Renowned British MC Ghetts is set to release new album 'Rebel With a Cause' in March 2014. In keeping with the nature of the campaign, Ghetts and his start-up label Disrupt, an independent label based in London, created a music app intended to build a community for fans to receive exclusive news, music and content around the album campaign

“We created the REBEL app to cut through that noise and illusion conventional social media channels like Facebook and Twitter create. We have over 180,000 followers, friends, likes what ever you want to call them, but no real way of owning that data or engaging with them all directly. This is incredibly frustrating for artists, who if they are going for it independently, will struggle to convert fans to purchases through these traditional outlets.” Matt Thorne, Disrupt

For the Disrupt team, releasing an album independently, they needed to combat two things - engaging fans directly, and measurement; understanding the audience, allowing them to engage and finding out more about them

The app also works as a cyber street team; uniting Ghetts' loyal fan base, a team of 'Rebels' who the artist and label can engage with directly. Ghetts has a profile on the app, and so does each user, there is also a fan wall where people can chat, as well as comment on all content, and Ghetts can talk to and engage with them directly within it. Users are also rewarded points for their engagement allowing the label to see who are key fans, and reward them directly

“I want to do something more than just chart, I want to leave a legacy – music that changed a demographic; changed the game. When I sat down with Disrupt they just got that. I saw this would be a good relationship. I was always the newcomer, now I see myself as the underdog – it's where I'm most at home.” Ghetts