Joe Satriani

"Stripped x Three" Backing Tracks Release

Custom Merch Package

Goal: Sell out a Direct to Fan (D2F) product to Joe’s hardcore fan base

Joe Satriani wanted to release 3 albums worth of backing tracks with his lead guitar stripped off, serving an unmet demand from guitar-playing fans. The release was approved by Joe’s label to be done independently, which meant we had to be very creative and efficient without traditional marketing resources. The compilation represents three albums of backing tracks released years apart from each other spanning 16 years: “Is There Love In Space” from 2004, “Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards” from 2010, and 2020’s “Shapeshifting”.

We created an original “Express Yourself” campaign and enlisted Joe’s guitar-shredding friends, as well as up-and-coming musicians on Instagram, to partner in creating their own performances on top of songs of their choosing from the collection.

This provided a number of opportunities:

  • Allowed Joe’s friends to have fun playing over his music
  • Gave us an ongoing series of strong video content to market the release
  • Tapped into a huge established fan base of other artists, including Steve Vai, Phil Collen (Def Leppard), Sammy Hagar, Bumblefoot, Phil Campbell (Motörhead), Lari Basilio, and others.
  • Showcase up-and-coming guitarists who could be stand-ins for the target demographic – if they can do it, so can I!

We also:

Created all visual assets, including a page on SATRIANI.COM and banners for ads

Coordinated cross-posts with all participating artists (to most effectively reach their audiences)

Created monthly social media reports summarizing impact

The packaging also came with a replica Joe Satriani Ibanez signature guitar USB stick and custom case, so we also included additional video content from Joe showing it off.

Results:

As desired, the USB sold out completely.

With a very modest budget, this campaign:

  • Created 18 videos of artists jamming over Joe’s backing tracks
  • 3,624,206 total series reach
  • 399,544 series engagements
  • 1,047,035 YouTube views

Equally important was that Joe’s friends had a great time sharing their love for his music, fans loved seeing it, and other guitarists were encouraged to play along and continue to use Joe’s music to expand their own musical path.

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