Customer Experience in the Music Industry
How to Elephant Kind using the digital platform to make campaign
Saturday, on April 13th I have visited gigs. Since a long time did not attend a music show, I’m very grateful when I can spend my free time enjoying gigs. Since a couple of months ago, I visited one gig to another one, so lucky when I decided to move to Jakarta, easy for me to find music show. And I have curious with a local band from Indonesia, Elephant Kind, I found them when I heard some shuffle song playlist on Spotify. Then I share it into my Instagram story, suddenly one of my student from Ambon DM me, he told me, that’s band have good quality. Well, when my student from Ambon was told me like that, then I am getting more curious with this band. I heard their songs and yeah, I really love it.
Well, not only their music but also I curious with their campaign on Instagram for their new album. Surprisingly, on that day I visited gigs, I met one of their personnel, Bayu (drummer) and I have little chit chat with him about their business strategy to sell the latest album. I have interesting write it into Customer Experience insight, and I think they are successfully building the experience to their audience.
Get a deeper insight into fans with Empathy Maps
As a part of tech product enthusiast, I write this to study, see the product in many ways, and in the digital era, many people understand how to build awareness. Bayu already gets the deeper insight from their fans, he starts from listening to why their fans listening to their brand new album. And when I asked Bayu about the story behind why they sell personalized merchandise, he told to me, this album related enough with their fans story, when they sad, happy, broken and every emotion include on this album. So, from here, I also can be related to “Empathy Maps”. Empathy Maps can be used whenever you find a need to immerse yourself in a user’s environment, such as diving into customer segments, and for this study, I’ll call the customer with the fans.
The Customer Experience of Digital Platform on the music industry
Customer experience is the most exciting opportunity to business almost in every section. Many companies in this digital era focus on customer experience to reduce churn and increase their revenue. Not only in the digital company, but we can also found in every business, especially in the creative industry. When Bayu told about their strategy for selling their new album, I really amazed how they approach the fans. And then I learn about their customer experience (CX), CX has become a key driver of customer retention and acquisition, CX refers to customer’s perception of their interactions with a company. But in this study, I do not mention the company, but a band who their well prepared planning with CX mindset.
And after they know their segment, they started building a campaign and take advantage of the digital platform trends. Start with a social media channel, they start to build a campaign based on their new latest album. Today, customer experience more than person-to-person service, every business section can connect with the customers in new and exciting ways.
The music industry in Indonesia, especially indie has a unique customer segment, as someone who enjoying indie music I also learn from the behavior of another fan, and the behavior of fans to buy the album also changing a lot, back to 2000s when music player still exist, at that era I still have walkman and CD player, and I really happy when I can hear good quality music from physical records, but now we have a lot of option in the digital era how to listening to music through the internet. Basically, the quality of the streaming platform is not as good as the physical one. So that’s why hunting a gig is the most interesting moment for me to hear my favorite band.
Selling physical album when streaming platform growth
While the streaming platform is growing and try to shift our behavior on listening to the music, fans still purchasing the physical album for merchandise. And these trends become a great time for the musician to make a campaign or good content to bring awareness of their latest album for their fans. The digital platform really helps the artist to distribute their material worldwide and give more accessibility for their fans around the world or remote area to know them.
I see the Elephant Kind has a proper strategy to get more intimate to their fans, and when they know their customer/fans persona is truly helpful to achieve an emotional connection with them. And technology also helps to facilitate these interactions. Like a Bayu said, in two weeks they can get revenue around 79 million Rupiah and something from selling the merchandise through a digital platform that collaboration with Elephant Kind. And he also told me about selling this personalized merch and the physical album with the digital platform can reduce pain point from both sides, the fans and the someone who has a job to sell their album only through a chat platform. As we know in Indonesia many online shops business through the chat platform. But with the current platform that they use for selling this merchandise, that eases the pain point because of the system.
I think there’s a lot of opportunities that the artist or musician can win their fans heart in the digital era to keep selling the physical album or merchandise and build satisfaction for their fans. How about to create a personalized mixtape with a subscription model? I don’t know I think that’s a precious moment in the past when I got a mixtape CD from someone and compile with my favorite songs. That’s unforgettable for me. Well, I got a lesson from being a fan of Elephant Kind, not only enjoying their music, but I also can learn how to see CX from their side. With a great focus on CX strategy, the artist will realize a positive impact on this digital era.
