Why The Stone Roses Are Music Marketing Geniuses
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Why The Stone Roses Are Music Marketing Geniuses

Beyonce and Radiohead have nothing on The Stone Roses.

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Why The Stone Roses Are Music Marketing Geniuses
murraychalmers

The music industry has been seeing a new trend in the last few years. Big-name musicians are constantly coming up with new ways to promote and release new music and live shows. For example, unless you've been living under a rock, you've heard about Beyonce's new album, "Lemonade." The album was announced by surprise with a single tweet from Beyonce's Twitter account and was initially streaming exclusively on Jay Z's high-fidelity streaming platform, Tidal. "Lemonade" was also accompanied by a one-hour visual representation of the album, which was shown on HBO on the same night that the album was released.

Another prominent example of a musical act that constantly tries to shake up the system is Radiohead. Their 2007 album, "In Rainbows," released online for users to pay whatever they wanted for the album, even if it meant people would get it for free. As a matter of fact, Radiohead just came out with a new album less than a week ago called "A Moon Shaped Pool." There were no formal announcements, interviews or promotion of any kind prior to the album coming out. However, about a week before the surprise album came out, anyone who had previously ordered something directly from Radiohead received cryptic cards with the lyrics to the first song from the soon-to-be-released new album. The band even deleted everything from its website and all of its social media platforms before suddenly dropping a music video for the brand new song, "Burn The Witch." Yet again, the world began to drool over the band, a band that's known for its ability to showcase its newest, ingenious music marketing strategies.

So, obviously, whoever does PR for Beyonce or Radiohead knows what they're doing. However, there is a band that really promotes the mystery and hype surrounding it better than any other musicians out there today. That band is The Stone Roses. PR and marketing professionals should be taking notes from this legendary Manchester rock band.

For those who don't know, they released just two studio albums in the late '80s/early '90s and they had only just managed to hit their stride for a few years before breaking up shortly after. The band had so much potential after releasing its self-titled debut album in 1989, which critics and fans still consider to be one of the greatest albums of all time. However, their lesser-appreciated follow-up album (which came out five years after their massively successful debut), their bad record deals, their drug use and the increasing tension among the band members eventually began to catch up with them and the band broke up in 1996.

After the band split up, each of the four members moved on to new projects of their own. Lead singer Ian Brown went on to a successful solo career. Bass player Mani went on to play with Primal Scream. Lead guitarist John Squire formed a new band called The Seahorses, who split up after one album, and then he released two solo albums before giving up music to commit to painting. The band's drummer, Reni, was the only member of the band who didn't have a post-Stone Roses music career. In the years after the Roses split, the members were constantly asked about the potential of the band getting back together. However, rumors were always immediately shot down by all four members. In 2009, John Squire even made a pretty straight-forward painting that read "I have no desire whatsoever to desecrate the grave of seminal Manchester pop group The Stone Roses."

However in 2011, everything changed. Rumors began to circulate after the U.K. tabloids were printing stories about the band's imminent reunion. Fans began to wildly speculate and because all four members always seem to keep a very low profile, this only added to the mystery. Soon after, a press conference with all four members confirmed that the band was reuniting. They went on to play a huge reunion tour around the world in 2012-2013, however, rumors that the band was releasing new material fell flat as the band only played their original material.

After the tour was over, fans weren't sure if they would ever hear from the band again, wondering if the tour was their final send-off, especially after Reni had angrily stormed off the stage during one of their gigs in Amsterdam. Little did fans know, they would hear from the band again a few years later. In November 2015, posters of The Stone Roses' iconic lemon logo began appearing around the streets of Manchester, the band's hometown. The posters were arranged in groups of 16, which fans interpreted as either an announcement of a 2016 tour or a 2016 album. Posters were spotted outside of record stores, barber shops and restaurants across the city. Shopkeepers with the posters on their windows were asked by fans what the posters meant, but they were sworn to secrecy about an announcement due in the next few days.

A couple days later, the band posted a picture on Twitter of its two newly announced gigs at Manchester City's Etihad Stadium. Due to the incredible demand, two more shows were added. Keep in mind, that's four consecutive dates at a stadium with a capacity of 60,000 people. More shows were then announced in New York, Dublin, and Scotland's T in the Park Festival.

People began to question why the band would feel the need to play all these big shows again just a few years later if they weren't releasing new material. Of course because all four band members were lying low and out of the spotlight, fans on Twitter began to wildly speculate for months yet again about the possibility of new material. The hashtag, "#SR040316" began circulating on Twitter, which came from a UK journalist, and supposedly meant that the band was releasing new material on March 4, but that never materialized. A Manchester record shop even tweeted on March 4, "Today will be a good day for fans of seminal Manchester band. The Stone Roses. #nuffsaid," which made fans think the rumor had been confirmed, but it turned out they were just assuming the rumor was legitimate as well.

After all this speculation, eager fans were let down again and again after rumors fell through and led to disappointment after disappointment. No credible source had confirmed any story about new music. But one day, Stone Roses fans would have another reason to speculate after an unsuspecting fan made an eagle-eyed observation. A teenage girl (who happened to be a massive Roses fan) who lived across the street from London recording studio, Church Studios, noticed an usual amount of gear in flight cases being unloaded outside of the studio. She thought nothing of it until she noticed a Stone Roses sticker on some of the cases. She and a friend went to check it out and took pictures of themselves next to the cases, which were posted on Twitter. Of course, people were quick to dismiss the possibility of the band recording new material there since they had already been let down time and time again. Many people said that the band could have just been there rehearsing for the upcoming live dates, after all, the studio did have some rehearsal space.

After the initial pictures on Twitter, the teenager went back to the studio in hopes of catching a glimpse of the band and sure enough, she posted a picture of herself with Ian Brown. After the picture was posted, fans soon flocked to Church Studios to try and meet the band, some of whom did, but what really put an end to the rumors was the fact that NME decided to investigate. NME sent a camera crew to the outside of the recording studio, and they managed to catch lead singer Brown, who confirmed on camera that the band was indeed recording new material and that it sounded "glorious."

There was no word on whether the new music would be in the form of an EP or an LP, but it seemed that Stone Roses fans could finally rejoice over the confirmation of new material. There was no release date announced, but fans figured it would make sense to have the new songs out before their big live dates in June. Fans would just have to wait for the surprise sudden announcement of new material since summer is approaching.

Yet another unsuspecting young fan met Mani this past Sunday and posted a picture on Twitter with the message, "JUST MET THIS F****** LEGEND! New stone roses single out next week, come from the man him self!!" So, now it seemed that fans finally had a time frame for new material and that message from Mani did not disappoint. On May 10, the lemons were at it again with digital billboards across Manchester displaying pictures of a single lemon, not their trademark lemon logo, but an actual picture of a lemon. Now, the source of those digital billboards has been revealed and as it turns out, it was just Aldi jumping in on the rumors of new Stone Roses material to promote the price of their lemons at just "29p each."

On May 12, The Stone Roses had finally tweeted "THE STONE ROSES WILL RELEASE A NEW SINGLE TONIGHT AT 8PM." So at around 7:45 BST, on BBC Radio 1, DJ Annie Mac played the worldwide exclusive first play of The Stone Roses first new song in over 20 years, "All For One." Stone Roses fans were delighted over the return of the band and it was confirmed that the band had been in the studio recording new material with legendary producer, Paul Epworth. Although many fans were worried over what the band would sound like after 20 years, the song received general acclaim from fans (although it got mixed reviews from critics) and it would seem that all the chaotic speculating would rest at least for now to enjoy their new single.

Due to the fact that the band literally said nothing and left fans to argue for months over whether or not the band would release new material truly makes Stone Roses marketing geniuses. The band is well aware of the fact that silence promotes mystery and makes people want them even more. They knew that the lemon posters would make people lose their minds, which they did. They knew that people would freak out over their subtley-changed profile picture on social media platforms, which they did. They knew that not formally announcing new music until the day it came out would make people wildly speculate among themselves for months, which they did. They knew that because the band had not spoken a word to the press that the fans would keep the band in the press with all their own manufactured rumors, which they did. They knew that since none of the band members have any social media presence that fans would be left to try and figure out for themselves what the band were up to, which they did.

Also, the fact that the band hadn't released any new material for over 20 years and there was obvious demand due to how many tickets were sold on their recent reunion tour meant that it was a perfect storm for the band to release new material. It would be like if another globally-adored band like The Beatles had only released two albums and then all of a sudden, over two decades later, tweeted "new single tonight at 8 p.m." How would any band in that situation ever fail?

So for all those music marketing and PR people out there just know this: (when promoting artists who already have a decent-sized audience) less is more, mystery is good, and The Stone Roses are basically marketing gods.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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