Google Music Marketing: will.i.am On Hangouts, The Johnny Cash Project & Chrome
With yesterday's looming debut of new Facebook features and partnerships, it's no wonder that Google+ opened to the general public on Wednesday. That introduction included a shaky Hangouts session with will.i.am but that's just one example of how Google is currently marketing new services with music products, including their Chrome browser and even Google Music Beta.
The Johnny Cash Project: Ain't No Grave
Wednesday evening, will.i.am and some of his studio crew hosted a Hangouts On Air session as a way to help publicize Google+'s Hangouts that allows up to 9 people to have a group video session. Hangouts On Air is a version of Hangouts for select individuals whose Hangouts sessions are aired live on Google+ and YouTube and also archived for playback.
This first session with will.i.am, which he said would be followed by a related session next week when The Black Eyed Peas play Central Park, was a bit goofy (in a fun way) and full of technical difficulties. Not surprisingly, that session was not archived. In addition, fans on Google+ didn't recognize that they could watch the session on YouTube and became understandably upset.
But despite the rough beginning, one can see that there's a lot of potential here for celebs to use Hangouts On Air and clearly will.i.am will continue to be involved with helping Google market their services and vice versa.
A more successful marketing effort by Google for their Chrome browser has been a handful of music video projects that began with Lady Gaga and can be found on Google Chrome's YouTube channel. The most recent effort is a video developed by The Johnny Cash Project that caught quite a bit of attention for its innovatively constrained crowdsourcing approach to creating and assembling graphics for a music video.
One could say a lot about this project but I was curious about Google's role since they were described as "releasing" the video though they basically appeared to be publicizing it. However, my attempts to find out more from Radical Media have been in vain.
In addition to these recent efforts, Google's Music Beta service, that launched back in May, recently began marketing itself with a music blog called Magnifier.
Though one might applaud Google for being smart enough to feature music in their marketing efforts, music has long been a driver for both marketing and monetizing new tech as back in the day buyers of pricey mobile ringtones can attest.
Hypebot contributor Clyde Smith is a freelance writer and blogger. He blogs about web business models at Flux Research and the world of dance at All World Dance. To suggest music services and related topics for review at Hypebot, please contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.
