https://f0110w.me

Our Head of Digital, Sam Stubbings, came up with a plan to add a little mystery to the release of the latest Muse lyric video.

At certain points in the Follow Me lyric video a url briefly flashes.

Visiting the url reveals a free download of the band performing Follow Me live at the O2 in London.

I decided that https://f0110w.me was an appropriate URL and built the page based on a design by Kate Brighouse.

I wanted the free download to be mobile friendly so configured a php script to react according to the device. The download script sets the files header to ensure that the mp3 file downloads rather than playing in the browser for desktop and Android users. iOS devices don’t allow people to download mp3 files from the web so I set the script to detect the device and play the file within the browser for iPhones, iPads and iPods.

Fans discovered the secret url within minutes of launching the lyric video and the free track was vigorously downloaded and shared on social networks.

I configured the meta data to embed the lyric video when the url was shared on Facebook. This would encourage more people to watch the video and partially obscure the free download link, adding a little more mystery to the hidden url.

The campaign went down really well and fans came up with some fascinating theories about the meaning behind the URL. My favourite theory was that 0110 means six in binary. Follow Me is the 6th song on The 2nd Law – Muse’s 6th studio album.