An Unlikely Collaboration: Album Launches, Live Streams, And Florence And The Machine

FFlorence and the Machine’s second album, Ceremonials, has been launched at a sold-out gig at Hackney Empire, London.

Launching an album in a live setting is a fairly standard approach to things, but don’t misconstrue this as an argument for traditional promotional techniques: this is very much a launch moulded by new media.

While writing this post, the gig (sold-out) is streaming live on the London Guardian’s website for a fee of $6.38 (£3.99). We, at Dotted Music, are only too pleased to witness this sort of development in the music world (yes, we know it’s been done before), but for a band as ‘in’ as Florence and the Machine to do it is good news and can only help to establish what has been a trend as a precedent.

So, who is behind the stream (besides Florence and the Machine)?

1. The London Guardian, as most of you will know, is the left of centre newspaper in the UK, with a lively and efficacious music section that has been recognised by Dotted Music before now. The London Guardian provided the online medium where Florence and the Machine’s Ceremonials launch was broadcast worldwide;
2. LoveLive, founded by CEO Richard Cohen in 2008, is the self-styled, self-described “leading source of music content and associated services for brands, broadcasters, channels, digital platforms and labels” on the net. LoveLive was responsible for the HD audio and video of the London Guardian’s live stream;
3. CrowdSurge, founded in 2008, specialises in using both software and hardware to enable artists, brands, promoters and venues to sell tickets directly to fans worldwide. CrowdSurge managed the online payment for access to the London Guardian’s live stream;
4. Sky Arts, owned by BSkyB, sponsored the London Guardian’s live stream.

You have the traditional news outlet in the London Guardian, the mysterious new digital media companies who have been both been in existence for just three years, and the media heavyweight: BSkyB (News Corporation owns close to a 40 percent stake in the company).

It’s strange to think that after the London Guardian’s exposition of the phone hacking scandal that it might be so closely involved with Sky Arts, a brand with huge ties to News Corporation.

It is possible, of course, that such collaboration is one reason the London Guardian is so opposed to News Corporation’s proposed take over of BSkyB, but the fact that such a diverse cocktail of media groups could come to put on such an event is bizarre in itself.

Whatever you make of this unlikely collaboration, the real winner in all of this is Florence.

Samuel Agini is the Editor of Andrew Apanov’s Dotted Music.