Drumming Up Sales

After nearly a decade in the music industry, Talib Kweli has scored his first top 10 entry on The Billboard 200 with “Eardrum,” which enters at No. 2 this week–and he reaches that mark without the album’s first single, “Hot Thing,” cracking the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.

Boosted by touring and a creative new-media campaign, “Eardrum”–which also checks in at No. 2 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart–sold 60,000 units, 9,000 of which were digital, in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Kweli attributes his chart success to playing live and perfecting his craft.

“Radio and street buzz are important but they don’t entirely determine sales,” Kweli says. “I do almost 200 hip-hop shows per year.”

He admits, though, that he was nervous about promoting “Eardrum” via the Internet. “I hadn’t used my laptop until a year ago,” Kweli says. “Now, I’ve taught myself how to use the Internet and crack my laptop open every morning.”

In January, the MC released “Liberation,” a free, Internet-only Madlib-produced EP, on a whim. Once the release had catalyzed a significant buzz with hip-hop consumers on the Web, it was Warner Bros. new-media senior VP Jeremy Welt’s turn to digitally promote “Eardrum.”

“We developed cool new things in wireless, Web and video,” Welt says. “But we made sure all of the new media tied into the theme of the album and fed into the record with the messaging and art.”

Welt’s department created a widget for Kweli’s Web site, which allowed fans to learn more about “Eardrum” through key words. Fans could also embed the widget onto their own MySpace page or blog. Kweli wrote long “text message novellas” that were distributed to his mobile listserv, and which shared more personal information on the album. Welt also set up and listed a phone number that fans could call to hear voice messages from Kweli. “Blacksmith TV,” a reality show tracking Kweli and labelmates Jean Grae and Strongarm Steady, was developed into a 10-part series distributed on YouTube. Kweli’s DJ Chaps also taped their performances and the pair posted the concerts on Kweli’s Web site in real time.

But what Welt is most excited about is Warner’s partnership with Meebo.com, an online chatting conduit whose recent “Eardrum” promotion partnership is the site’s first music-related tie-in. Warner banked on Meebo’s 2 million unique daily visitors and 750,000 registered members to virally promote “Eardrum” while expanding Kweli’s consumer base. Together, these online campaigns increased Kweli’s Web site traffic by 3,000%.

“We started his campaign more traditionally but we weren’t happy with the buzz we garnered,” Welt says. “So we went back to the drawing board and came up with every crazy idea we could think of and put it into action.”