Music makes our lives so much richer, doesn’t it? Such a powerful art form, music is inseparable from our social fabric, and has been from the beginning of human existence. We use it to enjoy life. To create a mood or alter one. To woo or to break-up. To persuade or to protest.

It’s also constantly used as a form of self-expression. “This is what I like therefore this is the kind of person I am.” Sure, scrawling “Metallica” on your jean jacket is a good way to let people know just what kind of dude they’re messing with, but it’s not really an option once you leave high school. For a brand, online music resources are today’s answer to the sharpie-on-denim technique; using other peoples music to help reveal the real you. This is a good thing for brands, since people inherently mistrust what they perceive as advertising. While you listen to the playlist I just put together, you can read a few selling points below:


Kyle’s April Playlist – Enjoy!

It’s an experience, not an ad
Music and advertising have always been successful bedfellows, from classic jingles to classical music to Bob Dylan at the Super Bowl. Try and hear “Rhapsody in Blue” and not think of United Airlines. But what a curated playlist gives you is an experience you can share with your audience, a tidy little bundle of REAL content. It’s not just grabbing their attention, it’s spending time with them.

The price is right
Do it yourself, pay an agency to do it, either way you’re saving yourself the giant check that brands usually write for the rights to use a particular song to enhance their own brand message.

You can share it everywhere
You don’t have to stay within the Spotify universe, you can use your other channels to promote the playlist. Win-win. But take note of a few best practices:

• Make your playlists relevant to a person, a mood or an event. Tap into what people are already thinking out, and offer something that has value: Post a summer-y image to facebook with the message “Summer’s here, check out our “Lake Days” playlist.
• Make your playlists relevant to your brand and your customers. If your target audience is 60+, you might want to leave 2Chainz off the playlist.
• Keep it fresh. Just like everything on social media, the shelf-life is short. Mix it up, add new playlists, give them clever or appropriate titles.
• Use a service like Bit.ly to shorten your URLs and to track how many people are jammin’ to your playlist.

 

Enough talk, let’s hear some music!
Here’s a playlist I put together for this blog. 14 songs for your listening pleasure. Here are a few of them:

Ever since the unbelievable performance on Letterman, I can’t get enough of this band. The singer looks like a young Marlon Brando and the songs are gut-wrenching. His voice and delivery are unique in a way I can’t describe nearly as well as this review does, and every now and then, he launches into a gutteral, primal sound I won’t even try to describe. Amazing.

 

This song is a blast, the video is hilarious. Plus, it gives us something to listen to while (im)patiently waiting for his other band to put out their next album.

There are two of these “Punk Goes 90s” albums, and every song has something interesting to offer, but this is one of the few that’s actually really good. It’s “Losing My Religion” performed by “Scary Kids Scaring Kids.”

There are times when nothing but classical music will do. This is the final song in my playlist, and it’s a good cool-down after Stevie Wonder. (I bet Bach would roll over in his grave if he read that last sentence.)

 

While you listen to my playlist, think about your own customers, the people you have – or would like to have – relationships with. How can music be a wonderful shared experience between you?