Coldplay's Brilliant Web Marketing Strategy

I just got the following email from Coldplay. I am of the belief they are one of the first bands to truly master web marketing. Coldplay is encouraging their fans to download stems of their songs, remix them, upload their remixes onto their website, vote on the uploaded remixes and use a widget to share remixes on their blogs, websites etc. By doing this Coldplay is embracing the internet, embracing their fans and creating loyal followers who will want to support them in the future by attending concerts, buying apparel etc.

The only thing I would have done differently is give away the stems for free, but at only $5.94 and with lots of goodwill built up from their free album this isn't a bad way to monetize their brand.

To celebrate this week's single release (we still have those in England) Radiohead have broken up the song 'Nude' into pieces for you to remix.

For those of you who enjoy this sort of thing, you can buy the separate components or 'stems' (bass, voice, guitar, strings/FX and drums) and remix your own version of the song. You can do this by adding your own beats and instrumentation or just remixing the original parts. More information here: http://www.radioheadremix.com/information/

You can buy the stems here: http://www.radioheadremix.com/buy/You can upload your finished mixes here http://www.radioheadremix.com and be judged and even voted on by 'the public'.

You can also create a widget allowing votes from your own website, Facebook or MySpace page to be sent through too.

Hope you enjoy it

For those of you who aren't that way inclined, Nude is also available in its entirety on CD and 7 inch (UK release) at the usual retail outlets.

The only other really interesting business model in the music space is Live Nation. Live Nation is a billion dollar publicly traded company based in Beverly Hills that was a spinoff of Clear Channel. They produce and promote events, own venues and have recently begun signing major "bear hug" deals with artists like Madonna (10 year and $120 million) and U2 (12 year and est. $100 million) that enables them to profit from merch sales as well as digital and branding rights. Their stock prices is trading about 50% lower than the 52 week high but still looks expensive. Update: Live Nation announced they are in a final round of negotiations with Jay-Z on a $150 million deal.