Barenaked Passion Leads to Music Industry Success for the Ladies
February 14, 2007 by Eric Eggertson
Filed under Marketing
The Barenaked Ladies came to Regina Monday night and showed that The Little Band that Could Promote Itself is still unafraid to be unconventional.
The Ladies are a word of mouth case study, having built an international music brand from their first release – a self-release of their demo tape. The band gained a devoted following for their quirky, melodic songs by being themselves with an exclamation mark, and staying at it for 15 years.
One of their early PR successes came when the City of Toronto banned them from playing a gig at City Hall because someone thought their name was demeaning to women. The publicity helped them promote themselves, and helped lift The Yellow Tape to platinum status.
The passion doesn’t stop with playing music. Band founders Steve Page and Ed Robertson have been leading the charge lately for music companies (and fans) to abandon digital rights management (see video from CBC’s The Hour). The Ladies dropped their label, refuse to include any DRM on their music, and have made it easy for people to buy and use the music without restrictions or threats of legal action.
The Ladies make it easy to become and stay devoted to them. They are nice guys in a business dominated by big egos. They develop a relationship with their fans that goes beyond being the flavour of the week on MTV or MuchMusic.
Their latest video is a mash-up of YouTube celebrities lip-synching to Sound of Your Voice.
And in an attempt to reduce the environmental impact of touring and distributing music, they have an eco-friendly tour wending its way back east from the west coast that includes bio-diesel fuel and an album available on a reusable USB memory stick.
Their passion for imaginative music and unconventional music industry business practices means they can keep their small band feel well into their second decade as a popular band. Keeping that energy and that connection with their audience helps them keep the word of mouth going — helped as always by timely media coverage.
Tags: bnl, barenaked ladies, music, promotion, word of mouth, drm, bio-diesel, toronto, youtube, passion
A post about Canadian music is not complete without a reference to Rush.
So there. I did it.
(And I am not mocking Canada. I’ve seen the band seven times, and will see them again. New album coming this spring…)
I just love this band! They first became big when I was in college, which dates me a bit, doesn’t it? Oh well.
It was a sad day when the BNLs came to Regina for an outdoor concert series north of town.
The promoters totally failed to sell the event, which featured 8-9 bands. I heard there were only about 800 people for the day-long show.
I was one of the 200,000 people who didn’t go. I’m not faithful enough, I guess.
This just in:
Rush’s new album, “Snakes & Arrows,” goes on sale May 1st with a summer tour to follow.
Eric, your timing is brilliant!