Britney Badge

"There are two kind of people in this world. The ones who entertain, and the ones that observe. Well I'm a put-on-a show-kind of girl." - Britney Spears, Circus

Have been checking out Britney's site since seeing her on last week's X-Factor. Admitedly she doesn't write her own blog (her street team from different cities do that), but there's an opp to listen to all tracks off her new album (full length); a video of her introducing the site; exclusive videos from her Bday celebrations at G.A.Y; YTube vids of her Good Morning America medley, polls asking which song fans think she'll release next off Circus [the album]; back stage photos of her at dance rehearsals; and they promised to put the best YT video responses from fans up there too [and did]. They even gave you access to her iTunes librabry for a week.

As someone who's still as much of a fan now as when she came out when I was a wee 13 year old, I know how much fans appreciate stuff like this. (And see how insightful it was that they recognise people ALWAYS try and predict the next release - will they even put the power in the fans hands to decide that outcome?) Whilst at Uni people were asking what the music industry's answer was to P2P file sharing of music; and seeing this site - and what Radiohead did earlier this year - is kind of the answer.

Her management have woken up to what's required digitally to market her latest release, I wonder what she makes of it all? After all there's a certain vulnerability about releasing so much extra content when you're an artist. Gone are the days the public only saw picture perfect Vogue shoots and album covers of our idols. Still if you're going to have the occasional 'bad' photo, may as well keep it real on your own blog. My favourite thing, is the below badge.

As a final thought it occured to me that like campaigns, albums (or any entertainment property) are better when one creative idea ties everything together: Britney's Circus, Madonna's Confessions from the Dancefloor, Ricky Gervais' Animals. Next time I'm working something new, I'll try and ask 'if it [the brand/ government campaign] were a pop star on tour - what would it's tour theme be?'.

And yes - I did actually get tickets if you're wondering - will perfect learning the shimmying dance moves of Womanizer for June!