“Why not let a 16-year-old fan in Bulgaria have the same capability to judge as someone who runs the biggest radio station in the world," Rob Stringer (Columbia Records) rhetorically pondered to Elberse and Smith. "Beyonce has built that audience. And I can imagine the normal release process gets a bit monotonous for someone like her.” -- Flanagan on billboard.com
Professor Anita Elberse and her former student, Smith, teamed up to put together a 27-page case study on Beyonce which will be taught in Elberse's course at Harvard Business School. HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL. Harvard is so cool. Anyways, coming back to the point, the course is fittingly called "Strategic Marketing in Creative Industries," and yes, you are right. The case study is about Beyonce's self-titled 5th "visual" album released that happened just out of nowhere in 2013. Boom boom bang. The more intriguing section would be the story and real facts on Parkwood Entertainment's foundations and her role at the company as the CEO.
Why is that the more intriguing segment of the case versus you know, the part about Bey's whole roll out and how that was the best business management held secret between Bey's company, Apple and Facebook? Well, hear me out.
Beyonce news and coverage triumphs all others. This kind of superiority and power is what she had achieved after her album's drop in Dec 2013; of course, it is her entire career and life that outclassed her fellow musicians (I don't want to say "competitors" in an industry of creatives) but because of this extreme stardom and fandom she has gained, we only see the "juicier" news bits. For instance, her and Jay-Z's forever-looming divorce. I give my whole life's f*** about this divorce--no lies. If it happens, I don't know if I'm ever gonna get married. *fangirl hair flip* It's a big deal. Everytime some one speaks about it or a link pops up on my goddamn newsfeed, I flip out (internally) and try to play calm. And this angst I don't like. I don't give a damn about tabloids and NONFACTUAL components. And it's HARD and DIFFICULT to get solid insights into Bey's business roles with Parkwood plus her album roll out. Her creative process has been shared but her business approaches, not so much.
Moving on, my personal favourites on Bey's approach on her self-titled album are the following:
1. VISUAL ALBUM
News of the recording, a self-titled set of 14 songs with 17 companion videos dubbed a “visual album,” caught music industry veterans and even her diehard fans off guard. Without advance publicity, a single to promote, or any music leaked to the Internet, Beyoncé managed to keep the project under wraps until she was ready to unveil it across 119 countries.We all know how many videos we consume per day and this number is increasing, especially on our mobiles. And for Bey to drop bombtastic SEVENTEEN videos that captured her emotions and visuals of each single to deliver a 360-degrees stage for the audience is... just pure brilliance.
2. COLLABORATIVE PROCESS
A strict believer in collaboration, I am so impressed with Beyonce for going all out and creating an atmosphere where all artists would excel more than each of their expectations. One place, one energy, good food, good company, and consistent studio channeling = the best outcome at that moment.
Parkwood's general manager Lee Anne Callahan-Longo said: “We rented a house in the Hamptons for a month. Everyone would have dinner together every night and break off into different rooms and work on music. She had five or six rooms going, each set up as a studio, and would go from room to room and say things like ‘I think that song needs that person’s input.’ Normally you would not see songs have two or more producers, but it was really collaborative.” -- Gorton on dazeddigital.comAnd we all know that Pharrell my hot friend was there, too. And now, the rhetorical question in your head (more like mine)... When am I ever going to rent a place in the Hamptons for a project? In my 50s, latest. Please.
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