by Musicmon
08/12/2009
Family Time has been released 100 days ago on May, 5th 2009!
Like many fans of Ziggy Marley’s music, I waited for the release of Family Time with a mixture of excitement and uncertainty of what to expect from this latest effort. One never knows which direction Ziggy will take with each new musical project. Will it be Reggae, Folk, Rock, Spiritual, who knows?
Leading up to this project, Ziggy began dropping hints over a year ago that a children’s record was on his mind and the hints started to become reality when he would do one-off acoustic shows and play songs like, “Family Time”, which would later become the title track and “Wings Of An Eagle”.
Upon first hearing them, I would think to myself “where is the Reggae flavor” and then say to myself, “well, that’s Ziggy.”
So, May 5, 2009 arrived and I went to Barnes and Noble to pick up physical copies, 1 for me and another for a colleague’s child. I could not wait for the pre-order from Amazon. The cashier at Barnes and Noble said, “A lot of people are really digging this CD.”, while pointing to “Family Time.” I smiled. I get back to my car and began listening to the CD.
By the way, it is evident there was a lot of thought put into the creation of the artwork. The title track went from good to great with the added vocals of his daughter Judah. My sense is that Ziggy was saying “This IS a children’s CD.” The next track, “I Love You Too”, came out of nowhere and simply blew me away. I had to rewind! This is a straight up Reggae song that has all the building blocks that go into the production of a classic Reggae tune. It has great drums, bass, organs, catchy lyrics, and smart back-up vocals. This should be the 2nd single. For us Reggae fans, it is great to know that Ziggy is still a Reggae artist.
Now, what does this mean for Ziggy?
First, it has put him back in position as a prominent player on the Reggae music scene. The genius outcome behind this “children’s” album is that it will be listened to by even more adults than any of his recent releases. This is clear by the chart success on not only the Kids Chart, but also on the Reggae charts. The customer reviews of the cd on Amazon provide proof that Ziggy accomplished his mission to deliver a high quality product.
Second, Family Time will expand and solidify Ziggy’s growing fan base. He will re-capture the fans that got to know him from his Conscious Party days, their kids, and their kid’s friends. This is simply great advertising at work in a very organic way…a real domino effect.
Third, the success of Family time provides a lot of flexibility for where he takes his career in the future. It is now clear that Ziggy has multi-generational appeal and this was already being showcased as the 2009 Summer tour was actually 3 tours in 1; adult shows with Rock/Reggae group, 311, headline kid shows in selected cities where he has a strong base, and in-store appearances at several Barnes and Noble stores across the US.
This is comprehensive multi-level marketing being implemented simultaneously with precision. How many Reggae artists have even attempted this and successfully pulled it off? I would venture to say, not many. With this effort, Ziggy has demonstrated that he now understands the power of marketing a product. His team has hired a PR firm, which seems to understand the vision for the package, and set-up Family Time with at least 4 months of lead time that penetrated the target audience with abandon.
It was simply one of the best product launches I have witnessed. The only issue with the launch was the over-reliance on on-line distributors and limited focus on brick and mortar retailers…they still matter in the current music industry. There still needs to be more focus on the Best Buys and other land based retailers.
For now, I will wait for the next Ziggy Marley headline tour to see how he will mix the Family Time music with the rest of the catalog. Of course, there will be surprises…That’s Ziggy!
