Connecting With Fans In Unique Ways: Band Sets Up Treasure Hunt To Find Fan-Submitted Sounds In New Album
from the going-on-a-treasure-hunt dept
We’ve written a few times about the band Uniform Motion out of France, which got some fame last year for being incredibly open about how much money they make from various streaming platforms. Since then we’ve gotten to know Andy from Uniform Motion and posted a few other stories concerning cool things that he and the band have done. They’re really open to doing cool experiments and being really transparent about how well they work. In fact, Andy has pointed out that greater transparency has clearly resulted in a “reason to buy” for many of the band’s fans.
Anyway, the band is coming out with a new album — and they’ve been releasing streaming versions of songs over the past few days leading up to the official release of the album. As in the past, because the band makes it easy to do so, I suggest you listen to some of the songs from the new album, which they’re releasing one by one. You can hear them via the widget below. Feel free to hit play before continuing.
With the new album coming out, the band has been doing a series of interesting things to connect with its fans. First is that it
set up its own crowdfunding site. In an age where everyone is using Kickstarter/IndieGoGo/PledgeMusic or other similar platforms, Uniform Motion decided to set up a similar offering, but directly off its own site. They note that the main goal is to be transparent in seeing if they can make back the €4,311 they spent making the album itself. So, that’s the “goal” number that they’re hoping to raise. The different tiered “offers” aren’t anything out of the ordinary: t-shirts, CDs and vinyl, basically — though the packaging looks fantastic.
Where it gets more interesting, of course, is where they’re going beyond what others have done to try to do much more to connect with fans. Last summer, we noted that the band was asking fans to
submit sounds, which they promised to work into the album. Not only did the band do exactly that, but it has also created a truly awesome
treasure hunt game, in which they’ve set up a “map” that has all of the songs embedded in the map, along with the various sounds that people submitted. The goal of the treasure hunt is to match the submitted sound with the song that it was in on the map. Here’s a screen shot:
Some may argue that this is nothing special or — worse — they’ll pop up with the overused and silly insult that this is just a “gimmick.” But it actually
fits so well with the band if you’re familiar with their style and aesthetic. As we’ve discussed multiple times in the past, part of what makes various efforts to “connect with fans” and giving them a “reason to buy” isn’t to do what everyone else has done, but to figure out what is special or unique about
your art and
your connection to fans, and to build on that. And that can be different for everyone. When it comes to Uniform Motion, the band has always had a heavy graphics / animation element to it. After all, one member of the band doesn’t play a musical instrument, but rather does live sketches
with the music as the band performs. So having this kind of effort just totally fits with the band itself, and highlights again the importance of not copying what others are doing, but figuring out what makes the most sense for your art and your fans.
Filed Under: connect with fans, reason to buy, treasure hunt, uniform motion
Comments on “Connecting With Fans In Unique Ways: Band Sets Up Treasure Hunt To Find Fan-Submitted Sounds In New Album”
Perhaps im ignorant of something but why did they choose the continent of Westeros
Re: Re:
I see it too
Good Album
I like Uh Ninni
That's Music?
That noise doesn’t sound like music. What’s the world coming to.
Re: That's Music?
And your opinion matters, why?
Re: That's Music?
Did you actually listen, or did you just want to take a jab.
I’m an old foggy, but I liked their last album. I like what I’ve heard on the new album. I appreciated the personal e-mail exchange that Andy had with me after I bought their album when the transparency post was here at TD.
Assuming you did listen and really didn’t like it, aren’t you glad that they are confident enough in their art and their fans that they let you listen before you had to pay so you know you don’t want it?
Yep that map is Westeros of Game of Thrones fame created by George RR Martin for his A song of Ice and Fire series..Interesting. Not that I have any problems with it, but I wonder what this implies as far as what relationship the band has with George Martin if any and what legalities are involved if any. The map is obvious down to even the city placement and features.
Re: Westeros
for comparison
http://imgur.com/r/gameofthrones/mhBna
Re: Re: Westeros
Yeah I’m just really not seeing it. Other than the fact that both have castles, both have green parts and both have desert/ice parts, there really isn’t any noticeable similarity between the two at all that I can see.
Lies, I tell you, LIES!!!
But.. wait…. what???? I’ve been reliably informed that you can’t possibly make an album for less than, like, $200,000!!!! A record label said that I an’ I believed them, so these guys must be totally lying and just tying to cover up their abject failure to be “real” musicians.