Case Study: How To Have Fun Connecting With Fans Like A Superstar DJ

from the take-that,-management dept

Tue, Jan 18th 2011 3:01pm — Bas Grasmayer

deadmau5 (pronounced 'dead mouse') is a great example for artists that want to make it in the music business. He is famed for his great production and unique style, which helped get him noticed and separated from the crowd. That's a good thing, because then it's worth talking about. What's remarkable about deadmau5 stretches further than his unique production style and performances (he wears this huge mouse-mask on his head). His level of engagement with his ecosystem (or fanbase, if you will) is exemplary.

Minecraft has been talked about before on Techdirt. Back in November, deadmau5 set up his own server for this sandbox-game in which players can craft their own world. His fans love it, and deadmau5 regularly pops in to hang out with them in 'mau5ville.' In a way, both deadmau5 and his fans emerge themselves in fan art. There are tons of videos of mau5ville online, so you can take a tour. One user even used the game's tools to make a cover of a song by deadmau5, which deadmau5 then shared with over 2 million of his fans. Other artists sometimes prefer to go the way of a takedown notice when a fan puts his energy into making fan art -- but deadmau5 prefers to promote it. You can see both videos below:

However, deadmau5 is not like other artists, and recently he showed this by buying about 20 Minecraft accounts and posting the gift codes on his Facebook page. He understands that having fun with your fanbase and spending a little money on it can be much more important than telling them to buy your music. He listens to his fans, and he informs them when they can buy new music, because that's what his fans want. But it's about more than just pushing what you have to buy.

In the beginning of December, deadmau5' marketing team decided they should get involved in communicating to his fans.

Apparently deadmau5 didn't like the fact that his management was disturbing the trust and rapport he had built up with the ecosystem, because those status updates were followed by deadmau5's:

Then he checked the backend of his Facebook page…

Excellent choice, in my opinion. This is the best thing he could do to earn back the trust of the ecosystem, because you really don't want to get on the bad side of the ecosystem. The ecosystem can reject you, the ecosystem can move on, the ecosystem doesn't need YOU in order to survive.

And the cool thing is, he wasn't thinking about marketing or self-preservation or strategy in the process of making his choices. It's just him, genuinely. And I guess the status update he posted 1 minute later shows just that:

It looks like deadmau5 recognizes his fans have more value than just a few purchases. Instead of complaining that his fans should buy his album for 15 euros, he is actually buying them Minecraft accounts for 15 euros a piece. This might be hard to understand for his management and a lot of other people in the industry, because if fans are free, how can they have value?

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Filed Under: connecting with fans, cwf, deadmau5, minecraft
Companies: minecraft

27 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2011 @ 3:07pm

But aren't the marketing people the people he hired as an artist to manage him? Or did he sign a marketing deal (aka, recording deal) with someone? Does he want both the benefits of their services and exposure, and also the benefit of acting cool and independant?

What is his real story?
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2011 @ 3:19pm

More fun of misinformation and how misleading numbers can be:

One user even used the game's tools to make a cover of a song by deadmau5, which deadmau5 then shared with over 2 million of his fans.

The linked video has just under 150,000 views at this point. That means that 7.5% (or less because you assume the video has been linked elsewhere) of his "fans" even could be bothered to look.

150k is sort of different from 2 million, no? Yes, his account has 2 million friends, but it appears most of them are ignoring his posts.
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Ima Fish (profile), 18 Jan 2011 @ 3:21pm

"deadmau5 (pronounced 'dead mouse')"

Strange. Without ever meeting him I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I hate that pretentious dick weed.
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Chris in Utah (profile), 18 Jan 2011 @ 3:27pm

Re:
3rd option?
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Designerfx (profile), 18 Jan 2011 @ 3:32pm

Re:
he does things independent. It's not trying to be cool, he just does a good job and we all appreciate what he does, which is infinitely creative remix stuff.

he even did one live remixing legend of zelda (nes). He pretty much defined his own culture by just doing what he does.
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The Invisible Hand (profile), 18 Jan 2011 @ 3:32pm

Re:
Well, he shared the movie with them. If the fans take it or not it is entirely up to them.

Still, 150k views is pretty good. More than YOU (or me) could expect to have.
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Marcus Carab (profile), 18 Jan 2011 @ 3:42pm

Re:
Really? Why? That seems kind of extreme...
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2011 @ 3:43pm

Re:
See folks, when you have bias and start picking on things this is how ridiculous you look saying those things.

Don't pick on every little detail without good cause or risk being a moron online.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2011 @ 3:46pm

Re:
God! You freetards are so fucking whiny!
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God, 18 Jan 2011 @ 4:08pm

Re: Re:
Don't take my name in vain, bitch.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jan 2011 @ 4:13pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8o-fDwXE5o

Trolling his fans. Brilliant
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Bitch, 18 Jan 2011 @ 4:22pm

Don't use MY name in vain!

but OT nice piece of writing, would like to see more like it!
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Electromikey, 18 Jan 2011 @ 4:25pm

Happily, I can state that I've been a fan of this guy for quite a long time. I'm always impressed with the ways he comes up with (and the lengths he goes to) to communicate with his fans, and he's quite a good musician in his genre besides.

How many other people do you know of who start in complete obscurity, catapult to the top of their genre's scene in just a year or so, influence the genre in such a way that EVERYONE borrows sounds from them, and goes on tour around the world making millions of people dance their faces off? Oh, and he STILL maintains complete control over his artistic and musical freedom (making all the artwork and doing everything in his music, short of singing), and dates a Playmate because she first wanted to be with HIM, not the other way around.

Fools just be jealous.
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Bas Grasmayer (profile), 18 Jan 2011 @ 4:27pm

Re:
He occasionally hops on ustream to chat with his fans and he seems like a decent guy ;-) Very humble.

As for the name, it was given to him... apparently he said something about finding a dead mouse in some chat room and then people started calling him "that dead mouse guy". He made it his own through deadmau5, which is just the 'nerdification' of it I guess. Just a random nickname, really. He might have made it when he was a teenager.
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Vain Bitch, 18 Jan 2011 @ 4:51pm

Re: Re: Re:
You! Don�t take my name in ... never mind.
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Ima Fish (profile), 18 Jan 2011 @ 5:22pm

Re: Re:
Anyone who has to explain how to pronounce his nickname is by definition a pretentious dick weed.
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Marcus Carab (profile), 18 Jan 2011 @ 6:28pm

Re: Re: Re:
That's a pretty esoteric standard by which to judge people - and a pretty bold position for a guy who chose the nickname "Ima Fish" :P
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kyle clements (profile), 18 Jan 2011 @ 11:13pm

great line
"The ecosystem can reject you, the ecosystem can move on, the ecosystem doesn't need YOU in order to survive."

I think this is by far the most important lesson that content creators need to keep in mind these days.

Attention is the scarcity, not content. Artists have to earn their audience's attention; they can't just expect an audience to come because they released something. And what this guy does is great!
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The eejit (profile), 19 Jan 2011 @ 2:10am

Re: Re:
No, we're not freetards,w e'rer just ebing given what we want: deadmau5's ePeen.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jan 2011 @ 5:53am

Re:
How about: let the marketing suits do their marketing in their own way and leave his personal stuff alone?

"Stop putting a fucking dollar sign on every goddamned thing on this planet"
-courtesy of Mr.Hicks.

Yeah, really, it's THAT simple.
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Bas Grasmayer (profile), 19 Jan 2011 @ 7:43am

Re: Re: Re:
To be honest, I don't think most people have any doubt about how to pronounce his nickname. Especially the ones that grew up with leetspeak (13375p34k). ;-)
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vivaelamor (profile), 19 Jan 2011 @ 1:23pm

Re: Re: Re: Re:
"To be honest, I don't think most people have any doubt about how to pronounce his nickname. Especially the ones that grew up with leetspeak (13375p34k). ;-)"

I dunno, I wouldn't automatically pronounce it dead mouse and I definitely 'grew up with leetspeak'. To me, that would be like actually saying 'rolling on the floor laughing' offline, or calling me 'vivaelamor' just because that's what I use online.

I always say Linux the 'wrong' way because my pronunciation of Linus is different to the Finnish pronunciation. Text to speech is a weird thing.
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vivaelamor (profile), 19 Jan 2011 @ 1:25pm

Re: Re: Re:
"Anyone who has to explain how to pronounce his nickname is by definition a pretentious dick weed."

How do you know the instruction came from him? He didn't write the article, it could have been mere observation.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Jan 2011 @ 3:17am

I think the pronunciation of his name is made easier by the fact his logo is a big mouse.

As for the name being geeky, It could be worse, he could have called himself 57005maus
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Bas Grasmayer (profile), 24 Jan 2011 @ 4:45am

Re:
Oh I think geeky's not a bad thing. Actually, usually I think it's a great thing ;-)
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Feb 2011 @ 1:01pm

Dead Mao 5 has over 2 million Loserbook friends? Big deal, I have 1 million and I don't even have an account.

Nothing against Dead Mao 5, but musicians should stop wasting their time on the Inter-tubes get to work cranking out more & better music.
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Sacredjunk, 2 Apr 2014 @ 9:14pm

Re: Re:
He joined a chatroom where the nickname could have a max of 8 characters, hence he shortened the end
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