Teen artists usually get their break on television. The Disney Channel reincarnated “The Mickey Mouse Club” in 1989, launching the careers of Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Justin Timberlake.
The Disney Channel has also produced several multi-million brands including the Cheetah Girls, ‘High School Musical’ and ‘Hannah Montana’. Both High School Music and Hannah Montana could reach $1 billion in retail sales this year.
Disney’s latest success is the Jonas Brothers which has already sold 1.1 million copies. Employees at the company think the success of the Jonas Brothers hasn’t even reached the pinnacle comparing them to the Beatles.
Disney has its promotion down to a science. The Jonas Brothers benefited from on-air campaigns and live events on Radio Disney. The band also was featured in an episode of ‘Hannah Montana’ and opened up for Miley Cyrus on her North American Tour. Disney will also feature the Jonas Brothers in a reality series this spring.
No other major music label can compete with Disney and its marketing power. Disney is a bully when it comes to breaking their artists.
“They own the talent, they own the distribution, they can promote it all the time on television,” said David Smay. “It’s almost impossible not to have a hit”.
Also.. let’s not to forget to factor in the fact that their audience is not really of the “filesharing” age so illegal downloads don’t really factor in here. They’re more likely to ask they’re parents for the cd while in Walmart as opposed to sifting through torrents.
What you forgot to mention is that Live Nation has blanketed the web with ads that take over the site and automatically redirect the user to the Jonas Brothers page. Thank you Adbrite for taking over my favorite music blogs and forcing me to contribute to this number (at least ten times).
All smoke and mirrors.
That’s my point. If no matter where you turn around there’s Hannah Montana or the Jonas brothers that’s called propaganda. Dig a little deeper and find some bands that may not have big budgets but do have big talent. They’re out there.
The reasons Hollywood Records is so successful is because they know their consumer base like the back of their hand & they are unrivaled in terms of the ability to find young stars. When you cater to a niche & you deliver time after time after time, you become the gatekeeper. This is the future of music marketing. The fact of the matter is that no one caters to this demographic like Hollywood, & they have CONSUMER TRUST (both with kids & their parents), which no other label of that size has with any demographic. When other labels want to sex up young artists like Jo Jo, Hollywood goes the opposite direction & hits home runs.
A company (Disney) that spots Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, & Jennifer Love Hewitt almost out of the womb can’t be reduced to mere carpet bombers. They rescued Hey There, Delilah from Fearless Records, they paired Hillary Duff with John Shanks & launched her into the stratosphere, they broke Lindsay Lohan with their Freaky Friday remake, & the list goes on & on.
Epic tried the Hollywood method with Cheyenne Kimball, giving her a great song & a tv show but it flopped because no one got it. She’s not a star, Hollywood never would’ve signed her. That’s why they’re Hollywood & Epic is Epic.