It’s so crazy how the internet impacts many of the marketing + design decisions of today’s artists and musicians. The drive for SEO, search engine optimization, is important for musicians to be able to differentiate their products, and make sure consumers can find their music+web presence without much noise. As a blog that relies on artists to give me their digital media for free, I appreciate anything an artist can do to make sure my blog / their product will get more google hits from ‘random ass people’ trying to find info / leaks / free mp3s from a band. (Wonder if I really deserve ad money for my voice/reach, or if I blogs should be ‘profit sharing’ with artists).

Artists can utilize a lot of fun tricks to make sure their bands + albums + songs are SEOed. Pick a band name that no one else has so that it will show up first in google (Grizzly Bear and Panda Bear seem to be actually competing against real bears for google hits). Pick an album name that is a made up word that no1 has ever even typed. Collaborate with artists who have a deeper history within google to get more ‘goog cred.’ Name a song after some phrase that will get you accidental google hits. Put a Jonas Brother in your music video so that the Google algorithm escalates your band’s importance according to ‘the system.’

Not sure how google works, but there are apparently ‘trained professionals’ who will help you ‘trick google’ into thinking ur site / brand is important. I guess it is important for businesses since so many consumers make random, under-informed decisions just because they ‘trust google.’

M.I.A. recently named her new album “

”, which is supposed to spell out MAYA, except using forward and back slashes. It seems like this was ’something kewl’ to do in order to exploit typography + the modern usage of slashes in order to signify the directory-based lifestyle that we live on the web.

However, as ‘clever’ as this might be typographically, I wonder if it is a ‘complete disaster’ for the sake of Search Engine Optimization. I attempted to google the album name, and I came up with no results. It seems like the only thing that the search engine can pick up is the “Y” utilized in album name. Not really ’sure’ about how google / html / php / the internet language works, but it seems like the “slashes” in the name aren’t picked up as being part of a typographical gimmick.

Maybe her new album is some sort of marketing gimmick for Yahoo.

Even tried to do a twitter search to see what sort of ‘live buzz’ on the album was going down.

Do u know if it is a good thing if your album is ungooglable?
Will google eventually ‘pick up’ on this backslash + forward slash error?
Can M.I.A. call the Google CEO and tell him to ‘index her shit’?
Does n e 1 know how google works? Is there like an old guy who has to go through a file cabinet 2 find results for you every time you search for something?

Sorta reminds me of when Justice named their album “†”, then had to give it the alternate name “Cross” just to make sure every1 could google it.

Do u think indie bands are ‘trying too hard to be alt’ by giving their albums typographically interesting names, or do they need to just ‘let google drive their decisions’?
Will M.I.A. be forced to change her album name when people can’t google it / search iTunes for it / search Amazon for it?
Will M.I.A. go on an ‘anti-google twitter tirade’ within the next 2 months?
Do you feel like your core fan base will buy/DL the album no matter how difficult it is to get to, but you have to make sure that ‘new markets’ of lazy fans can easily find your album?
Are ’special characters’ too gimmicky to be utilized in album names?
Should blogs be ‘pissed’ at M.I.A. for not making her new album more google-friendly?
If M.I.A.’s album doesn’t sell well, can she blame it on Google for failing to index her progressive album name?
Is SEO ‘bullshit’?
If u can’t use google to find an album, will it be impossible for the album to leak?
What are the ultimate google-driven indie music decisions of all time?
Are artists + businesses “constrained’ by having to consider the googlability of their brand, or is the ’search engine’ a tool that has helped every1 access more information + opportunities for commerce than ever?

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