Now Play It: Rock Star Music Lessons
Re-launch of the award-winning online music tutorial service where the teachers are the original artists
Project:
Now Play It
Client:
Universal Music Group
Services:
Concept Development, Creative Direction, Video Production, Content Creation
Black Paint founder Adam Alexandroni, was part of the team that launched the original service in 2006.
The concept was simple. Rock Star music lessons.
With tutorial content accessed via a pay-per-download website, it featured over a 1000 hours of tutorial content from artists including Blur, Paul McCartney, The Pixies, Blondie and Deep Purple and won multiple awards.
The re-launch is less a client / brand brief. This is an initiative to build a business as a Joint Venture with Universal Music.
Background & Concept:
In 2006 the launch of Now Play It, was a breath of fresh air for a struggling music business
At the time, the industry was seeing a decline in revenues from physical product sales largely due to file-sharing platforms like Napster. In those commercially challenging times Now Play It, created a new revenue stream for labels, artists and publishers, who all received royalties for downloads.
It was also loved by artists. More than just teaching the chords to songs, it gave them a platform to talk about their craft, approach to song writing and even recount a few Rock’n’Roll anecdotes in long-form videos aimed at fans and people who play music for fun.
It quickly got a lot of attention in the press and won multiple awards.
The old and the new. Now Play It content from the new look service and a shot of guitar teacher Paul McCartney, from the original 2007 incarnation of the service
Content from the new Now Play It. Filmed in New York
And Paul McCartney teaching on the original Now Play It. Filmed in London back in 2007
Background & Concept:
Despite the awards and popularity amongst artists and fans, in 2006 Now Play It, was a service commercially too far ahead of its time. Why?
In 2006 there was no Apple Music or Spotify and YouTube was only one year old. For most people, the internet was somewhere you got stuff for free not somewhere you consumed content, let alone paid for it.
Fast forward to 2020 and people shop online as readily as they purchase in shops. 3 out of 4 Americans subscribe to at least one online video platform. And a swathe of other tuition services, such as Masterclass, have come to market off the back of huge rounds of investment capital whilst millions of people are watching ‘learn to play’ content on YouTube.
The time feels right to re-launch the service and we will update with more news as it develops.
Winner of: DMA - Best Digital Service / Music Week - Best Digital Achievement / W3 - Gold Awards / Webby Award Nominee
a brilliantly executed idea
a slick, anecdotal update of a form of rock schooling already flourishing on the internet
a modern equivalent of Bert Weedon’s famous Play in a Day tutorial book
