Universal Signs Deal with Crowdsourcing Firm

Deamau5 performing in in Berlin, Germany.

Frank Hoensch/Getty Images

Universal Music Group has signed a label-wide deal with Talenthouse, an agency that conducts "crowdsourcing" campaigns to promote artists. In other words, they facilitate competitions on Facebook and other social media platforms for t-shirt designs, cover art, videos and other collaborative projects. Recent examples of Talenthouse's work has been contests in which fans submitted designs for a new Deadmau5 helmet and a dress for a Florence and the Machine gig, and a t-shirt contest for Queen.

Photos: Random Notes

So far, Talenthouse's campaigns have resulted in larger, more vocal fan communities run by the artists themselves, and increased awareness of artists beyond their usual fanbase. The company's CEO, Roman Scharf, told Billboard that over 80 percent of people who submit designs in contests are not already fans of the artists in question. The Queen project was particularly successful on this front, which resulted in the band's tally of Facebook likes shoot up from 6 million to 8 million.

• 
  MUSIC Exclusive Live Chat With Linkin Park and Incubus
• 
  MOVIES & TV Peter Travers: 'The Avengers' Has it All
• 
  POLITICS Matt Taibbi: Jon Corzine Is the Original Zimmerman
• 
  VIDEOS Exclusive Premiere: Tenacious D's 'Tinnitus'

Song Stories

“Baby Got Back”

Sir Mix-a-Lot | 1992

While watching a Budweiser commercial during the Super Bowl, Sir Mix-a-Lot thought the skinny female models in the ad didn’t represent reality. So he wrote this ode to ample bottoms, featuring its famous to-the-point lyric: “I like big butts and I cannot lie.” MTV banished the video, featuring shaking booties and sexually suggestive fruit, to 9 p.m. or later. “I thought my career was over,” he told Rolling Stone. “Then I called Rick Rubin, and I told him the video was banned, and he was like, 'Great!' We sold another 2 million records.”

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter