Firstly, let me set the record straight. I love ninjatune. I love it to bits. If I could I’d hug it and love it and call it George.
But I digress.
Recently, I’ve seen that Ninjatune’s Mr Scruff has recently started a new project entitled Ninja Tuna (btw, I have a ninja tune t-shirt. It shows a tuna fish wearing a ninja bandanna. I know, ninjatune are the best). What is project Ninja Tuna? From the ninjatune website:
As any fool knows, Mr Scruff is more than just a DJ/producer. Now the Mancunian maverick is to launch a new venture: NINJA TUNA. Instead of a traditional album campaign, over the next 18 months Ninja Tuna will release various types of Scruff ephemera, intramedia and post-prandial devicing – music, clothing, merchandise, art, technology, widgets, wall vinyls, videos, refrigeration devices, you bloody name it. If we can fit a wobbly cartoon of a potato person on it and render it with the production values of a space shuttle mission, then it might just happen.
Just to ease you into things, release number one in this new venture is the most traditional – a single on which Scruff shows that all his music-making virtues are intact. Funny, funky, musically warm and astute, but with some of that cartoonish funfair atmosphere that makes every Scruff release a celebration, “Donkey Ride” is a collaboration with longtime cohort Quantic and pianist Andy Kingslow. Meanwhile, “Giant Pickle” slaps the biggest hip hop break up against hi-life keyboards and moody strings for the most moving ode to large vegetables killed by vinegar since…. erm, well maybe it’s a first. Unfeasible bass and cowbell snaps, this will move the floor. It’s not for us to say where….
Ninja Tuna – fishy business in an age of watered-down flava. Get collecting…Ninja Tuna 01 released 12th May.
But where are they going wrong? Well, there’s a couple of things. Firstly take a look at these search results. I know, I know, the single isn’t out yet, the project has only just launched. But surely it’s worth having something available to the search engines so that they can rank a page for ninja tuna (btw, I anticipate this page may well end up ranking for a [ninja tuna] search but obviously bear in mind that before I wrote this post it didn’t rank for it. Yagetme?).
Secondly, why isn’t there any link on the ninjatune site (or the mr scruff site) for me to link to about this story? If someone did want to blog about this event (like I’m doing now) I have nowhere to link to for this story 
So, there’s a couple of problems, sure, but loads of music people suck at this online marketing thingamajig. Why all the fuss about these Ninja enabled Tunas? Well if you read the quote above, one of the drives for the Ninja Tuna project is “intramedia”, “technology” and “widgets” - sounds pretty web 2.0 to me. And if you’re going to go after web 2.0 then you should frickin go after it! Let that fat little wobbly cartoon person loose on the web 2.0 world and take it by storm. Social media loves the kind of kitsch, slightly daft and adorable cartoon drawing niche and so I think mr scruff could do really well in this space with some creative games, cartoons, story boards etc. Couple that with the album sales and music sales to back it up so the yanks can chip their $0.02 in and you’ve got yourself a recipe for ninjatune to break america. Something which I don’t think has really happened yet (though I may be way off on this one so please forgive me).
All in all, what it seem to me is that Ninjatune have their heart in the right place by pushing online marketing and trying to move away from the traditional album sales, but that they’re implementing it in a slightly backwards fashion.
Ninjatune boys, if you’re listening, I know a thing or two about being Ninja and a thing or two about online marketing. Gimme a shout if you’re interested, I’d love to chat (tom at distilled dot co dot uk).
