I’m always coming up with spontaneous ideas. Usually, the most they amount to is an email to Mickeleh or Alan, or occasionally Hank and John (if it’s YouTube/DFTBA related), saying “what if there was a club at DFTBA, where every month people get sent a CD with a cracked case for free?” or “what if we sold blank decks of playing cards so my subscribers could recreate my video endings?” or “what if I give out a thousand free copies of my album at VidCon?”. (In summary, the first one won’t work if more than three people sign up, the second is something we might do, and the last one is actually something I’m gonna be kind-of doing … I’m gonna burn a seven-track CD with a few Parrot Stories tracks, a few World Is Mine tracks, and one track from the 117% Complete EP, and give it out for free as a ‘demo’ CD thing on plain ol’ CD-R at VidCon.)
So yesterday after I wrote that blog about community spirit, I emailed Alan saying:
Wrote a blog about how it’s nice when artists help each other out and stuff, and it made me think for a bit about those ‘celebrity playlists’ you get on iTunes, where you can find out who Miley Cyrus’s favourite music is and buy it yourself or whatever.
What would be a cool way to do something similar on DFTBA? Maybe every month one of the CDs gets reduced in price, or free shipping on any purchases involving that CD, just for that month – on the recommendation of another DFTBA artist? We’re not allowed to pick anything we profit from, Tom can’t pick Taking Leave or Parrot Stories, but he could pick (for example) Silent Echoes maybe, so then that gets a little incentive and promotion for the month. Like an artist-chosen Pick Of The Month. And then next month, Dr Noise could pick someone.
Problem with this though is we don’t want the same CD getting discounted six times in a year cos everyone loves Hank’s music or Driftless Pony Club or whatever, so maybe this might not work. Or, maybe it’s just a separate idea. What else could we do that publicly showcases artists’ tastes within the label and gives people an opportunity to invest in them?
(Cos that’s always the first thing I do when I suggest an idea – point out all the problems and end with a vague ‘well, maybe this won’t work’ but then I still send it.)
What Alan worked out – and what went live today on the DFTBA website – is the idea of DFTBA artist playlists. Kind of like a Top Ten Chart for DFTBA, available once a month and decided by a different signed artist, allowing us to recommend our favourite DFTBA-branded music to the masses.
(For those that didn’t know I released physical copies of Parrot Stories – I’m signed to an independent record/distribution label called DFTBA Records, co-founded by Alan Lastufka of the fiveawesomeguys and Hank Green of the vlogbrothers.)
I even tried to rank them in order like a proper chart and gave my own little thoughts on each one. Unfortunately, given that I’m the first artist on the site, I won’t get my turn again for at least another year, but I would keenly encourage you all to clicky and give it a read :D I gave Alan all the relevant links so if you wanna hear the songs I recommended, you can click through to the artist’s DFTBA or bandcamp page or iTunes store section.
Yay for helping each other out!
x
