Over the weekend at SXSW, Topspin awarded a $5,000 grant to Alessandro Cortini, a.k.a. SONOIO, to fund a marketing campaign for SONOIO's albums. SONOIO was one of many artists that formally applied for the grant, filling out an application detailing precisely what he intended to do with his money. Let's have a look at what goes into a winning application, shall we?
On its face, the SONOIO plan doesn't seem especially flashy. He has a second album, Red, that he plans to announce in April, and he needs to hire a publicist.
What makes his campaign special is what he plans to package Red with. Like Moldover once did, SONOIO bundled a limited number of copies of his debut album, Blue, with a custom-made synthesizer he helped design. A limited number of copies of Red will be bundled with another custom instrument, one that is “compatible" with its predecessor.
Sounds like a worthy campaign to us, but Topspin didn't choose who received its grant money. SONOIO and another finalist, the British quartet Tigers That Talked, made pitches to an audience at a SXSW event over the weekend, then let attendees cast ballots. SONOIO wound up only winning by six votes, and Cortini was so overcome by the closeness of the competition that he offered to split his winnings with Tigers That Talked.
We're not sure what that does to the super-detailed proposals that each submitted (the grant proposal submitted by Tigers That Talked, for example, accounts for every dollar), but check out both proposals, and let us know what you think of them!
Which one do you like more? Why do you think they were the leading vote-getters? Why do you think it was so close?
And, most important of all: what does the closeness in voting tell you?
On its face, the SONOIO plan doesn't seem especially flashy. He has a second album, Red, that he plans to announce in April, and he needs to hire a publicist.
What makes his campaign special is what he plans to package Red with. Like Moldover once did, SONOIO bundled a limited number of copies of his debut album, Blue, with a custom-made synthesizer he helped design. A limited number of copies of Red will be bundled with another custom instrument, one that is “compatible" with its predecessor.
Sounds like a worthy campaign to us, but Topspin didn't choose who received its grant money. SONOIO and another finalist, the British quartet Tigers That Talked, made pitches to an audience at a SXSW event over the weekend, then let attendees cast ballots. SONOIO wound up only winning by six votes, and Cortini was so overcome by the closeness of the competition that he offered to split his winnings with Tigers That Talked.
We're not sure what that does to the super-detailed proposals that each submitted (the grant proposal submitted by Tigers That Talked, for example, accounts for every dollar), but check out both proposals, and let us know what you think of them!
Which one do you like more? Why do you think they were the leading vote-getters? Why do you think it was so close?
And, most important of all: what does the closeness in voting tell you?
