Sam Bush Television: A Webcasting Success Story

Bluegrass/newgrass star Sam Bush had a challenge. His CD 'Circles Around Me' was released in the late fall of 2009, a time when he'd be off the road for several months. How could he and his label Sugar Hill Records keep a spotlight on the album after the initial reviews got published? How could they create a sales story to lead into the spring/summer festival season? The answer was Sam Bush Television, a branded weekly drop of high-value video exclusively at SamBush.com, promoted by concerted efforts across social media. The webisodes included live in-studio performances, with song-by-song commentary from Sam, plus a multi-part biographical interview, a tour of Sam's extensive LP collection and his life's collection of instruments, plus more. Sugar Hill retained Lotos Nile Media to format and promote each Wednesday upload. String Theory Media was hired to produce the video. The results were regular surges of web site traffic on Wednesdays that held into the weekend and higher-than-usual album sales for a release from that season. At this case-study session, String Theory Media founder Craig Havighurst describes the SBTV experience as a model for supporting sales and awareness through documentary meta-content.