How the Mercury Prize winner is maximizing the Internet to introduce himself to the world
When the 2013 Barclaycard Mercury Prize winner was announced on October 31, everyone from netizens to the people on the streets all have one question in mind: Who in the world is James Blake?
James Blake and his album Overgrown surprised the British Isles when he emerged as the unexpected winner of this year’s Mercury Prize award. Odds makers were in frenzy, and Blake’s win became even more shocking as it trumped the more popular shortlisted nominees like David Bowie and the Arctic Monkeys. In fact, popular betting site, Betfair, pitched in that while Laura Mvula and Laura Marling are the punters’ odds-on favourites, the Mercury Prize nevertheless have earned a reputation of favouring outside chances and being too unpredictable. This makes Blake not an exemption but a rule at the Mercury Prize. But be reminded that Overgrown is already Blake’s second studio album, and the electronic artist has been around the music scene since 2009.
It goes without saying that Blake has a lot of introducing to do to the world. But apart from the buzz that his Mercury Prize win (and his recent Grammy nomination for Best New Artist) has created, how is he making his presence felt on the World Wide Web? Here are the giant leaps that Blake has taken, from his personal website to his social media accounts.
JamesBlakeMusic.com
Blake’s personal website JamesBlakeMusic.com shows how he’s maximizing his online footprint to promote himself and his craft. His homepage alone reinforces his elite status as a Mercury Prize winner by placing the Mercury Album of the Year label on the page’s rightmost side. A commendable aspect of his personal site is its background. Instead of using a standard black layout, Blake utilizes his music videos as the background template of his website. The MTV isn’t embedded from any video-sharing site like YouTube; the music video automatically and seamlessly plays from any page on the website, giving visitors a unique audio-visual experience of Blake’s award-winning music.
Other features of Blake’s website include sections where fans can buy his albums, singles and EPs, track the schedule of his concert tours, and follow his social media accounts. At the homepage, his team even set up links on how guests can download his songs on iTunes and Google Play. Indeed, JamesBlakeMusic.com is a one-stop platform for fans to enjoy the music of and interact with their favorite music artist.
James Blake on social media
Another arena that James Blake has been promoting himself aggressively is the field of social media. From his Facebook and Twitter pages to his YouTube and Soundcloud channels, Blake regularly updates his social media accounts with posts regarding his singles, EPs, gigs and even his personal itineraries. For instance, it was on his Facebook page that Blake on February 7 this year announced the release date of “Overgrown.” His social media accounts also sport a single profile photo and black template design, which is another sign of the consistency and organization of his online campaign. Unfortunately, though, Blake isn’t responsive to comments and tweets on his social media accounts. But he is doing a great deal of retweets on his Twitter page.