Duke’s note: Remember when psycho fans stalked their favorite artists? Okay, those days aren’t over. But a growing technique in music marketing has digital music providers taking a cue from those psycho fans – collecting consumer buying habits on an individual level and utilizing that data towards further sales.

Obviously it isn’t quite the same thing as physically following somebody around in the creepiest way imaginable, but it’s an interesting reversal. It’s nothing new for advertisers and marketers, but the fact that it’s gaining traction with recording artists (by many and varied means) is noteworthy.

Through your digital music provider, your fans can provide you with detailed information about their buying habits – not just MP3’s, but hats, t-shirts and whatever else you’ve got for sale.

Of course not all providers are keen to share that data. iTunes and other outlets guard it pretty jealously. It’s in their best interests to keep it to themselves. But it’s also in their best interests to leverage that data in promoting ALL artists as much as possible. After all, small artists pay the small bills.

Here with his perspective is Topspin’s Ian Rogers (just ignore the Honda ad):

Thanks to Wired for the video

Technorati Tags: Direct to Fan, Ian Rogers, iTunes, Topspin, Wired

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 9:05 am and is filed under Music Business, Music Promotion, Wisdom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.