Alizée ads 30 seconds long will air on Boston, U.S.A. radio station

[Scruffydog777]

On June 14th, A radio station, Magic 106.7 in Boston, Massachusetts ( http://www.magic1067.com/ ) will play over the course of the next two weeks 48 commercials, 30 seconds long each.with the first 25 seconds being a cut from one of Alizée's songs and the last 5 seconds will consist of an announcer saying "learn about Alizee at Alizee America.com and they will also spell out the name Alizee. The 48 commercials will consist of 8 songs from the Gourmandises, MCE era exclusively and I'll get into why later. The 8 songs will be,
I'm fed up
I'm not twenty
Amelie (English)
Youpidoo (English)
A Contre Courant
Ella Ella
Lou ou Toi
Hey Amigo

Here is what they will sound like. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWisIGb9F5Y

As for why we are posting these commercials? We've debated in AA for some time now different ways of promoting Alizée in the U.S. giving away cd's, posting flyers, calling radio stations to get them to play her music, contacting magazines, tv shows, encouraging them to do a story on Alizée and nothing has really worked. We've gained a few fans here and there, but never anything to a noticable extent. I've been preaching in the past few months that we should try and do something on the radio.

I suggested advertising, getting a radio station to play some of her music. Nobody knew the first thing about how to go about this. We did discuss what songs to play, what sections of songs, what cities to target, what kind of radio stations and really couldn't reach any kind of agreement on anything. So we were getting no where.

I was determined this was probably our best and maybe our last chance of getting Alizée's music heard on a large scale here, so I was going to find a way to make it happen. I especially wanted to do something like this to thank Alizee for what she did for us at the autograph session in Paris this past march.

So I decided to take it upon myself to make this happen.

I contacted about a dozen stations. 3 in the city where I'm from, Boston, 3 more in this area but in smaller cities. 4 more in cities in nearby states. Then I also did a little research on the internet to find some college towns far away from big cities, that have a local radio station. Thought it would be a great venue for her music. Came up with Iowa city, Iowa and Ithaca, New York. Contatced radios stations in both those areas. Of all the ones I contacted, I only heard back from 2. One was a station in Boston, but it was clear with the amount of money I was offering ($3,000.00) they only wanted me to advertise on their web page, and not the radio.


Then I recieved a call from Magic. Best part was they were enthusiastic about it (maybe they're desperate for money though it doesn't seem so with the rates they charge). I talked to a young woman by the name of Jessica (kind of ironic in a way). Very pleasent woman to talk to. I initialy told them I was doing this to promote our forum, thinking they might think it was a little odd to use older songs to promote her, but the truth of the matter is it's for promoting Alizée. As far as the songs being older ones. I could not have cared less that it was close to seven years old. In fact I've probably listened to that song more than any other song in my life.

At first I thought the best songs to use were her songs in English, mainly because few people in this country speak a second language and one thing I've learned in my 3 years since finding out about Alizee is people enjoy the music a hell of lot more if they can understand what the singer is saying. So I initially asked that just 5 songs be played, the top 4 from the list above, and La Isla Bonita. Now we all know the English versions of some of these songs didn't make much sense and as Alizee said herself, some of these songs were laughed at, but the beauty of short commercials like these is you can pick a section of a song that does make sense (even that wasn't that easy in some cases).

But after discussion in the forum, I decided to drop probably her most beautiful English song, La Isla Bonita. Mainly because I thought people might confuse her with Madonna, and another thing I worried about if that was the case, then they might think some of the other commercials were by Madonna.

So after dropping LIB, I figured I would add one French song. Now the natural choice would probably be Les Collines. But this is Boston. We have a bitter sports rivalry with New York city. If we were to win some fans with the English songs, we could lose them in the blink of an eye if they knew the song was based on something that invloved New York. I like the rest of the album, but I don't think it has the real capture power of the songs of the MCE-Gour era. So after long and careful consideration, I decided to use A Contre Courant. One of the main reasons besides it being a beautiful song is there is a section in the part I'm using that's fairly easy to follow, even for English speaking people. For example,

Il me panique In my panic
D'electrocution of electrocution
Mon insolant my isulation
C'est la passion Is the passion

When I first spoke of including a French song, Jessica sounded a little taken aback, which worried me, so I asked her about it the next day and asked if there was a problem. She said no, no, it was just a misunderstanding, there was no problem with the use of French songs. Well if that was the case I felt well if we have 36 slots (as originally planned) it would make sense to have 6 songs to divvy it up evenly. So I searched for another French song. Couldn't decide on one. Thought if I could make a couple of more choices, it would make it a lot easier. So I upped the ante.Now we had 48 slots. If each song played 6 times that woud mean, I'd have to choose 3 more songs. Those were tremendously tough choices to make.

I thought about PLP, a beautiful song, but to tell you the truth, I don't think it has the same capture power of her earlier songs. Would have loved to use Moi Lolita, but our cultures are different and I think a lot of people here would be upset hearing a song about a youn girl being a lolita. So I selected first Ella Ella. It's actually down the list a ways of my favorite songs of her, but that short section of the song I'm using from this song, is one of my favorite sections.The last 2 were Lou ou Toi, a beautiful, beautiful song in my opinion, then Hey Amigo. I was real torn between this and L'Alize, but thought maybe the use of the word amigo, might spark the interest of the Spanish speaking population here. It's reaching but I had to find some way to decide between the two songs.

This may not be the best choice of radio stations. I had mainly targeted radio stations with a variety format and this station plays soft rock. I thought about top 40 stations, but if I used a top 40 station, I thought if people heard these songs in Boston and called the station to request they play one, the station would be a lot less likely to play these songs because they're older songs. A variety or soft rock station doesn't care about the age, all they care about is the type of song and I thought these songs would fit in very well with them. I also think a good top 40 station would have rates too high for what I could afford. So most of the stations I contacted had a variety format, but I didn't hear back from them. I heard from Magic, talked with their sales agent named Jessica and kind of thought that it was fate that her name was Jessica. She was very informative and freindly, so this was the station I chose.

She's been great too. I had originally asked that in the last 5 seconds, they say " Learn more about Alizee at AlizeeAmerica.com". They came back and suggested it should be "Learn about Alizee at Alizee America.com", then after that, they're going to say again, this time spelling out her name, "A-L-I-Z-E-E America.com". I was surprised they could squeeze it all into 5 seconds but they said they could.
Then they e-mailed me asking about the pronunciation of her name, wanting to make sure the annoucers get it right. I sent her a short video where Alizee says her own name. So you can see they're really trying to do a good job with this.

So I pretty much financed this on my own. Mainly because I felt strongly about what songs would and wouldn't work and for those of you who think if I had gone to the forum with 3 grand and said if everybody else chips in, we could come up with a really good package. Well I would not be willing to chip in any wheres near as much as I am if it included songs that I thought wouldn't work, Some songs might even do some damage in my opinion, to any good results brought by the other songs.

Another reason for doing this on my own is I look upon it as an experiment. If the results show promise. Then our members wont already be tapped out from donating to this project and will hopefully be able to donate to another project that will do better because of the lessons learned from this one.

Many people in AA have offered to chip in, even though several of them don't agree with the song selections and many of them have offered helpful opinions on how to carry this out. I have to mention Ben insisted I should use music from UEDS, but was still supportive when I said I would do otherwise, so I'd like to think this promotion is by and from AlizéeAmerica, and what we are doing again is in large part a way of thanking her for what she did for us at the Virgin Megastore in Paris this past march.

I've used the songs I selected because I think they have the best capture power. They will do the best job of grabbing peoples attention. They will make them want to go to AlizéeAmerica, to google Alizée, to search for Alizée on Youtube. When they find out that these songs are several years old, they may be disappointed, but if they've gone that far, they will already be hooked. They will also discover the songs of Psych and the songs of UEDS and decide for themselves which they like. Hopefully another by product of this is that maybe a lot of people will call in requesting the stations play some of her full songs. I don't think it's likely, but who knows?

If they do and the station plays some of her English songs, they may get laughed at for the lyrics, but the people who will be laughing are people who wouldn't like her music regardless. To others who hear her
beautiful voice, they wont care and will love the songs just the way they are, and just as much as we do.

Bottom line is we've tried hard to get the U.S. media to give Alizée a chance, and nobody would. Now we are taking things into our own hands. For the first time, within a two week period. Alizée's beautiful voice will be heard by thousands of Americans.

So the great experiment begins June 14th. Will it gain her a few fans, a bunch of fans, or maybe no fans. We'll know by the 28th. The beauty of telling people to go to AlizeeAmerica.com is Ben should be able to tell by the number of hits on the web site if this is having any affect.

You can listen in to the commercials as they are played on their website

http://www.magic1067.com/

I will have a list of the songs to be played on the first day, by late this afternoon. I'll get the other ones a day before they're aired.

One final note. I gave a lot of thought to if this could possibly backfire and maybe even do some damage to her chances of coming here. I can't see how, but I'm sure there will be some who say it will. How can introducing the beautiful voice of Alizée to thousands of people who've never heard her be a bad idea?

[paintballpdh19]

I think it's a wonderfull idea!

[Människöpesten]

^ great job scruff.

[Fall]

wow, did you ever think you were gonna create a thread with that title? :wub:

[VVVACCPLPNLY]

Hmm... There is a lot to think about with this thread, Scruffy, quite a lot indeed...

[MYGOGT]

The fact of the matter is.....Scruffy came , he saw, he kicked some royal butt!
Way to go!

[wasabi622]

Scruffy: "Veni, Vidi, Vici!" :p

[Scruffydog777]

wow, did you ever think you were gonna create a thread with that title? :wub:


No way indeed!

Here are times for monday.

They can vary from the assigned time by up to 5 minutes.

I think it's great that the assigned times for this day are so close together, because they can assign times anywhere from 6 am to 12 pm.


6:44:00PM Youpidoo

8:14:30PM A Contre

10:13:00PM i'm not Twenty

11:14:30PM Ella Ella

[Människöpesten]

going to get lili bombed! YES!

[Van]

Good luck!

[VVVACCPLPNLY]

Ahh, phoque! Man, library closes at 5pm... Damn! :mad: I am going to miss one of the two most important moments in Alizée America history! :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad: :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad: :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad: :mad::mad:

[wasabi622]

Is there any way that I can actually hear it through my radio? I'm thinking because I live so far away.. I'm just going to have to stick to online, right?

[VVVACCPLPNLY]

Most likely, unless you get like a mile tall antenna, and there are no other radio stations on 106.7 within radius!:p

[Ali]

Great effort Scruffy. :) I personally like your song collection and would have done exactly the same thing that you did because I think the songs from Gour.-MCE era are the best. I also think A Contre Courant is a beautiful song. I do think that you should have used Moi Lolita because I think it is such a catchy song and was her biggest hit and what propelled her to stardom. Not all of us American's are that uptight about the lolita thing, it's just a song, then again, I am from a younger generation and is slightly younger than Alizee herself and have a more open mind with respect to learning about other cultures and countries like France, unlike some uptight narrow-minded conservative Republicans. At least people will enjoy the great songs from her past. :)

Even if Alizee doesn't catch on at least you will expose people to French culture and the beautiful country of France and their music, which will broaden people's mind.

[sumi1]

That's so great of you Scruffy to take this initiative. I sincerely wish that this endeavor will yield the desired results :)

[brad]

man i think this is an outstanding idea. can't believe you pulled it off.

personally, i think the two best songs to hook new 'fans' on the radio would be the french "Amelie m'a dit' and 'Tempete' .. but those just happen to be my 2 favorite songs of all time :D (especially the live versions)

great idea, i am really excited to see how it works out!

[RobandSandy]

Scruffy, I just want to ad my personal heartfelt thankyou that you have taken this upon yourself. Any true Alizée fan will feel gratitude. I hope this is a great success. I will be listening. Also, if work does start to pick up and I am able, I will perfectly be willing to support any future effort that I am able to.

[wasabi622]

Do radio stations use caller ID? If not, I'd definitely give them a call. If they do, they'd be like.. who the heck from Illinois is calling us?! :p

[Fèvier]

Do radio stations use caller ID? If not, I'd definitely give them a call. If they do, they'd be like.. who the heck from Illinois is calling us?! :p

some one who just moved and misses the radio station oh so dearly :p

[RobandSandy]

Lilli bit, now Lilli bombed!

[Fall]

Thanks for posting the times Scruffy :)

[Scruffydog777]

Do radio stations use caller ID? If not, I'd definitely give them a call. If they do, they'd be like.. who the heck from Illinois is calling us?! :p

I'm sure they have caller i.d. You can dial *67 then the number and it will show up as a blocked call on the other end. I don't know if it works in all cases but it's worth a try.

For example *67 1 617 555 1212 (that's a fictional number)

[Ali]

Thanks for the info. :)

[Scruffydog777]

Actually I think honesty is the best policy here. If you're outside this area, listen to the music on their web site, then either contact them by phone or e-mail and tell them how much you enjoyed listening to her music on their page and ask them to play some more

When they first sent an initial proposal to me concerning time slots and days for these ads, they did it on a page that had the AlizeeAmerica letter head at the top which they had obviously gotten from this site. I'll post a picture later. So they have obviously been to this site and may be following every post. So I wouldn't try to put one over on them, but do contact them.

[VVVACCPLPNLY]

Put one over on them? Never! ;):rolleyes: But seriously, all us out-of-staters calling and requesting probbly wouldn't produce results. I say let it occur naturally.

[Merci Alizée]

Actually I think honesty is the best policy here. If you're outside this area, listen to the music on their web site, then either contact them by phone or e-mail and tell them how much you enjoyed listening to her music on their page and ask them to play some more

When they first sent an initial proposal to me concerning time slots and days for these ads, they did it on a page that had the AlizeeAmerica letter head at the top which they had obviously gotten from this site. I'll post a picture later. So they have obviously been to this site and may be following every post. So I wouldn't try to put one over on them, but do contact them.

Put one over on them? Never! ;):rolleyes: But seriously, all us out-of-staters calling and requesting probbly wouldn't produce results. I say let it occur naturally.


Yeah, we should let it occur naturally.

Most of us here are going to listen to the songs on their websites, some on radios and naturally we are going to like that. Naturally we want to listen to it again. So, naturally we would request, but using proper methods. If we listen it on the site, then we send an e-mail....

If anyone doesn't like the songs then he/she shouldn't contact the station. :rolleyes:

[paintballpdh19]

No way indeed!

Here are times for monday.

They can vary from the assigned time by up to 5 minutes.

I think it's great that the assigned times for this day are so close together, because they can assign times anywhere from 6 am to 12 pm.


6:44:00PM Youpidoo

8:14:30PM A Contre

10:13:00PM i'm not Twenty

11:14:30PM Ella Ella

cool! i will try to catch them all!!! and someone should tape them so the people who miss them can hear them, and again great job Scruff, you cease to amaze me with ur dedication!

[VVVACCPLPNLY]

I happen to be one who will miss it. Could someone record it? S'il te plaît ?

[User22]

Just posted this on AAm's facebook to get the word out!:

Tune in to Boston Radio Magic 106.7 from June 14th to the 27th to hear Alizée ads sponsored by Alizée America forum leader, Scruffydog777!

30 second samples of songs that will be played are:
I'm fed up
I'm not twenty
Amelie (English)
Youpidoo (English)
A Contre Courant
Ella Ella
Lou ou Toi
Hey Amigo

Magic 106.7 will air 48 commercials, being 30 seconds long each, over the course of the next two weeks.The first 25 seconds will be a cut from one of Alizée's songs and the last 5 seconds will consist of an announcer saying "learn about Alizee at Alizee America.com" and they will also spell out the name Alizee.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks Scruff for making this happen and being so dedicated!!!

[ZshocksZ]

if you have an iphone or ipod touch you can download the radio stations app an listen to it from there.

[Människöpesten]

today's the big day. hopefully we'll get some results.

[Ali]

I hope it really catches on.

[Zeerre]

We are only hours away from a very important moment in Alizée history.

[VVVACCPLPNLY]

Probably the most important moment in AAm history! Does this qualify as more important than 29-3-2010?

[RobandSandy]

Go Alizée!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[User22]

Is anyone recording the commercials? Cause I can once i get home...

[Sir Wood]

Oh my, you've all been busy! I hope everyone would repeat this news through their various social networking sites too. Bonne chance! ;)

[Drake498]

Hey we're all here for the support, cheers to this working and getting the word out ^_^

[lovingalizée]

This is so, so awesome. :wub:

I set my cell alarm to go off 10 minutes before each of those times so I can make sure to listen. :cool: :D

[Fèvier]

This is so, so awesome. :wub:

I set my cell alarm to go off 10 minutes before each of those times so I can make sure to listen. :cool: :D

hey thanks for the idea! although I'd rather forget it than have the alarm go off and know that I am missing the commercial and feel sadden.
just hoping I can listen to at least one! :D

[Människöpesten]

andddd.. i don't get to listen to them stupid warbringer :( but someone record them. do it nao.

[Bigdan]

So ? what happens? When it will be play next ? Tell me !!!

[Scruffydog777]

So ? what happens? When it will be play next ? Tell me !!!

6:44:00PM Youpidoo

8:14:30PM A Contre

10:13:00PM i'm not Twenty

11:14:30PM Ella Ella

These are the time slots for tonight eastern standard time.

Add 6 hours to these times to get Paris time.

[paintballpdh19]

6:44:00PM Youpidoo

8:14:30PM A Contre

10:13:00PM i'm not Twenty

11:14:30PM Ella Ella

These are the time slots for tonight eastern standard time.

Add 6 hours to these times to get Paris time.

cool thanks, i cant miss these!

[Bigdan]

I don't think i'm going to go further Youpidoo... :o

But it's going to be great...

I'm not sure, but, is it played everyday of this week? or only today?


I'm still convince that we must tell some french celebrity magazine this "operation" is under way and give them broadcasting schedule...

[VVVACCPLPNLY]

Very good idea, bd! And yes, they will be played each day, but dfferent times most likely. Scruffy will know what times they will play one day before. Do you have an idea for a good magazine to contact? And the best way to do so? Lillytown has taken notice of our efforts, guys. They have a thread about this. I would post a link, but phone, you know. Could somebody on Lilly town a pc do it please? (it may be on Psychalizée, I saw it like 6 hours ago, can't remember whch French site it was!)

[Bigdan]

Do you have an idea for a good magazine to contact? And the best way to do so?
... (it may be on Psychalizée, I saw it like 6 hours ago, can't remember whch French site it was!)

I already send the news to those editorial staff :

purepeople.fr
closermag.fr
news-de-stars.com
voici.fr
nicematin.fr

:)

And There is already a thread on it on Psychalizée.

:)

[User22]

Woh this is pretty awesome! I am gonna try and record some of these tonight guys. Hopefully it works!

[Människöpesten]

YOU BETTER. cause i'm missing them for this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAPWyQpuL5Q

[VVVACCPLPNLY]

Thanks, bigdan! Like I said, I couldn't remember which French site had the thread for it already. But I promised Psychalizée that I would tell them the times as soon as scruffy posted them. So hopefully he brings us the times for tomorrow this evening!

[lovingalizée]

Got the station up and playing on my computer! :cool:

Forty minutes to go! :D

:wub:

[MYGOGT]

Got the station up and playing on my computer! :cool:

Forty minutes to go! :D

:wub:
Ready and waiting also.

[Scruffydog777]

Sorry guys, the station didn't contact me about tomorrow's times and I was so busy, I didn't have time to call until it was too late. I'll find out early tomorrow and post around 10 am hopefully. It's possible there might be some days where there's none. There's no set amount each day. But there will be a total of 48.

[lovingalizée]

Commercial break! Is this it???

Nope - false alarm. :(

[RobandSandy]

Omg im so excited!!!!!!!

[lovingalizée]

Have never been this excited about a commercial before. lol

"Another continuous hour of soft rock starts right now"???

[Zeerre]

Have never been this excited about a commercial before. lol

"Another continuous hour of soft rock starts right now"???

I was just about to post that I'm :confused: as well.

[lovingalizée]

Scruffydog777, have any idea what's going on?

[Bigdan]

I was just about to post that I'm :confused: as well.

I'm listening too... but...:(

( my brother was working as salesman for a local radio, and if it's the same organisation ... well, nothing is sure about the timings...:p)

[lovingalizée]

Just English-language songs so far. :( :confused:

The anticipation just makes it better, right? :D

[Bigdan]

"Boston... Boston... we have a problem..."


:D

[Scruffydog777]

Just a reminder that actual air time for the commercials can vary up to 5 minutes from the posted time. The first one aired at 6:40 when it was posted at 6:44. If you'd like to hear it, send me your address and I will send you an mp3 file of it.

[lovingalizée]

Just a reminder that actual air time for the commercials can vary up to 5 minutes from the posted time. The first one aired at 6:40 when it was posted at 6:44. If you'd like to hear it, send me your address and I will send you an mp3 file of it.

Really? I started listening at 6:35 ET because I remembered what you said about the five-minute variance. :(

Maybe the online streaming is actually ahead of the on-air broadcast. Well that stinks. I will PM you my e-mail address. Thanks.

ETA: I even posted above at 6:39 ET and had absolutely been listening from that time forward. Oh well.

[Zeerre]

Really? I started listening at 6:35 ET because I remembered what you said about the five-minute variance. :(

Maybe the online streaming is actually ahead of the on-air broadcast. Well that stinks. I will PM you my e-mail address. Thanks.

ETA: I even posted above at 6:39 ET and had absolutely been listening from that time forward. Oh well.

Same here. I started listening around 6:33, just to be on the safe side, and it seems I ended up missing it after all.:(

[MYGOGT]

Is it possible that the ads are only over the air radio ads and that the online stream had something different? You probably guessed that I missed it too.

[Alex]

I've been out for some time due to finals week and final projects, I just wanted to thank you for your awesome unbelievable work you continue on doing! Keep it up, if there is anything we can do in further projects let us know, thanks Scruffy!

[lovingalizée]

Well, on the plus side there is another one coming up soon. And it's my favorite Alizée song too! :D

Is there any chance they are not streaming the Alizée commercials? I know that makes no sense, but I am confused how we all missed it. Well, if the streaming is somehow way ahead of the over-the-air broadcast, the next commercial will be coming up really soon. :cool:

Oh, just saw MYGOGT's comment - yeah, maybe that is what happened. :(

[Zeerre]

Is it possible that the ads are only over the air radio ads and that the online stream had something different? You probably guessed that I missed it too.

That's what I'm thinking as well.

Scruffy, did you hear the ad on the radio, or over the web?

[Scruffydog777]

Seeings how I'm in Boston, I'll try and listent to both and see how they differ.

[User22]

hmmm....This is quite weird. Hopefully this next one in a couple minutes plays online.

[lovingalizée]

I'm guessing it probably played over the air during the self-commercial that the radio station was streaming.

[Scruffydog777]

It looks like the ads can only be heard locally. If anyone would like to hear them, I recorded them in mp3 format and will e mail them to anyone who sends their e mail address to dh777@comcast.net

[Zeerre]

It looks like the ads can only be heard locally.
:(

If anyone would like to hear them, I recorded them in mp3 format and will e mail them to anyone who sends their e mail address to dh777@comcast.net

Wouldn't it be easier for you to upload them to mediafire or something similar?
In that way, you would only have to upload them once, and wouldn't have to respond to each e-mail requesting them individually. Just a suggestion...

[VVVACCPLPNLY]

Well, that would be convenient once all have been played. But until then, e-mail may be best.

[paintballpdh19]

:(



Wouldn't it be easier for you to upload them to mediafire or something similar?
In that way, you would only have to upload them once, and wouldn't have to respond to each e-mail requesting them individually. Just a suggestion...

Good idea, al in one file that we can all download.

[Scruffydog777]

I'll check into that tomorrow. Right now I'm dead tired. Worked last night and have been up all day. Just trying to stay up long enough for last commercial.

[user472884]

Lol... I forgot about the time zone difference, and tuned in 6 minutes late

[wasabi622]

It looks like the ads can only be heard locally. If anyone would like to hear them, I recorded them in mp3 format and will e mail them to anyone who sends their e mail address to dh777@comcast.net

Aww.. I've been sitting here listening to them for about an hour now. I was so excited every time a song ended!!!

:(

[Människöpesten]

:( sad facae.

[radicle]

great!

but, I am now checking their website and see nothing...

Edit:

is there any way to listen to this ads from their website? thanks!

[VVVACCPLPNLY]

No, there doesn't seem to be. Strange. Why would they mask the commercials for non-Boston listeners?

[Zeerre]

No, there doesn't seem to be. Strange. Why would they mask the commercials for non-Boston listeners?

I didn't know they were masking them, are you sure on this?
I just thought that the ads they played online were different than those they played over the airwaves, for everyone including Boston listeners. It actually seems logical, they make twice as much money that way, by selling ads to be played on the radio, and different ads to be played online at the same time.

[Scruffydog777]

Here's the media fire link for all 4 commercials put together


<a href='http://www.mediafire.com/?ycrmyxwmqg1'>http://www.mediafire.com/?ycrmyxwmqg1</a>

[VVVACCPLPNLY]

But scruffy, you heard them online, right? How did you recorc them?

[Scruffydog777]

But scruffy, you heard them online, right? How did you record them?
I was listening to both, but to record them,
I used a cord going from the speaker out port on a radio to the microphone in port on my other desk top.


I just found out the times for tonights commercials (tuesday).


9:14 pm

10:42 pm

11:45 pm

Again times can vary up to 5 minutes.

She didn't say which songs will be playing but I plan on recording them.
and will post them to mediafire.

I talked to Jessica this morning and she said they do place different ads on their web page.

She said the typical web audienc is pretty small, about 5,500 per week, where as for the radio it's 1,400,000, which she said works out to roughly 21,000 listeners during a 15 minute period.

[AlizéeInspired]

Just downloaded and listened to the commercials. Thanks 4 the mediafire link Scruffy :). This is very cool. I really do think a few fans should come out of this :D. I know that 20-25 seconds of Alizée isn't enough for me :p. It sounds good and those interested should be able to find their way to this site and Alizée easily. Two thumbs up bro!

[VVVACCPLPNLY]

Hmm... Guess it's no matter that I can't listen online, then. Thanks for clearing it up, scruffy!

[Människöpesten]

Here's the media fire link for all 4 commercials put together


<a href='http://www.mediafire.com/?ycrmyxwmqg1'>http://www.mediafire.com/?ycrmyxwmqg1</a>

link isn't working :(

[Merci Alizée]

link isn't working :(

It's working for me.

[woohoo]

yeah I tried 5 times before it worked.

[Sir Wood]

I was listening to both, but to record them,
I used a cord going from the speaker out port on a radio to the microphone in port on my other desk top.


I just found out the times for tonights commercials (tuesday).


9:14 pm

10:42 pm

11:45 pm

Again times can vary up to 5 minutes.

She didn't say which songs will be playing but I plan on recording them.
and will post them to mediafire.

I talked to Jessica this morning and she said they do place different ads on their web page.

She said the typical web audienc is pretty small, about 5,500 per week, where as for the radio it's 1,400,000, which she said works out to roughly 21,000 listeners during a 15 minute period.

Thanks Scruffydog777, now I know why I've not heard anything online. Congrats on the 1,400,000 exposure! :) BTW, I intend to email them and maybe see if they'll play the entire song(s). Unlikely, but worth the try. ;)

[paintballpdh19]

BTW, I intend to email them and maybe see if they'll play the entire song(s). Unlikely, but worth the try. ;)

yeah its worth a try, u never kno maybe they'll play a song or two upon request.

[LE_LOUP_DES_STEPPES]

I was listening in and thought I was about to hear the intro to J'en ai marre! and it turned out to be that Coldplay song LOL!!!!

Edit:

It looks like the ads can only be heard locally.

Really scruffy? if so bummer :(

[Scruffydog777]

The schedule for wednesday night will be

Lou ou Toi between 8:11 and 8:21 pm
Youpidoo 9:37 and 10:47 pm
A Contre Courant 10:33 and 10:43 pm
I'm not twenty 11:37 and 11:47 pm

Eastern standard time

[MYGOGT]

I just listened to the first four spots and they definitely will get your attention. Great job on your selections Scruffy.

[wasabi622]

Wow. So I just listened to them..

I don't know how put this clearly into words. But to hear Alizée's songs on the radio like that? In between regular ol' American ads? With an American DJ talking about us? It felt.. so much like a dream coming true.

(Of course, the one that really hit it home with me was the I'm Not Twenty ad. :p)

Great job Scruffy! :)

[Zeerre]

Wow. So I just listened to them..

I don't know how put this clearly into words. But to hear Alizée's songs on the radio like that? In between regular ol' American ads? With an American DJ talking about us? It felt.. so much like a dream coming true.

(Of course, the one that really hit it home with me was the I'm Not Twenty ad. :p)

Great job Scruffy! :)

I agree, it felt so surreal listening to Alizée songs in between other ads, and I'm not twenty is the one that really did it for me as well. (JPVA FTW!)

Thanks for making this happen Scruffy.

[FanDeAliFee]

I'm still convince that we must tell some french celebrity magazine this "operation" is under way and give them broadcasting schedule...

I already send the news to those editorial staff :

purepeople.fr
closermag.fr
news-de-stars.com
voici.fr
nicematin.fr

:)

And There is already a thread on it on Psychalizée.

:)

WONDERFUL idea and execution, BigDan! Where would we be without nos amis français who know the proper media in France to contact? Fooey on anyone who slams "publicity stunts." Publicity is what helps even talented celebrities thrive in a world crammed with information overload.

It's not my place to tell other people how to spend their own money. But I still think the general US music market is too xenophobic to seriously sell foreign language records these days, except maybe Spanish stuff. Had I spent money on North American radio ads, they would have run in Montreal. But I must observe that ads in the US market make for a much better stunt on account of the quixotic factor.

[User22]

1)DocdTV is back cause it seemed like he was gone.
2)1,400,000 Americans being exposed to her:eek:THATS SO AWESOME!!!!
3)I will die once Scruff tells us that people requested some of her songs haha jk'n(although that would just be amazing).
4)Hearing Alizee on the radio sends tingles up my spine:wub:
5)Scruff is amazing....surprise haha

[Scruffydog777]

Here are 2 commercials from the second day of ads. Missed the first one due to technical difficulties


http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ynt0djyrytf

In the past I've been one of Alizée's biggest critics and I may be one of her biggest critics in the future. But there is one thing I deeply believe in and that is the beauty of her voice. I've always believed that much of Alizée's music would be loved here if the media would just give her a chance. We all have differences of how, when, where, with what songs this should be done, but one thing I'm doing with this endeavor is putting my money where my mouth is.

[Fèvier]

well that's 2 for 2 that I've missed so far :(

The schedule for wednesday night will be

Lou ou Toi between 8:11 and 8:21 pm
Youpidoo 9:37 and 10:47 pm
A Contre Courant 10:33 and 10:43 pm
I'm not twenty 11:37 and 11:47 pm

Eastern standard time

hopefully I can make this one :o

[Sir Wood]

I certainly hope folks have sent emails to the station saying how they heard the Alizée commercials and hoping to hear the complete songs!

Here's a response I received from my email:
Hi ,

Usually the songs we add to our playlist have significant airplay in the Boston area and on major Adult Contemporary stations around the US. We don't see that kind of activity right now with Alizee. Hopefully the commercials will help raise awareness with our audience. Meanwhile, I'd like to hear a complete Alizee song - I'm hoping her record company will send me a CD to audition.

Thanks for listening to Magic 106.7.

Mark Laurence
Music Director

And here are the 3 email address I sent to:
Hello everyone. Starting tomorrow (Monday) evening and running for two weeks, Boston radio station Magic 106.7 will be airing 30-second promo spots for Alizée and Alizée America. This is a great opportunity to introduce any family or friends in that area to Alizée. If they like what they hear, please encourage them to contact the station asking for more, or for more information. If you're outside the station's range, you can still tune in online at http://www.magic1067.com/, and shoot them an appreciative email as well. Don Kelley, the director of programming, can be reached at dkelley@magic1067.com; Candy O'Terry, the assistant program director, at coterry@magic1067.com; and Mark Laurence, the music director, at mlaurence@magic1067.com. Be sure to tell them where you're from, and how you heard about them and Alizée! More information about this promotion can be found on our forum. Thanks for reading! -AlizéeAmerica.com

[Merci Alizée]

I certainly hope folks have sent emails to the station saying how they heard the Alizée commercials and hoping to hear the complete songs!

Here's a response I received from my email:
Hi ,

Usually the songs we add to our playlist have significant airplay in the Boston area and on major Adult Contemporary stations around the US. We don't see that kind of activity right now with Alizee. Hopefully the commercials will help raise awareness with our audience. Meanwhile, I'd like to hear a complete Alizee song - I'm hoping her record company will send me a CD to audition.

Thanks for listening to Magic 106.7.

Mark Laurence
Music Director

And here are the 3 email address I sent to:

It's really good to know that they are interested in knowing about her. If it is so, then a CD should be sent to him.

[FanDeAliFee]

...Here's a response I received from my email:
Hi ,

Usually the songs we add to our playlist have significant airplay in the Boston area and on major Adult Contemporary stations around the US. We don't see that kind of activity right now with Alizee. Hopefully the commercials will help raise awareness with our audience. Meanwhile, I'd like to hear a complete Alizee song - I'm hoping her record company will send me a CD to audition.

Thanks for listening to Magic 106.7.

Mark Laurence
Music Director...
It's really good to know that they are interested in knowing about her. If it is so, then a CD should be sent to him.

I'm hardly against sending a radio station a legitimately purchased CD, but doesn't EVERYONE know about YouTube, Rhapsody etc.? And by "everyone" I mean confused jobless teenagers as well as adults who have supposedly long earned a living playing musical recordings.

[VVVACCPLPNLY]

Hey, watch it wth the 'confused jobless teenagers' comments. I'll let it slip, because I had an AWESOME day, but please, those comments do hurt. Anyways, I am absolutely sure they know. But being that they are a broadcast station, they of all people can't play her cd's on the air without permission (read the fine print in the nsert, on the case back, and on the disc itself;)), because America has trade agreements with France, and they definitely couldn't download music from Rhapsody and play it, especially if they get it from a file sharing site, or the way I got my mp3's originally.

[Scruffydog777]

Here's tomorrow's schedule for the 17th (Thursday),

8:42 to 8:52 am Ella Ella
8:11 to 8:21 pm I'm fed up
10:36 to 10:46 pm Hey Amigo though the station spelled it Hee Amito
11:38 to 11:48 pm Amelie

[VVVACCPLPNLY]

Hahaha! Hee amito? Way to go! It's not bad, just funny, not like they sepll it over the air.

[User22]

Meanwhile, I'd like to hear a complete Alizee song - I'm hoping her record company will send me a CD to audition.

This won't work since she isn't with her old record company Polydor and Universal....so we can't exactly expect a CD to go to them. Is there a legal way we can buy it for them and send it to them?

[Edcognito]

And I love him for it!

Sweet move Scruff!


Ed:cool:

Edit: Scruff - Ithaca is a *BIG* college town... That said, airing ads here in june, july and august wouldn't be a good idea... Most of the students will be gone for the summer. Think I'll have to take a look at the local stations and see which would be good to air ads on...


Ed:cool:

[paintballpdh19]

I certainly hope folks have sent emails to the station saying how they heard the Alizée commercials and hoping to hear the complete songs!

Here's a response I received from my email:
Hi ,

Usually the songs we add to our playlist have significant airplay in the Boston area and on major Adult Contemporary stations around the US. We don't see that kind of activity right now with Alizee. Hopefully the commercials will help raise awareness with our audience. Meanwhile, I'd like to hear a complete Alizee song - I'm hoping her record company will send me a CD to audition.

Thanks for listening to Magic 106.7.

Mark Laurence
Music Director

And here are the 3 email address I sent to:

i think we should all email asking to hear more alizee songs because we heard the commercial :)... its only bending the truth.

[Zeerre]

Here's tomorrow's schedule for the 17th (Thursday),

8:42 to 8:52 am Ella Ella
8:11 to 8:21 pm I'm fed up
10:36 to 10:46 pm Hey Amigo though the station spelled it Hee Amito
11:38 to 11:48 pm Amelie

Scruffy, will you continue to record and upload the ads?
I know most of those have already been aired, with the exception of I'm fed up, and I would really like to listen to I'm fed up as a radio ad just to enhance the experience I guess.
Could you at least record that one? Please:D

[Scruffydog777]

Jessica said their managers discussed the song Mol Lolita and said they found no problems with playing it so it will be included in the commercials to be played next week.

Here are yesterdays commercials.

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?jwtzytjj5ou

Edit:

I certainly hope folks have sent emails to the station saying how they heard the Alizée commercials and hoping to hear the complete songs!

Here's a response I received from my email:
Hi ,

Usually the songs we add to our playlist have significant airplay in the Boston area and on major Adult Contemporary stations around the US. We don't see that kind of activity right now with Alizee. Hopefully the commercials will help raise awareness with our audience. Meanwhile, I'd like to hear a complete Alizee song - I'm hoping her record company will send me a CD to audition.

Thanks for listening to Magic 106.7.

Mark Laurence
Music Director

And here are the 3 email address I sent to:

I just ordered a new mce album 2 day shipping from amazon.com. I will ship it to Mark, early next week. Unfortunately I couldn't find the international version with some English songs on it. But if they play commercials in French, why not songs in French?

[MYGOGT]

I just ordered a new mce album 2 day shipping from amazon.com. I will ship it to Mark, early next week. Unfortunately I couldn't find the international version with some English songs on it. But if they play commercials in French, why not songs in French?
Scruffy,
I just saw this and I have the intn'l version of MCE and I would be more than happy to ship it to you. Send me an email.

[User22]

Wow....this is really happening. They might actually regularly play some Lilly if that CD gets sent to them....this is quite amazing thanks Scruff and MYGOGT!

[Scruffydog777]

I have to work tonight so I will only be able to record 2 of todays songs. I'll probably post them in the morning.

Tomorrow's schedule is between

9:38 and 10:38 Lou ou Toi

10:36 and 10:48 Youpidoo

11:11 and 11:21 A Contre Courant

All times pm

[User22]

Thanks Scruff! Can't wait to hear em!

[Bigdan]

Does Boston show any signs of riot, till then ?:D

[User22]

Does Boston show any signs of riot, till then ?:D

Boston is having riots because they aren't shipping in enough MCE CDs at the moment. Hopefully they can get more in to satisfy the new Lilly fans' hunger:D

[Bigdan]

Boston is having riots because they aren't shipping in enough MCE CDs at the moment. Hopefully they can get more in to satisfy the new Lilly fans' hunger:D

Revolution is starting !;)

[User22]

Revolution is starting !;)

The Lilly Revolution will spread faster than the Swine Flu Scare haha. Sorry only Americans would get that

[Fèvier]

The Lilly Revolution will spread faster than the Swine Flu Scare haha. Sorry only Americans would get that

yeah because no one else outside the US knows what happens here and have no way of finding out news about America :p

[VVVACCPLPNLY]

Nor has there ever been a major plague outside our borders. Especially one spread by rats, across an entire continent. And definitely not in the 1400's. No siree-bob.:p That, or another 'flu' named after a certain avian variety. One named after a simple ornithological term. Not anywhere near Asia.

[wasabi622]

I know I'm looking a bit far ahead, but Scruffy, do you plan on.. renewing this once the initial days are over? Just wondering what your plans were.

[Scruffydog777]

I know I'm looking a bit far ahead, but Scruffy, do you plan on.. renewing this once the initial days are over? Just wondering what your plans were.

This is something financially I shouldn't have done, so it would almost be impossible to continue on with this.

Due to work, I was only able to record 2 of yesterdays four commercials.

Here's the link.

Tonight I will only be able to record 1. I will only post that if there is something noteworthy about it.

[Människöpesten]

^ this man is a badass. that is all.

[Bigdan]

Just a suggestion but...Could it be impossible for 600 of us to give 5 $ to scruffy ? :o

[Scruffydog777]

Just a suggestion but...Could it be impossible for 600 of us to give 5 $ to scruffy ? :o

Rather that have that happen, I would like to see 600 people give $5.00 each and have it used in some way to promote Alizée.

I missed posting the link above for the 2 commercials that were played yesterday, so here it is.

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?amrtdzizgxw

[User22]

Just a suggestion but...Could it be impossible for 600 of us to give 5 $ to scruffy ? :o

Why has noone thought of this before? But there aren't 600 active members:(

[Fèvier]

Just a suggestion but...Could it be impossible for 600 of us to give 5 $ to scruffy ? :o

Rather that have that happen, I would like to see 600 people give $5.00 each and have it used in some way to promote Alizée.

I missed posting the link above for the 2 commercials that were played yesterday, so here it is.

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?amrtdzizgxw

well first, thanks for the link Scruffy!
and second, why not do both?

[ALS]

Just a suggestion but...Could it be impossible for 600 of us to give 5 $ to scruffy ? :o

I tried to help Scruffy with a small donation towards these commercials and he wouldn't take it.

This is something he wants to do on his own, which I understand and I applaud him for.

[Fèvier]

I tried to help Scruffy with a small donation towards these commercials and he wouldn't take it.

This is something he wants to do on his own, which I understand and I applaud him for.

that right there just boosted my respect for him even more!
Scruffy, you the man! :cool:

[Bigdan]

I tried to help Scruffy with a small donation towards these commercials and he wouldn't take it.

This is something he wants to do on his own, which I understand and I applaud him for.


That's a part of sophisticated plan, in which he foresee to be the only one to receive a special thanks when Alizée 'll know about the operation...:D

[Zeerre]

Rather that have that happen, I would like to see 600 people give $5.00 each and have it used in some way to promote Alizée.

I missed posting the link above for the 2 commercials that were played yesterday, so here it is.

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?amrtdzizgxw

Yay, you recorded I'm fed up! Thank you Scruffy.:)

[FanDeAliFee]

As a public service for the clueless, here is a short primer on how proprietors are compensated (or not) when copyrighted music is played on US broadcast radio:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/business/media/08royalty.html

[Karlalizee]

i have tried for several days to download the commercials but nothing happens. :(

[FanDeAliFee]

I have informed Boston-affiliated francophone organizations by e-mail about this singular radio ad campaign with the following text:

Bonjour,

The French Cultural Center of Boston names you as one of their
cooperating partners. I regret to report that their Webmail system at
http://www.frenchlib.org/index.cfm/about-us/contact-us/ seems to be
malfunctioning, preventing me from copying them on this note, which
should also be of interest to you.

I bring your attention to a very unusual radio ad campaign in Boston
this month, financed by a single fan in town named Mr. David Hardy,
which promotes a contemporary French singer.

The singer is Alizée (Jacotey), who sold more musical recordings than
any other female artist in France during 2001, and this spring
released her fourth studio album, «Une Enfant du Siècle», whose
American theme recounts a story set in 1960s New York City.

During the second half of June, forty-eight 30-second spots are airing
on Boston radio station Magic 106.7, celebrating Alizée's music. Learn
more about this effort here:
http://alizeeamerica.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5720

Alizée's portfolio of professional recordings forms the backbone of
her virtual Internet radio station, which also plays the songs of an
international collection of artists she favors. Access this facility
at: http://AlizeeRadio.com

-----

By the way, the summer open house of The French Cultural Center of Boston, located at 53 Marlborough St.
Boston, MA 02116 (tel. 617.912.0400), will take place Tuesday, June 22 from 5:00 pm to 8:30 pm
Details at: http://www.frenchlib.org/index.cfm/learn-french/news-and-special-programs/summer-open-house/
It would seem to be a place where one might find Boston area people interested in French singers.

[Scruffydog777]

By the way, the summer open house of The French Cultural Center of Boston, located at 53 Marlborough St.
Boston, MA 02116 (tel. 617.912.0400), will take place Tuesday, June 22 from 5:00 pm to 8:30 pm
Details at: http://www.frenchlib.org/index.cfm/learn-french/news-and-special-programs/summer-open-house/
It would seem to be a place where one might find Boston area people interested in French singers.

Give it to Doc for coming up with another gem. I guess I'll just have to attend this open house. I'll have to print up a bunch of cd's with samples of Alizée's French music. I'll also have to tell people or give them some type of letter or flyer explaining what I'm doing and asking them to e-mail Magic 106.7, saying something to the affect or is it effect (never could get those 2 straight) that they loved the music and would like to hear more. If I could get all these people on board, this could really turn out to be a golden opportunity.

EDIT:

Well I just brought one of my suits to the cleaners. Well actually it's my only suit, at least the only suit that I know still fits. Now I have to figure out how to go about doing this. Should I e-mail them first or just show up with a brief case full of cds? If I e mail them, they might think I'm doing this for some type of financial gain, where if I just show up in person, hopefully they'll be able to see I'm sincere in what I'm trying to do. Maybe they also do a little fund raising for their cultural center. I'll make a $100.00 donation, that might be small potatoes to them but maybe it will somewhat prove my sincerity.

Now what songs to put on a cd. I would think just about all French. You would think that some one who is interested in attending this type of event would probably speak French, but that might not be the story in a lot of cases. Still I think I will made a cd that will have on it,
Amelie m'a dit
J'en ai marre
Lou ou Toi
L'Alize
Hey Amigo
Les Collines
Par les paupieres
la javanaise
Toc de mac
Ella Ella

Then I have to make a letter or flyer to go with it.
First explaining what I'm doing.
I'm trying to promote the music of a beautiful young French singer for absolutely no financial gain on my part. One of the reasons I'm doing this in addition to loving her music is I believe she is a singer who has suffered a large financial loss due to outlets like Youtube. Media in this country do not want to play her music because most of it's in French, They refuse to play it, yet thousands of people in this country who've discovered the beauty of her music can watch her music for free on Youtube. She probably has over a 100,000,000 hits on Youttube ( I would think she does but I'm not really sure), but has nothing to show for it.

I have such deep faith in the talent of this singer, that starting just last week, I contracted with a local radio station to play starting on the 14th of this month, a series of 48 thirty second commercials, over a 2 week period, featuring her music. Another member of the fan forum I belong to found out on the 19th about this open house, in Boston. He's from Georgia, I'm from Boston, but he's the one who finds out. Go figure.I thought this would be a great opportunity to introduce Alizee's music to a few members of the French community in Boston.

The next paragraph or two would be a brief history of her and her career.

The final paragraph would be an appeal to them to contact Magic 106.7 over the next few days by e mail, asking them to make some type of comments about this singer.

Well looks I have my work cut out for me over the next couple of days.

Then I have to put my ambassador suit back on.

Film at 11.

EDIT:

Well this is a real quick version of the songs I'd like to include on a cd to hand out, or maybe I should make it a DVD.


<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/skD_kr7pu_0&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/skD_kr7pu_0&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
Maybe if I do decide to go about contacting them by the e mail route, we could urge some of our members from France or maybe members from AF who live in France to contact them letting them know our intententions are most honorable.

[FanDeAliFee]

One of the reasons I'm doing
this in addition to loving her music is I believe she is a singer who
has suffered a large financial loss due to outlets like Youtube.


YouTube per se is no longer as big a headache for music proprietors as are other less open venues for illicitly trading copies of copyrighted artworks, e.g. file archives whose contents are indexed off-site. Music proprietors came down hard on YouTube right away and an accommodation is emerging, in which copyrighted material is being flagged at once, and then either deleted or supported by advertising, whose revenue is split. If you have a minute, you can read about this at: YouTube's emerging business model for copyright-infringed content (http://bellsouthpwp.net/d/o/docdtv/lit/IPlaw/YouTube.htm)

You may have even noticed that when you access YouTube, now you are often redirected to a Vevo page. Launched at the end of last year, Vevo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vevo) is owned by three big music recording fims, among them Alizée's current label, Sony, with video hosting for Vevo provided by YouTube, and Google and Vevo splitting the advertising revenue.

If music which Alizée (or another artist) owns or has sold is hosted on YouTube, automated methods now exist either to take it down at once or monetize it with ad revenue. This is not to say that music can now fetch the price it once did in the pre-digital era, when it cost so much to record and transport. Refusing a small ad-based YouTube revenue stream does NOT now mean consumers are forced to buy legitimate physical recordings from proprietors. They can get their hands on the music merely by "ripping" a borrowed CD, or getting a file copy, directly or indirectly, from someone who has done that. That is why the music recording industry is sinking fast.

Another member of the fan forum I belong
to found out on the 19th about this open house, in Boston. He's from
Georgia, I'm from Boston, but he's the one who finds out. Go figure.


The broadband Internet puts every connected person on earth within a second of accessing comprehensively indexed information made available online, which now includes something like a TRILLION static Web pages. (And this omits considering the massive unindexed data hiding behind Internet database queries, the so-called "deep Web").


Should I e-mail them
first or just show up with a brief case full of cds? If I e mail
them, they might think I'm doing this for some type of financial gain,
where if I just show up in person, hopefully they'll be able to see
I'm sincere in what I'm trying to do. Maybe they also do a little fund
raising for their cultural center. I'll make a $100.00 donation, that
might be small potatoes to them but maybe it will somewhat prove my
sincerity.


I would advise spending half an hour looking over the Web site of The French Cultural Center of Boston (http://www.frenchlib.org/) before practicing the very problematic art of mind-reading. It should not be hard to divine many of their policies and motivations with all that is written there.

Find basic information at: http://www.frenchlib.org/index.cfm/learn-french/general-info/why-learn-french-at-the-fccb/ including the following:<blockquote>We're a language school and member of the Alliance Française network... We belong to the largest network of French language and cultural centers in the world, with 1,200 chapters in 112 countries (including 140 chapters in the US)... [We have] native speaking instructors...

We're a library... The second largest private French library in the country with over 25,000 volumes...

We're a cultural center... We offer over 100 programs each year... </blockquote>Donations are welcome, as documented at:
http://www.frenchlib.org/index.cfm/support-us/contribute-now/
Membership in TFCCoB is open to all, with a membership fee schedule (basic annual price $120) published at:
http://www.frenchlib.org/index.cfm/membership/price-categories-signup/
and benefits described at:
http://www.frenchlib.org/index.cfm/membership/join-us/
If you purchase a language instruction (http://www.frenchlib.org/index.cfm/learn-french/) course, a half-price discount on annual membership is (often?) available.

It is not that odd if strangers at an open house speak with one another. But don't be surprised if someone paying the rent there in order to drum up business is upset if his message is muted or gets confused by the relentless hard-sell of one of his putative guests. A paid-up novice subscriber of the organization might be afforded more liberties, but would naturally touch base with its managers before taking such. Who knows? He might be offered the opportunity to host a program there on another occasion if it was consistent with the goals of the institution and could help pay the rent through imposed fees.

Now, they do not control the public right-of-way outside of their premises, and Boston may have no legal problem with people standing on the street in a strategic position and handing out freebies to those who will take them. Personally speaking, as the proprietor I might be a bit unsettled by this, but the hawker would still have my grudging admiration.

Another soon-forthcoming TFCCoB-sponsored event which might have even more potential for making Alizée converts is the annual Bastille Day street party in Back Bay, which has space to accommodate up to 2,000 guests. Find 2010 details at: http://www.frenchlib.org/index.cfm/events/scheduled-events/bastille-day-2010/ and http://www.worldmusic.org/concerts_event_indiv.php?p_seq=820 Admission is $28 per head in advance. No doubt the arrangements for this year are now set in stone. But who knows? Maybe it would be possible for a French music fan or two to rent booth space next year! ;)

And wherever you find yourself in this big world, remember to check http://french.meetup.com/all/ for the nearest French "meetup" group. ("Netbooks" now start at about $150 and WiFi hotspots are hardly unknown at modern airports!) The biggest such group in metro Boston is The Boston French Language Meetup Group (http://www.meetup.com/BostonFrenchConversationGroup/), headquartered in Cambridge, with 1350 registered members. And there are even OTHER such large groups in metro Boston as well. (I had written previously at AAm about leveraging such groups in NYC.)

<table align="center" width="75%" cellpadding="10" border="10"><tr><td><center><big><big><big>L E A R N I N G &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; F R E N C H</big></big></big></center><br> I think it is much easier for a typical English speaker to learn to read and write French than to speak and listen to it. The visual appearance of French is not completely alien to English, although words do not always mean exactly what you might imagine! You can put a Google Translate widget on your Web browser to automate translation between the two languages, and you could make it a habit to look at everything you read online in both French and English - literary immersion, if you like. And all of this is FREE!

Another free resource which premiered over three years ago now is France 24 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France_24). Perhaps motivated by French nationalism as a foil to CNN and the BBC, it streams all its news stories in English as well as French. Listen to both vesrions via VoD and immerse yourself for free with sounds and moving pictures! A few years ago Sarkozy said he wanted to keep only French, but so far things have not changed.

And of course now they sell all sorts of wonderful interactive computer-based learning tools to supplement old-fashioned audio recordings.

And I would be surprised if you couldn't find IRC chatrooms and forums which let all levels of students share the joys and pains of learning a new language, far beyond the limited facility available at Alizee America. And just think what a free videoconferencing tool like Sjype makes possible! Find a French speaker who wants to learn English as much as you do French and voila! You have a patient, complementary study-buddy for free, distance (albeit not time zones) be damned!</td></tr></table>
I'll have to
print up a bunch of cd's with samples of Alizée's French music....
Then I have to make a letter or flyer to go with it.


There is something to be said about selling things through multiple channels - including ideas like appreciation for music and its creators.

But remember this: The LARGE majority of American homes now have a broadband Internet conection! People who live in such places can readily access material stored online (sometimes even with a cellphone). You don't have to give people a CD to show them samples of music, you just have to get them to go online! (They might erase a bookmark they create in their cellphone Web browser, but they will never lose it the way they might a CD.)

It costs almost nothing to lease a mneumonic URL and point it at any place you choose to host online content like text, YouTube playlists, photos, and even annotated links to OTHER Alizée Internet facilities AlizeeAmerica.com, AlizeeRadio.com, etc.) So why not lease ILoveAlizee.com and hand out tschakas with this name on it? This can certainly also include flyers and labels on CDs with recorded content! And don't forget your teeshirt with ILoveAlizee.com emblazoned in big letters, and on both sides!

I doubt they have many "ghetto blasters" in Ajaccio, but it is now most easy to always wear a far more demure MP3 player (e.g. iPod nano) on a necklace and stick an attached battery-powered speaker-amplifier in your jacket pocket. (Even all of five summers ago, you could already buy an MP3 player without memory for as little as $10 after rebate!) Boston Harborwalk, for one, understands this and has long offered you a free MP3 walking tour (http://bostonharborwalk.com/audio_tour/) to download. And if you need video to "make the sale," I think an "old-fashioned" book-sized battery-powered portable DVD player, or a more modern portable video player (e.g. video iPod) based on magnetic or flash memory, are affordable as well.

Right now, people are making great progress on cloth-thin electronic video displays and it will not be too many more years before they sell upscale clothing which integrates them. And even now it is not that burdensome to hang a small LCD monitor around your neck, or sew one into the back of a jacket.

BUT... when and with whom you would turn these things on is the socially problematic issue! When we run street fairs here, we have rules about these things, banning "hawkers" who do not rent booths, and even regulating what booth lessors can do.

There are many ways to reach people in metro Boston who either speak French or enjoy French culture. They will never be a large fraction of the total population, but there are more than enough of them for an Alizée-lover to befriend - and maybe even evangelize.

P.S. Fun fact to mention to Bostonians: As a child, Alizée studied at a famous dance and theater school in Ajaccio located on a street named Avenue du Président Kennedy.

[Människöpesten]

O.o my god doc

[FanDeAliFee]

I don't want to leave anyone with the impression that each and every event which The French Cultural Center of Boston sponsors is in the French language or consists of French language instruction for English-speakers.

Among recent events are the following two:

Meet the Author: Elizabeth Bard (http://www.frenchlib.org/index.cfm/events/scheduled-events/meet-the-author-elizabeth-bard/) - May 15, 2010 - This event is presented in English.

French Wine Demystified (http://www.frenchlib.org/index.cfm/events/scheduled-events/french-wine-demystified-class-iii/) - May 11, May 18, May 25 2010 - This event is presented in English and French.

<img src="http://www.frenchlib.org/fccb/cache/file/03D6FF41-2354-1E76-A2B705C915B3A1A2_medium.jpg">

[Zeerre]

Should I e-mail them first or just show up with a brief case full of cds? If I e mail them, they might think I'm doing this for some type of financial gain, where if I just show up in person, hopefully they'll be able to see I'm sincere in what I'm trying to do. Maybe they also do a little fund raising for their cultural center. I'll make a $100.00 donation, that might be small potatoes to them but maybe it will somewhat prove my sincerity.

I don't think that you will be well received if you just show up and start handing out CDs, but then again, if you e-mail them, they might misinterpret your agenda and think that you're doing it for profit, as you mentioned.
I do, however, think that the appropriate thing to do would be to e-mail them wishing to find out more details about the open house, while expressing an interest in French culture and particularly music; you could tell them how discovering Alizée has motivated you to learn more. That might not be entirely accurate, but the bottom line is that money talks. The French Cultural Center, might be genuinely interested in promoting French culture and serving as a place where people interested in French culture can share ideas and convene, but they exist by charging for membership, and by selling French courses, among other things, and if they see Alizée as someone that can get people interested in French culture, subsequently bringing in more paid members to the French Cultural Center, they might be a lot more accommodating.

Now what songs to put on a cd. I would think just about all French. You would think that some one who is interested in attending this type of event would probably speak French, but that might not be the story in a lot of cases.

As docdtv pointed out, not all events are held in French, and since they offer French courses, I'm assuming that quite a few of their members are English speakers only. So, you might want to include a couple of her English songs, but then again, her English songs are not exactly up to par with her French songs...

Well this is a real quick version of the songs I'd like to include on a cd to hand out, or maybe I should make it a DVD.

In my opinion, a DVD with some videos of her performances has more potential to attract new fans. When I discovered Alizée I did like her music, but that wasn't what motivated me to research and find out more about her, it was her beauty. I thought she was, and still is, absolutely gorgeous and that's what piqued my curiosity. After watching countless videos of her performances, and interviews, and after reading numerous articles, I discovered that she's as beautiful on the inside as she's on the outside. Now I appreciate her music as much as I appreciate her, and I love Alizée the person, as much as I love Alizée the artist.

[Scruffydog777]

Well I guess I made the mistake of contacting the French cultural center and asking them if I could attend their open house and pass out free dvd's of Alizée's music along with a letter explaining what we were doing.
One of the main things they do here is teach French and the main purpose of the open house is so prospective students could come and learn more about their center. They said there was something else going on that night so they expected the place to be very crowded and didn't think it was a good idea under these cirmcumstances. I did talk to one young woman, Emily, who did speak English well as opposed to the 3 previous women I talked to and said she would post a flyer up for us if I would e-mail one over. I made up one real quick using the picture of a face that would launch a thousand ships. Unfortunately in my haste to get it there before they closed, the type didn't come out as clear as I would have liked it to, but it's readable and will have to do. I'll post a picture of it.

http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/2548/alizeec.jpg (http://img121.imageshack.us/i/alizeec.jpg/)

Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)

It was pretty demoralizing. I should have just showed up with a knapsack full of dvd's, pretending I was a prospective student and passed them out clandestinely. Maybe I'll still make some up and just go over there tomorrow and pass them out in front of the building.

Magic 106.7 never sent me the times for the ads over the weekend.
Here are the times for tonights ads which I will try and record.

7:11 - 7:21 pm Youpidoo
8:40 - 8:50 pm A Contre Courant
10:11 - 10:21 pm I'm not twenty
11:36 - 11:46 pm Ella Ella

5 ads will air tuesday night. They gave me the times which I will post tomorrow. They didn't say which songs, but Moi Lolita shoud be broadcast for the first time.

P.S. I just recieved the following e-mail from Emily at the cultural center.

Hi Dave,
I am not able to print in color in the format in which you sent the flyer. Could you please send it in a Word document or a PDF form?
Thank you!
Emily
I don't have any experience with posting pictures in a word document or pdf form. Can someone do it for me and e-mail it to me and I'll e-mail it to her in the morning. Here's the picture I would like used and you can get the text from the picture above.

http://img37.imageshack.us/i/et4rxi.jpg/

[Merci Alizée]

Just sent you an e-mail with the flyers.

[Scruffydog777]

Thank You MA.

[Zeerre]

Maybe I'll still make some up and just go over there tomorrow and pass them out in front of the building.

I think you should do it. This is the last week that the Alizée ads will be playing, and if you want her songs to be played on the radio this might be your last chance. I'm pretty confident that at least a few people have called Magic 106.7 to request Alizée songs, and if you manage to pass out some DVDs and flyers, I'm sure that some more people will call to request them, and that might just be enough to get her songs to be played.
Of course, the final decision rests in your hands, and if you feel good about doing it, then you should go for it, but if you don't that's alright as well.:)

[Scruffydog777]

The only problem is in my experience of trying to pass out free cds or dvds, people dont believe you're giving away something good for free. They figure there's some catch to it and a lot of times don't want any part of it.

[FanDeAliFee]

Well I guess I made the mistake of contacting the French cultural center and asking them if I could attend their open house and pass out free dvd's of Alizée's music along with a letter explaining what we were doing... I did talk to one young woman, Emily, who did speak English well as opposed to the 3 previous women I talked to and said she would post a flyer up for us if I would e-mail one over...

It was pretty demoralizing... Maybe I'll still make [disks] some up and just go over there tomorrow and pass them out in front of the building...

P.S. I just recieved the following e-mail from Emily at the cultural center.

Hi Dave,
I am not able to print in color in the format in which you sent the flyer. Could you please send it in a Word document or a PDF form?
Thank you!
Emily

Don't be demoralized! It was KIND of Emily to make the gesture of posting your bill when they are so busy preparing for their commercially important Open House! You may want to contemplate reciprocating in some way, after reading my thoughts below.

I remind you that The French Cultural Center of Boston includes a library, which like typical modern places of that category possesses audio and video recordings. Among these you will find two CD titles you will recognize - "Gourmandises" and "Psychédélices." But when I tried using their online library catalog search engine at: http://204.19.231.60:88/zonesl/ (and then select from left-side menu) I could NOT find three other disks I wanted to see there. You know which ones I mean! They are: "Mes Courants Électriques", "Alizée En Concert" and "Une Enfant du Siècle". (You can see their Alizee collection via:
http://204.19.231.60:88/alswww6.dll/APS_CAT_IDENTIFY?Method=CatalogueExplore&IsTagged=0&DB=BookServer&ExploreType=StockCallNumber&Stem=CD%20780%20ALI&Style=Portal2&SubStyle=&Lang=ENG&ResponseEncoding=utf-8&Parent=Obj_22951277162098
Someone named Alizée d'Oc is also cited in another catalog entry.)

Surely some combination of people at Alizée America can finance filling out their Alizée collection, with their kind permission. One can start with "Une Enfant du Siècle." I remind Scruffy that I myself, and then many others, pledged to pay him, without evidence, in the event some person fails to buy the Paris CD he had personalized, so that he might send that "orphan" CD to a radio station of his choosing instead.

As far as I am concerned, a donation to a library in the network of Alliance Française institutions in North America is just as good - and I suspect the other insurance underwriters would say so too if asked. In fact, rather than send a CD to a radio station unlikely to play it, I think its gurarenteed presence in a major urban French library open to the public is even better, at least as a first step.

If all the UEdS CDs are in fact now gone, we can still work something out, just as we can for the two other missing titles. Wouldn't this be a very modest way to say thank you to the Corsican Girl?

The library now at issue posts its rules and policies at:
http://www.frenchlib.org/index.cfm/library/rules-and-policies/
In part, these state that: "The Library welcomes everyone to visit, browse, read and/or consult the catalog or the librarians. However borrowing privileges are restricted to members." It is not clear if there is any opportunity for the public to audit recordings in-room, but Cultural Center members obviously may borrow same.

An inquiry of the library's interest in our prospective gesture can be made to librarian@frenchculturalcenter.org . It is possible they might refuse! Decades ago now, I remember the first time I offered to donate some fine books to the collection of a public library. I was taken aback when the librarian said that the local "Library Friends" group would instead be happy to accept my books and attempt to sell them to raise funds for the library.

One should always try to crawl before running. But if manage to stock the French library in Boston, the next stop could be New York City for a similar effort. Remember, the Boston folks say: "We belong to the largest network of French language and cultural centers in the world, with... 140 chapters in the US..." (cf. http://www.frenchlib.org/index.cfm/learn-french/general-info/why-learn-french-at-the-fccb/ )

I don't know if Scruffy would find enough personal advantage in becoming a member of the Boston center at $120 per annum. But a cheaper way to say thanks for posting a problematic paper bill is available with a few clicks and a PayPal account, by starting at
http://www.frenchlib.org/index.cfm/support-us/contribute-now/
They write: "The French Cultural Center of Boston appreciates gifts of any amount."

I'd also point out that our Internet Age potentially makes it possible to be an off-site volunteer. Perhaps the Cultural Center has never had someone of this description yet, but there is a first time for everything! It may be significant that their Web site links to no online videos. Perhaps the free services of an experienced Internet video editor would be most welcome. (It would seem they might even appreciate less challenging assistance with desktop publishing!) One could make an e-mail query of Nicole Malo, the French Cultural Center's Membership Liaison via nicole@frenchculturalcenter.org

A less forward way to volunteer would be to use their standard volunteer form at:
http://www.frenchlib.org/index.cfm/about-us/who-we-are/volunteering/
Note that they say "We are looking for qualified volunteers to help with administrative tasks, cultural programs and special events." Among the answers one can give to the question on "French Speaking Ability" is "I know a few words!" Surely anyone who has visited France on multiple occasions can make that claim, if not more.

A simple act of friendship which the French Cultural Center might appreciate is a link from the AAm Facebook page to the NEW, post-merger page they maintain at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/French-Cultural-Center/119154561457867?ref=mf
The old one is still online at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Boston-MA/The-French-Library-Alliance-Francaise-of-Boston-FAB/73418873876?ref=ts
A very close friend of mine has made the first entry on their new Facebook discussion board, whose topic title is "Alizée, chanteuse française".

By the way, if you like, you can make contact with 24 "confirmed guests" of their Bastille Day festival via Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=126356920727226&index=1
(Aside: Could someone with name like Fabrizio Mazzetta, a home town of Paris and a current town of Boston possibly be of Corsican descent? It would seem not, the Mazzetta surname is only intensely present (10+ PPM) in Switzerland and Italy, and Infobel reveals not one Mazzetta on I d B.)

I will now think aloud. I hope no one will be offended or feel imposed upon. I had said that the plans for the 8 July Boston Bastille Day festival are surely set in stone by now. But one hopes that the radio ads will motivate many Boston area residents to hit http://alizeeamerica.com now. What if one could slap a big ad for the festival on this Web page between now and its execution? Would its organizers do something of potential value to AAm, like concede a free booth space at which sample CDs and cheap rectangular stickers might be distributed - and perhaps even YouTube videos played (possibly even from a looped DVD which "caches" said videos?) Could this be a dry run for the forthcoming Annual North American Alizée Convention, in Boston? (You already know I think Montreal is a way better venue!) Maybe this is all just a very silly dream, but it doesn't hurt to ask. Will the planets ever again be in better alignment for a magic trick like this?

You can reach what appears to be the event coordinators (or maybe just the music impressarios?), World Music/CRASHarts at (617) 876-4275. Learn more about them at: http://www.worldmusic.org/about_aboutus.php ) Their Web site writes in part: "World Music, Inc. was established by Maure Aronson in 1990 to connect performing artists from cultures around the globe with audiences in greater Boston." Someone who dreams that Alizée herself might one day perform in Boston, however unlikely that might be, could seem to do worse than touching base with this entity!

The French Cultural Center itself give yet another telephone number in connection with the event, (617)912-0400 .

When Scruffy touches base with Emily again he could say something like this: As a simple fan and entertainment amateur, I very much appreciate your kind help with my Alizée publicity on such short notice. Surely a charming woman like yourself deserves a song in her honor. My favorite singer long ago recorded one for you, but I hope you will not be offended that she could not get your name completely correct. Then point her at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDczQpaLvHo

I could tell you one can rely on advice from someone with bastard children in fourteen countries, but such a claim would be a lie! ;)

[Scruffydog777]

Here are 3 of the 4 commercials that aired last night.

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?dywmmgim15m

Edit:

It's an Alizée blitzkreig on Magic 106.7 tonight 5 commercials being played. They didn't tell me which ones. Hopefully I'll get home from the cultural center by then to record them
.
Here are the times
8:16
8:45
9:45
10:13
11:38

all times are pm plus or min 5 minutes of assigned times

[User22]

Thanks Scruff for handing out and sending out flyers to promote her!

But man DocTV I get halfway down your posts and it hits me that i have another 20mins worth of a post to read haha. But yah good point that we should try and fill their Alizee collection to spread her even more. But do enough people access that library or whatever it is that it would be worth it? Just putting it out there not trying to shoot it down sorry.

[FanDeAliFee]

But yah good point that we should try and fill their Alizee collection to spread her even more. But do enough people access that library or whatever it is that it would be worth it? Just putting it out there not trying to shoot it down sorry.

There certainly is a big part of me that says something like: "Oh, how quaint! A physical atom-based library you visit in person in this age of potential cloud-based global 24/365 universal information sent using bits at the speed of light! Why would anyone move when they could potentially interface with everyone else in virtual reality and effect physical work through robotic proxies?"

And in fact, certainly "very little" of Alizée's music is unavailable electronically at no out-of-pocket cost, and through an overt and convenient source like YouTube at that.

But while the CD channel surely is shrinking fast, some people still buy music that way and Société Alizée STILL can make a bit of money selling disks. I think such people can be prompted to make a decision to buy when they can hold a CD in their hands, such as in a library. And by whatever means, the operations of The French Cultural Center of Boston STILL provides some magnetic pull on Boston area residents who are (potentially) into French things. I assert that the language barrier is the biggest problem for access to the USA by Alizée, making the Center one of the few holes in the linguistic Maginot Line in New England. Putting this all together, supporting the Center with Alizée media is a fairly unique opportunity in Boston, and when the radio campaign is over, the Center may be Scruffy's best opportunity to make local converts should he be inclined to continue trying. You should think of the jewel cases that hold disks as heavy flyers people do not toss out like they do paper ones.

You may recall that for some time I lamented the futility of supporting art through media and file sales as Napsterism becomes ever more universal, and argued that direct subsidy through patronage should be revived as a major revenue stream. I have not changed my mind - only my opinion of AAm's potential to play a useful role in such a movement.

As the WorldCat-based library holding studies cited here (http://alizeeamerica.com/forums/showpost.php?p=169925&postcount=173) revealed, very few copies of Alizée's music are held on physical media in the world's lending libraries - NONE AT ALL showed up in New England. (Evidently the small library of The French Cultural Center of Boston is not a WorldCat participant.) It would not cost a lot of money to fill out the Center's Alizée collection, certainly not compared to a $3,000 radio campaign, and then one could send old-fashioned people in the ad campaign area still into physical media there to sample all her stuff. IF Scruffy has any ambition to leverage the Center to evangelize Alizée, surely filling out their library is a simple kind gesture that could get a relationship started out on the right foot. AAm could even help him do that.

[Scruffydog777]

Well I spent a lot of last night and lot of early this morning trying to put together a dvd to pass out at the cultural center if I could talk them into letting me in. I figured even if they didn't, I'd try and hang out in that area trying to meet people as they came and went. Targeting these people because I thought people who knew French or were in the process of learning it would be better candidates for becoming Alizee fans.

I called them in the morning, offering to pay $120 for their annual membership but it was to no avail. They didn't budge.

So I spent the rest of the morning and afternoon, making the 50 dvd's. My printer gave me all kinds of head aches with printing the cd's and the envelopes but I got it done. Finished up around 4:30. I wanted to be there when the open house started at 5, but I found in my mail box the MCE cd I had ordered that I didn't think was going to get here in time to send it to the radio station before the ads ended. Best part about it was it was the international version with the extra English songs on it which I didn't think it would be. So I boxed it up real quick, flew over to the post office and the radio station isn't far away so hopefully they'll have it tomorrow.

So I got to the cultural center and hung out there and there was very little traffic in and out. After about 15 minutes of seeing hardly any one, I decided to walk through the park of the Boston Commons. Lots of people there. But I tell you, it would probably be impossible to give away gold in an area like this. People are so accustomed to having pan handlers coming up to them. I know the feeling myself that anytime someone comes up to you and offers you something, you're always wondering what's the catch.

It's very disheartening to get turned down time and time again. Makes you realy feel bad for these pan handlers. But I kept at it and at least managed to give away 34 of the 50 dvd's I made. I'll try and get rid of the rest this weekend.

It's kind of unfortunate that I had targeted French speaking people with the dvds I made up, because I'm sure most of the people I gave them to didn't speak any French. I'll usually make a dvd for this type of crowd with half of the first eight songs will be in English.

I'll post a picture of the dvd cover I made up. I put the songs in chronological order for the most part, with maybe PTB being the one big exception.


http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/2761/coverforpromotionaldvdw.jpg (http://img696.imageshack.us/i/coverforpromotionaldvdw.jpg/)

Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)
I put a letter inside it describing what we were doing and who Alizee was.

[User22]

Wow Scruff! That is quite amazing. Im sure that those people will appreciate what you have done to them. Very nice work. You amaze me again and again:)

[FanDeAliFee]

I called them in the morning, offering to pay $120 for their annual membership but it was to no avail. They didn't budge.


I'm hardly surprised by their stance. Numerous people there try to earn full-time livings teaching French and this is their big seasonal marketing event. Business is business and they were nice to offer to post your flyer.


So I got to the cultural center and hung out there and there was very little traffic in and out. After about 15 minutes of seeing hardly any one, I decided to walk...


I wonder how many people popped in by the end of the evening, and at which times they showed up. Surely a luxury business like foreign language instruction will be down during a Great Recession.


It's very disheartening to get turned down time and time again... But I kept at it and at least managed to give away 34 of the 50 dvd's I made. I'll try and get rid of the rest this weekend.


At a convention or a street fair, people are very inclined to pick up free samples. I think manning a booth at a Bastille Day arcade would be much easier work.


It's kind of unfortunate that I had targeted French speaking people...


At a French meetup.com meeting you'll find plenty of people who want to learn French, practice it. or master it. The largest such group in the Boston area, The Boston French Language Meetup Group, was founded between Gourmandises and Mes Courants Électriques. It has held over ten dozen meetings to date. Well over a thousand people are registered as members and money is NOT the focus it is at a place of business.

The testimonials for it are mainly written in English and appear here:
http://www.meetup.com/BostonFrenchConversationGroup/about/comments/?op=all

It seems they have monthly meetings at a restaurant and charge $3 to cover some expenses. Everybody has to eat and a meal can be a low-pressure environment at which one can make friends. Many people advise that it is a good idea to slowly become friendlier with someone before you whip you disk out and try to thrust it at them. ;)

You can also first get to know people online a bit by reviewing their forums:
http://www.meetup.com/BostonFrenchConversationGroup/messages/boards/

And there is even a mechanism for proposing meetups for various original ends, which the management team will review and approve or decline to endorse as an official event. Surely some of the people there are interested in French music. Maybe you can even learn to sing songs together. Compromise is a part of friendship, so if you can start a pop music group, you might pull together a lot more people than trying to start an Alizée musical group! And I bet you have a lot of wonderful photos from your trips abroad, including to France. Why not share them with some narration one evening?

[Zeerre]

Well I spent a lot of last night and lot of early this morning trying to put together a dvd to pass out at the cultural center if I could talk them into letting me in. I figured even if they didn't, I'd try and hang out in that area trying to meet people as they came and went. Targeting these people because I thought people who knew French or were in the process of learning it would be better candidates for becoming Alizee fans.

I called them in the morning, offering to pay $120 for their annual membership but it was to no avail. They didn't budge.

Wow, they really had their mind made up.

So I spent the rest of the morning and afternoon, making the 50 dvd's. My printer gave me all kinds of head aches with printing the cd's and the envelopes but I got it done. Finished up around 4:30. I wanted to be there when the open house started at 5, but I found in my mail box the MCE cd I had ordered that I didn't think was going to get here in time to send it to the radio station before the ads ended. Best part about it was it was the international version with the extra English songs on it which I didn't think it would be. So I boxed it up real quick, flew over to the post office and the radio station isn't far away so hopefully they'll have it tomorrow.

Where did you order it from? I've been meaning to get my hands on the international version of MCE, but alas, I haven't been able to find it.

It's very disheartening to get turned down time and time again. Makes you realy feel bad for these pan handlers. But I kept at it and at least managed to give away 34 of the 50 dvd's I made. I'll try and get rid of the rest this weekend.

Don't take it personally, I'm pretty sure that's people's automatic response when they're approached, and hey, 34 out of 50 it's pretty good.

It's kind of unfortunate that I had targeted French speaking people with the dvds I made up, because I'm sure most of the people I gave them to didn't speak any French. I'll usually make a dvd for this type of crowd with half of the first eight songs will be in English.

Well, very few of her songs are in English, so they might as well get used to the French ones.;)

[Vista]

"...it is a good idea to slowly become friendlier with someone before you whip you disk out and try to thrust it at them."

@docdtv
You're a cunning linguist, and probably a master debater as well. :-)

[Scruffydog777]

"...it is a good idea to slowly become friendlier with someone before you whip you disk out and try to thrust it at them."

@docdtv
You're a cunning linguist, and probably a master debater as well. :-)

Well on the third date is it okay to whip out a disk?

Edit:

Last night, June 22nd. 5 Alizée commercials were played on a local radio station. Here's how they all played out.


<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AuTp2WUYfps&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/AuTp2WUYfps&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuTp2WUYfps

[paintballpdh19]

Scruff, once again you amaze me with everything you do!

[FanDeAliFee]

I scanned the forum entries for The Boston French Language Meetup Group and was not surprised to see the topic of music come up on multiple occasions. By looking there, one can also learn about French things which may be useful opportunities.

For example, just thirty miles outside of Boston, right on the border with Rhode Island, there's a radio station in Woonsocket (http://www.meetup.com/BostonFrenchConversationGroup/messages/boards/thread/2470280) which programs not one, but two French-themed shows! If one accepts my premise that francophones (and even francophiles) are much easier potential Alizée customers, then sponsoring such radio shows lets you reach a highly qualified target audience with only a few meager ecus in your ad budget. These shows, Salut! Bonjour! and L'Echo Musical, remain on the air even today, with their scheduled times reported at http://www.wnri.com/weeklyprogsched.htm and profiles of their associated talents, Sue Bernier and the Laliberte couple, at http://www.wnri.com/personalities.htm (You naturally mention Mylene's natality to the Lalibertes!)

Robert Solow once wrote of fellow economist Milton Friedman that “Everything reminds Milton of the money supply. Well, everything reminds me of sex, but I keep it out of the paper.” Well, too bad Professor Solow. Once you become friends with someone, you have the opportunity to let everything remind you of Alizée - and then sometimes even tell your friend about it. This is less remarkable than it might seem, because the very premise of <i>L'Encyclopédie Alizée</i> (http://lencyclopedie-alizee.wikispaces.com) is that "EVERYTHING in the world is somehow related to Alizée Jacotey." (http://alizeeamerica.com/forums/showpost.php?p=150743) ;)

If I am willing to be shameless enough, I can cite three such examples of potential contact between things raised in the Boston meetup group forum and discussions at AAm concerning our favorite Corsican girl.

1. The forum entry at
http://www.meetup.com/BostonFrenchConversationGroup/messages/boards/thread/1434930
lists French songs, among them Lorie's performance of A 20 Ans. (Do I <b>have</b> to say it? I will anyway.) This lets you ask them: Why settle for an ersatz lolita when you can have the original? And you show them JPVA!

2. The forum entry at
http://www.meetup.com/BostonFrenchConversationGroup/messages/boards/thread/1501514
cites la grenouille fou. I hope you have not forgotten that when we spent time discussing the mystery of what turned out to be Alizée's new "Jeremiah" tattoo, someone pointed out that before Jeremiah was a husband, Jeremiah was a bullfrog! ;) And so, la grenouille fou did us the favor of portraying Jeremiah the Bullfrog auditioning as the DJ for the MJ music video, as recorded here -
http://alizeeamerica.com/forums/showthread.php?p=150372 . If telling this story makes your listener laugh, you hit them with some follow up -
http://alizeeamerica.com/forums/showpost.php?p=150760

3. The forum entry at:
http://www.meetup.com/BostonFrenchConversationGroup/messages/boards/thread/1816975
is your clincher, because it celebrates The DaVinci Code. This opens up the possibility of explaining that some people actually believe that Alizée's secret identity is as the Merovingian Princess Salomé, the <i>sang réal</i>, for extensive reasons explored at: http://alizeeamerica.com/forums/showthread.php?p=150366

Yes, Alizée is darn near everywhere, and if you can make some friends who have no trouble with songs in the French language, sooner or later she is simply bound to come up in conversation, whether one likes it or not! ;)

<table align="center" width="50%" border="10" cellpadding="10"><tr><td>ASIDE
"...it is a good idea to slowly become friendlier with someone before you whip you disk out and try to thrust it at them."
@docdtv
You're a cunning linguist, and probably a master debater as well. :-)

I wish I had a penny for every time some poor fool was told:
"Hell will freeze over before you put that in MY slot!"

Don't give common sense too much credit. I would have no idea how to sell people software that was "Worster" than all the previous versions. Crap shooters tell me Seven is a lucky number, but it is important to roll it out before the game is over. ;)</td></tr></table>

[Scruffydog777]

I had noticed monday, that the audio for the ads seemed a little low compared to the songs that were being played. I especially noticed it when I merged the 3 commercials so I could post it. I had to amplify the volume quite a bit to get if up to normal levels. I didn't reall think to much of it, thinking maybe the commercials air at a lower volume than the songs do, though such isn't the case for tv where the commercials blow you out of the water.

Tuesday night was to be a big night. 5 commercials were to play. I started recording them and I was sitting in a different location this time. I could hear the songs and other commercials fine, but when Alizée's ad came on, I had to get up and go over to the speaker to really understand what she was saying. I use audacity to record these ads and it shows a scale of the audio levels. Well it was obvious our ads were well below the levels of everything else. I was fit to be tied. It's probably a good thing I couldn't get through on a live phone line at that time.

I know I didn't have these problems last week. I didn't have to boost up the volume when I merged the ads. So what was the cause? My immediate impression was that it was someone at the station who doesn't like this music,or these ads, cranking down the volume. How can a possible technical mistake happen 5 times just to our ads?

Well I was out of town the next day. Talked to Jessica this morning. She did say it was due to some type of programing error on those days. I don't know if I believe that. I do trust her and feel that's what she is being told.

Bottom line is they'll be rerunning those ads on monday and tuesday.

I had ordered an MCE album second day air then priority mailed it over to them, so they could hear the entire songs for some of these ads. I asked Jessica to mail it back because I think there's somebody there who doesn't enjoy Alizée's music.

http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/6862/commercial.jpg (http://img190.imageshack.us/i/commercial.jpg/)

Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)

[ImRawdg]

I had ordered an MCE album second day air then priority mailed it over to them, so they could hear the entire songs for some of these ads. I asked Jessica to mail it back because I think there's somebody there who doesn't enjoy Alizée's music.


Well... I wouldn't really jump to conclusions like that. Unless you're really sure. I doubt anybody would care that much to make your ads quieter.

[FanDeAliFee]

I had noticed monday, that the audio for the ads seemed a little low compared to the songs that were being played. I especially noticed it when I merged the 3 commercials so I could post it. I had to amplify the volume quite a bit to get if up to normal levels. I didn't reall think to much of it, thinking maybe the commercials air at a lower volume than the songs do, though such isn't the case for tv where the commercials blow you out of the water.

Tuesday night was to be a big night... when Alizée's ad came on, I had to get up and go over to the speaker to really understand what she was saying.

...My immediate impression was that it was someone at the station who doesn't like this music,or these ads, cranking down the volume... Jessica... did say it was due to some type of programing error on those days. I don't know if I believe that...


There are enormous amounts of incompetence and negligence in the world. That could easily explain what you observed without attributing it to malevolence.

The bottom line is: what does it matter? You contracted for a service and it was screwed up. Who cares if it was a fool, a disgruntled employee or a sinister manager? That's why people audit things. People who advertise regularly in broadcast media even automate the auditing process, e.g. by putting inaudible markers in their ads (cf. http://www.audioauditing.com/ ) to reduce the cost of auditing.


they'll be rerunning those ads on monday and tuesday.


That is what they should do. Good job catching their failure! But whatever the cause of the failure, I cannot believe any personal preference of the owners is the explanation.

Generally speaking, radio stations HATE dead air time, because that encourages listeners to remember they should be doing their tax accounting or their homework instead of listening to the radio, and they click it off or switch to another station to help them keep forgetting.

I guess it is possible some listeners telephoned the radio station bitching about the "goddamn foreign music". But if the station had wanted to pull a fast one on you, they might have skipped playing the ads altogether, or even placed other ads in their slots, doubling their revenue. But maybe that would have been too obvious, and a tactic less subject to detection would be to turn down contracted ads too many regular listeners found disturbing.

I don't listen to broadcast radio or TV in real time anymore, but when I did, and heard the late Billy Mays (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Mays) come on the air, I'd change stations rather than endure even 30 seconds of his aesthetically displeasing narration. I guess he enjoyed great success, so that the cost/benefits trade-off was a good one for advertisers: they secured more advantage from increased sales to those who would listen than to those like me who would boycott the ad, and could compensate their broadcast hosts well enough to make up for the people driven away from the station and their other advertisers.


I had ordered an MCE album second day air then priority mailed it over to them, so they could hear the entire songs for some of these ads. I asked Jessica to mail it back because I think there's somebody there who doesn't enjoy Alizée's music.


The library at the French Cultural Center of Boston holds single copies of each of Gourmandises and Psychédélices. It would seem they have no problem sharing Alizée's music with metro Boston! Perhaps they'd welcome donation of a copy of Mes Courants Électriques as well. You can contact their librarian at: librarian@frenchculturalcenter.org (Source of e-mail address: http://www.frenchlib.org/index.cfm/library/

Don't be discouraged if you don't get an immediate reply from the library. Remember, the Center is the product of a merger which happened only last month, and mergers often happen when one, or even both partners are at the end of their rope. They might still be quite distracted. As I mentioned before, an inquiry about expanding their Alizée collection has been posted on their new Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=119154561457867&topic=122 (Notice how it tries to suggest her music might be a way to encourage more people to learn French, which happens to be a big line of business for them!)

Or maybe someone at WNRI 1380 (http://www.wnri.com/) in Woonsocket would like a copy of MCE. Too bad they are an AM-only station and their broadcast infrastructure would hardly do justice to CD-quality.

[User22]

Well done telling them who's the customer Scruff. They definitely should re-air them. Hopefully there isn't someone at the station that hates her music:(

[Fall]

Listened to it not too long ago. Good that you added the spelling.

[Scruffydog777]

The library at the French Cultural Center of Boston holds single copies of each of Gourmandises and Psychédélices. It would seem they have no problem sharing Alizée's music with metro Boston! Perhaps they'd welcome donation of a copy of Mes Courants Électriques as well. You can contact their librarian at: librarian@frenchculturalcenter.org (Source of e-mail address: http://www.frenchlib.org/index.cfm/library/

Don't be discouraged if you don't get an immediate reply from the library. Remember, the Center is the product of a merger which happened only last month, and mergers often happen when one, or even both partners are at the end of their rope. They might still be quite distracted. As I mentioned before, an inquiry about expanding their Alizée collection has been posted on their new Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=119154561457867&topic=122 (Notice how it tries to suggest her music might be a way to encourage more people to learn French, which happens to be a big line of business for them!)

Or maybe someone at WNRI 1380 (http://www.wnri.com/) in Woonsocket would like a copy of MCE. Too bad they are an AM-only station and their broadcast infrastructure would hardly do justice to CD-quality.

I've carefuly read Doc's suggestions. I tried to carry out the idea for promoting her at the open house at the French cultural center in Boston, but met with minimal success. I did learn something in the process that younger people are the ones more willing to listen to and accept something new.

As far as the radio station down in Rhode Island, I sent them an e mail, with a Youtube attachment to some of Alizee's songs, asking what it would take to get her music played there. I will post any response I get from them.

As far as donating a copy of MCE to the BFCC, I don't think I will do this. They have a copy of Gour and the 2 albums are somewhat similar. The donation of this album would only have a minimal result in our efforts to promote Alizee. I'd rather spend thousands on something I think would have a big affect than something that will have a little affect.

As far as promoting her on Bastille day here. I thought it would be good to promote her during the open house, because we could encourage fans at the same time to go to Magic and offer an opinion there, but on Bastille day, the ads will be well over and promoting her then, will not have that big an affect, so I may attend or I may not. I'm still playing catch up with everything else in my life, yard work, house work, automotive work, of which all I'm far behind.

Edit:

Ads for June 28th.

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?y5nioewvmot

[ALS]

Maybe we can find a way to promote Ajaccio and Corsica as a vacation spot for U.S. residents over the same old same old Paris and its tourist traps.

The quiet and quaint charm of a relaxed small town on the Mediterranean.

[Scruffydog777]

Well the commercials have run their course. What kind of results will there be if any? I called Magic today and talked to Jessica Oar and Mark Laurence for a while. Mark said they didn't recieve a bunch of inquiries about this music, but that's typical, because the ads were asking people to go to AlizeeAmerica.com and that's where they would typically go. But I would think if it a lot of people here did like the music they probably would've contacted the radio station. I guess we'll hopefully get some results from Ben. I'll e-mail him later to post the results if any.

I talked to Jessica about the different rates for advertising. The rates at night were about $165.00 a minute. But there prime time rates which runs roughly from 9am to 7 pm, jumps up to about $500.00 a minute. Most of these ads typicaly played after about 1 or 2 minutes of other commercials. I asked if it was possible to have a commercial play right after a song, before people had a chance to skip to another station. They said yes, but that would be another $50/min more. She also said a 30 second commercial runs at about 70% of what a 1 minute commercial runs.

I would have liked to have placed these ads with a top 40 station as opposed to a soft rock station. But as I mentioned before, of the several stations I contacted, this was the only one to offer any serious consideration to what I wanted to do. A soft rock station probably has a some what older listening audience than a top 40 station. I didn't really think this would be a factor, but last week, when I was trying to hand out 50 dvd's of Alizée's music at a time when these ads were running. I found teenagers were the ones who were most responsive and willing to take these discs and to listen to them and what I had to say and because of that, I wish I had searched for another top 40 station where I could've placed the same ads to target a younger audience.

Maybe I should have selected 1 minute commercials, to let people get more of a chance to get into the songs.

I talked to Mark Laurence about what a radio station would have to do in order to be able to play a song of Alizée's. He said there is nothing that could stop them from playing one of her songs if they wanted to. The only thing they have to worry about if the songs or albums are licensed under BMI, ASCAP, or SESAC, in which case just means they have to pay a very small fee each time they play the song.
He mentioned a song called 9 million bycicles,
<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xF_w7MMU0DU&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xF_w7MMU0DU&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
It was sung by Katie Malua, who was born in Russia, then moved to Ireland, then London
He said it was a song that everyone at the station loved and they played it many times, but it never really did catch on.

Just goes to show you, if they like a song, they can and will play it.

Bottom line is, where do we go from here?

I think it's important we keep our efforts to put up flyers, give away cds, tell people when ever we can about Alizée.

But is there something we can do on a large scale, such as what I attempted to get her noted in a significant way, that will hopefully lead to something more than just adding another fan here or there? I'm not sure, but I'll continue to work on it.

[MYGOGT]

Scruffy,
Here is what I have discovered over the past couple months of trying to promote via CD and DVD.
If I have set up a video/photo display I get about 1 in 75-100 people will actually take a CD/DVD even though I put up a sign reading Free, take one.
I literally have to place a disc in people's hands in order for them to take one.
Even at that it is met with apprehension.
Today I set up En Concert video on a 22" display only 1 CD was taken. These were all people I work with. I heard one comment "I know al-leezee, she's the French Brittany Spears wan-a-be". Another comment I got "So, you are advertising for her?" and no disc taken.
So, I had a disappointing day of trying to promote.
I have put Alizeeamerica.com in front of literally 10k + people and has there been any increase in activity here?
It looks to be an uphill struggle all the way.
I feel your pain Scruffy, but we will come up with new plans and keep swinging away at it.
You are a great ambassador Dave.

[lefty12357]

I've noticed people can be very resistant when they feel they are being "sold". The vast majority of us discovered Alizée on our own. There is magic in that kind of discovery. But when we try to introduce her to others, we are often met with resistance. I think people are more likely to accept something if they believe they discovered it for themselves.

Based on that premise, some of us tried "disc-dropping" back in the Psych era. We made up a bunch of Alizée sample discs and simply left them in public places where people could find them on their own, thus they could feel as if they made the discovery. I left mine in parks and shopping malls. Unfortunately, I have no idea if it worked all that well.

This guy really made the effort: http://disquedrop.blogspot.com/2008/11/alize-fifty-sixty.html

Maybe to succeed at such an endeavor in this country requires a massive (and very expensive) effort.

[Junkmale]

I feel your pain too, Scruffy.
Your efforts (and everyone else's) are VERY appreciated here. Don't forget that.
Funnily enough i've just be having a rant about something unrelated (but perhaps similar) at my own website.
You can read the post here -

http://www.ewafarna.co.uk/blog/index.php

The general tone of it, i think, relects what you are saying?
I've come to the conclusion over the last year that any sort of promotion that you, i, or anyone attempts is a waste of time without some sort of Official support. Perhaps 'waste of time' is a tad harsh but you know what i mean?
Alizee's 'people' should have been in touch with the Radio Station to give their support for your efforts ( i assume that they haven't?). They could have capitalized on the publicity that the adds have generated. I would also have thought that some sort of financial support would have been welcomed by you (even as a token gesture). After all you are doing thier work for them.

I think that the important thing is not to give in and to stay positive. My situation is slightly different as it's mainly (but not totally) financial reasons for my annoyance at the 'failure' of my site.
Hang in there.

Oh and i remember seeing Katie live in Belfast many years ago. Me and about 6 other people. Lovely, talented girl!

[Topaz]

This is a bit off topic but C'est la vie. Scruffydog, I absolutely adore Katie Malua. She sings the title song in one of my movies. "Just Like Heaven".

<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/2Rmil_raUtU&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/2Rmil_raUtU&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>

Anywho, keep up the good work Scruffydog! :)

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m301/alizee_1984/a007.jpghttp://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m301/alizee_1984/small-1-2.gif

[User22]

Alizee's 'people' should have been in touch with the Radio Station to give their support for your efforts ( i assume that they haven't?). They could have capitalized on the publicity that the adds have generated. I would also have thought that some sort of financial support would have been welcomed by you (even as a token gesture). After all you are doing thier work for them.


1) Alizee sadly doesn't have any people now. Scruff played older songs so her people would have been Mylene and Co. But she is no longer under them obviously haha:D I'm glad she isn't!

2)Thanks Scruff so much for trying! Don't worry about what you could have or should have done different, because you will hit yourself over the issue.

3)If WE build it, THEY will come -Field of Dreams;)

[pepelepew]

I feel your pain too, Scruffy.
Your efforts (and everyone else's) are VERY appreciated here. Don't forget that.
Funnily enough i've just be having a rant about something unrelated (but perhaps similar) at my own website.
You can read the post here -

http://www.ewafarna.co.uk/blog/index.php

The general tone of it, i think, relects what you are saying?
I've come to the conclusion over the last year that any sort of promotion that you, i, or anyone attempts is a waste of time without some sort of Official support. Perhaps 'waste of time' is a tad harsh but you know what i mean?
Alizee's 'people' should have been in touch with the Radio Station to give their support for your efforts ( i assume that they haven't?). They could have capitalized on the publicity that the adds have generated. I would also have thought that some sort of financial support would have been welcomed by you (even as a token gesture). After all you are doing thier work for them.

I think that the important thing is not to give in and to stay positive. My situation is slightly different as it's mainly (but not totally) financial reasons for my annoyance at the 'failure' of my site.
Hang in there.

Oh and i remember seeing Katie live in Belfast many years ago. Me and about 6 other people. Lovely, talented girl!I haven't seen any evidence of a reaction from Alizee or promotional/label to the AA letter of support and willingness to promote in the states. Her current album sales suck and I doubt they would be interested in the promotion of MF era music because it would not promote their current agenda. I applaud Scruffy for such dedication and tenacity in the promotion of our Alizee and many others that have worked so hard on her and her fans behalf. With the state the world is in at this time I am not sure that Alizee performing in the nude would get peoples attention right now lol. I am sorry to be such a Debbie downer, but I just call them like I see them. I agree that Alizee and her promotional teams blessing and an aggressive campaign by them is what is called for if any significant possibility for success at promoting Alizee here. I hope I am dead wrong by the way. :)

[Junkmale]

1) Alizee sadly doesn't have any people now. Scruff played older songs so her people would have been Mylene and Co. But she is no longer under them obviously haha:D I'm glad she isn't!




Well, she must have a management team that work behind the scenes on her behalf? I think also that Scruffy's ad's had a mixture of song snippets on them?

The lack of communication from Official sources is a big problem i think. This site gives her a foothold, or at least a beginning, in the US. As do the other sites dotted around the world (for their respective countries).
As far as i'm aware (and again i could be wrong) there has never been any contact from an Official Alizee source to Ben or anyone else directly involved with maintaining AAm. There is an opportunity here and she really needs to reach out and grab it.
If even someone was to come along and say 'We like what you are doing here and Alizee appreciates your efforts' it would be something?
My own site is probably going to have to close for that reason, allthough there are other issues also involved in that but it would be nice to be recognised and appreciated.

[Marquis<3Alizée]

I wish I could hear but I'm all the way in Wisconsin:(

[FanDeAliFee]

Well the commercials have run their course. What kind of results will there be if any?

The Boston radio ads, which ran for a couple weeks in the second half of June 2010, each ended by pointing people at Alizée America online. Here is what Alexa shows was the site traffic, including the period in question.

http://bellsouthpwp.net/d/o/docdtv/Alizee/AAtrafficPerAlexa201004-06.jpg

Given the dramatic ups and downs seen before the ads began, if the ads had any effect on site traffic during their run, it was not dramatic.


I would have liked to have placed these ads with a top 40 station as opposed to a soft rock station. But as I mentioned before, of the several stations I contacted, this was the only one to offer any serious consideration to what I wanted to do.

To repeat myself, I believe the biggest single factor by far working against Alizée as a singer which new American listeners might like is her use of French. This being so, I think it is very wasteful to conduct promotional efforts outside the American francophone (or at least francophile) community.

There is an old adage I just made up: don't fish in a swimming pool. Reasonable targets for promotion activity in the United States are:
> French meetup.com groups
> Alliance Française network institutions
> French music and culture mass-media programs


last week, when I was trying to hand out 50 dvd's of Alizée's music at a time when these ads were running. I found teenagers were the ones who were most responsive and willing to take these discs and to listen to them and what I had to say

Minors are used to getting stuff for free all the time from their parents, school, etc. And they are not afraid some one will mistake them for a fiscally potent adult who will be asked in some way to compensate the person handing them "free" stuff.

When adults attend fairs and expos, especially if they have paid an admission fee, they are much more willing to take free stuff from a booth/kiosk/table. That's why I think staffing such a station at a fee-based Bastille Day event would work MUCH better than hitting up random people on the street on a random day.


Bottom line is, where do we go from here?


Some people here took umbrage at my suggestion that Alizée benefit from patrons, but look at what they are now undertaking at the Gainsbourg "opera" in Tel Aviv. They are explicitly soliciting enhanced financial support from VIPs and sponsors. By paying enough, you also get polite access to the artists at an adjunct social event. A very generous sum like three thousand dollars could have helped a lot at an enterprise like the Tel Aviv event. Sure, it would be nice if one could do three thousand dollars of promotion and generate thirty thousand dollars of purchases from new consumers in consequence, but what if that is impossible? An artist with an income from some source can continue to create art, even if its sold produce is not very remunerative. So if Alizée's business manager can make a convincing case that the three grand Boston radio campaign was a quid-pro-quo for the half-hour private session in Paris, then it may well have done her much good by PROVING what a very high price her time can command.

I don't know how much Alizée charges for her services, but I could see her working for three thousand dollars a day if it was consistent with the welfare of her career and her personal dignity. This includes events where she does nothing more than host an event, like she recently did at the annual St. Erasmus Fair in Ajaccio.

If she is willing to do DJ work at the Ritz, I wonder if Alizée might also consider modeling work, something singers and other non-fashion celebrities have done in recent years. (One recalls Madonna's "infamous" topless strut (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4418197664736125881#)!) Like Milan, Paris is a fashion capital with lots of designer shows. One is also reminded how in her last two albums Alizée has acted out every little girl's dress-up fantasy by adopting the persona of model Edie Sedgwick!

For the most part, the supermodels are passé and the typical fashion model today is a teen who will be used for one season and probably never again, and is paid about $250 an hour. Again, I could see Alizée modeling in the show of a major designer for three thousand bucks. A sincere fan looking to patronize Alizée with three thousand dollars could have an interesting time trying to play match-maker: ask the designer if Alizée were welcome if she agreed and her fee was paid, and then approach Alizée if the answer were yes.

[Junkmale]

Strangely enough Doc, that's something that i've often thought about.
It wouldn't be relevant to me as i'm not from the US but...
Alizee is a working artist(e) like all in the entertainment industry i suppose.
I'm sure she has has a going rate for appearances and the like.
There are almost 2,000 members here on AAm (not all active, obviously).
If everyone was able to give say $10 each...do the math (as you lot would probably say:)).
If you pay her...she will come....maybe.
Just a thought.

[Rev]

Strangely enough Doc, that's something that i've often thought about.
It wouldn't be relevant to me as i'm not from the US but...
Alizee is a working artist(e) like all in the entertainment industry i suppose.
I'm sure she has has a going rate for appearances and the like.
There are almost 2,000 members here on AAm (not all active, obviously).
If everyone was able to give say $10 each...do the math (as you lot would probably say:)).
If you pay her...she will come....maybe.
Just a thought.

Probably. However, keep in mind that a hop across the pond is a much larger demand on her time than a Hotel in Paris - the commute for one is an hour round trip, while the other involves hotel stays and 2 days of travel. :)

[Azhiri]

Again I'm amazed by the devotion and dedication of the people on this forum. You guys should be commended for your Alizee-awareness efforts! :3

[Scruffydog777]

Probably. However, keep in mind that a hop across the pond is a much larger demand on her time than a Hotel in Paris - the commute for one is an hour round trip, while the other involves hotel stays and 2 days of travel. :)


A hop across the pond is a huge demand on her money too. I would think she would want and we too would want her to fly first class, so this could easily cost $3,000.00 before she ever got off the plane, and what about the others flying with her, her band if she needed to bring one, her security, her managers, an interpreter, Jeremy? Then there would be hotels. How many people would we need to put up and for how many nights? A good hotel in a big city would cost at least 300 per person per night. Costs could easily reach 5 figures before she ever set foot on a stage.

As far as the radio ads, it looks like they were a huge disappointment. I'm really surprised at how little of an affect it had. Would have targeting a different type of station, or a different age group, another city made any difference. Given the poor results of this experiment, I tend to believe it wouldn't. Maybe we need to include the visual affect of Alizée to have something like this to be truely affective. But the expense of that would probably make it unlikely to happen.

So we have to keep trying. I think the best way is trying to get some part of the media to do a story about her. I've tried this in the past and will continue to do so.

As far as approaching the French community. That's a good effort, but it too will only gain us a few fans here or there. Not enough to make the type of noticable impact that I had hoped these ads would make.