Factors that influence celebrities' personal brands: the effects of fan club membership offers on celebrity image

2012 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.The performing artist fan club business has recently developed into a widespread concept for generating music revenue online (Garrity, 2002). Fans have demonstrated willingness to pay to join fan club memberships offering elite benefits such as concert ticket pre-sales, meet and greet opportunities, unique merchandise, and access to exclusive news and media (Garrity, 2002). The risk with this new business model is that some fans could be insulted that they are now being asked to pay money to subscribe to their favorite artist's sites which were formerly free. This study examined the trend of celebrities charging their fans monetary fees to be members of their fan clubs, and the potential impact that this business model has on the celebrity's image. Positive or negative effects were examined by applying the theory of branding, including concepts of personal branding, internal branding and identity, external branding and image, and the Identity-based Brand Equity Model (Burmann, Hegner, & Riley, 2009). The study employed a 2x2 post-test only factorial experimental design and administered an entertainment questionnaire to 200 undergraduate college students at Colorado State University. The questionnaire examined attitudes toward one of two celebrities prior to and after exposure to an offer to join the celebrity's fan club. The fan club membership offers contained two manipulated variables: type of fan club membership (paid versus free), and celebrity and genre (pop/Lady Gaga versus country/Taylor Swift). The dependent variables in this study were the target market's attitudes toward the celebrity, and their motivation to join the fan club. Results revealed that only eight of 200 participants chose to sign up for fan club membership, regardless of the entertainer. The eight participants who chose to sign up for a fan club received a free fan club offer. Across celebrity conditions, fans are significantly more likely to find a fan club offer more appealing if it is free, and they will be more likely to join a fan club that is free rather than paid. Furthermore, liking or disliking an artist before being presented with their fan club offer greatly impacted fan motivation and likeliness to join a fan club. Fandom research and branding literature suggested that charging fees for fan club membership could negatively influence a celebrity's image. The Identity-based Brand Equity Model (Burmann et al., 2009) implied that if celebrities charged for fan club membership, and fans did not expect this or feel that the behavior aligned with the artist's brand promise, the artist's image would be negatively impacted. Study results challenged this model and indicated that fan attitudes toward both Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga did not alter when participants were presented with a paid versus free membership offer. Thus, charging for fan club membership may not support an entertainer's image, but more importantly, it will not harm an entertainer's image. These conclusions are presented to help celebrities and their management elect if they would like to charge for fan club membership. Results propose that entertainers interested in fan club monetization can apply a revenue model to increase earnings, and their image will not be harmed. Yet, artists need to think through the necessary benefits required to make paid fan clubs alluring, and take into account that fans are more likely to join fan club memberships that are free

Network structure of phonographic market with characteristic similarities between musicians

We investigate relations between best selling artists in last decade on phonographic market and from perspective of listeners by using the Social Network Analyzes. Starting network is obtained from the matrix of correlations between the world's best selling artists by considering the synchronous time evolution of weekly record sales. This method reveals the structure of phonographic market, but we claim that it has no impact on people who see relationship between artists and music genres. We compare 'sale' (based on correlation of record sales) or 'popularity' (based on data mining of the record charts) networks with 'similarity' (obtained mainly from survey within music experts opinion) and find no significant relations. We postulate that non-laminar phenomena on this specific market introduce turbulence to how people view relations of artists.Comment: 15

“That’s What It Felt Like, ‘You’re Pathetic’”: Creaky voice, Affective Stance, and Authentication in the Speech of Lady Gaga

This paper contributes to research on the social meaning of creaky voice in American English by offering an intraspeaker analysis of the speech of Lady Gaga, an American pop star. While pop stars have anecdotally been said to employ creaky voice extensively (Jaslow 2011), few linguists have examined the extent of their use, or what they may be using it to achieve. This study, combining statistics, discourse analysis, and media studies, argues that creaky voice has a core indexical meaning linked to “low emotional energy”, and Lady Gaga draws on this meaning to portray herself as “serious” and “downtrodden”

Etat des lieux de l\u27offre de musique numérique au deuxième semestre de l\u27année 2009

L’étude effectuée par l’Observatoire de la musique à partir d’un échantillon de 100 services en ligne, sélectionnés en fonction de leur représentativité dans le paysage Internet français, leur degré d’innovation ou leur singularité. Cet échantillon témoigne de la grande diversité d’opérateurs intervenant dans la distribution et la diffusion de contenus musicaux, tout en prenant compte des récentes suppressions et des nouveaux services apparus dans ce domain

The Non-Recording, Non-Artist Recording Artist : Expanding the Recording Artist\u27s Brand into Non-Music Arenas

The changing nature of the music business presents earnings challenges for both record labels and recording artists. Historically, labels and artists entered into recording contracts pursuant to which the artists created music which the labels funded, distributed, marketed, and promoted. Many artists made good livings from music sales, earning dollars per album, while the labels profited even more. However, as digital delivery, especially streaming, now supplants physical records as the primary music consumption manner, the money that labels and artists realize from music sales has significantly decreased. In particular, artists earn fractions of pennies per track streamed. Labels, too, are dissatisfied with their returns on digital sales, which are in substantial compared to the returns on physical product. In response to the lower revenue from recorded music sales, labels instituted so-called 360 deals. Under 360 recording contracts, which increasingly are standard, the labels share in artists\u27 income streams beyond recorded music alone, such as touring, merchandise, sponsorships, endorsements, music publishing, and more. Labels justify this participation by claiming that but for their investments in the artists\u27 careers, the artists would not have achieved the success required to generate that additional income. Artists, however, generally view 360 deals as unfair--as just another way that labels take financial advantage of them. Struggling to make livings solely from sales of recorded music and wary of sharing their ancillary income with labels, savvy artist brand entrepreneurs are steering clear of confining or overreaching recording contracts and are expanding into non-music areas. These artists do not identify primarily as recording artists but as multifaceted brands, undertaking ventures completely outside of the music industry (e.g., restaurants, alcoholic beverages, cookware lines, fashion lines, and television shows). While the initial source of the artists\u27 popularity may be the music business, the non-music branding endeavors sustain the artists\u27 long-term fame and fortune. This Article examines how artist brand entrepreneurs use trademark law to construct, reinforce, and maintain the artists\u27 brands apart from conventional recorded music-centric means. Artist brand entrepreneurs develop non-music goods and services and non-music related trademark portfolios, extending their music based personas into broader lifestyle brands. While not necessarily entirely relinquishing their music careers, artist brand entrepreneurs refocus their ambitions and pursuits to remain relevant and profitable

Losing My Edge: The Copyright Implications of Audio blogging and Why Blogs Matter to the Music Industry

In the past decade, the information distribution channels for music have changed dramatically. Not only have they largely moved from radio and print to online sources, but many audioblogs have formed to cover various niches according to the individual tastes of bloggers. This democratization of music criticism has been popular with listeners, as the information is easily and immediately available as well as tailored to a particular interest. A defining feature of the audioblog is the inclusion of a downloadable MP3 in each post. In some cases, especially for more popular audioblogs, the download is approved by the copyright holder. In most cases, however, songs are posted without approval. This creates obvious copyright infringement implications. Because audioblogs serve a valuable function, this Note looks within copyright law for a potential exemption for these posts, focusing on the fair use defense. Through an analysis of the four factors of the traditional fair use test, the Note concludes that, based on current precedent, a court would not likely find that this use falls within fair use. Under the current law, however, it is possible that music labels will not bring infringement cases to court, relying instead on their DMCA rights. As a result of the potential liabilities and the tactics and beliefs of copyright owners, this Note then considers a variety of solutions to resolve the tension between marketing, information sharing, and infringement, considering the current state of technology. Finally, it concludes with a look forward at a potentially ideal system that would capture the appeal and utility of audioblogs while satisfying the requirements of copyright

IFPI digital music report 2013: engine of a digital world

The global recorded music industry is on a path to recovery, fuelled by licensed digital music services and rapid expansion into new markets internationally. Recorded music is also helping drive a broader digital economy, according this report.Global recorded music industry revenues rose by an estimated 0.3 per cent to US$16.5 billion in 2012, the first year of industry growth since 1999. Digital revenues saw accelerating growth for the second year running, up 9 per cent, with most major digital revenue streams - downloads, subscription and advertising-supported - on the rise.The digital music business is globalising fast, as smartphones and new licensed services span new and emerging markets. In January 2011, the major international download and subscription services were present in 23 markets. Today, they are in more than 100.Licensed music services are demonstrably meeting consumers\u27 needs. New consumer research published today by Ipsos MediaCT, covering nine markets in four continents, shows that 62 per cent of internet users have used a licensed music service in the last six months. (A summary of the Ipsos MediaCT research is provided in annex)Canadian artist Carly Rae Jepsen topped the 2012 global singles chart with Call Me Maybe. British singer-songwriter Adele achieved phenomenal success with 21, the first album to top the global albums chart for two consecutive years since IFPI began reporting global best sellers in 2001.Despite the optimism, key barriers to further growth remain - the biggest being unfair competition from unlicensed music services. Governments have a key role to play in addressing this problem. The key priority remains to secure effective cooperation from intermediaries including advertisers, ISPs and search engines, who have a major influence on levels of copyright infringement

THE MOVE TOWARDS A M3/MB BUSINESS MODEL

The rapid technological changes taking place is impacting business practice across all business sectors. E-commerce has become the norm and business models have slowly evolved to take account of the electronic business world. The electronic infrastructure and channels of e-commerce are particularly suited to information based goods and services, after these services are just pushing electronic information around. Consequently, the industries that have or will have some of the more significant changes are those that are based on electronic information or goods, such as the music, publishing, news, multimedia, (information) service industries and related industries. This theoretical paper examines some of these changes and argues for a more radical take on business models: It is argued the old business models don’t meet the needs of customers or digital based goods providers within the new electronic business world. The paper The paper also highlights where key support is needed to fully reach the potential of a digital economy

Sandspur, Vol 116, No 07, October 30, 2009

Rollins College student newspaper, written by the students and published at Rollins College. The Sandspur started as a literary journal.https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cfm-sandspur/2892/thumbnail.jp