About two weeks ago, we tipped you off to the existence of Rockethub's inaugural Launchpad Opportunity, a branded competition of sorts featuring Gibson.
With just a few days to go, we decided to chat with Rockethub's co-founders about their foray into the world of band-brand matchmaking.
Thus far, their competition's attracted a wide range of performers—ukelele players and classically-trained pianists, would-be pop starlets and polymath singer songwriters—and many votes from many different crowds of people.
Rockethub's co-founders Brian Meece, Vlad Vukicevic, and Jed Cohen were inspired to bring brands into the fold because of things like Converse's plans to build a recording studio. We exchanged a few e-mails with Brian and Vlad about their plans, and here's what happened.
RocketHub is the first crowd-funding site to offer brand partnerships, but sites like Hello Music and Tunited are already offering them in a slightly different sort of way. How, specifically, do you see these partnerships fitting in with what RocketHub does already?
Brian Meece: During our first year, RocketHub has built a vibrant and rabid community of artists and fans. Crowdfunding is reinventing how music and other creative endeavors are funded and publicized. We are introducing brands and brand-sponsored opportunities in order to add value to the RocketHub community of artists and entrepreneurs. Since traditional paths [to success] such as record labels are quickly collapsing, RocketHub's co-branded LaunchPad Opportunities are the next step in our model to provide the new path to creative empowerment.
RocketHub's LaunchPad Opportunities, starting with our initial partnership with Gibson in New York, all provide very clear value to both the artists and the brands involved. We are committed to crowd-powered support and transparent selections—which is why there is a voting component along with feedback for all the artists involved. Most importantly, our approach is based on RocketHub's underlying ethos and perspective: the artists' point of view.
Do you see this move as risky in any way? You're essentially promising brands that you've attracted enough talented people to make this worth their while.
We connect artists and their fans with cool and powerful brands. There is little risk involved since artists are selected based both on their talent and on how powerfully they are able to engage their community of friends and fans. The deck is stacked for success where bands, brands, and fans benefit from interacting on RocketHub.
In many ways, Gibson is keeping its hands out of this, and they're a natural fit for promoting and assisting artists. What do you think of a brand that's maybe less music-oriented like Folger's offering artists a chance to promote both parties via Rockethub in the future?
Vlad Vukicevic: Brands that are less music-oriented have potentially even more to benefit from engaging artists and fans. But what these brands often need is a credible bridge to artist communities. That is what RocketHub provides—a platform and a community. If a brand can provide genuine value to artists (as most brands can)—then RocketHub can help create and facilitate a LaunchPad Opportunity.
Unlike the rest of your site's launches, the Gibson opportunity winner will be selected by a panel of judges. What are the judges looking for? Are they looking for a project that's going to draw the most attention? Or a project that's most likely to generate the most money? The most “worthy"?
Brian Meece: The selected artist will be chosen based on the number of votes they acquire, the panel of judges, and the RocketHub A&R team with input from the brand. The votes will measure the artists' ability to engage their audience and community. The judges will look at more talent-based criteria such as songwriting, sound, and charisma. While the A&R team will look at how the artist fits with the brand and overall opportunity.
We've seen brands offer money and expertise to artists to help with things like tours and recordings. For the most part, these are one-off kinds of events. Do you think that this is going to be how these relationships remain? Or will we one day start to move toward bigger, more sustained partnerships?
The first LaunchPad Opportunity will includes introductions and meetings with industry contacts—so we are going at this from a long-term value perspective. Future LaunchPad Opportunities will foster even more sustained opportunities for artists to naturally grow their promotional reach through the genuine support of brands.
What do you recommend all future applicants think about when they're applying to future Opportunities?
Vlad Vukicevic: Applicants should put their best foot forward and be prepared to demonstrate the power of their fan-base—through the voting process. Artists should not make assumptions about what the brands are looking for, but instead be authentic.
With just a few days to go, we decided to chat with Rockethub's co-founders about their foray into the world of band-brand matchmaking.
Thus far, their competition's attracted a wide range of performers—ukelele players and classically-trained pianists, would-be pop starlets and polymath singer songwriters—and many votes from many different crowds of people.
Rockethub's co-founders Brian Meece, Vlad Vukicevic, and Jed Cohen were inspired to bring brands into the fold because of things like Converse's plans to build a recording studio. We exchanged a few e-mails with Brian and Vlad about their plans, and here's what happened.
RocketHub is the first crowd-funding site to offer brand partnerships, but sites like Hello Music and Tunited are already offering them in a slightly different sort of way. How, specifically, do you see these partnerships fitting in with what RocketHub does already?
Brian Meece: During our first year, RocketHub has built a vibrant and rabid community of artists and fans. Crowdfunding is reinventing how music and other creative endeavors are funded and publicized. We are introducing brands and brand-sponsored opportunities in order to add value to the RocketHub community of artists and entrepreneurs. Since traditional paths [to success] such as record labels are quickly collapsing, RocketHub's co-branded LaunchPad Opportunities are the next step in our model to provide the new path to creative empowerment.
RocketHub's LaunchPad Opportunities, starting with our initial partnership with Gibson in New York, all provide very clear value to both the artists and the brands involved. We are committed to crowd-powered support and transparent selections—which is why there is a voting component along with feedback for all the artists involved. Most importantly, our approach is based on RocketHub's underlying ethos and perspective: the artists' point of view.
Do you see this move as risky in any way? You're essentially promising brands that you've attracted enough talented people to make this worth their while.
We connect artists and their fans with cool and powerful brands. There is little risk involved since artists are selected based both on their talent and on how powerfully they are able to engage their community of friends and fans. The deck is stacked for success where bands, brands, and fans benefit from interacting on RocketHub.
In many ways, Gibson is keeping its hands out of this, and they're a natural fit for promoting and assisting artists. What do you think of a brand that's maybe less music-oriented like Folger's offering artists a chance to promote both parties via Rockethub in the future?
Vlad Vukicevic: Brands that are less music-oriented have potentially even more to benefit from engaging artists and fans. But what these brands often need is a credible bridge to artist communities. That is what RocketHub provides—a platform and a community. If a brand can provide genuine value to artists (as most brands can)—then RocketHub can help create and facilitate a LaunchPad Opportunity.
Unlike the rest of your site's launches, the Gibson opportunity winner will be selected by a panel of judges. What are the judges looking for? Are they looking for a project that's going to draw the most attention? Or a project that's most likely to generate the most money? The most “worthy"?
Brian Meece: The selected artist will be chosen based on the number of votes they acquire, the panel of judges, and the RocketHub A&R team with input from the brand. The votes will measure the artists' ability to engage their audience and community. The judges will look at more talent-based criteria such as songwriting, sound, and charisma. While the A&R team will look at how the artist fits with the brand and overall opportunity.
We've seen brands offer money and expertise to artists to help with things like tours and recordings. For the most part, these are one-off kinds of events. Do you think that this is going to be how these relationships remain? Or will we one day start to move toward bigger, more sustained partnerships?
The first LaunchPad Opportunity will includes introductions and meetings with industry contacts—so we are going at this from a long-term value perspective. Future LaunchPad Opportunities will foster even more sustained opportunities for artists to naturally grow their promotional reach through the genuine support of brands.
What do you recommend all future applicants think about when they're applying to future Opportunities?
Vlad Vukicevic: Applicants should put their best foot forward and be prepared to demonstrate the power of their fan-base—through the voting process. Artists should not make assumptions about what the brands are looking for, but instead be authentic.
