• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, October 6, 2010

To Razorfish's roster of services including strategy and planning, interaction design, emerging media and social influence marketing add quasi-music label. In a novel project, the digital agency is throwing its promotional power behind indie pop artist AM, who released his latest album, Future Sons & Daughters, earlier this year and has gained a following through air play on taste-making radio stations like KCRW.

Now Razorfish is taking on the task of expanding his modest-but-loyal audience by connecting AM with potential corporate sponsors, building out his social media presence and co-sponsoring a contest inviting artists to create a poster to advertise the forthcoming vinyl release of his new album. The release has drawn critical praise from outlets including the UK-based Sunday Express and Q Magazine. It has also earned a five-star rating in the iTunes store, but based only on 23 responses.

"We're intrigued by the challenge of helping a promising artist find a national audience given how the traditional recording industry distribution model is broken," said David Deal, vice president of marketing for Razorfish and the would-be A&R man guiding the agency's partnership with AM. And if Razorfish or any of its clients can earn cachet through association with an up-and-coming artist, so much the better.

To that end, AM will appear at the firm's annual client summit next week in Boston, where Deal says he will get exposure to brands such as Axe, Best Buy, Levi Strauss and Mercedes-Benz. Razorfish is also streaming his music to its 2,000 employees worldwide through a Stickybits application allowing people to use their mobile devices to download his music from barcodes embedded in digital post cards.

Razorfish also takes credit for boosting AM's "brand awareness" by helping to build his Facebook fan base of nearly 2,000 and other social media efforts. Deal said he's aware of some relationships between brands and artists, like the Zac Brown Band and Ram Truck, but doesn't know of another partnership like that of Razorfish and AM. "I don't think I've seen any other interactive agencies try a co-branding relationship like this," he said, without disclosing business details of the partnership.

So does this foray into the music business signal a new business line for Razorfish? Perhaps. "We're committed to supporting AM right now. But I wouldn't rule out doing more promotion of artists depending on our experience with AM," said Deal. "Our approach with AM is typical of how we try new ideas at Razorfish. We start with a pilot and learn from it." He added that it's even possible a more formal offering like Razorfish Music could eventually begin to focus on branding work for emerging artists.

In one sense, the agency's music world ambitions link back to its early days when it launched Razorfish Studios in 1997 as a creative arm to produce original film, magazine and television content. But that was before a series of ownership changes for Razorfish, now part of Publicis. Not everyone can remain an indie.