Bowie vs Marketing

This is perfect –

“We live in an age when distraction is everywhere, consumers are multi-screening – and multi-screening is actually an acceptable verb – and the industry assumes that to get what marketing departments call cut-through or mind-share for music you have to bombard people: artists are supposed to be in a constant dialogue with their fans, via Twitter or blogs or Facebook. It’s a timely reminder that mystique is a valuable commodity. You can perhaps give people more by giving them less.”

— Tim Ingham, Editor of Music Week

The above quote is taken from ‘The inside story of how David Bowie made The Next Day‘ which features in today’s Guardian.

Explaining (in quite fantastic detail) how exactly, in an age of cameraphones and gossip websites and social media, Bowie’s album remained under wraps for two whole years before appearing, seemingly out of nowhere, last Tuesday – it is a great read.

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It seems we could all learn a thing or two from Mr Bowie.