Recent Comment
Spotlight
- Reader Michael Megalli writes: It is difficult to engage in genuine conversations with the marketplace when you can't change the reality of how a company does business, what it sells, how it works with partners, etc. [go]
Recent Comments
- John Weir: " Great post John. I'm running some cour ..." [go]
- nmw: " wow -- that almost makes the sohbet spam ..." [go]
- me@home.com: " Hi John, great book. Great blog. Great t ..." [go]
- nmw: " Chris, maybe not on HotBot.COM or Googl ..." [go]
- Chris Kilkes: " An old cliche comes to mind, "what's old ..." [go]
- Sarah Worsham: " Interesting idea, but doesn't seem to wo ..." [go]
- seo results: " Interesting, so kinda like what Ask.com ..." [go]
- nmw: " >> This means than more than a third, if ..." [go]
- Dan Keldsen: " John - we're currently running a researc ..." [go]
- Jim: " Hi John, I have been reading this blog f ..." [go]
- Faisal Segu: " Seems to me we need to connect these "bi ..." [go]
- JG: " Google's new motto: Gaudy and relevant ..." [go]
- JG: " Sooner or later, people will catch on ..." [go]
- prefabrik ev: " Looking a blinking, moving, las vegas st ..." [go]
- JG: " nmw: you may notice that many (indeed ..." [go]
- Teddie: " Interesting. I've presented on the Futur ..." [go]
PERFECT FOR THAT PERSON WITH EVERYTHING
Order 'The Search'
Yup, it makes the perfect gift for that officemate or colleague who you thought had everything....including you! If you order here, I promise to sign it, assuming we can figure out the shipping...
You can also buy the audio version here.
Check my book page for more info.
Blogger's Rights
Top Posts
- The Database of Intentions (or how this all got started)
- From Pull to Point(or the first post where I riff on the "Point-To Economy")
- Google As Builder (or the point at which Google stopped being simply a search engine)
- On Google v. Yahoo
- TV and Search Merge
- On Sell Side Advertising
- Battelle Gets Searchstreams
- Search and Immortality
- Toward the Endemic (on endemic advertising)
More coming soon...
Active Topics
- 35 comments: WTF??!!! (04.17)
- 26 comments: Twitter. Oh God. (04.30)
- 14 comments: The Future of Search Series (05.08)
- 14 comments: The Music In Magazines (05.07)
- 12 comments: Google to Go Big With TV Ads (04.14)
Monthly Archives
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- December 2004
- November 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
- July 2004
- June 2004
- May 2004
- April 2004
- March 2004
- February 2004
- January 2004
- December 2003
- November 2003
- October 2003
About John Battelle
Searchblog Newsletter
Enter email to subscribe to Searchblog's newsletter:
Calendar
| Su | Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | Sa |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
Syndicate
Powered by
February 17, 2008 3:49 PM
Get Yer Head Right
(Note: This is the first of a number of posts I'll be doing using mobile technology thanks to a sponsorship from Microsoft and FM. More here).
Sometimes you just need to go to a show (click on the pic for a larger image I shot while there). I certainly did after the past two months of four hour meetings, travel, and general madness. A good friend introduced me to Umphrey's McGee, a killer jam band out of Chicago. This was my third or fourth time seeing them, and they always just kill it, wherever they play. If you want a real treat, subscribe to their podcast here. What does this have to do with Searchblog? Well, as I've written before, I find the music industry very predictive of the media markets in general. Umphrey's is the kind of band that heralds a new approach to media, entertainment, and distribution. The band has a strong following in its native Chicago, but it has found another strong following online. The music doesn't lend itself to traditional packaged goods approaches to marketing, but that doesn't matter - online distribution and word of mouth has helped the band play to packed halls all over the country. I saw them at the fabled Fillmore, twice in fact, and they did the place proud. The third show is tonight, go see them if you can...
- Posted by John Battelle on February 17, 2008 3:49 PM



Comments
John
You are spot on about UM-- as a Chicagoan and local music scene lover, Umphrey is one of the better bands these days and maybe even better "business" players than most bands, anywhere.
check this in depth article from the local weekly, the reader, on the business model of UM.
http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/sharpdarts/080110/
Bill
Umphrey's a great band, with an incredible history and story. We've been covering them for about 8-9 years now at JamBase, as they started to gain in popularity at the turn of the century (feels cool to say that)
The interesting 'marketing' story about Umphrey's is that they came out of Notre Dame, which apparently has one of the highest out of state enrollments. After college, they had tons of friends who moved back to their respective homes around the country, so they'd always have a couch to sleep on in their countrywide travels.
Their manager in his infinite wisdom would make stacks of CDs from their recent shows (remember this was 2001) and send them to their fan friends from around the country. Those fans would then pass the CDs out to their local friends and the next time the band came through town they'd have a built in crowd who already knew all the lyrics to the shows.
Over the years due to the evolution of online marketing, great word of mouth and some pretty fantastic songs, they've become a mainstay at most summer festivals and of course as you experienced headlining 3 nights at the Fillmore.
Go Umph!
50+ Umphrey's podcasts and over 1 million downloads.
not a bad way to distribute some music, eh?
Leave a comment