February 2012, Every Spoil Is A Style

I was booking some Facebook adverts earlier today for one of my clients. Targeting the gay audience the artist in question has, I started adding in the keywords we planned to use.

As anyone who uses Facebook’s ad platform knows, when you add in keywords, the system will suggest other terms it thinks may also help in your campaign. If you targeted Take That fans, for example, it would doubtless suggest “Robbie Williams” as a related term to also consider.

Having added in my terms, I was left speechless to see “Faggot (slang)” present as a suggested term. Is this really a word Facebook should be using within its platform – a word I could probably get fired and/or arrested for using in work or on the street?

Continue reading “With Teeth: Is This Really An Acceptable Ad Keyword, Facebook? (UPDATED)” →

Whilst mulling the latest Spotify story, this time of Paul McCartney’s streaming services takedown, I got to thinking about just how great a role direct-to-fan (D2F) services could play in broadening the fan experience around music and how it could also solve – or at least contribute heavily towards – this image problem streaming services currently have with artists in particular.

Spotify – as ever, being the dominant platform news-wise – is an excellent case in point. Despite various major label execs coming out in support of them (and indeed other streaming platforms), artists in particular are not necessarily buying in. Some are, but as long as you have high profile detractors like Black Keys, you have a problem here. The majors owning a stake in Spotify handed artists a stick to beat them with amid accusations that labels are lining their own pockets and not passing sufficient revenues back to their bands – and if anything that argument appears to be gaining traction.

Continue reading “With Teeth: Spotify & Direct-to-Fan could be a perfect partnership” →