“Mom, I Need Help Marketing My Music”
According to eMarketer, there are 32 million moms online in the US today, and the number is growing. A new pr and marketing program from Child's Play Communications dubbed Music Moms hopes to tap into that market by putting music in the hands of influential mommy bloggers. Music Moms reviews music across all genres including children's music, and Universal Motown has already used the service.
Adults have not traditionally been all that interested in new music; particularly after kids start arriving. But that does not deter Music Moms. ""We have been working with moms for more than 20 years and are in tune with the interests, trends and needs of bloggers," said Child's Play's Stephanie Azzarone. "Music Moms is a great way to create buzz surrounding music artists. Members of Music Moms will be the first on their (virtual) block to know about new music, and to share that information with their online friends – thus positioning themselves as the go-to moms in their online communities."
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One challenge to this idea is limited marketing budgets. So many artists are trying to get the word out on a shoestring. They may not have the funds to pay a non-traditional PR agency for such a campaign. And if the idea takes off, a website devoted to moms who like music could be set up which could centralize such marketing, thereby reducing the need for a third party.
But hey, anything that expands the market for music is a good thing.
I am a journalist, consultant, and blogger whose brand is built around the concept that moms deserve their own soundtrack. I think it’s terribly sad that when we have children, we start hearing the Wiggles and Barney in our heads, because it’s all we expose ourselves too. So I’m pleased to see that this issue is being addressed.
There’s a great blog post from two weeks ago at http://www.avc.com by Fred Wilson called “Is Mommyblogging the New Radio”, addressing a campaign I consulted on for S-Curve records. We circulated the artist widely in that community prior to her release, and she debuted at #10 on the Itunes chart. I’m sure not solely based on blogger outreach (The Oprah magazine mention and Late Show Appearances probably helped) but did it hurt? Absolutely not.
On my blog, I daily address women and musical identities, and I can say from the pitches I get in my inbox that people are definitely starting to notice that Laurie Berkner is great for kids- but that moms need their own tunes.
I agree that it’s a worthwhile market. What may be missing is the money for artists or small labels to hire a PR firm to do the campaign. But if the artists/labels want to put in the time themselves to do it, that is doable.
The money that a PR firm can charge corporate clients is considerably more than most artists can pay. I’m speaking as someone who is familiar with both markets. The artists who can really use the marketing boost are living on a shoestring. And although major labels still have marketing budgets, the money available is being slashed for all but those artists expected to sell the most CDs. Marketing money available to niche markets is limited.
It’s an interesting concept though. And mothers can certainly spread the word about their favorite artists for free. There’s just not a lot of room for middlemen in the equation to charge for their services.