A Look At The Nominees For Best In Album Apps At The FlashFWD Awards
It’s easy to see the major importance that apps play in the current development of digital media. Some can make your life easier, while others have introduced a new platform for listening to your favorite artist’s albums. Whether it’s packaged with exclusive content or marketed as a completely interactive world for fans to enjoy beyond the music, these apps have completely altered the playing field for how musicians promote themselves as a successful brand.
If you agreed with Jay Z’s #norules partnership with Samsung with the release of his album Magna Carter…Holy Grail, or Lady Gaga’s ARTPOP app that changed the lives of all her “Little Monsters,” you’ll understand exactly why those two — along with three other leading musicians — are changing the game with the help of innovative micro software.
Jay Z
Hov has paid his dues for decades to secure his position as one of the biggest hip-hop artists of any rap decade. The key to his reign lies in his business moves, which have always managed to keep up with the times. In an era where first week sales are far past the days where 300K was lukewarm for a top-bill rap star, Jay flipped the script when he partnered with Samsung to sell the first million copies of his album, Magna Carta…Holy Grail — a move that automatically launched the project to platinum status overnight. Whether or not you agree with his use of loopholes and technicalities, you can’t deny this as a clever power move that could only be done by an artist of his stature.
John Lennon
The world lost John Lennon almost 35 years ago, yet his influence has continued to grow in place of his physical absence — with new and old Lennon fans coming together to bring his music straight into the digital era. Thanks to the Bermuda Tapes app, fans are able to get a visual (and vocal) tour guide through Lennon’s journey to Bermuda during the last summer of his life, including intimate demos of him and Yoko Ono and documentary-style recollection. To have access to something that feels so sacred and intimate — packaged in a perfectly executed storybook sequence — is a true treat for fans of the man, his classic love affair, or simply his amazing body of work.
Lady Gaga
Gaga worked on the ARTPOP app extensively for a full year before officially launching it. Together with Relative Wave, Cloud City Development, and her newly formed TechHAUS, the pop queen created a digital universe that’s visually unlike anything we’ve seen before. Packed with the Siri-like assistant named PETGA, and peer-to-peer interaction capabilities, the app proves to be more than just another means to hear the album; it’s a miniature social network that steers fans into the future of tech by masking it with auras, Warhol-inspired art, and pop music. The result is pretty revolutionary if you ask us.
Metric
Instead of just simply listening to Metric’s most recent album, Synthetica, the band gives you the opportunity to remix the entire record straight from your tablet device. As you go through the track list, you can add synths, drums, vocals, or any accompanying instrumentals to make the songs sound the way you want them to. Basically, the app gives fans the opportunity to go from being a consumer to being the creator. There’s a sense of power in having that control that not a lot of apps provide, especially for it to be free. The music is literally in your control.
Skrillex
EDM king Skrillex had everyone talking when he “pulled a Beyoncé” and dropped his album out of nowhere — only he really made fans work for it. People downloading his Alien Ride app weren’t expecting the Recess album to be embedded within the programming. However, after the app hit stores, a song off the album was unlocked every 30 minutes until the full 11-track project was available to stream straight off Alien Ride. The move showed us that artists are slowly branching away from conventional forms of music marketing, and incorporating more creativity into the process. They’re also starting to notice that record sales are worth being sacrificed if you’re helping to advance the development of music and technology in the long run.
It’s easy to see the major importance that apps play in the current development of digital media. Some can make your life easier, while others have introduced a new platform for listening to your favorite artist’s albums. Whether it’s packaged with exclusive content or marketed as a completely interactive world for fans to enjoy beyond the music, these apps have completely altered the playing field for how musicians promote themselves as a successful brand.
If you agreed with Jay Z’s #norules partnership with Samsung with the release of his album Magna Carter…Holy Grail, or Lady Gaga’s ARTPOP app that changed the lives of all her “Little Monsters,” you’ll understand exactly why those two — along with three other leading musicians — are changing the game with the help of innovative micro software.