New book! Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead

Our secret is out.

For the past four months, I have been quietly working on a book with my friend Brian Halligan, CEO of HubSpot on a book project.

Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn from the Most Iconic Band in History

The book came off the printer today and will begin shipping from online bookstores next week. It will be in stores throughout North America first week of August.

You can participate in our Follow the Band Book Tour (hashtag #GDbook). We're kicking the tour off on HubSpot TV this afternoon at 4:00 eastern and will follow Grateful Dead member bands Furthur and Rhythm Devils at the end of July culminating with a book signing at the Gathering of the Vibes festival.

Home base for the tour will be our Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead Facebook page.

The Grateful Dead-rock legends, marketing pioneers

Starting in the 1960s the Grateful Dead pioneered many social media and inbound marketing concepts that businesses across all industries use today. The Dead broke almost every rule in the music industry book. They encouraged their fans to record shows and trade tapes; they built a mailing list and sold concert tickets directly to fans; and they built their business model on live concerts, not album sales. By cultivating a dedicated, active community, collaborating with their audience to co-create the Deadhead lifestyle, and giving away "freemium" content, the Dead pioneered many social media and inbound marketing concepts successfully used by businesses across all industries today.

Brian and I are lifelong Deadheads and have been writing and speaking about the band for many years. We decided to collaborate on this book because the lessons are so important today. These lessons are an important tool for helping to understand the new marketing environment in language and examples that are familiar to all. The Grateful Dead is one huge case study in contrarian marketing. Most of the band's many marketing innovations are based on doing the exact opposite of what other bands (and record labels) are doing at the time.

Foreword by Bill Walton

We're honored that the "world's biggest Deadhead" 6'11" basketball star Bill Walton has written a foreword to the book. Bill has seen the band more than 750 times, becoming a fan as a California high school student in 1967. When we had lunch with Bill, he told us that he played better ball the days after he saw a show.

Here's what Bill says about the book:
"Brian and David’s newest book, Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead, is like a powerful, hard-charging anthem that fills in so many blanks while closing the circle of life all around us. Like the Grateful Dead, Brian and David are transformational visionaries with a keen eye for the second set."

Band photos, original illustrations, and amazing design

Throughout the book are remarkable photographs from Jay Blakesberg, a San Francisco-based photographer whose work has appeared on hundreds of covers and feature articles for numerous magazines including Rolling Stone, Guitar World, and Guitar Player. Jay began photographing the Grateful Dead as a high school student in 1978 and joined the travelling caravan that followed the band in the 1980s. In later years, he worked closely with the band and was given access to create much more intimate and exclusive images.

We also include amazing original illustrations by Richard Biffle, an artist whose mystical fantasy pieces inspire many minds. For more than twenty years Richard has been working with the Grateful Dead (as well as the individual band members spinoff projects), creating the fantastic artwork seen on Dead posters, merchandise, and CD covers.

My friend Doug Eymer designed the book. It is stunning, 1960s like but modern.

Here are a few early reviews of the book

"Halligan and Scott have written one of the most inspired, practical, and unconventional books on the business bookshelf. Want to develop a cult-like following, establish a new category, and do what you love? Scott and Halligan—calling upon their innate marketing savvy and inspired by their passion for the Grateful Dead—show you how."
- Marc Benioff; Chairman & CEO, salesforce.com

"For years, business theorists and corporate strategists have pointed to the Dead’s example for insights into perennial issues and emerging challenges. Scott and Halligan focus on one key factor in the band’s extraordinary artistic and business success—their iconic and enduring identity, not just as a band but as a brand. The authors’ real appreciation for the Dead phenomenon, and their compelling and creative analyses of the Dead’s marketing acumen, make this thought-provoking survey mandatory reading."
- Nicholas Meriwether, Grateful Dead Archivist, UC Santa Cruz

"Jerry Garcia and his band were brilliant marketers. They understood that you grow your fan base one fan at a time and they constantly came up with things to energize their base while continuing to build it. As committed fans and talented marketing pros, Brian and David have created a book that is both entertaining and informative."
- Jim Irsay, Owner and CEO, Indianapolis Colts and owner of Jerry Garcia's guitar, Tiger

"David and Brian share my deep passion for music and its inspiration in our everyday lives. In Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead, they combine their marketing expertise with a zeal for one of the most successful and iconic bands of all time. They mold two subjects that are seemingly poles apart into one breakthrough book that is as entertaining as it is enlightening."
- Del Breckenfeld, Director, Entertainment Marketing, Fender Musical Instruments Corp. & author of The Cool Factor: Building Your Brand's Image Through Partnership Marketing

"Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead explores the phenomenon created by the Grateful Dead showcasing the extraordinary power of music and the innovations the Dead developed to connect and bond with their audience."
- Michael Lang, co-creator & Producer of the 1969 Woodstock Music & Art Festival and author The Road to Woodstock

Buy the book

You can buy the book these booksellers

Amazon.com

Borders

Barnes & Noble

Books-A-Million.com

800-CEO-Read

Versions for Kindle and other ebook readers coming soon.

Brian and I were in the studio last week recording the audiobook. It will be released in a few days.

We hope that our combined 50 years of intense interest in the Grateful Dead combined with another 50 combined years of experience as marketing professionals has created a book that’s valuable to both Grateful Dead fans and newbies alike.

++++++++++++++++

UPDATE August 4, 2010

If you’re interested in reading more about the Dead's business and marketing strategy, check out Radical Marketing: From Harvard to Harley, Lessons from Ten That Broke the Rules and Made It Big, by Glenn Rifkin & Sam Hill. The book features a chapter on the Dead that is definitely worth a read.

The chapter in the 1999 book built on Rifkin's 1997 article How to 'Truck' the Brand in strategy + business.

I eagerly read the article when it first came out more than a decade ago and again early this year as Brian and I were researching our book.

Hat tip to Rifkin as this article was the first time the ideas of the band as brilliant marketers was discussed in print. Rifkin is a veteran business author and New York Times reporter.

Comments

[Nathan Dube]

David, I am def looking forward to this book. I hope to pick up a copy eventually.

Hope you have a blast at the vibes.

If your around my band will be playing at the Wormtown Music Festival in Greenfield, MA come September.

Thanks for writing this book, I would say its long overdue...

[Bradley H. Smith]

CONGRATS to you both on what must have been a passionate project.

I am going out today to buy a VW minivan to follow your book tour!

CHEERS

[Anne]

Congratulations! A book about one of my favorite bands, written by one of my favorite marketing gurus. Adding it to my must-read list.

[David Meerman Scott]

Nathan, Bradley, and Anne -- THANKS. This has been a fun project.

Nathan - are you coming to Boston soon?

[doug eymer]

To David, Brian and all of the fine folks at Wiley:

Thanks for providing me with the chance to work with you on the design of this book.

In the many hours that I spent designing the cover and interior, you can bet that my headphones were cranking DEAD Tunes!

Best of luck to you and especially to those who read the book, and learn how to improvise on their own unique marketing play list!

Rock On.

Doug Eymer | www.eymer.com

[David Meerman Scott]

Thank you Doug. Your design for our book ROCKS.

David

[David Siteman Garland]

Ahhhhh this is the surprise. I love it!

[Tim Washer]

congrats David. Here's to another #1 best seller!

[Steve Jones]

Congratulations on the new book! I am really looking forward to reading it. I've also given it a plug to the readers of my Brand Like A Rock Star blog at http://bit.ly/alWFXG.

[Sergei Samoilenko]

David,
congrats! Thank you for this great news! I am looking forward to this great new book.
Serge

[Richard A. Lewis]

Sounds like an interesting concept for a book. I would argue though that Kiss is becoming the most "iconic band in history"

[Premier Team International]

Thanks for the post - I'll have to check out this book.

[Michael Conway]

I spent 16 years as a Dead Head and wound up working of the band as a photographer. I shot the cover for the Jerry Garcia CD How Sweet It Is. The funny thing was that I gave away a hell of a lot of photography to people who just loved the images and it resulted in the best freelance gig in the world. I was able to meet the band, attend parties, get back stage passes and I always had the best seat in the house (between the barricade and the stage)for the shows I "worked". I have always taken to heart the business philosophy of giving to get. Did I mention that I had LOTS of tapes? I am eagerly looking forward to reading this book to see if DM Scott and Brian Halligan have put into words what has been the basis for my marketing endeavors over the years and I'll send along a photo or two as a thanks for their efforts. @maconway123

[Small Business Marketing]

I hope this will be available here, looks and sounds good. Thanks for sharing!

[Ann Handley]

Thrilled for you and Brian, David!

Congrats!

[Tom Nolan]

I love this idea! Combining knowledge with a well known inspirational example! Good work Dave!

[Adrianswinscoe]

Hi David,
I love the sound of this book and how you have created a new category of business book. I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on a copy. When will it be released in the UK?

Adrian

www.ideasforbusinessgrowth.com

[David Meerman Scott]

Thanks to all for your support.

Brian and I finished up recording the audio yesterday. We expect the audio version to be released early August.

The version for Kindle and other readers should release at the same time as the printed book.

The UK release is planned for the middle of August.

David

[Dianna Huff]

David and Brian,

Congratulations! Can't wait to receive my hard copy and am looking forward to watching this one become another best-seller.

[Justin Tabas]

when will the audio book come out?

[David Meerman Scott]

Looks like the audiobook will be out in a few days.

[life coaching certification]

I read every bit on the way home. Both books have begun the first page of a book by David Meerman Scott Kellerman, Jonathan, and in general. Two stabbed interest.But quickly faced with the choice of what to read, I am willing to learn from the Grateful Dead first marketing. I immersed myself back story, or because the band was thinking long it takes measures adopted and how it has benefited their career.

[Virtual Global]

Thanks for the post! Bill Walton is great.

[Jun'ichi Kato]

Hi, David and Brian,
I'm a reader of MLFGD in Japan. I've been working over 20 years in music business(record company) and now everybody around me in the same business says "we are in the face of a perceived unprecedented crisis". But this book tought me that there were many things we'd do for getting back and developing music fans again. I hope this book would be read by all of my friends here. Is there any plan for releasing in Japanese version here?

[David Meerman Scott]

Hello Kato-san

Thanks for reading the book. We don't think the music business is in crisis. Rather, there is an amazing opportunity!

YES! The book will be published in Japanese. The translation is being done now and it will likely come out in mid 2011.

Thanks for your interest.

[Jun'ichi Kato]

Hi David-san,

I appreciate your prompt reply.

I'm looking forward to hearing the further news about Japanese version release.

Thank you again and regards,
Jr.

[SEO Companies]

This is an interesting book to read. I know a lot of people will be interested to read this but I want to know what other translations do you have,aside from Japanese?