How can you tell Domino's website is made for niche artists?



Research Task

Domino has to make an effort to exploit the opportunities provided by the internet: www.dominorecordco.com/

Use their website to explore how they have increased their marketing presense through the following features. Explain what each one is and give examples found from their website.

Downloads

Domino Downloads is the online music store that sells their music sang by their signed artists. The site allows you to preview the track before purchasing as well as showing the rest of the album. The music is bought online and downloaded directly onto the user's computer.

Dominocast

Domino cast are Domino released podcasts, available free to users on iTunes. Released monlth, these podcasts are released to publish new artists and talk about upcoming events relating to Domino Records

Domino Mart

Domino Mart is Domino's own online music shop. Since they have the copyright of the music, they can do whatever they want, in this case they sell the music online. The music is bought electronically purchased online but Domino provides a CD of the music you buy. You can also pre-order their latest music. The music is usually sold in albums rather than single tracks. In addition to this, they sell tickets and merchandise to their artists.

Domino Player

Listed on the homepage, Domino Player is the litle music player that plays the latest/featured music by Domino. It allows you to listen to the whole song though it doesn't act like a music player like iTunes since it does not have a playlist or such.

Video and promotional content

On their Domino Downloads page, they there is a banner at the top of the page self promoting two of Domino's own artists. On Domino's website, they do not have any outside promotion/advertisement to gain full attention of the viewer.

Mailing list

The mailing list is the monthly newsletter in general (though the site says you get a mail couple times a month), sending it to your email inbox. Requires you to add your eail address, name and post code, then gives you the option to pick what newsletter you want from Domino UK mailing list or the US mailing list. Also allows you tick the boxes of artists you may be interested in hearing from in the newsletter. The website also allows you to view older newsletters.

Independent Record Labels

Case Study: Domino Records



Key Facts:

• One of Britain's most succesful independent labels
• Founded in 1993 by Laurence Bell - who still runs the label
• Based in London with a US branch
• Rosta included Franz Ferdinland and Artic Monkeys but mostly made up of unusual, less well known artists
• Began by licensing US brands to release in the UK - now releases both UK and US artists

Domino's Vision:

"A passion for music, a back to basics approach... something home-made that's put together with love"

- Laurence Bell

Domino imprints:

• Geographic
• Double Six

Domino cannot afford to sign an artist if they cannot sell fewer than 5000 albums. Their 2 imprints were set up to cater for minority interest artists who are likely to sell to a smaller, niche audience.

Mitigate -> minimise

RECORD LABELS EXIST ESSENTIALLY TO MAKE MONEY!