brand-e

Online radio outfit Pandora is aiming to connect brands, bands and fans at SXSW with live branded experiences at the Pandora Discovery Den in Austin.

UK digital music revenues – from online downloads, subscriptions, ad-supported services and mobile – now account for more than a third of the market’s recorded music turnover, up from 27% in 2010, says the BPI, which has reported £282 million in digital music sales for the market last year.

To celebrate Valentine’s Day, UK fashion brand Mulberry tasked six up-and-coming duos/bands to cover their favourite British love songs. Cue performances from Summercamp, Big Deal, Jamie N Commons, The Do, Citizens, and Tribes.

Converse has unveiled four design concepts from its footwear collaboration with Gorillaz. The styles, from the spring 2012 collection, combine the Chuck Taylor All Star silhouette with the band’s legendary graphic images from designer Jamie Hewlett.

The camouflage print, taken from the cover of the band’s self-titled debut, is the signature design for the collection. The military theme is also featured on a black/brown canvas hi-top shoe featuring an image of the famous Pazuzu character.

Thanks to CBS.com, Grammy.com and the Grammy Live app for the iPad and iPhone, the 54th Grammy Awards set a new social TV record with more than 13 million social media comments, topping the record best from last week’s Super Bowl, writes Maria Stadtmueller.

The Grammy Live iPad App was the leading free entertainment iPad App on Sunday, with viewers downloading it for exclusive access to live videos, blogs, tweets, official news and behind-the-scenes cameras.

Google Music teamed up with T-Mobile to give orchestral indie rock band The Family Crest the chance to impress at a private estate in the Hollywood Hills as part of the search giant’s Magnified Artists programme, writes Mark Terry.

The Family Crest was given the promotional opportunity to perform in front of industry tastemakers and music’s biggest names, among them Corinne Bailey Rae, Herbie Hancock, Punch Brothers, Don Felder, My Morning Jacket and The Decemberists.

Artist will.i.am – aka Intel’s director of creative innovation – is gearing up for world tour as part of the Intel Ultrabook Project, writes Mark Terry. The 12-city, 12-month tour, which will kick off in Mexico City at the end of the month, will deliver a dozen original pieces of music inspired by the cities will.i.am visits, and 10,000 downloads of each piece of music will be available exclusively on the Intel.com website.

Converse’s move to create its own Brooklyn–based recording studio, Rubber Tracks, to give unsigned bands a leg up chimed with the brand-e Campaigns Panel in 2011, writes Steve Mullins

“This is great example of a brand offering something to a select few of its audience which is of real benefit… but also of genuine interest to the wider fans of Converse, who won’t actually create their own music,” says Lawrence Weber of The Brooklyn Brothers. “It’s great stuff.”