared to the most major label
artists. NIN was signed to Interscope Records
(owned by Universal Music Group) from 1992
to 2007; after that, the band has released its new
material independently. Already during their major
label era, NIN had innovative ways to promote and
distribute their music. The band realized early on
that their fan base consisted of different segments
and there were endless possibilities to get their fans
involved and rewarded.
Before the release of With Teeth (2005), NIN
arranged listening parties throughout the U.S. and
provided fans limited edition merchandise. The
song Hand That Feeds was later given away for
free as a multi-track version for remixing purposes
(Ninremixes.com, 2010). NIN’s next albums have
all been released as multi-track files and the band
encourages people to spread the remixes and upload
them to the dedicated remix site at ninremixes.com.
The album Year Zero (2007) was released as a part
project which included, among other things, a remix
album and an alternative reality game (ARG). The
game unfolded a fictional storyline by using media
such as websites, pre-recorded phone messages,
and murals. The start of the storyline included a
website (iamtryingtobelieve.com among others),
which was hinted at in new NIN tour t-shirts.
The intentional leak of a USB flash drive found
in a bathroom during a NIN concert in Lisbon
featured a track called My Violent Heart and gained
wide media coverage. Later, more USB drives were
found during the tour in different cities, featuring
new songs and leads to websites.
It is important to understand that the ARG game
was not just about promoting the upcoming album.
17
As Trent Reznor stated in 2007:
The term “marketing” sure is a frustrating
one for me at the moment. What you are
now starting to experience IS “year zero”.
It’s not some kind of gimmick to get you
to buy a record - it IS the art form... and
we’re just getting started. Hope you enjoy
the ride.(Wener, 2007)
Reznor has realised early on that the music is not
the only product or artwork that he is providing
to his fans. In fact, the music is often given away
for free. The storytelling in the case of Year Zero
can also be an art form – it goes beyond the term
marketing.
Reznor sees that the work of a music artist
consists of a stream of releases rather than just
album releases. Instead of having a discography of
studio albums, NIN uses halo numbers (a system
by which all official Nine Inch Nails releases
are chronologically ordered) assigned to pieces
(NinWiki, 2010). These include studio albums,
singles/EPs, remix albums and live albums. The
different versions (physical format, extra material
e.g.) have also been well-documented within the
halo numbers. Traditionally, record companies
and artists (as well as some fans) have emphasized
the significance of a full-length studio album as a
release.
18
The NIN studio albums have also had different
pricing options like Radiohead albums, as
mentioned before. The 36-track instrumental
album Ghosts (2008) was available in five different
packages, the price varying from a free download
of the first nine tracks to a $300 deluxe edition
with all tracks on vinyls and audio CDs, a data
DVD with multitrack session files, Blu-ray stereo
mixes, and three hard-cover books signed by Trent
Reznor. Since NIN is operating without a major
label company, they can fully decide how to release
their material. This is a very classic example of
segmentation of the customer base. The cheapest
options attract many people, who may not buy the
album but help to spread the word about the newly
released music. The most expensive option, the
$300 package, attracts devoted fans and collectors
– the strictly limited edition (2500 pieces) was sold
out soon after it was announced. The ultra-deluxe
edition alone generated a cash flow of $750 000.
Since a record company was not involved in the
release procedure, the band could also decide how
to share the revenues after costs.
The Slip (2008) was released in the same year after
Ghosts. To reward their fans, NIN gave out a
high-quality lossless version of the album for free
download through nin.com. Later the album was
released in physical form, limited to 250,000 CD/
DVDs worldwide. In 2010, Reznor and Atticus
Ross composed the score for the movie The
Social Network by David Fincher. The first five
tracks of the soundtrack were given away for free
download.
NIN seems to have the ability to both apply
traditional marketing theories to its fan base and
at simultaneously surprise the audience with new
ways of releasing music and artwork. As a whole,
this forms an interesting alliance of storytelling and
marketing. The real life artist interacts with the fans
as Trent Reznor, the album story concepts have a
life of their own in both the virtual and physical
world, and the groundbreaking digital distribution
combined with a twist of hype guarantees great
albums sales.
2.1.3 Major labels as gatekeepers:
case Peter Gabriel
The revolution in music retailing has provided a
way to bypass the traditional gatekeepers of music
industry, such as record companies. There is no
need to wait for the decision-making process of the
major labels. In fact, major labels are now signing
shorter contracts and looking for artists with an
existing fan base and active playing schedule. They
see artists as investments and artist development
with long contracts is seen as a risky project.
Major labels may also wholly or partially acquire
independent labels.
Myspace has played a significant role in online music
marketing, although its influence has decreased
in recent years. Its social media capabilities have
performed just mediocrely compared to competitors
like Facebook and YouTube. Online coverage and
promotion does not yet guarantee sales for bands.
It still difficult to monetize online success in the
form of song downloads or record sales. Online
presence can be seen as a digital business card to
attract potential collaborators and record labels
and make networking easier (Young & Collins,
2010). Building these relationships may take time
and plenty of devotion. There is and always will be
well-documented and inspiring success stories like
the case of Arctic Monkeys (Dockrill, 2006) when
it comes to the benefits of social media services, but
the usually a wide online presence is the result of
hard work.
Musician Peter Gabriel and Charles Grimsdale
founded On Demand Distribution (OD2) in 1999.
Its technology was used in numerous online music
stores around Europe. OD2 provided the digital
backend for online stores and was later sold to U.S.
based company Loudeye for $38.6 million. In a
CNN interview, Peter Gabriel stated (“CNN.com
– Peter Gabriel on the digital revolution,” 2004):
I think it’s very important for artists to
get involved in the distribution. A new
world is being created – one is dying – and
if artists don’t get involved, they’re going
to get screwed, like they usually do. My
father pioneered this sort of digital content
19
of electronic content in the 70s with a
thing called “Dial-a-Program” and that
was trying to provide entertainment-ondemand, education [and] all sorts of things
that are now part of our everyday lives.
And so I’d grown up with the idea that
everything should be available on tap to
everybody, so that was an interest for me.
About the role of the record companies he said:
Well you see, I think that a lot of artists
aren’t very good when it comes to
marketing or accounts or doing a lot of
the jobs that record companies do, so we’re
going to want somebody to do that. And
probably the people we will look to do it are
probably those who have the experience.
But what I fundamentally believe is that
the relationship should be a partnership. It
shouldn’t be “we own you therefore we do
what we want with your work”.
When asked about the future of music industry he
continued:
The future should be [that] you can get
anything, anytime, from wherever you are,
anywhere, and whoever you are, whatever
country, whatever language you speak.
And then the question that is fundamental
to me that follows that as day follows night,
20
is how do I actually filter the stuff, how do I
really get to the stuff that means something
to me?
In Gabriel’s opinion, many musicians still need
support for activities like marketing, promotion
and accounting. However, the new digital era
gives more options to musicians: power can be
shared and not just given away to record companies
because they have traditionally had access to and
knowledge of the distribution channels. Musicians
can become retailers and do it all, but that is just
one available option. When asked about musicians
as retailers, Peter Gabriel pointed out:
For the groups that I love, I would love to
hear the whole creative process – not just
a piece of product that someone in a record
company has decided is the only thing I
should hear. I want to hear them scratching
away trying to write the songs, failing
to get the mixes and arrangements right,
doing things in different ways, hearing
different live versions, acoustic versions –
whatever it is. That whole process should be
something that is available, where artists
are comfortable opening it up to the public.
He suggests that the creative process could be
opened more. This is a clear suggestion for artists
to add more storytelling to their releases. It is
valuable and interesting for fans to get to know
musicians and the creative process behind the final
releases. The purpose of being an artist is not just
to deliver the final official release of the song, but
to interact with the fans – show them the way of
life and creation process that is closely related to
the music releases. The way of life and the story can
become an art form in and of itself – of course, this
point of view demands a lot from the artist and may
greatly affect his privacy. The world has become
more open, and information is easier and faster to
obtain. The artists should see this development and
adjust to it.
2.2 STORYTELLING: Definitions and
appliance in interactive narratives
Storytelling is one of the oldest art forms in
the world – the first conscious form of literary
communication (Shedlock, 1915). Even before
writing was invented, oral storytelling was used to
teach and entertain people. Stories are everywhere
in our societies and culture: they can be found in
books, movies, paintings, urban legends or news.
Storytelling can be applied to almost anything, for
professional purposes or just for everyday life.
2.2.1 Aristotle’s drama theory in
interactive narratives
Aristotle’s Poetics (Else, 1967) is one of the earliest
surviving books of dramatic theory. In Poetics,
Aristotle specifies the six key elements of drama
(Kincaid, 2002). He lists them as: 1) mythos (plot),
2) ethos (character), 3) dianoia (thought or ideas),
4) lexis (verbal expression), 5) melos (music or
songs) and 6) opsis (spectacle). Plot is the most
important feature of tragedy. Aristotle defines plot
as arrangement of the incidents, not necessarily the
story itself, but the way the cause-and-effect chain
is presented to the audience.
Aristotle’s theories have been discussed widely in
a screenwriting context over the years. His work
has also been discussed within interactive narrative
formats. Brenda Laurel was one of the first to
research the potential use of computer technology
in drama and creative work in Computers as Theater
(Laurel, 1991). She uses the analogy of users being
like audience members in theatre who can march
up onto the stage and become various characters.
But they are not audience members after the action:
they become actors. She also writes:
Designing human-computer experience
isn’t about building a better desktop. It’s
about creating imaginary worlds that have
a special relationship to reality – worlds in
which we can extent amplify, and enrich
our capabilities to think, feel, and act.
Game designers do not simply tell stories; they
design worlds and sculpt spaces. A prehistory of
video and computer games might take us through
21
the evolution of paper mazes or board games, both
preoccupied with the design of spaces, even where
they also provided some narrative context (Jenkins,
2003a). Spaces come before narratives in the history
of game design. Spaces and storytelling have been
connected in some amusement parks as well:
Also, the most compelling amusement park
attractions build upon stories or genre
traditions already well known to visitors,
allowing them to enter physically into
spaces they have visited many times before
in their fantasies. These attractions may
either remediate a pre-existing story (Back
to the Future) or draw upon a broadly
shared genre tradition (Disney’s Haunted
Mansion) ( Jenkins, 2003a).
One of the most common ways to tell a story
in a computer game is to creatively manipulate
environmental details in an already familiar story.
Jenkins also introduces the term micronarrative –
small bits in the whole game that make a story.
According to Kallay, these are the closest to
structured narrative in interactive narratives, such
as games.
So within a micronarrative ‘mini-cathartic
moments’ can be found, as releases of the
prospect-based emotions when a mini-goal
has been achieved and obstacles overcome
(Kallay, 2010).
22
Kallay suggests that Aristotelean dramaturgy
could be examined without any hierarchical
conditions attached, since interactive stories can
have multiple non-hierarchical entry and exit
points. Also, she argues that interactive narratives
provide new dramatic configurations which have
only little resemblance to Aristotelean categories,
such as enactment, spacial plotting, setting as
affordance, setting as narrative architecture, and
micronarrative. She further suggests that some
kind of interactive poetics is the next step in the
normatization of interactive narratives.
2.2.2 Music as a storytelling tool
Music has a long history of being paired with
language for narrative effects (sung poetry, “texted”
music, opera, sound tracks of film and computer
games), but it may seem paradoxical to even
mention the possibility of telling stories through
pure sounds (Ryan, 2010). The ability to imitate
thoughts and words through pure sounds is limited.
Classical music composers have applied narrative
programs to their music and given hints with the
titles to their listeners to instruct where and what
to look for. One point of view is to divide music to
mimetic and diegetic modes.
But music is fundamentally different,
not diegetic but mimetic; like any form
of theater, any temporal art, it traps the
listener in present experience and the beat
of passing time, from which he cannot
escape. Mimetic genres perform the story,
in the present tense. They cannot disarm
the story, or comfort us, by insisting upon
its pastness (Abbate, 1989).
Music fills a diegetic function when it is used in films
or musicals to complement the story; in mimetic
mode, it stands by itself as a narrative. Also ballads
are mimetic; they are dramatic conversations or
monologues that act out the story (Abbate, 1989).
Even when music instructs the listener to associate
the composition with a certain story, every listener
fills in the general pattern in a highly personal way
(Nattiez, 1990), and many listeners will appreciate
the composition without giving any thought to a
narrative interpretation. This would be unthinkable
with a language-based story (Ryan, 2010).
Instrumental music can express emotions, but it
cannot tell specific stories. Even characters can be
assigned to individual instruments, but it is much
harder to convey individual characters’ actions
instrumentally. Lyrical music, on the other hand,
has been used for storytelling for hundreds of years,
from early troubadours to modern days.
2.2.3 Digital storytelling
Digital storytelling refers to storytelling with
the use of various digital tools. The term is often
mentioned in educational research and does not
only cover large-scale projects; it can be also applied
to small-scale media formats (Lundby, 2008). An
example of a digital story can be a few-minute-long
video created by a group of people in a workshop.
These days, no workshop is required to produce a
digital story, since tools for producing a short story
are easily available, affordable and easy to use.
The roots of the “short narrated films” side of the
term comes from Dana Atchley’s pioneering work
at the Center for Digital Storytelling, where he
arranged workshops to explore the possibilities
of personal narratives with the use of digital
tools (CDS, 2010). He used digital tools to make
traditional storytelling richer. The stories were
often told in a fixed location and were carefully
shaped, although that may have been only because
of the limited broadband bandwidth compared to
today’s data transfer rates.
The term storytelling implies also sharing the story,
not just shaping it. A popular approach to practice
digital storytelling is to make a self-representational
story and post it to a social networking site like
YouTube or Vimeo. These can also be seen as
personal media practices – a whole range of personal
stories are being told in public form using digital
media resources right now (Lundby, 2008). Digital
storytelling is more and more widely practiced
by amateurs and great potential can be seen as a
democratic activity as well.
23
2.2.4 Transmedia storytelling
Henry Jenkins first introduced transmedia
storytelling in the January 2003 issue of MIT
Technology Review (Jenkins, 2003b).
In
transmedia
storytelling,
the
storytelling
components exist not in isolation, but in a complex
web of interconnectedness. The reference points
are built to direct audiences within the system. The
components can include such things as TV show
chapters, video game chapters and websites.
Henry Jenkins describes transmedia storytelling as
storytelling across multiple forms of media, with
each element making distinctive contributions to
a fan’s understanding of the story world (Jenkins
2006). Transmedia storytelling is not just the same
story told in different media; the different media
contribute to the construction of the narrative world
(Scolari, 2009). Moving between different modes is
nothing new, as even oral storytelling may apply
multiple modes, such as tale, ballad, melody and
text (Ortutay, 1959).
According to Jenkins, a good example of
transmedia storytelling is the The Matrix (1999–
2003), created by the Wachowski brothers. The
famous movie trilogy told the main story, but
additional media components developed the story
further. In transmedia storytelling, it is common
that the different media types emphasize different
characters and points of view. The main character
in the film may not be in the spotlight in the video
24
game. At the same time, they provided additional
entry points into the narrative world: some may
have picked it up from the video game or comics
instead of the film. Each component could still be
enjoyable as a separate experience.
Another example of a successful transmedia story
is the advertising campaign of The Dark Knight
(2008). The campaign started with a placeholder
movie site by Warner Bros, followed by a series of
viral Gotham City-related mini-sites, including a
campaign site for Harvey Dent, one of the movie’s
main characters. A few days after the campaign site
was launched, comic shop owners started reporting
about the appearance of Joker cards that were being
strewn around their stores (Knight et al., 2005).
As the campaign continued, it mixed fiction and
online stories with real life and gave the hardcore fans the opportunity to experience and look
for suspicious activity both online and in the real
world, as if they were real Gotham City citizens.
2.2.5 Cross media and other
definitions
Other terms used in storytelling research are cross
media (Bechmann, 2006), multiple platforms (JefferyPoulter, 2003), hybrid media (Boumans, 2004) and
transmedial worlds (Klastrup & Tosca, 2004). The
term cross media describes the communication
of an overall story, production, or event using a
coordinated combination of platforms (Bechmann,
2006). Platforms are defined as physical devices,
such as TV sets, mobile phones, and radio
receivers. The term itself is more process-related
than transmedia storytelling and concentrates on
the cooperation between different platforms. The
degree of coordination between the platforms can
vary significantly – the term itself does not demand
such a complex web of interconnectedness as
transmedia storytelling. Cross media can include
cross promotion or cross media storylines.
The majority of today’s big marketing launches can
be considered cross media. For example, when the
Finnish comedy show Ketonen & Myllyrinne was
launched for the first time, the advertisements could
be spotted on TV, on the Internet, at bus stops, and
in various other places (Sub.fi, 2011). Cross media
does not require different media types to point out
different views or additional stories –rather, they
are providing the same idea or story via multiple
media channels.
2.3 MEDIA: Communication,
interaction, tools and services
2.3.1 Personal or mass media?
Before the digital era, it was possible to reach large
audiences with mass media, which requires a lot
of capital or political power. Media ownership has
traditionally been in the hands of a proportionally
small number of corporations and conglomerates.
Today, mass media include at least: 1) publishing
(books, magazines and newspapers), 2) recordings
(cassettes, CDs, DVDs), 3) cinema, 4) broadcasting
(radio and TV), 5) Internet (blogs, email, podcasts
etc.), 6) mobile and 7) video games.
It is problematic to conceptualise mass media and it
is not essential to categorize it within this research.
The digital era tends to loosen the boundaries
between different media – TV can be watched
from a mobile phone and blogs can be read on a
TV screen. Today, it is possible for anybody to be
a media owner and actor, instead of a passive user.
Blogs, podcast series or videos can be produced
with almost no cost. In theory, an individual can
reach millions of people online with a marginal
cost compared to traditional mass media like TV
and radio. However, thousands of websites and
blogs are started every day, so there is a lot of
competition over visitors.
According to Lüders (2008), personal media are
distinguishable from mass media, if not always
technically, then at least socially. It is more
interesting to research the social impact and use of
media than to take a technological point of view.
The social code depends on the context in which a
service is used. Before digitalization, it was easier to
know who one was communicating with in terms
of personal media. Now, the borderline between
personal and mass media has changed, since many25
to-many communication is available for individuals
and it can scale from dozens to millions of users. It
is not always possible to control who or how many
people will see the messages sent. Therefore it is also
challenging to define where personal media becomes
mass media.
Users interpret all messages, whether mediated or
face-to-face, via personal media or mass media, yet
the interactional roles between the communicating
parties differ according to the communicative
environment (Luders, 2008). The audience also has
different kinds of possibilities to send messages back
and be heard, depending on the media. The social
objects, the social code and the level of interaction
are interesting points when it comes to personal or
mass media. John Thompson (1995) defines three
types of interaction:
1. Face-to-face interaction: it is present in
space and time and has rich symbolic cues like
gestures.
2. Mediated interaction: telephony, letters.
It is separated in time and/or space and is
dialogical.
3. Mediated quasi-interaction: typically
messages produced to audience and delivered
via mass media. This type of interaction is
monological.
26
With the new communication tools, these categories
are not clearly distinguishable. When a digital
many-to-many communication platform gains large
audiences, it is not possible to hear every comment.
Rather than having three categories, it would be
more useful to have a continuum between these
categories.
Lüders suggests a two-dimensional model to illustrate
the relationship between personal media and mass
media. She introduces the following terms:
1. Asymmetrical: there is a break between
producers and the audience, not all the
participants have equal power in the typically
quasi-interactional relations.
2. Symmetrical: the participants have equal
starting points to contribute and participate.
Personal media has more of this kind
of characteristics, even though they are
increasingly used within different social
systems.
She combines these terms with Thompson’s
definitions to create symmetrical mediated interaction
and asymmetrical mediated quasi-interaction in the
diagram below.
Lüders does not discuss the depth of interaction in
any great detail. Face-to-face interaction can also
have a continuum; for example, when a speaker talks
Institutional/professional content
(Formal/professional
interpersonal
communication)
MASS
MEDIA
Symmetrical,
mediated
interaction
Asymmetrical,
mediated
quasi-interaction
PERSONAL
MEDIA
(Alternative media)
De-Institutional/de-professional content
Figure 1. Two-axes model illustrating the relationship between personal media and mass media (Lüders 2008).
to ten people, there is still face-to-face contact and
plenty of interaction. When the speech is held to
hundreds or thousands of people, it becomes oneto-many communication, although there is still
interaction between the speaker and the audience.
It may also be difficult to compare real-life and
virtual interaction. The depth of interaction and
the social objects between people have to be taken
as key elements in this topic. It is important to take
into account the different kinds of interaction and
storytelling methods and to choose the right channels
for each part of the story.
2.3.2 Channels and interaction
It is preferable to use multiple channels in releasing
and communication, not only to reach larger audience,
but also to add a twist of exclusivity and interaction
to a fan relationship. Obviously, it is easy to reach a
lot of people with a traditional TV broadcast or audio
CD, but the interaction between the artist and the
audience does not exist within these contexts. Music
is also about interaction, the audience reacting to
they hear. This still works in small club gigs, but in
larger venues it becomes more difficult for a single
person to communicate with the artist.
It is important to provide the fans with a sense of
exclusivity and reward them for their interest. Social
media services provide a good compromise for this,
as the artist can choose when and with whom to
28
communicate. Of course, live gigs and meeting in
person are superior ways for an artist to win more
fans. However, these ways of interaction are limited
with time and space, so it is good to keep the dialogue
going on even between the main releases and live
gigs.
I have described different communication methods
in figure 2. Messages to fans can be sent with objects
(such as CDs or books) or objects that involve a
facilitator influencing the content (e.g. newspapers)
in a non-interactional manner. Interaction is present
in events which are facilitated by someone (e.g. press
conferences, discussion panels), social objects (e.g.
telephony, emails), social objects with a facilitator
(e.g. social networking sites), and direct interaction
(e.g. conversation). The content, interactive
nature, equality, and coverage vary between these
communication methods. The interaction adds to
the exclusive nature of the communication. Artists
should note that a suitable mix of these methods is
a good communication strategy, remembering the
wide coverage of mass media and the exclusivity of
direct communication.
2.3.3 Mediatizing stories: tools and
services
Online video
The Internet provides many tools for storytelling.
Online video viewing has grown remarkably during
recent years both in Europe (ComScore, 2010) and
CD Recording, book, downloads, merchandise
OBJECT
Easy to control,
less interactivity
Magazine, newspaper, TV program, film
OBJECT & FACILITATOR
Interactivity
Press conference, concert, performance, flash mob, theater
FACILITATOR
Telephone, letter, chat, email, passing a note
SOCIAL OBJECT
Lecture, discussion panel, get-together
FACILITATOR
Discussion board, social networking, improvised interactive performance
FACILITATOR &
SOCIAL OBJECT
Conversation, gestures, touching
= Sender
= Receiver
Hard to control,
more interactivity
Figure 2. The communication channels and interaction in music industry (Hartikainen, 2011).
in the U.S. (Social Times, 2010). The trends in
the U.S. are moving towards longer videos: users
are watching less videos, but for a longer time.
Because of digitalization, almost any content can
be represented with a computer on the web – and,
for the most part, also via mobile devices. From the
storytelling point-of-view, the challenge is to get
the viewers to focus on the storyline. Users’ control
and the massive amount of content available leads
easily to distraction and lack of focus (Richtel,
2010).
online, especially when the shock value packs up.
Kanye West released a 35-minute long music video
Runaway to support his newest album – the video
itself included almost all the songs on the album
(Stebner, 2010). This uncommon format added to
the excitement around the video and helped build
the story around the artist and the album. It also
instantly triggered wide analysis, both from critics
and fans. The essential thing online is to do the
unexpected and utilize the circulating stories and
discussions.
The Internet is the optimal medium for providing
a short news flash, but the possibility of switching
tasks on the fly makes it difficult to build up a
story with traditional storytelling methods. People
rarely read web content word-by-word, but rather
skim it for facts (Nielsen, 2007). Online video has
provided a reasonable option for telling a short
story: a few-minute-long video is a format which
users are used to. Uploading and sharing videos is
made easy by websites like YouTube and Vimeo. It
is also easier to distribute restricted videos on the
Internet and still get wide audiences compared to
TV broadcasting.
Short documentary-like video clips are a good way
to provide interesting content for fans. Especially
if the artist is in public with his real name and
character, it is relatively easy to produce making-of
stories with video diaries. Opening up the creative
process behind the composing and production
process can be interesting for fans. Unfortunately,
many of the clips seen online are not very informative
about the process: they are either humor videos or
just status updates of studio work or touring.
Rammstein’s x-rated video Pussy gained a lot of
publicity online, even though it was censored
in mainstream TV channels and online video
services (Oz, 2009). Bands do not have to worry
about videos getting banned for explicit lyrics or
the wrong format: they will eventually circulate
30
Direct interaction with the audience
Online tools have made it possible for artists to
interact directly with their fans. Active fans can be
rewarded with small compliments to uplift their
social status, or artists can just give out products for
free. The web services act as gatekeepers, so an artist
representative is not necessary to guarantee privacy,
even when the artist is known worldwide. This
kind of interaction can be considered one-to-many
or many-to-many communication, depending on
the context, as described in the previous chapter.
Online gatherings can act as complements for live
events and concerts, and are not tied to a certain
geographical location. Face-to-face interaction is
still a very powerful way to interact compared to
online presence; this is sometimes forgotten with
the increasing number of digital tools. A very
good example of a successful PR event is Finnish
metal band Kotiteollisuus’ guest appearance on
an MTV3 night chat program. The members of
the then-relatively unknown band were seemingly
drunk, but highly entertaining while answering the
SMS messages from viewers. The best bits were
published on their DVD a few years later in 2005
(“Kotiteollisuus - DVD,” 2011).
Games
Many transmedia stories have included games to
support the main story, but large audiences have
had difficulties finding them. Gamers are also
very critical about games, and they are expensive
to produce. Simple contests or quizzes can act as a
fairly good replacement for games; another option
is the branding of existing games.
Nine Inch Nails released their version of a popular
Tap Tap Revenge iPhone game, containing tracks
from two of their albums (Bosso, 2008). The
popular video games Guitar Hero and Rock Band
have seen many versions made for rock icons like
Metallica, Aerosmith and Beatles. Since video
games are expensive to produce, already-popular
bands are more likely to take advantage of them
than new bands. Since the 1990s, the soundtracks of
video and PC games have included also new rising.
The Residents’ Bad Day on the Midway CD-ROM
game had a full soundtrack from the Residents in
1996 (“Residents Have A Bad Day,” 2011).
Photo services
There are numerous photo services available on
the Internet, with easy uploading and sharing
possibilities. The advantage of photography is in its
fast updating via mobile devices. The most popular
photo sharing site today is Facebook, although
this is just one of the functionalities it has (Smith,
2011). Superior interaction tools make it attractive
for bands to share photos via the fan profiles.
The interesting new-comers in the photo-sharing
service world from a storytelling point of view are
mobile apps Instagram and Hipstamatic, which
provide easy photo manipulation for vintagelike atmospheric results and easy sharing and
commenting options (Bookwalter, 2010).
Comics
Sometimes a combination of photos and text can be
a good choice for storytelling. Comics are a good
way to represent short stories in an interesting way.
Creating comics demands skills and some planning,
though. As an example from the corporate world,
when Google decided to release their browser
31
Chrome, they decided to tell about it with a comic
40-page comic (McCloud, 2008). The choice was
unexpected and generated a lot of buzz around the
release. Also the band Stam1na used comic series in
storytelling when releasing their album Viimeinen
Atlantis.
Music streaming, podcasts and live video
Music streaming services can be used as a channel
to promote and listen to music. There are thousands
of Internet radios available for free listening. Lately,
the trend has shifted to on-demand streaming
services, based on a monthly-based fee (Spotify),
or Internet radios based on recommendations
(Pandora and Last.fm). Rather than using the
services for storytelling, the artists provide their
main product, music, via these channels. Some
artists have arranged live performances for online
viewers and listeners; for example, Finnish band
CMX played live for 18 000 viewers already in 1996
(“CMX – Biografia,” 2010).
Live events and get-togethers
Live events do not necessarily have to be only
concerts or other musical performances. For
example, self-organized flash mobs have gained a
lot of attention in recent years. Internet and social
media tools make social experiments very easy to
implement. The possibilities for flash mob-like
social experiments are endless, especially if a band
has loyal fan base.
32
Books, leaflets
The cost of publishing printed materials is higher
than online publishing, but they may forge a stronger
relation with their owners. Books provide a good
way to make an artist’s story deeper. The reader
is more likely to be committed – to pay attention
longer – to a book when compared to the taskswitching nature of online content consumption.
Blogs, microblogs and guestbooks
Writing a blog is an easy way to keep the fans updated
on an artist’s actions. Microblogs have increased in
popularity among artists and celebrities, because
there is no commitment to answer to all responses,
which can easily become a burden, even on a
blog. Finnish music artist Anssi Kela is a frequent
blogger on his web site anssikela.com. In addition
to his down-to-earth stories from artist life, he has
actively taken part in the music industry and artist
rights discussion. In addition to competitions,
polls and discussion, his latest experiment includes
collaborate composition, where a Garageband file
is passed from one musician to another to make a
brand new song.
Mashup services
There are numerous social media services,
all of which usually create their own feed of
information. Mashup services combine and collect
the information feeds in one place, which makes
it easier to follow the whole story. Storify (www.
storify.com) is an example of this kind of service: it
provides a way to tell stories using social media such
as microblog entries, photos and videos. The whole
story can be embedded on an external website as
well.
Storyworld
A storyworld must be expressed on at least three
platforms. There can, of course, be many more,
but three is the minimum (Golick, 2010). Figure
3 derscribes different services and platforms of a
storyworld. A famous example of a classic storyworld
is Star Wars (Lucasfilm, 2011). The six full-lenght
movies tell the main story, which form the basis
for the storyworld. Today, it contains everything
between cartoon, video games and toys.
33
Movie
Download
TV series
Novel
Flash Mob
Get-togethers
Video games
Flickr
History of the
storyverse
Blogs
Facebook
Twitter
MAIN STORY/
ADVENTURE
Mobile phones
Future of the
storyverse
Podcasts
Music
DVDs
Story of
minor character
Live events
STORY UNIVERSE
True stories
Tablet
Social games
Website
Fan assets:
video, photos, mp3
Myths
Concerts
YouTube
Backstage &
making of
Comics
User generated
content / fan fiction
Merchandise
CDs
Webisodes
Toys
Graphic novels
Theater
Figure 3. Story universe (Golick, 2010)
Radio
Documentary
35
3 Benchmarking
I
n this section, I outline relevant industry
examples of successful storytelling starting
from 1950s.
3.1 Popular music, international
3.1.1 Elvis, Beatles and Michael
Jackson – From 1950s films to 1980s
music videos
Storytelling has been used in popular music far
before the Internet was born. Elvis Presley was
both an actor and a recording artist and starred
in numerous feature films as a fictional character,
usually playing a musician in the films as well. The
films helped soundtracks peak music charts. Though
the stories in the Elvis movies were not too deep
and Presley’s musical talent and charisma clearly
would have lifted him even without the movies.
The first movies Presley made, including Jailhouse
Rock (1957) and King Creole (1958), are considered
his best, and they certainly helped build his fame
in the early phase of his career, even though he was
already popular before his acting career (Nyholm,
2007).
The Beatles starred in five feature films during
their career. The first one, Hard Day’s Night (1964),
was a loosely scripted comic farce where they played
themselves. The story was fictional, but based on the
Beatles fame, Beatlemania. All five films they made
had the same names as their associated soundtracks
(Neaverson, 2008).The films supported the album
38
sales, but also stood by themselves. These Beatleslike films can be seen as origins for music videos,
which went mainstream in the late 1970s and
early 1980s. Promotional clips grew in importance
during the 1960s, and the format transformed from
full-length movies to shorter clips.
Music videos can be characterized by three broad
typologies (Frith, 1988):
1. Performance: the recording and playing the
music is the most significant element in the
video.
2. Narrative: for example, a love story told in
linear way.
3. Conceptual: metaphors or abstract images to
create a certain mood
At first, the videos were usually performance-based.
As the genre grew more mature, the narrative
formats evolved. A typical example of a modernday music video would include both a narrated love
story and cuts to an artist performing or recording
the song.
Michael Jackson’s 14-minute mini-movie Thriller
(1984) was a landmark which pushed both the
quality of production and storytelling of music
videos. The Making of Michael Jackson’s Thriller
sold over 350,000 copies in just a few months, so
the video itself generated sales (“Late Michael
Jackson,” 2009). Merchandise like Thriller dolls
also appeared in stores, which was new at that
time. The creatures seen on the videos were also
present in many live concerts later on. However,
the storyline remained the same and did not evolve
much from the original story in other media. It has
inspired a lot of fans to do their own versions of the
Thriller dance, including wedding dances and flash
mobs, just to name a few.
3.1.2 The Monkees – the TV-made pop
stars in the 1960s
The evidence of the power of storytelling was
proven in cases where the story came first and
the fictional band’s music became popular later.
The Monkees TV Show premiered on NBC
in September 1966 as a comedy show about four
goofy rock musicians (Monkees.net, 2007). It was
created a few years after the first Beatles movie and
clearly drew inspiration from it with Beatles-like
but goofier characters. All four actors had musical
background and they used their real names for the
characters. An album, The Monkees, was released
to promote the TV show. At first, the members
provided only vocals for the recordings, but later
on they rehearsed the music and played a live tour
because of the huge demand.
The live performances went better than expected,
and the band was welcomed by fans everywhere
it toured. The band members started to fight for
their rights to get more involved with the recording
process and play the instruments also on recordings,
but they were left out and the second album, More of
The Monkees, was released without their knowledge.
After a rivalry with manager Don Kirshner, The
Monkees finally succeeded in getting the rights
to record on their own. They eventually went and
released their third album Headquarters in 1967 –
the record peaked the charts again. The TV show
was cancelled in February 1968, but The Monkees
still continued to release albums. A The Monkees
comic was also published from 1967 to 1969. The
band split up in 1970, with just two of the members
remaining. They played successful reunion shows
during the 1980s and 1990s.
Quick-cut visuals, non-linear storytelling and
breaking the “fourth wall” by talking to the
viewers were some of the elements of The Monkees
storytelling. The Monkees was targeted at younger
audiences and some see them as childhood
memories, others as the first corporation-created
pop stars. The TV show was a great way to build
the individual band member’s personae, build the
story and promote the albums. The TV series can
be seen as an ancestor of modern reality shows and
today’s manufactured pop idols. To their defense,
The Monkees improved their songwriting and
instrument playing skills and recorded their own
music later on. They have also inspired many artists
decades after the show aired.
39
3.1.3 Spinal Tap – A story too good
to be true
Spinal Tap is another example of how a good
story can make music popular, even though the
band itself is not even real. This fictional band
first appeared on an ABC TV comedy pilot called
The T.V. Show in 1979 (“The T.V. Show - IMDB,”
1979). The band became the subject of a fictional
documentary film c called This is Spinal Tap in 1984
(“Spinal Tap – IMDB,” 2011).
Unlike in The Monkees, all Spinal Tap members
had fictional names and personae in the film. A
soundtrack with the same name was released along
the film. The band members were capable of playing
their own instruments from the start. Spinal
Tap had a detailed fictional history, including
discography, related promotional material and
former members. The fans also participated in
assembling details about the band’s story. Director
Rob Reiner struck gold with his idea of directing a
pseudo-documentary about a rock band.
Spinal Tap has been referred numerous times
in popular culture and they have made guest
appearances in TV shows like Saturday Night Live
and The Simpsons (“Simpsons – IMDB,” 1992). They
released a new album Break Like a Wind in 1992 and
it reached chart position 61 in the U.S (Billboard,
2011). The same year, Spinal Tap also played the
song Majesty of Rock in the Freddie Mercury Tribute
Concert at Wembley Stadium for a 72,000-strong
40
audience. In 2009, the band was “reunited” again
and released the album Back from the Dead, which
consisted mostly of re-recorded songs of the original
This is Spinal Tap movie (Billboard, 2011).
Unlike The Monkees, Spinal Tap did not evolve
into an independent music project. Although both
bands had humor in their stories, Spinal Tap was
considered just a joke. The Monkees song lyrics
were not as goofy as the characters in the TV
series, whereas Spinal Tap was humor all the way,
including elaborate stories of the band’s history and
fictional deceased drummers. Also, the members
of Spinal Tap had wigs and stage names, so they
never really took off their masks as The Monkees
did.
3.1.4. Anvil – Are you a believer?
Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2008) by Steve Gervasi
is a documentary about the Canadian heavy metal
band Anvil (“Anvil! The Story of Anvil,” 2011). It
has been compared to Spinal Tap, except for the
fact that Anvil is a real band.
Anvil has been together since the 1970s, but they
never managed to get a major label contract. They
even played at the same festivals with legendary
bands like The Scorpions, Whitesnake and Bon
Jovi a few times in the early 1980s, but never gained
the same level of success. Despite this, the band
never quit playing and kept recording albums.
A HYMN TO THE
HUMAN
SPIRIT
PLAYED LOUD IN POWER CHORDS
“
James Rocchi, Cinematical
.”
OUTRAGEOUS
.
’
“
THE YEAR S GREAT ROCK MOVIE.”
Peter Maiden, Rolling Stone
HILARIOUS
“
AND ACHINGLY TOUCHING. CRITIC’S PICK.”
Siran Babayan, LA Weekly
A MASTERPIECE.”
“
Mark Kermode, BBC
SUPREMELY ENTERTAINING.
“
AN INSPIRATIONAL FABLE
FOR OUR TIMES.”
Trevor Johnston, Time Out
“
BROUGHT ME TO TEARS.
A MOVING TRIBUTE TO TWO
50 -YEAR-OLD GUYS WHO WON’T
GIVE UP THEIR DREAM.”
Anthony Kaufman, indieWire.com
LITTLE DEAN'S YARD AND AHIMSA FILMS PRESENT STEVE "LIPS" KUDLOW AND ROBB REINER "ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL" CINEMATOGRAPHER CHRIS SOOS
EDITORS JEFF RENFROE AND ANDREW DICKLER MUSIC SUPERVISOR DANA SANO SOUND MAT DENNIS EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS SACHA GERVASI AND CHRIS SOOS PRODUCED BY REBECCA YELDHAM
DIRECTED BY SACHA GERVASI
www.anvilmovie.com
Picture 1. Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2008) movie poster. (© Metal on Metal Productions Inc.)
The documentary was shot from 2005 onward and
tells a story about a band’s struggles with poorly
organized tours, bad management and rejections
from record companies. After twelve studio albums,
the band still decides to record their 13th studio
album This Is Thirteen. The documentary received
excellent reviews and was selected to many film
festivals, including Sundance 2008 (“Anvil! The
Story of Anvil | Sundance Institute,” 2008). The
band also benefitted from the publicity and toured
in Europe and in the U.S. To the listeners, Anvil’s
music seemed to have more purpose after the whole
story was told – never give up your dreams and
believe in yourself.
3.1.5 Julia Nunes – Generation Y and
superior social skills
Julia Nunes, a singer and songwriter from Fairport
(NY), started her career by uploading cover songs to
YouTube in which she sang in harmonies and played
the ukulele (“Julia Nunes Official Website,” 2011).
Later, Nunes also started uploading her own songs,
and and released her first album independently in
2007 through Junu Music.
Most of Nunes’ YouTube videos show her playing
and singing in front of a webcam, which makes
the viewers almost feel that they are listening to
a private concert. Many of the videos have quite a
few spontaneous speeches and expressions, which
makes them very positive and easily likeable. The
42
artist interacts extensively with the fans via her
YouTube channel, Twitter and Facebook page.
Unlike many other musicians, the comments sections
online remain almost single-handedly positive,
which is rare in mainstream services like YouTube.
Born in 1989, Julia Nunes is a textbook example
of her generation, capable of communicating
spontaneously and naturally through multiple
digital channels. She understands the importance
of being honest and providing content frequently
enough for online fans.
Julia Nunes’ music video Binoculars (http://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=ilG9rFEECKg) is compiled
of fan videos where the fans sing the song in front
of the webcam in a similar manner to the artist
herself. This is a very good way to get devoted fans
involved, crowdsource ideas and get some of the
video material directly from the audience. The fans
also get their reward, as they have the opportunity
to perform on their favorite musician’s video.
Julia Nunes is building up her story at low cost
in creative ways, but she has also set up a store to
distribute the music on her website at Junumusic.
com. The web store also provides a range of
merchandise: sunglasses, posters, clothes, buttons,
guitar picks and DVDs. The down-to-earth image
of Julia Nunes and the casual visual and text style
almost makes the visitor want to support the artist
and live the story with her on the way to success.
Picture 2. Julia Nunes (© junumusic.com)
While Julia Nunes clearly enjoys posting updates
to social media services, she voluntarily gives away
a bit of her privacy – this might be a trade-off
which has to be made in the digital era in order
to have success. Being available to fans more often
by providing small chunks of information and
entertainment keeps the fans interested at all times.
Although Nunes clearly has good video editing
skills, her videos are made spontaneously and keep
the bar relatively low for publishing. Rather than
concentrating on the technical quality of the sound
and the film, Nunes uses digital storytelling to
provide frequent updates with new material.
She also has recorded and performed live songs
with a full band, but that does not prevent her from
continuing to make spontaneous ukulele videos
and uploading them to YouTube. Nunes clearly is
talented: she has a good singing voice, she has the
ability to perform in a natural way in her videos,
and she has talent for arranging familiar songs in
an interesting, but simple way. Her story has a
strong message: just start playing, don’t worry too
much and have fun.
3.1.6 Arcade Fire – The Interactive
video experiments
Arcade Fire is an indie rock band based in Montreal,
Quebec, Canada. In 2007, the band published an
interactive music video Neon Bible online (www.
44
beonlineb.com). The viewer could interact with
the character in the video by clicking the objects
highlighted on the screen. The interaction does not
add much depth to the story of the song; it is more
of a demonstration of a new idea in a music video.
In 2010, Arcade Fire published another interactive
music video to promote their upcoming album
The Suburbs at www.wildernessdowntown.com,
featuring the song We Used To Wait. The video
was directed by Chris Milk and it used the
Google Chrome browser, HTML5 markup and
geopersonalization to make the video take place
in the viewer’s childhood neighborhood by using
Google Maps.
The music and the personalized location added to
the story, and the video received wide recognition
all over the world. Despite technical limitations
including the Google Chrome browser and detailed
maps not being available in all the locations, it very
well demonstrated the possibilities of personalized
experiences in music videos and storytelling.
These kinds of formats are still relatively complex
and expensive to produce, and the band clearly
received wide PR coverage for being the first to use
such techniques. In addition, the band’s concert at
Madison Square Garden was broadcast live via
YouTube in August 2010, the same month the new
album and the interactive video were released.
Picture 3. Arcade Fire (photo: © Anton Corbijn)
3.1.7 Lady Gaga – Total domination
Lady Gaga rocketed to instant superstardom after
her first hit single Just Dance, released in 2008.
She soon grew into a world-wide phenomenon,
famous for her pop songs and fashion statements.
However, what separates her from the superstars
of the past decades is that she is actively managing
communication with the fans.
The story of Lady Gaga does not have a beginning
or an end; it is constantly being told in small bits
by her communication team or by the fans in
today’s social media fashion. Being the number
one pop star on the planet gives Lady Gaga almost
unlimited resources to create interesting content on
a daily basis, but she has not forgotten the direct
interaction with the fans via Twitter or her website.
She is everywhere and has both fictional and nonfictional narratives.
It is hard to place the story of Lady Gaga in any
specific category. It is a phenomenon that also has
much to do with image marketing rather than
storytelling. The remarkable thing about Gaga is
that she uses all the media channels together to
shape her personal story, whether it is an iPhone
application, YouTube video or television interview.
3.2 Popular music, Finnish
Finnish popular music bands have smaller resources
for promotion and PR activities compared to big
46
international names described in previous chapters.
However, promotion and storytelling can be
utilized with smaller budgets and PR personnel,
especially if only domestic markets are targeted.
3.2.1 CMX – Consistent interaction
with the fans
CMX is a Finnish rock band with roots in
hardcore punk, formed in 1985 in Tornio (“CMX
– Biografia,” 2010). Although founded before
the Internet era, the band quickly adopted direct
communication with the fans when Internet came
around. The band started its questions and Answers
section on their website in 1995, and the format
has remained the same for over fifteen years. The
idea is very simple: fans send questions by email
to the band and the band members post answers
to the website. Rather than answering the original
question, however, they nitpick spelling mistakes
in the question or just simply mock the person who
asked the question.
The longevity of the section has provided a large
mass of data of the band as a side product. In 2009,
the band published a 644-page Encyclopedia Idiotica,
which included the 28,000 questions and answers
published on the site (“Johnny Kniga,” 2009). To
have meaningful audience interaction and quality
content online does not necessarily require complex
online services or technology. A light-weight and
usable site with consistent updates has helped
CMX build a special relationship with fans long
before the buzzword social media was launched.
The band has also archived a wide selection of
interviews, pictures and an extensive biography
about the band’s phases and story.
3.2.2 Mokoma and Stam1na – The
story of an independent label
Sakara Records was founded in 2003 by the
members of Finnish metal act Mokoma. Before
the foundation of the record label, the band was
signed to EMI, one of “the big four” companies in
music industry. According to the band, they already
had artistic freedom and were in control of most of
their marketing at EMI, but the producing process
and schedules were controlled by the company
representatives (“Haastattelut: Mokoma,” 2003).
Mokoma felt that the major label companies did
not have much to give to the whole process, so the
band decided to do everything themselves.
Founded in 1996, the band already had long-time
experience playing live concerts, but now both the
newly released album and successful promotion and
communication lifted its popularity to new heights.
Mokoma quickly adopted a CMX-style Questions
and Answers section on their website and gained
fame as an energetic live band.
After the success of the Mokoma albums Kurimus
(2003) and Tämän Maailman Ruhtinaan Hovi
(2004), Sakara Records decided to expand and
signed a recording deal in 2004 with Stam1na, a
metal band from Lemi, Finland; this was the label’s
first band which did not have company owner in
the lineup (“Stam1na.com - faq,” 2011). Stam1na
was already an emerging name in the scene due to
numerous demos and gigs, but the musical style,
which was similar enough to Mokoma, guaranteed
an exclusive introduction to the already existing
audience via Sakara Records. Stam1na quickly
adopted online services similar to Mokoma and
started to create their humor-filled story in small
bits by interacting with the fans.
Stam1na has actively documented the phases of
their early career. The frontman Antti Hyyrynen
works for media production company Medialouhos
besides his career in music, and has been interested
in video and storytelling long before the band gained
success. Stam1na released “K13V DVD” in 2009 to
sum up their story up to that point (“Stam1na.com
- K13V DVD,” 2009). The DVD tells the story all
the way from 1996, when the band was just a bunch
of teenagers playing metal and joking around. The
storytelling is spontaneous and humorous – there
is no intent to build a myth around the characters.
The band believes that being real and avoiding
censorship is the best way to make a strong effect
on the audience. The fans respect the extensive
material and the fact that frontman Hyyrynen has
been a key person in the actual editing process.
In 2010, Stam1na launched a theme site (www.
47
Picture 4. Stam1na (photo: © Marianne Heikkinen)
viimeinenatlantis.fi) to promote their environmentaloriented concept album Viimeinen Atlantis (2010),
which featured a ten-part comic with a competition
in each strip. Facebook and Twitter were utilized to
keep the audience alerted about the progression of
the story. In contrast to the serious message of the
album, the same themes are presented in a comical
way in Stam1na’s music videos – the music video
Pakkolasku features all five band members dressed
in green spandex as environmental superhero
apprentices.
Lordi concept already in the early 1990s, long before
the Eurovision victory and fame. The band is heavily
inspired by Kiss; both bands have similarities in
music and strong emphasis on costumes and the
entertainment aspect of live shows. Lordi consists
of five different fictitious monster characters
named Mr. Lordi, Amen, OX, Otus and Awa.
Every character has a background story which tells
how they ended up in Mr. Lordi’s crew. The band
members always wear masks in public and avoid
appearing publicly as themselves.
In each three media, the band uses a different
storytelling style: serious and poetic on the album,
marvel-like over-dramatic visual style in the comics
and sketch humor on the music video. Also the
point of view of the story changes in each medium:
the album has multiple points of view, the comic is
being told from the point of view of a businessman
after a great natural disaster, and the video happens
in an ordinary Finnish supermarket with the rather
unusual superhero characters (http://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=gjbDXZYR4Pc).
The latest change in the line-up was made when
former drummer Kita (Sampsa Astala) decided to
pursue his own career publicly as himself, without
his alter ego. According to the band, this was in
direct conflict with the cornerstones of Lordi’s
image (Lordi.fi, 2010).
3.2.3 Lordi – Taking the storyworld
seriously
The horror rock group Lordi was founded in
1996 by Tomi Putaansuu, the band’s singer and
songwriter. The band is famous for its monster
costumes and energetic live shows featuring
pyrotechnics. Putaansuu started developing the
In addition to the official band biography, Lordi
has released comics and movies to tell the story
further. The first comic Monster Magazine was
released simultaneously with the hit single Would
You Love a Monsterman? The origins of the Lordi
creatures were told in comic book Alkuperä (2006).
The surrealistic short movie The Kin was released
in 2004 and told the story of a girl writing a book
about monsters and supernatural phenomena. In
February 2008, a full-length horror movie Dark
Floors was released which featured all the band
members. With an overall budget of €4,3 million,
the scale and format of the production was unseen
49
Picture 5. Lordi in 2011 (© Lordi)
50
for a Finnish rock band. However, the reception of
the movie was negative from both critics and the
audience. Although the special effects were good,
the story of the movie was weak in general. A good
reminder that, although the idea maybe good, in
the end success is all about the execution – and
a good story, not just a story, as already Aristotle
underlined. Also, the size of the production was
vast. The movie does not just tell a story to support
Lordi’s music; it stands on its own.
3.2.4 Anssi Kela – From mainstream
success to down-to-earth storytelling
Anssi Kela is a Finnish singer-songwriter and
multi-instrumentalist. His first solo album
Nummela (2001) became a huge hit, selling over
150,000 copies in Finland. Kela’s music is known
for his stories, which develop during the song
until a catharsis is reached in the last verse (e.g.
Nummela, Puistossa). In many songs, the chorus
acts as a lighter intermission or summary in the
middle of the story. The structures of the songs are
not relatively simple and easy to listen; the success
lies in stories that ordinary people can relate to.
After making the all-time 13th most selling album
in Finland during times of declining CD sales, it
is hard go any higher in Finland in terms of record
sales. Although Kela’s latter records have had major
radio airplay and have sold well compared to almost
any Finnish artist, declining overall record sales
have forced the artist to think about alternative
revenue models.
Anssi Kela held a series of concerts in 2010 to
which the entrance fee was voluntary (Kela, 2010).
The audience could also vote for songs they wanted
to hear. The first gig of this kind took place at
Tavastia in May 2010. Despite the wide coverage
among the press and the exceptional atmosphere
in the concert, it was not a financial success. The
audience of approximately 350 people paid a total
amount of 1860 euros and 65 cents for the gig, which
means just over five euros per person. Some people
were generous, which meant even more people did
not pay anything or paid very little.
The artist himself considered the gig a success,
especially because of the good atmosphere. The
social impact and media coverage helped Kela
gain a lot of goodwill as an artist – and probably
attracted some new fans as well. He also started to
sell unpublished music via his website anssikela.com,
which leaves him 78% of the earnings. However,
the record company still owns the rights to his hit
albums and songs.
Kela does not build up an artist myth or fictitious
character. He writes and appears publicly as
himself. Kela has been active in social media
as well; he regularly interacts with his fans via
his site. He is an active blogger and also made a
studio diary about the recording of his latest album
51
Aukio (2009). Instead of building up a consistent
storyline, the studio diary and blog posts deal with
everyday events and proceedings that the musician
faces, fairly undramatically. The few scripted
music-related comic videos that Kela has posted on
YouTube have all been viewed over 100,000 times,
compared to the few thousand views of a single
studio diary entry.
gold, peaked the Finnish chart, and will eventually
reach the same figures than its predecessors. It a
stellar proof of a loyal fan base supporting the band
year after year: it has been built step by step, and
does not go away overnight.
Anssi Kela and Lordi have both had the biggest
success possible in Finland in a very short period
of time. Although they have both had long careers,
they skyrocketed to the charts, Kela after his first
solo album and Lordi after the Eurovision victory.
Compared to CMX, Mokoma or Stam1na, their
situation is different – while the first have built up
their success step by step and gained a loyal and
stable fan base, the latter have had major radio
airplay or mainstream success with a lot of bandwagon fans. Lordi still has plenty of fans abroad
due to the Eurovision fame and is not dependent
on Finnish success, but Kela is seemingly trying to
re-establish himself in Finland.
3.3.1 Idols / Popstars
Metal fans are also considered to be loyal in general,
which might make it easier for bands like Stam1na
and Mokoma to maintain their success through
difficult times in the industry. Eleven CMX
albums after the release of Aura (1994) have all
sold between 15,000 and 24,000 copies, except for
a collection album Kaikki Hedelmät (2008) (IFPI,
2010). Also the newest album Iäti (2010) has sold
52
3.3 Reality Shows on TV
Reality TV shows have used drama and storytelling
successfully to bring up new artists. The Idols series
is one of the most popular reality TV formats today.
There are different stages in the show – it evolves as
the story develops during the season.
1. Auditions are held in numerous cities
around the country or region to lower the
barrier for the contestants to participate.
2. The Theatre Round is where the best
contestants from the auditions converge and
start practicing and singing in groups.
3. The Semifinal Stage episodes are usually
live television shows where SMS voting is
introduced to the viewers, encouraging the
audience to support their favorites.
4. The Final Stage shows are elaborate versions
of the semifinals with a weekly theme that
challenges the contestants to show talent in
different musical genres. The hype continues
until the Grand Finale.
The staging of the TV show has several advantages
from a storytelling point of view. The bad
performances of the audition round provide
excellent and unexpected comedy by wannabe idols
lacking real talent. Many of these awful auditions
have circulated on online video sites, getting
millions of views all around the world. Since the
auditions are only a few minutes long or under, it
is easy to pick up the show – it does not require the
viewers to follow from the very first episode.
The Theatre Round requires the contestants the
ability to learn new songs and choreographies
quickly, withstand pressure and work in a team,
providing plenty of drama. In this stage, it is clear
that the competition is not just about singing: the
contestants have to be able to give a good overall
impression as well as demonstrating good work
ethics. Before giving the voting power to the
audience, the judges can be sure that the contestants
who lack talent or have motivational problems or
such are sent home.
The introduction of the voting in the semifinal
stage lets the viewers make the choices from this
point on. In recent years, online campaigns have
played a significant role in this popularity contest.
The show has benefitted from both print and online
media picking up stories about the show – the huge
promotional efforts and wide media coverage make
it almost impossible to avoid the stories.
The pace gets even faster as the journey continues
to the final rounds. The program that started as a
light comedy show has first turned into a drama
and then into a fierce campaign which brings to
mind political rallies at their best – or even better.
The show can be followed on many levels: hardcore
fans consume a variety of media to get their daily
fix, while not-so-fanatic viewers are satisfied with
the weekly prime-time show. After months of
building the hype, the catharsis is finally reached
in the grande finale, and the modern myth of a
hero reaching fame is completed.
The format seems to be brilliant for its makers and
it has showed longevity, being one of the most
popular shows on TV in America and several other
countries year after year. The voting mechanism
and sponsorship deals provide an earning model
for the producers, and the extensive publicity has
helped struggling record companies find a new way
to find new chart-topping artists.
Yet there is a lot of criticism against the format.
Being a singing and popularity contest at the
same time, the format relies on the cooperative
record company’s old hits during the show, on the
compilation record and on tour. The longevity of
the artist careers resulting from the Idol format
53
has varied a lot – the show is broadcast every year,
and it is hard to compete with the new rising stars
without the lift from the TV show and media
coverage.
The same kinds of stories are built in various
other formats as well, including Popstars (Idols
predecessor), X-Factor and Talent. In Talent, the
contestants are not limited to musical performances,
but many of the successful competitors have chosen
to sing or play music. One of the most famous new
stars was found in 2009 by Talent: the Scottish
singer Susan Boyle, who was in her late forties at
the time of the competition. Not being the most
likely participant to success, she stunned everybody
by singing a superb version of I Dreamed a Dream
from the musical Les Misérables. As the story
continued, her singing audition was shared with
millions of people on the Internet – which led her
to win the contest.
3.3.2 Not Born To Rock – A reality
show on Sub
Not Born to Rock was a reality TV show which
aired on Sub during the winter of 2007 (Meriläinen,
2007). Five musicians with classical backgrounds
took up the challenge and formed a rock band called
Taltta in a ten-episode long show. Their mission
was to compose a hit single, record it and play a
live gig. In addition to their lack of experience in
the rock music genre, they had to learn to play new
54
instruments: for example, the band’s drummer was
a horn player. The band had extraordinary support
during their few-month journey – a weekly TV
show, a set of brand new instruments, photography
sessions, mentors and studio sessions.
It was a bit unclear what the target group of
the show was. In spite of the good idea, many
musicians would have liked to see the band
members play their own instruments – it probably
would have been more a interesting point of view
to the everlasting rock music vs. classical music
conversation. The producers tried to make the show
appeal to everybody without going too much for
musical jargon and ignoring the most important
target group. As a result, the program did not get
good ratings and was cancelled after one season.
The band did record a single and played a few
songs live in Wanajafestival, Hämeenlinna. The
outcome was simple punk rock, just meeting the
lowest musical standards. If the musicians had had
the opportunity to play their own instruments in
a different previously unknown genre, the result
probably would have been much more interesting,
in terms of both the story and the music.
3.3.3 Other musical genres
The discussion concerning differences between
popular music and western art music has been going
on for eons. Classical music is widely seen as part
of western canon, and therefore the governments
of different countries support many orchestras
with stable vacancies for musicians. In Finland,
there is also higher education for jazz musicians,
although there are no government subsidized jazz
musician vacancies, except for teaching positions.
In contrast, pop music is industry-driven and seeks
ways to make profit for its producers and makers.
Where top classical musicians have been able to fully
concentrate on performing music, which usually is
composed years ago by some master composer or
other, pop artists have also had to figure out ways
to make a living out their choice of career. It is not
a surprise that the storytelling dimension of artists
is not driven by classical musicians. An exception
to the rule is opera, which of course has a full story
included. There have been some examples who have
built their own story and image and who have also
mixed musical genres in a new way.
Vanessa Mae (born in 1978) is a British violinist
with a Thai father and a Chinese mother. She
started her career at an early age and performed
mostly classical music in a conservative style. At a
later age, she became famous for her flashy music
videos and pop-style albums, still playing violin
or electric violin on them. Classical music relies
strongly on tradition. Some critics feel that popular
music and classical music should not be mixed
and that classical music should always be played
according to the original scores of the composer.
Leaving the music alone, the promotion of the
artists is still more developed in the pop music
industry. Even some of the biggest stars in classical
music do not have decent websites online, nor do
they make any effort to shape their story or image.
The information transfers to the audience through
newspaper and magazine articles.
Benjamin Zander, the music director of The
Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, points out in
a TED conference video that a good story and
passion are important in classical music as well
(TED.com, 2008). As a tremendous speaker, he
gets the audience very excited about a Chopin
piano piece by telling a fascinating story about the
piece performed. After the story, he plays the piece
again, with a quite different reaction following
from the audience.
Paul Potts, who formerly worked as a mobile
phone salesman, succeeded in Britain’s Got Talent
by singing opera. Suddenly, when a meaningful
story was attached to the artist story, millions of
new people showed interest in classical music.
55
4 Getting
involved:
the 70-day
experiment
P
astori is a fictional person and my artistic
alter ego. The character expresses himself
with music and acting – the latter is
mostly comedy. In this section, I take a look at a
70–day experiment I performed with the character
in the summer of 2010.
4.1 The Project
2. To create an audience online with the help
of social media
3. To document carefully the process of creative
work and make a whole story about it
The idea behind the 70-day project was to start
living fully as Pastori would do. The passion
that drives Pastori forward is music and comedy,
although his previous experience with these art
forms is obviously limited. Within the project,
some of the current music industry issues were also
discussed, finding new ideas and possibilities for
music marketing and business models.
The 70-day experiment started on June 30th,
2010 and lasted until September 7th, 2010. The
experiment was limited to seventy days to create
meaningful and comprehensive boundaries for the
project and make it easier to follow. The relatively
short period of time helped build a background story
around the experiment, but made the timetable
challenging for learning new skills.
The progress of the project was documented online
– the focus being on the making-of story, not
necessarily the end products in the form of music
or videos. At the same time, the project researched
how to create buzz around a music project with the
help of digital and social media. I blogged during
the experience on my site www.thepastori.fi, which
was connected to a Twitter account and a Facebook
fan page.
Tools that were used in the experiment included:
4.1.1 The Goals, timetable and tools
The goals of the experiment were:
58
1. To create ready-made products, like songs
and video clips
1. Software: Apple Logic Pro (recording and
mixing), Adobe Premiere (video editing
2. Instruments: acoustic guitar (Takamine
C-128), acoustic steel-string guitar (Ibanez
AW90ECE-NT), electric guitar (Gibson
SG) Standard, midi keyboard, electric piano
3. Equipment: iPhone, amplifiers,
microphones, multi-effect for guitar (Tonelab
Vox LE)
4.1.2 One man – many roles
The project demanded very consistent documentation
and deliverables. It also put myself and my work
right into the spotlight and open for criticism.
Because the theme of the project was to throw
myself fully into the world of music, I took on
many overlapping roles which are often separated
in music industry. The roles were:
1. Composer (composing, arranging and
writing lyrics)
2. Producer (operating home studio and
recording the songs)
3. Instrument player (playing guitar and
keyboards)
4. Performer (performing music live)
5. Observer and reporter (observing what is
going on in the world of music, writing about
the experience)
It would have been easier to limit the role to
just one or two of these. The various roles also
demanded different states of mind and energy
levels. Practicing and playing guitar alone could
take several hours a day. Because practicing is
largely based on repetition and routines, it was easy
to start the day with that to get going. Composing
and writing lyrics demanded both a high energy
level and relaxed atmosphere. Practicing and
composing were the hardest to combine.
4.2 The Personal experiences
4.2.1 Time management and the
working environment
As soon as I started the experiment, I realized that
working in an inspiring and relaxed environment
was essential for composing or creating anything
new. Although I had dedicated my calendar to
this project, it was very hard to refuse everyday
requests coming from different directions. I started
to believe that, at times, an artist or musician has to
live in isolation or with understanding colleagues
to make a connection with one’s inner self. It was
hard to exchange thoughts with almost anybody at
some point – it was very depressing and stressful at
the same time. When the ideas came into my head,
it was very important to develop them as soon as
possible.
The majority of recording and mixing was done
sitting in front of a computer. I had to use software
instruments on some of the tracks because I did not
have all the instruments needed in the studio or
musicians to play them. This part of the work was
monotonic, time-consuming and not satisfying
at all. In order to make a background to a song, I
had to spend many hours to achieve only mediocre
results. It would have been far more rewarding to
59
Picture 6. Pastori (photo: Teemu Korpilahti)
have skilled musicians to play the drum and bass
lines with better quality in shorter period of time.
4.2.2 Combining the different roles
If composing is about searching one’s feelings and
taking a distance to create a peaceful environment,
performing live is quite the opposite. I always
wondered why things are done in a certain order
in the music business: a long tour after composing
and recording an album. At least my states of mind
during these two could not be more different.
Performing requires confidence and energy, and it
is also a very social occasion. For me, it was very
hard to switch between these roles – it is far easier
to do all the composing and recording first, and
then move on to perform the music.
Being an observer and reporter was not the hardest
role to master, but it was constantly overlapping
with the other roles. When one is trying to search
feelings and come up with new songs, it is very
hard to observe that at the same time. I did most
of the writing in the end of the day, when I was
very tired. The observing and reporting seemed
to be the process that many musicians have first
abandoned because of all the other roles, which are
more often seen as constituting art. The reporting
took time from playing and making music, although
reporting was considered equally important in this
project.
4.2.3 The Promotion and the
communication
Although the 70-day experiment was a public
project, I did not advertise it on discussion forums
or other blogs, nor did I set clear public goals like
creating and recording a certain amount of songs
during the experiment. I felt that the time boundary
and making the project public already provided
enough pressure. I did not clearly express to the
audience whether the project had deeper inner
meaning for myself or whether I was going to use
the material created for other purposes (e.g. thesis),
which probably confused the audience somewhat
and made it harder for the audience to take part in
the project in social media.
The character I created was also slightly controversial,
since it had a clear reference to religion (Pastori =
‘a pastor’ in Finnish). The boundaries of the project
were also loose: “diving into the world of music”
does not yet describe the different possible roles
included. This was done to retain the freedom of
expressing myself and to avoid too much pressure
– it was both a pro and a con. The loose boundaries
allowed me the possibility to change the story of
the project slightly on the fly in the beginning, if
necessary.
4.2.4 The Emotional side
The biggest surprise from the beginning was the
heavy emotional load that I felt during the project.
61
Creating something personal and revealing it to
others was not easy, and I became very critical about
my work. The biggest obstacle was singing, which
turned out to be very difficult for me. Even though
I had singing experience, the recording of the vocal
tracks proved to be very challenging. In addition to
the technical side, it demanded a lot of passion and
attitude. These were hard to combine, especially
because I had to concentrate on recording, playing
and reporting at the same time. The emotional side
of the project affected the frequency of the project
reports and status updates, which made it more
distant to its followers.
62
as I mentioned before, and suddenly the storytelling
side of the project seemed to be not that important
or interesting, since the music mattered the most. I
can relate to musicians who think this way – maybe
it would be wise to separate the storyteller from the
musician, or at least have somebody to support the
documentation and storytelling to keep it frequent
and consistent.
4.2.5 An Enriching community is
crucial
Although it would have been even more interesting
to write publicly about the emotional roller coaster
I went through, I was not really prepared for that
and decided to concentrate on the musical side of
the project. The other significant shortcoming was
the lack of some instruments. I had to make use of
software instruments instead of real ones on some
tracks, which was time-consuming and not very
motivational. Software instruments are decent for
demoing music for other musicians, but the musical
style I used would clearly have needed instruments
on nearly every track.
I worked alone for the majority of the time, expect
for a few exceptions. Erik Mashkilleyson helped
me with lyrics and sang vocal tracks to some of the
songs. He also encouraged me to publish material
earlier in order to get feedback and information
from the followers. I found that it would be very
enriching to have a community where musicians
or artists could exchange opinions and feelings
and get feedback about their ideas. This applies to
almost any field, whether work, art or science. This
turned out to be an obstacle for me: it was hard to
find or approach like-minded people to help with
the project since I considered it so sensitive and
personal.
As the project went forwards, the music seemed to
take room from reporting. I was forced to publish
music before I was fully satisfied with it in order to
have feedback and material for the followers and
reporting purposes. The role switching was difficult,
One of the best ways to tell people about the
project was face-to-face interaction, but I became
introverted and cautious about bringing up the
subject since I felt my production did not yet
meet high enough standards. The acting and the
comical side of the story remained very minimal
– working alone with the heavy emotional burden
of composing took away the comical side of the
project.
4.3 The Outcome
4.3.1 The Releases
I composed three songs and compiled one music
video during the experiment. Two of the songs
were in English and one in Finnish. I did not
set boundaries for the musical genre, but upon
reflection, it could be labeled indie or folk rock.
I also performed live once for a private audience
at the end of the experiment. This was definitely
one of the most rewarding experiences of the
project. I realized that music is very much about
interaction, and interaction is at its strongest in
small performances. At the end of the project, my
fan page had 130 members on Facebook and the
MySpace profile had been listened to approximately
700 times. I reached these numbers just by blogging
and tweeting during the experiment.
4.3.2 Overall reception and the
reactions
The reception of the project was curious and positive
in general. The followers were a bit disappointed by
the infrequent updates and slow releasing pace. I
felt that this project was something the audience
could relate to, since I did not have a professional
background in music and I still had the courage to
make the project public. In the latter part of the
project, I heard some slightly negative comments
about “not having a proper job”’ or “doing nothing”,
although I financed the period without external
funding.
With the ongoing discussion of artists’ role in
society and the funding of the culture sector, I can
only imagine how much resistance professional
musicians and artists get in everyday life, regardless
of how they are funding their profession. I also
found out that it is important to politely educate
people about cultural projects; usually the reaction
can change when people get more information
about the facts concerning the project.
4.3.3 The Learning experiences and
the potential
Because I felt that the musical standards were not
met well enough to publicly promote the project more
aggressively, I was not able to use all of the hyping
power of the Internet to boost up the amount of
followers. I recommend that the artist telling a story
should be confident about their musical vision and
plans before beginning the storytelling; in addition,
they have to have a very thick skin or a good track
record to open up a project to public scrutiny from
the beginning. I chose not to push the project to an
anonymous audience, at least this time.
63
Although the story remained thin in the experiment,
I still see a great deal of potential in the character
and in the concept. I received lots of positive
feedback and many people supported me for such
a different and bold opening – for me it was also
a great opportunity to learn by doing. I found out
new things about myself and I got a glimpse what
would it be like to be an artist or musician. The
hardest part was not getting people interested or
involved, but sacrificing my privacy, being honest
about my feelings in order to be able to tell a good
story, and making the releases.
Although the story was not about promoting
some commercial service or product as in today’s
marketing world, it is challenging to get people
engaged using only online channels. I found that
face-to-face interaction, education, and encouraging
people to become involved is crucial to gain more
attention, online of offline. Being clear about one’s
motivation and goals and communicating them to
the audience is equally important. The mysterious
approach can be favorable in the beginning, but it
does not encourage people to become involved in
the story if they do not know where the story is
developing.
It is also very favorable if the character and the
story borrow elements from some more general
themes. For example, there are many funny and
quotable online newspaper articles about pastors
and scandals, which build up the controversial
64
Pastori character in a suitable way. This is very
good for creating fan fiction or contributing to the
Pastori storyverse.
To make an artist story successful, it is important
to:
• Plan the story carefully and make sure there
are enough interesting releases and entry
points
• Communicate the goals and motivate
the audience, especially in face-to-face
interaction
• Make the characters consistent and credible
• Interact on different levels with the audience
– online communication is not enough
• Make it easy for the audience to contribute to
and participate in the story
• Get feedback and encourage and win the
early adopters to your side
The most important thing for me was to learn more
from artist–producer–fan point-of-views in new
media stories. This will surely help me to see the
needs of different parties, when producing stories
in future.
65
5 Strategies
for storytelling
The Usual strategy
Example: numerous
Myspace
Facebook
Music videos
ARTIST
Free downloads
Photos
How to coordinate it?
Artist / Fan / Producer POV
• No active communication or
management
ARTIST
++ Keeps the focus on music
–– Forget about stardom
• Message: listen to our music and come
to our gigs
FAN
–– Sends a puzzling message
PRODUCER
–– There is no management
Figure 4. The Usual strategy
68
P
icking a strategy for promotion and storytelling may sound like an approach adapted from the
corporate world, but it is important to admit that picking no strategy at all is a choice as well.
There are many artists trying to make their living from music, and this usually requires help
from various interest groups, so the strategy of arrogant and unpredictable behavior may not be the ticket
to stardom in the 2010s. The following strategies used alone or combined. The idea is to point out different
promotion methods. All strategies and figures presented in this chapter are done by the author.
5.1 The Usual
These days, the usual strategy is to do a little bit of everything, but skip the storytelling and not give a
meaningful message to followers. Usually an artist puts up a MySpace site with music samples and a
Facebook page with occasional updates, uploads a performance-based music video onto YouTube, and
maybe sets up a web page with news, photos and free downloads.
How to coordinate it?
This strategy does not require much management and it is easy to implement. Usually it is done by the
artists themselves, who clearly concentrate on their music or their day-time jobs.
Artist / Fan / Producer POV
Artist: This strategy keeps the focus on the music. There is always the possibility that the music is
just so well-composed and performed that no storytelling component or innovative promotion is needed.
However, there is a staggering amount of good music in this world, and it is not likely to be popularized
with this strategy.
Fan: The message to the fans is often “listen to our music, buy our records and see us live”. Instead of
telling the audience what the artist represents and believes in, the message is just a short bio or tagline,
often communicated in a foreign language. If updates are infrequent, it begs the question: “are these guys
serious or not?” How is it possible for fans to believe in artists if they do not show it themselves?
Producer: There is no actual management involved.
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Distant diva
Example: Céline Dion
Fan-organized communities
Major release & PR
Tour
Major release & PR
Official communication
How to coordinate it?
Artist / Fan / Producer POV
• The use of traditional media publicity
ARTIST
++ Easy to implement
++ The focus stays on music
• Passive communication
• Focus on major releases and worldclass live shows
• “Stardom” of the artist emphasized
Figure 5. Distant diva strategy
70
FAN
++ Works if the diva lives up to the hype
–– Requires a lot of patience
PRODUCER
–– Works only with well-established
artists
–– The music industry got into trouble in
the first place using this strategy
5.2 Distant diva
Another classic approach is to position oneself as a diva and remain slightly distant to the fans. Before
the Internet era, this probably occurred partly because of the difficulty of organizing real-time interaction
between fans and artists, except for live events. The focus in this strategy is kept on major releases like
full-length studio albums. Once a studio album is released, it is supported with PR, interviews and
communication via official press releases. The album launch is followed by a tour. Some artists compensate
their lack of communication and interaction with extraordinarily good live shows which are worth the
wait. Since the officials channels do not provide platforms for fan communication, this may lead to the
formation of fan-organized communities, like bulletin boards or web sites.
How to coordinate it?
The strategy relies heavily on traditional media publicity. Good media relations are helpful and wellestablished managers can help the artist with these relations. However, media still has the right to choose
the tone and the subject of the story.
Artist / Fan / Producer POV
Artist: This strategy is easy to combine with artistic work. Since this is the classic approach, it practically
requires the artist to be signed to a big record company, with a commitment to classic revenue models,
agreements and the possible partial loss of artistic freedom. The competition for these agreements is still
fierce and they are very hard to reach. In addition to this, record companies are concentrating marketing
efforts on their top names. It is even harder to get there without a proven track record.
Fan: It may be frustrating for a fan to wait for a new release, updates, or a tour to arrive in town. Outstanding
live shows and great major releases are a must; else the wait is not worthwhile. The most bizarre example
of a slow release pace and diva attitude would be the Guns N’ Roses album Chinese Democracy, which took
nearly 15 years to release (“Guns N’ Roses ‘Chinese Democracy’ Timeline,” 2008).
Producer: This is the approach that record companies have utilized for decades; which may be the reason
the whole industry is now in trouble. Today, it only seems to work with well-established stars, if at all.
71
Epic opening
Example: Kanye West, Anvil
DVD
Album
Video / Film
PR
Tour
Merch
Downloads
How to coordinate it?
Artist / Fan / Producer POV
• Maximize press coverage and
interviews
ARTIST
++ Easy to combine with artistic work
• Merchandise related to a main
product
• Active cross-selling utilizing reviews
and press coverage of the main
product
FAN
++ Easy to understand
++ Added value from merchandise
–– Long waiting periods between main
products
PRODUCER
++ Easy to communicate
–– Potentially expensive and high-risk
Figure 6. Epic opening
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5.3 Epic opening
The epic opening strategy tries to break the news with an interesting main story. A good way to communicate
this is short film, documentary, film or a whole new storytelling component. Kanye West (see chapter
2.3.3) released a 35-minute music video online and Anvil (see chapter 3.1.4) was featured in a full-length
documentary film; both of these events created an enormous amount of buzz and excitement worldwide. A
film is a good way to get the audience to pay attention for a longer time-span compared to almost any other
medium. Once the main story is established, it is easy to start adding smaller stories and after-promotion
to the palette.
How to coordinate it?
The main story component requires hard work and sometimes a large amount of additional personnel
involved with planning and production. The making of the story can require a long time-span and plenty
of resources, but once this part is finished, it is easy to shift efforts to story promotion and after-marketing.
The merchandise related to the main story component is a natural way to create additional revenue.
Artist / Fan / Producer POV
Artist: The epic opening is easy to combine with artistic work. From an artist point-of-view, there are no
significant downsides in this approach.
Fan: The epic opening is easy for a fan or the mainstream media to understand. Once an epic opening has
been launched, the question following is “How will the story continue?” It may be difficult to meet the
expectations of fans concerning the next main release. For a fan, this might mean a long waiting time.
Producer: The production costs might be high, as might the risk level. This approach usually requires a
skillful storyteller or director to get truly excited about the artist, which can result from good connections
or even pure luck.
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Multiple POVs campaign
Example: Stam1na
Comic / Print
Fantasy
Online video
Humour
Music
Drama
Live events
Real-life
Communication & participation
How to coordinate it?
Artist / Fan / Producer POV
• Careful coordination of different
artwork and point-of-views
ARTIST
±± Requires plenty of high-quality
artistic work
±± Must be planned with care
• Networking and working with artist of
different fields
• The storytelling components are
unveiled one by one
• Participation is made easy by
competitions and other activities
Figure 7. Multiple POVs campaign
74
FAN
++ Participation possibilies and the story
increases commitment among fans
–– Harder to communicate with
mainstream media
PRODUCER
++ Budget can be scaled
±± More personnel
more coordination
5.4 Multiple POVs campaign
To give a spark to a story, it can be told from different points of view in different media. In addition, the
audience can be motivated by competitions or encouraging them to participate in other ways. Stam1na
used this approach with their album Viimeinen Atlantis (see chapter 3.2.2). They used a combination of
comics (fictional main character/drama), music videos (super heroes/comedy) and the music itself (narrator/
pessimistic, poetic). In addition, the progression and the meaning of the campaign was communicated in
a more traditional way.
How to coordinate it?
The media channels, presentation form and points of view must first be chosen. The cooperative parties
must then be contacted and agree on deliverables. This means a lot of preliminary work and a coordinated
publishing schedule.
Artist / Fan / Producer POV
Artist: This approach requires the artist to understand the importance of storytelling and the changing
climate of the industry, and to have dedication to the storytelling and promotion efforts. The story and
the characters must be credible, and the artist has to work to deliver versatile work with cooperative
counterparts. The strategy demands hard work and active communication with the fans, but can be very
rewarding for an artist as well.
Fan: For the fans, a multiple POV story provides interesting content and participation possibilities.
The commitment to the artist increases when the story can be experienced in other ways in addition
to the major releases. For a mainstream audience, some parts of multiple POV stories can be missed or
miscommunicated by media representatives.
Producer: The benefit of the strategy is that the budget is scalable. Additional personnel and resources are
most likely needed to achieve high-quality production. This means coordination and work with multiple
counterparts and artists.
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Real-life story
Example: Anssi Kela
Microblog
Blog
Weekly
Video diary
Music samples
Seasonal
PR
Live
Broadcast
How to coordinate it?
Artist / Fan / Producer POV
• Assistant for storytelling is
recommended (e.g. video editor,
cameraman or advisor)
ARTIST
++ Easy to implement
±± Demands consistent contribution
–– Storytelling may become a burden
• Opening the creative process behind
the scenes
• Create exclusive experiences for early
adopters and followers
FAN
++ Frequent updates makes a story easy
to follow
–– Lacks in impressiveness and glamour
PRODUCER
++ Cheap and easy to implement
Figure 8. Real-life story
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5.5 Real-life story
The most obvious point-of-view to be chosen is to tell the real-life story of the artist. If the genre and the
charisma suit this approach and the artist is willing to reveal a bit more of the creative process behind the
music, this approach is relatively easy to implement.
How to coordinate it?
The key is frequent updates, whether through a blog, microblog or video. It is favorable to have external
resources for documentation of the artist story. Although it is possible for the artist to do this work
themselves, this can disturb the musical side of work.
Artist / Fan / Producer POV
Artist: It is easy to tell a story about yourself. The problem arises when the storytelling takes precedence
over the main artistic work, the music. It might also be difficult to change between roles, from an artist to
a reporter. This can become a burden without external help.
Fan: Frequent updates and easily understandable storytelling is rewarding for fans, especially for early
adopters, who may gain good possibilities to interact directly with the artist. On the other hand, real-life
storytelling may not appear to be the most innovative approach for fans, and may not apply for all musical
genres.
Producer: This strategy is easy and relatively cheap to implement and can also be scaled. The artist must
have good work ethics and communication skills.
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Stream of releases
Example: Julia Nunes
Channel 1
MAJOR RELEASE
Minor release
Channel 2
Channel 3
Release
Minor release
Minor release
New channel
Release
Minor release
New experiment
How to coordinate it?
Artist / Fan / Producer POV
• Spontaneous and fast release pace
ARTIST
++ Doesn’t limit creativity
• Frequent interaction with the fans
• Both real-life and mystic images can
be applied for the strategy
• Simililarities to lifestyle brands
FAN
++ Frequent releases and updates
±± Fans must be active in following the
story
–– Not for traditional fans
PRODUCER
±± The lack of main releases may make
promotion difficult
Figure 9. Stream of releases
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5.6 Stream of releases
A stream of releases strategy means maintaining a constant release flow instead of just concentrating on
main releases. This strategy questions the full-length studio album as a foundation of music artist presence
and story.
How to coordinate it?
The strategy does not need a strict model, and it can be changed on the fly if necessary. The storytelling
and promotional efforts can be composed upon release – it might be more useful to consider the artist as a
brand than a story. Frequent interaction with fans is preferred.
Artist / Fan / Producer POV
Artist: This strategy does not set strict boundaries to the release format, so artistic freedom is guaranteed.
It is suitable for an artist who does not want to limit their creativity just to music.
Fan: The frequent flow of releases keeps the hard-core fans interested. The message may be puzzling for
a mainstream audience or for more conservative fans who are used to the classic studio-album-releasing
routine. For a hard-core fan, this strategy can provide excellent chances to participate and support the
brand and lifestyle the artist represents.
Producer: In order to make a profit from the production, it may be challenging to promote small or
experimental releases instead of easily understandable full-length studio albums. It is important to realize
the lifestyle aspect of the artist story and brand.
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Word-of-mouth
Example: numerous indie and electronic music artists
Music blogs
Social media
Early adopters
HYPE
DJs
Opinion leaders
Clubs
How to coordinate it?
Artist / Fan / Producer POV
• Foster good relationships with
bloggers, DJs and other opinion
leaders
ARTIST
++ Focus stays on music
±± The strategy is hard to master or copy
±± Relationships matter
• Carefully choose how and where to
communicate about releases and news
FAN
++ Favors early adopters
±± A story requires plenty of patience
and effort to follow
Figure 10. Word-of-mouth
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PRODUCER
++ Cheap to implement
–– Outcome is unpredicatable
5.7 Word-of-mouth
Word-of-mouth is considered a credible form of marketing and promotion, since people put their personal
reputation at stake when telling others about a product. Music blogs play an important role in word-ofmouth marketing: having a positive article published in a popular blog can have significant benefits for an
artist. DJs and other opinion leaders in the music industry act as good word-of-mouth marketers as well.
How to coordinate it?
It is essential to build good relationships with music bloggers and opinion leaders, which can take a lot
of time and effort. The same song or video can not be provided to all the actors in the field; music blogs
want to provide exclusive material to their readers. Providing new tracks or remixes exclusively to DJs or
another small chosen group can add to the hype surrounding the artist. As another method, the artist may
take a low profile approach and wait for the hype to add up. It is common that artists using this strategy
do not even have a website, just a Myspace site with a few songs or so. Instead, the information is scatted
around the web.
Artist / Fan / Producer POV
Artist: For the artist, the word-of-mouth strategy is music-oriented, so it is natural to put effort into the
music and the image of the band. The strategy is favorable for those who follow trends and are skilled in
forming relationships with different actors in the field. Not everyone can be the coolest kid in the class,
though.
Fan: Music lovers and early adopters are very familiar with this strategy. They want to get exclusive
experiences and be the first ones to hear about new music. Since there are no official marketing campaigns,
fans have to be very active and seek information from blogs, social networks and their friends. The early
adopters also often know some of the artists personally. The artists also respect their active fans’ passion
for music.
Producer: Although music blogs want to stay independent and credible for their readers, producers and
record companies can cooperate with them, especially when promoting new artists. The key is to find a
cooperation form which benefits each of the counterparts – the artist, the blogger or opinion leader, and the
producer. One strategy in Finland is to get recognition abroad first, and then start domestic promotion.
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Friending and feedback
Example: small indie band
Blog
Discussion boards
Social media
Artist
Meetups
Small gigs
How to coordinate it?
Artist / Fan / Producer POV
• Active communication and feedback
with fans
ARTIST
++ Close interaction with fans
±± Not for “angry” artists
–– Demands plenty of time
• Positive and enthusiastic approach
• Similarities to customer-oriented
startups
Figure 11. Friending and feedback
82
Microblog
FAN
++ Exclusivity guaranteed
±± As the artist’s popularity grows,
exclusivity may disappear
PRODUCER
++ Cheap and easy to implement
±± The artist must be a team player
5.8 Friending and feedback
The friending and feedback strategy is largely used among web-based start-up companies. Instead of
sending one-way messages via ads or such, active communication and answering questions can lead to
very good results. Rovio Mobile Ltd, the creator of the Angry Birds mobile game, decided to try to answer
every tweet that was sent their way, even though they had already topped the charts with their hit game
(“How did Angry Birds become a blockbuster? Rovio video interview and transcript | Mobile Web Go,”
2010).
How to coordinate it?
Communication has to be frequent and it has to be taken seriously from the beginning. At first, it may be
possible for an artist to follow-up all the messages sent, but later this can be changed to a weekly routine
– the key is consistency and exclusivity. For example, Facebook and Twitter provide excellent platforms to
answer questions directly to a fan – which adds a flavor of exclusivity to their experience.
Artist / Fan / Producer POV
Artist: The strategy is natural in the beginning, when the artist is trying to get their message out and
pique people’s interest. However, once the audience has grown larger, it is hard to keep up with the
messages. The key is to be consistent and honest and develop a routine for fan questions – the early fans
will understand that they have not been abandoned. The strategy is probably a better fit for positive and
hard-working persons. Even then, it might distract from the artistic side of the work.
Fan: This approach is very rewarding for an early fan, as it provides an opportunity to participate in the
story itself and easily connect with other fans. If the artist grows in popularity, fans must accept the
decreasing exclusivity and frequency in communication.
Producer: In theory, this approach is the optimal way to attract new fans and having a constant dialogue
with them. But how many musicians are ready for this kind of consistent customer-oriented approach?
Even though the communication can be operated by a street team or record label representatives, the
exclusivity is not the same.
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Fictional storyworld
Example: Lordi
Fan fiction
Comics
Games
Videos
Downloads
Books
DVDs
Get-togethers
Films
Merchandise
How to coordinate it?
Artist / Fan / Producer POV
• A background story and an image as
foundation of the storyworld
ARTIST
++ Possibility to create a world of dreams
–– The project can take over one’s life
• Can take years of consistent work and
preparing
• The artist’s vision is the driving force
Figure 12. Fictional storyworld
84
Albums
STORYWORLD
FAN
++ Plenty of added value and merch
–– Emphasis not always on music
PRODUCER
++ Corporate-like approach can attract
some managers
±± High-risk
–– May be hard to communicate to
mainstream audience as whole
5.9 Fictional storyworld
Creating a whole storyworld is not easy and requires consistent hard work. This strategy is chosen by artists
who have a clear artistic vision and have an idea of how to steer it. An example of this kind of strategy is
Lordi (see chapter 3.2.3).
How to coordinate it?
Creating a storyworld can be a heavy tax on resources. The most important resource is a clear vision of the
project, both in the short and long term, and it is also necessary take time to evaluate the story that will be
told. Why would anyone care about the story? What points of view are included? How can the audience be
made into collaborators? How can the story be controlled? It is recommended to cooperate with different
professionals, especially film-makers, writers and digital media experts, to ease the workload.
Artist / Fan / Producer POV
Artist: While a storyworld can be one’s life work and dream, it can take over one’s life and the main
product – music. On the other hand, it can be extremely rewarding, provide different revenue possibilities,
and make it easier to build relationships with different kinds of professionals. It is necessary for the artist
to understand the business side of this strategy as well.
Fan: For a fan, this strategy provides plenty of added value with all the extra content and merchandise
available. On the other hand, the music is still the main product, and it has to meet the standards. Some
fans would probably prefer more new songs instead of all the others things happening around the artist.
Producer: There are multiple parties to be worked with, and lots of coordinating and planning. This
strategy requires a skilled producer with good relations to professionals in the creative field. Since the
productions can be high-risk, corporate-like budgeting and risk management are preferred. Creating a
storyworld is a team effort: it demands good management and communication skills both from artists
and producers. Even then, it can be hard to communicate or control the message sent to the mainstream
audience.
85
Transmedia story
Example: Nine Inch Nails
Album
Remix album
Tour
Film
Comic
Album
Video
Game
Film
Graphic novel
How to coordinate it?
Artist / Fan / Producer POV
• Requires a transmedia manager,
scriptwriter, personnel and voluntary
workers
ARTIST
++ A chance to make revolunationary art
±± The workload is extremely heavy
• Different media types emphasize
different characters and points of view
• Motivate, surprise and make
participation easy for the audience
• Scenario-based planning for different
story alternatives
Figure 13. Transmedia story
FAN
++ Rewarding for engaged fans
–– Might be hard to communicate even
for committed fans
PRODUCER
++ Rewarding and interesting
–– Requires a large budget and plenty of
talented staff
5.10 Transmedia story
Telling a transmedia story can provide both artists and the industry with changing opportunities. Nine
Inch Nails used this strategy prior to the launch of their album Year Zero (see chapter 2.1.2).
How to coordinate it?
Transmedia storytelling uses multiple platforms and formats, which means the need for coordination and
work. An already existing story environment, such as active social media accounts or a popular blog help
spreading the word and getting people activated. It requires a plenty of planning and scenarios how the
followers will react to the story. It is important to study existing story networks and how they are used.
Artist / Fan / Producer POV
Artist: A transmedia story is not just a way to promote the artwork. It can also be part of the artistic side.
This strategy is still not very widely used, so it provides an excellent way to make something revolutionary
in art. The workload is big, which means that artists have to schedule and balance the storytelling side
with the musical side of the project.
Fan: This strategy is extremely rewarding for hard-core fans if the story is successful and clear enough. The
long timeline before an album release keeps the interest up among the audience, while the album is just
one part of the whole story. However, the story can be misunderstood or hard to follow for members of the
mainstream audience who are not interested in investing time and exploring the story.
Producer: For a producer, this strategy is interesting and rewarding. It has communication issues and can
require a long time-span and large budgets, but on the other hand, it has great potential for wide media
attention, at least after the initial launch. The strategy requires extremely creative and motivated people
from both the artist and producer side.
87
Just publish
Example: Petri Nygård
website
*NOISE*
Video
PR
Album
ARTIST
Interview
Minor release
*NOISE*
Blog
*HYPE*
Social media
How to coordinate it?
Artist / Fan / Producer POV
• Just publish with fast pace
ARTIST
++ Doesn’t require much planning
±± Very effective strategy, but credibility
and privacy problems may occur
• Active communication and interaction
with fans
• Utililization of news and tabloid
headlines for promotion
Figure 14. Just publish
FAN
++ It is easy to relate to the artist
–– Attracts bandwagon fans
PRODUCER
++ Doesn’t require a professional
manager
–– The provocative style of the artist
may lead to legal problems
5.11 Just publish
The most simple strategy is to just start publishing. By concentrating on shipping instead of planning, the
story can be shaped on the fly and the atmosphere kept spontaneous. Petri Nygård, a Finnish humor rap
artist, uses this strategy efficiently.
How to coordinate it?
Since this strategy relies on frequent updates, borrowed content and noise, strict coordinating processes
do not exist. The essential thing is to keep people awake and bring popular subjects to the discussion by
commenting and linking.
Artist / Fan / Producer POV
Artist: The strategy is easy to implement and does not require planning. It has also proven to be effective
online – maybe one simple reason is that the audience does not get bored waiting for updates. The
downside is the credibility problem: the strategy is better suited for artists who do not take themselves too
seriously.
Fan: This strategy attracts both band-wagoners and haters, but it rarely leaves anybody cold. Frequent
updates and populistic communication provide fans with an easy way to participate and connect with other
fans.
Producer: Since the strategy is clearly borrowed from tabloid newspapers, the producer can concentrate on
how to monetize it with merchandise or live shows. While this strategy is easy to implement, there might
be legal issues to tackle.
89
6 Findings and
conclusions
91
F
irst I took a look at the current state of the
music industry and the shift in recording
artists’ revenue sources. The revenue sources
and strategies include merchandise, releasing and
distributing music independently with efficient
segmentation and live events. I benchmarked
different kinds of artist stories composed in the past
and took a look at contemporary storytelling and
interaction tools. During a 70-day experiment, I
experienced the practical challenges of combining
music and storytelling. Finally, I introduced eleven
different strategies for storytelling and artist
promotion. In conclusion, I would like to list my
findings reflected on the beginning hypotheses.
I. Music, interaction with fans via multiple
channels, and meaningful stories form an entity,
which the artist represents.
The stories benchmarked varied from documentaries
to transmedia stories and they strengthened the
point that music, interaction, and meaningful artist
stories form an entity that an artist represents.
In early examples, the main story is emphasized
(Elvis movies e.g.), which can be labeled as an
epic opening strategy (see chapter 5.3). The music
video era shortened the stories to five-minute long
mini-narratives. Michael Jackson’s Thriller pushed
the boundaries of the genre, with high-quality
production, storytelling and productization, while
still relying on the epic opening strategy. Thriller
was revolutionary not just because of storytelling,
92
but also because it shifted the focus from music
to the artist as an entity who consists of stories,
products, music and image. This enabled previously
unseen ways of monetizing the artist experience
with merchandise. Although Thriller did not
concentrate on background stories or character
building, with all the fan fiction it generated, it is
closely related to a fictional storyworld strategy (see
5.8), which the monster band Lordi represents.
The arrival of the digital era brought new storytelling
tools and interaction possibilities between artists
and fans. The easy communication tools made it
possible to build the artist story by dialogue and
information on a daily or weekly basis (effectively
used by CMX). The storytelling using multiple
channels was not used for a long time, until the
easy-to-use and widely spread social media services
gained ground in the 2000s. The new publishing and
interaction tools have made storytelling strategies
more diverse, enabling the artist to tell daily reallife stories (see chapter 5.5) and friending with the
fans (see chapter 5.8). The innovative distribution,
segmentation and transmedia storytelling strategies
of Nine Inch Nails represent the cutting edge of
binding the story, artwork and monetization into
one entity (see chapter 5.10).
II. The entity can be popularized in various ways,
selling music being only one approach.
Monetizing was largely based on record sales and
live gigs in the pre-digital era. Declining record
sales have pushed artists to look at their work as an
entity and come up with new revenue sources. These
entities can be first popularized and then monetized
in various ways, releasing and distributing of music
independently with effective segmentation (see
chapter 2.1.2), selling merchandise and arranging
live events being the most obvious alternatives.
Good stories have even helped fictional and
formerly unpopular bands to succeed (see chapters
3.1.3 and 3.1.4), though artists relying heavily on
storytelling must remember the importance of
stories after success as well.
III. The use of digital and transmedia storytelling
in artist promotion combined with high artistic
standards helps gain a larger audience and
expand the industry.
The use of storytelling in artist promotion combined
with high artistic standards can help the artist
to gain a larger audience. The eleven strategies
introduced include both promotion and storytelling.
To compose a successful artist story, it is important
to choose a strategy and plan it well. Not choosing
a strategy is a strategy as well, but often not the
best one (see chapter 5.1). It is important to balance
the actual artwork and storytelling part of the
work, and it is highly recommended to get help
for the documentation and planning of the story, if
possible. Consistent and credible characters, active
communication, and a possibility for the audience
to participate in the story are cornerstones in a
good story. Interaction via multiple channels with
the audience is important to build up the story and
communicate it clearly (see chapter 3.2.2). It is clear,
however, that the music must still be good in order
to guarantee long-term success.
If the story forms the major part of the artwork,
it is may be criticised as its own entity – not even
a good soundtrack can save an awful movie (see
chapter 3.2.3). In bigger productions, working
with professionals from different fields is strongly
recommended to achieve excellent results – and
not to forget to keep in touch with fans during the
production.
In future research, I suggest to:
• further examine some of the strategies
presented
• get artists involved via interviews or pilot
productions with the strategies presented
There are different kinds of musical genres and
artists, and while some good artists will actually
succeed by releasing records and touring, others
will need to create meaningful stories, promotion
and active communication to help find the right
audience. There is a fine line between artistic work,
artist brand, artist story and promotion. The key
is to recognize this and develop a fictional or real93
life artist story and combine that with the other
elements. Ignoring these is also a strategic choice, yet
it sometimes can accidentally lead to an interesting
artist story, told by media representatives.
In order to expand and renew the industry, both
artists and record companies should choose a
strategy for storytelling, communication and
promotion. Using different media channels and
creating multiple entry points to a storyworld is a
great, yet demanding way to gain new audience for
the music and draw fans into the artist story.
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twitter.com/pastorator
The Use of Storytelling in Music Artist Promotion
T
o stand out from the huge selection of musicians, artists have to be able
to tell meaningful stories to reach a loyal and lasting relationship with their
audience. A strategy wherein musicians remain distant – providing only major
album releases, tours and limited communication via regular interviews or such – has
proven to be challenging nowadays. This strategy can still be chosen, but artists have
to be aware of the choice and its pitfalls.
Both major record companies and indie musicians should pay attention to this shift
from a retailing and brand-oriented era to the content era, where high-quality, relevant
and valuable information and stories to fans are as valuable as the music itself.
Pekka Hartikainen introduces digital age storytelling strategies for music artists with
case examples in his Master’s thesis work.
A must read for both music industry representatives and artists.
“Insightful and useful strategies for musicians. Read this book.”
–Tuomas Ylikoski, Circus at Dawn
½ “Pastori knows how to tell good stories. Follow this man.”
–Kaljafaija, an avid music fan