Metablocks Sound and Pictures

Here are some recent widget post from our Widgetmatic Blog:

• Widgetmatic Series Beefs Up Online Video Support and Options
  Video has always been a key component on widgets. With their growing popularity, online videos quickly and easily be integrated into both custom and prefab Widgetmatic widgets.
• Widgetmatic AIR Widgets for the Desktop
  While many people use Adobe Flash-based widgets on the Web, dashboard widgets have allowed users to access the same widget functionality on their own desktop.
• Clearspring API’s going Away – What to Do Next?
  You have about 100 days left till April 5^th, 2010 when your Clearspring widgets will stop working (unless you switch to their AddThis platform, Gigya or another widget sharing provider). 
• New Quantcast Web Analytics Tab for Widgets!
  Recently we have added a family of web analytics tabs which rely on both public (Alexa.com, Compete.com) and internal web analytics (Google Analytics, Omniture) information that can be incorporated into a Widgetmatic widget.

• Do Something Interesting, Better Still Compelling!
  Lady Gaga’s Facebook application was unnecessarily basic! There is some beautify in simplicity, but when possible, applications need to be compelling! Yes there is power in the brand and some people believe fans will do absolutely anything, but marketers need to ask themselves a simple question “Why will a fan want to use this application”. Try the application and judge for yourself. The last reaction you want from fans is “I don’t get it”.
• Allow for More Customization
  There was very little to control in the application (especially when compared to something like RE5′s Mijini Makeover which uses our photo composition). The more control you give users over their content creation, the more “ownership” they feel. The more “ownership” they feel, the more likely they are to promote it. The more they promote it…you get the idea.
• Play Something and Sell Something
  Make “buy” links for digital music prominent! The goal of most (if not all) of our Facebook artist applications is to sell digital music (or even physical product)!  If you get the attention of a music fan, we feel it is important to convert that exposure to a purchase if possible. The easiest way of that (what we call ‘solving the easy problems’) is to expose the fan to the artist’s content, generate a level of demand, and then fulfill that demand via iTunes or Amazon as quickly as possible. This application could have be improved by a stronger call to action. Unfortunately the only “buy” link was hidden in the body of user posts (and unfortunately it was plain text and not even a link).
• Give Them a Reason to Share
  The Lady Gaga Facebook appliation assumes that once you finished the simple photo creation process you will immediately turn around and share it with friends of Facebook. There is no marketing copy, no call to action, no reason to act, no incentive, no payola, just a  simple blue “Share” button! Always ask yourself “Why would someone share this?”. Is it funny or entertaining? Does it build the poster’s self-esteem? Does it let the poster express themselves creatively? Does it allow them to further their cause or the cause of others?
• Keep Them Coming Back
  If possible, when building Facebook applications try and give users a reason to come back! This is a difficult problem to solve, and we (and our clients) are sometimes complicit in this matter. Like many Facebook applications, the I’M A FAME MONSTER app is designed as a “single-use” application! Always try to create “multiple-use” applications that engage fans, keep them coming back, and getting them involved in interacting either with the artist’s content or other fans through the application. Try and create a connection with the user and create opportunities for “re-infection”!
   

Just wanted to highlight some music and technology related posts on this and other Metablocks blogs sites include:

• Artist.com: What Should I build my Music Website On? (Widgetmatic)
• Custom Facebook Applications for Music Artist (MetaBlog)
• Warner Music, Sony BMG, Universal and Drupal! What Gives? (M2)
• Country Music Fans and Digital Music Sales – Interesting Numbers (M2)
• Music Artists and Widgets: A Guide (M2)
• Altantic Records and Social Media Marketing (M2)
• Beware of Twitter Spam: An Overview and Guide (MetaBlog)
• Understanding the “Widget Space”: A Simple Guide (Widgetmatic)

I just did a post on our Widgetmatic blog about the options music artist have when it comes to building websites, blogs and their online presence.  One of these options – the Multi-site – is become a popular option for music artists signed up with major labels such as Warner Music, Sony BMG, Universal and EMI.

Many of these labels have built large multi-site capable of hosting hundreds of artist on the same platform (similar approach to Widgetmatic widget platform hosting hundreds of artist widgets on the same platform) and all of these labels, for the most part, are using a content management system called Drupal, so what gives and what is Drupal?

Drupal is a free open-source content management system written PHP that is used to build robust, personalizeable, content driven websites. In recent years Drupal has been a popular platform in the music industry for building artist websites. Unlike perhaps WordPress, Drupal is clearly targeted to developers.

Warner Music is a big Drupal user and the company has a multi-site setup that allows each artist site to share the same codebase.  This Artist Service Platform (called internally The Platform) powers the websites of Remedy Drive, My Chemical Romance, The Veronicas, Randy Dravis and many others.

Sony BMG Records is also a fairly big Drupal have have put together a Sony BMG Records’ multi-site that host such artists as Daughtry, Kelly Clarkson, Paula DeAnda and others. Sony’s MusicBox community site also runs on Drupal.

We do custom development for both Drupal and WordPress, so here are some of my thoughts:

• Setup and Management
  As an artist here are a couple of things you should know. Drupal is great and power platform but it more easily deployed and managed by large organization (with a decent IT budget and staff) than a “webshop” or much less an individual. If you label doesn’t have a multi-site platform, check out other options.
• Development Customization
  For music labels, Drupal is a great way to go (if you have the IT staff). Drupal can be customized (I avoid using the words “easily customized”) through custom themes, its supports multiple-languages and much more. That said, have build custom themes for both WordPress and Drupal, customizing Drupal is a lot more difficult.  
• Usability and Intuitiveness
  Probably some will see this as a downside to Drupal and many developers have complained about its learning curve and major releases are not always backward compatible, ouch! This is more a problem for the label than for the artist since if you are using a multi-site, chances are someone else is responsible for keeping it updated.

Alternative Technologies:
Most people will agree that Drupal is clearly more powerful than WordPress (and other pure blogging solutions) given that it is a true CMS, but given the cost and complexity that come with Drupal, it definitely isn’t the best solution for everyone. So know your many options.

• WordPress and Blogs
  WordPress is a PHP-based blogging platform and is probably the biggest single contender to Drupal in this area. It is also probably the best option for any artists who owns and operates their own website (directly or through a website provider). It takes a little know-how and a lot of plug ins (plus a good custom theme) but running an artist website on WordPress if perfect fine and acceptable (and great for SEO purposes). For example, the Widgetmatic website runs on WordPress and we have build dozens of custom wordpress plugins to enhance “website” functionality for clients who use run their site on WordPress.
• Joomla
  Joomla is yet another content management system or CMS. Personally I have not seen it used a lot in the music industry but I heard it can be done and there are event stories out there of people who have done it. Some claim Joomla is faster than Drupal, but there are ways to to improve Drupal’s performance considerably via caching and compression. Overall, Joomla seems a bit dated – just an opinion.
• Ning
  Ning is not software but an online community. I would consider Ning more a community site builder than a website builder. A number of music labels have been using Ning (in conjunction to their websites) as a community builder (ThisIs50.com, T.I., Good Charlotte). Ning is (somewhat) customizable and many of the artists and labels I have spoken to seem to like the level of community activity they see on Ning.
• Other Third Party Communities
  Many of these exist. Usually the true purpose of these “platforms” is to build some sort of music community, so they are open to giving away their services and bandwidth to artist in exchange for building a more “cohesive” community around the artist. These includes communities like Buzznet (Britney Spears), Zoecity (TobyMac), and others.

Be sure to check out Widgetmatic’s: Artist.com: What Platform Should I Build my Web Site On for a whole list of website development options!

According to recent articles in the Washington Post and Paste Magazine, a survey conducted by the CMA shows that:

50% of core country music fans do not have the Internet at home. And 42 percent of those respondents report they have no desire to change that.

Here are some of the high level numbers from this and other surveys that deal with Country music and the Internet:

• 40% of adults between the age of 18 and 54 are country music fans
• 65% of county music fans prefer to buy CDs, versus 35% who prefer digital
• 38% had illegally copied a CD and 23% got pirated online copies
• 25% of fans attended a country music concert in the last year
• 50% of hard-core country music fans have Internet access at home citing access or cost
• Hard-core country music fans are between the age of 25 and 39
• Country music category was among lowest (6%) of downloaded digital albums in 2008 – Nielsen/Soundscan (this number as 4.9% in 2007, below both Latin and Gospel)
• In first 5 months of 2009, Country album sales experienced the smallest decline of all the major music genre’s (4%)  and lead in growth for digital album sales – Nielsen/Soundscan
• Country fans skew female (54% vs US population), they are more likely to be married, Caucasian and from small towns, and find most of their new music via Country radio stations

So what do all these numbers mean? When examined in light of the fact that in a 2008 survey by Nielsen, 80% of all U.S. homes have a computer, and almost 92% those homes have Internet access – these numbers mean that going after country music fan’s online is hard work! The music industry acknowledges that – according to Sony BMG Nashville Chairman Joe Galante in a Washington Post article: “The lack of interest in the Internet  tells you that it’s not as easy to reach the hard-core fans as it might seem”. Capitol Records Nashville President, Mike Dungan sound even more worried, saying “if a sizable portion of our audience has no access online, then we’re out of business.”

Here are some conclusions and perhaps some marketing insight into what these numbers may hold:

• Broaden your Fan Base:
  The post gives the examples of older bands like the Oak Ridge Boys, going after a younger audience on MySpace and Twitter. Reba McEntire has attempted to do the same in recent years.
• Continue Your Online Investments
  In spite of the fact that 42% of those surveyed claim they have no desire to change their situation, the underlying causes given included lack of access and cost, two components that will eventually go away. Remember, 58% (a majority) of this group do want Internet access in the future! So Internet is still the way to go. In an article in CyperGrass, Heather McBee, VP, Digital Business, Sony Music Nashville says “Two years ago, an artist could succeed without a digital strategy. Today it’s become a key component to the marketing plan that builds a presence for the artist and helps establish a meaningful relationship with fans.”
• Internet Access is the Key to Getting Fan’s “Hooked”!
  A more in-depth look at the report, revealed that for the 71% who has Internet access, the Internet becomes the central medium. Not surprising, once they they became digital music consumers, they contribute very little CD revenue. Overall country music digital sales (Nielsen) have continued on a growing trend since (2006) and in spite of market dynamic look like they are growing steadier than perhaps some other genres of music.
• Promote the Internet as Way to Lower Cost
  Perhaps the key to going after hard-core country music fans is lowering their cost. As previously mentioned, hard-core fans are extremely cost sensitive. They cited cost as a key reason for not having Internet access, they also complained about being “ripped off” by the price of merchandise and frustrated by the cost of concerts.  60% of country music fan said they were financially challenged and as a result are spending less on music. The Internet has long promised to lower consumer cost and some of that is true. Digital tracks cost a less than CDs (although MP3 players don’t). Considering ways of using and promoting the Internet as way for fans to cut cost (free giveaways, concert video, i.e.).

This post is an updated version of a post I did sometime ago on our sister blog that deals with music artists and widgets.  Most artists are aware of how web-based widgets have become! One could argue that MySpace (and music) were responsible for taking widgets mainstream, and the growth of other social networks (Facebook) has only fueled people use and desire for widgets!  Today, widgets continue to provided probably one of the best viral mechanism for music artists to let fans share their music.

Music artist widgets generally solve the following problems for recording artists and labels:

• Fan Acquisition: Widgets allow bands to virally grow your fan base by enabling fans to share your music via the widget. Atlantic Record’s Eric Snowden talks about the same widget traffic driving phenomenon as well.
• Information Distribution: Widget make it easier to keep fans up to date on upcoming releases and events
• Fan Retention: It is a known fact that widgets increase the amount of time fans spend on artist sites by keeping fans “engaged”
• Digital Music Sales: Widgets are about demand creation and fulfillment when it comes to online digital track sales as artists link widgets directly to Apple’s iTune, Amazon or their own fulfillment ecommerce service.

Growing Digital Track Sales
Digital music track sales are hitting record highs! According to Billboard Magazine, in December 2008 US weekly digital track sales have set a new record of 47.7 million ). And this phenomena is not limited to North America, global digital music sales hit $2.9 billion in 2007, up from $2.1 billion in 2006! Although digital sales only account for 18% of the U.S. music market (15% of the world) today, Forrester Research expects this figure will grow to 41% in five years.

This digital music sales trend continues and is evident from the recent numbers from Nielsen/Soundscan.

Digital Marketing through Widgets
If sales are digital, marketing has to be digital! Record labels like Interscope and Warner are taking to the web to drive music sales. (Interscope Record’s artist Lady GaGa’s “Just Dance,” topped the charts in December 200 with 419,000 downloads).  Being big fans of social media in general, Interscope Records has pushed digital sales by encouraging artists to use widgets and have used their own social media apps (See Interscope Songcard on Facebook) to drive sales. Some credit Warner music with pioneering directly selling music through widgets as well.

Getting on the Widget Band Wagon:
Music arists and labels have a number of options when it comes to designing and developing widget that include:

• Custom “Single Use” Widgets: Probably the most common route for artist and labels is to simply build a custom Flash-based widget either internally or using a company like Metablocks. We build a lot of these. The problem with “single-use” widgets, however, is they have a limited life-span and they tend to be static. They usually focus on a single artist, album or event and over time are “discarded” by fans as they loose their relavence.
• Do-It-Yourself (DIY)  “Single Use” Widgets: A number of “free” widget toolkits exist that allow artists and labels to quickly assemble a simple widget. Unlike a custom solution, many of these offerings come with limited functionality, third-party branding and most are no long “free”. Worst of all, almost all depend on third-party infrastructure that may not scale or may be retired if the provider exits the market.
• Standards-Based Widget Platform: A widget content delivery platform is the only solution that gives music labels “total ownership” of your widget content management and deployment. This is the idea behind Metablock’s Widgetmatic platform (which is currently in beta). Widgetmatic shifts the focus from “flash development” to “content delivery”, and from a “single use” mindset to a “fan lifecycle” mentality. It enables labels to launch and manage multiple artists on the same platform, using the widget as “portal” to continually and dynamically deliver new and relavent rich-media content to an artist’s fan. This content is not limited to music or news but includes dynamic “mini-applications” such as twitter feeds, interactive maps, and dozens of others.

Recently the Hollywood Reporter and TechCruch reported that a NPD Group study found that active Twitter users buy 77% more digital music downloads on average than non-users.

NPD entertainment analyst Russ Crupnick comments: “Based on their music-purchasing history, active Twitter users are simply worth more to record labels and music retailers than those who are not using Twitter.”

What is also interesting is that a third of all Twitter users bought a CD in the prior three months, and 34% reported buying music digitally (compared to 23% and 16% for overall Web users). So not only do they buy digital music, they buy the physical stuff as well! This could not be better news for artists and labels, most of whom are already pushing music on the social micro-blogging site. In fact you will find a long list of music labels (via TwitterLeage – be careful since it’s a bit spammy) and artists on Twitter hopefully doing just that!

Here are some ways music artists and labels are trying to sell and promote music as well as grow their fan base using Twitter:

• Giving Away Music for Free
  The way this works is a music artists gives away music in exchange for exposure and buzz (tweets). The correct way to do this is to use an Twitter application (similar to those developed by Metablocks) that does the tweeting on the user’s behalf (thus ensuring they ‘follow through’) and then allows them to download the track. Probably won’t work for everyone but just a thought!
• Sell Music via iTunes or Amazon
  This is approach is simple. Once your music is on iTunes or Amazon, get the URL, use an URL shorter (ideally one like bit.ly that allows you to track clicks) and tweet it to all your fans! Both the label and the artist then encourage fans to re-tweet (RT) the new release link. Ideaden’s Dale Manning recently shared a great post on how well this can work (if you have the fan base) titled: The power of Twitter to sell music. Topspin ate their words and will tell the same thing!
• Use a Twitter Payment System to Sell your Own Music
  No label? Not on iTunes? No Problem! There are handful of Twitter payment services gearing up to allow artists to sell their own music including services like Twitpay.me, RT2Buy and others! Although I cannot vouch for any of these, the concept sounds great!
• Encourage Fans to “Share” your Songs on Twitter
  Its not as bad as it sounds. There are a number of free services that allow fans and artists to share songs with their fan base. The goal is simple – get people to listen to your music and hopefully they will buy it! Remember, numbers suggest that Twitter is a “consumer platform” – meaning most people are there to listen, not to tweet (the top 10% of prolific Twitter users accounted for over 90% of tweets) so provide fans with “tools” that will help them tweet or focus on the prolific 10% who will RT just about anything.
• Promote Contests and Competitions
  I see @emimusic and others using Twitter to push giveaways and competitions! Check out their tweets to learn how a music label can use Twitter for this sort of thing! Nothing is perfect so understand the pros and cons of this approach, but in general I think it works well.
• Be Creative – Sell Other Stuff!
  It seems there are many more ways for artists to make money using Twitter. I found this link courtesy of Adrian Fusiarski about an Indie musician who make $19K using twitter. He used the service to auction items, well last minute tickets, get donations and who knows what else! Even labels are engaged in artist to fan sales of all sorts! If what Topspin says about the kind of money that can be extracted from hardcore fans is true, this maybe the artist’s (and labels’s) holy grail!

If you are a music fan looking to buy music or find great artists here is how Twitter can help:

• Follow your Favorite Artist (and their Labels)
  As I mentioned before, your favorite music artist is probably already on Twitter – follow them and their record label. Many times artist and music labels send links to fan-only specials, discounts and other competitions. Artists also promote other artists whose music you may very well like!
• Use a Twitter Music Search Service or Addon
  There are a couple of Twitter music search services you can check out including Twisten.fm and Musebin.ws, and addons (such as #musicmonday) you can use to find new music.

Just some quick notes on the topic. Twitter has become even bigger in the past last couple of weeks (Time Magazine, #Iranelection, i.e.) so expect to see more and more artists and labels making better use of the platform. I think the key to success on Twitter will be 1) getting on Twitter and engaging fans regularly, 2) building a large fan base as quickly as possible, and 3) leveraging Twitter directly and through third party application to drive digital sales and increased fan growth!

I recently ran across this interest presentation by Eric Snowden, Senior Creative Director for Atlantic Records (a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Music Group). Atlantic’s new media group has tripled in size in the last year and Atlantic has made significant investment both in-house and working with outside agencies.

Eric discusses how Atlantic Records is using social media to try and better connect fans and artists, the presentation also talks about their use of Adobe technologies such as Flash, Flash Lite and AIR. Here are some of the good points Eric makes:

• Artist Websites: Atlantic records has focused on the artist website (ARTIST.COM) and building out other offerings around the core site to include desktop applications, widgets and games, mobile apps and on disc connect. This is true (in general) for the entire family of Warner Music companies who are standardizing on the Drupal platform.
• Widgets and Games: According to Eric Snowden, “Widgets and games are a big part of driving traffic”. Totally agree with Eric here! Primary purpose of the Widgetmatic platform is attract and drive traffic.
• Feeds and Reusable Components: Keeping content consistent and have tried to build reusable elements and reusable common feeds. This is key! It still boggles my mind when I see an artist website or worse “blog” that doesn’t support RSS and feeds.
• Flash Technology: Atlantic uses Flash and other Adobe technologies heavily in artists sites.
• Band-Generated Content: Atlantic records are big fans of band generated content such as blogs, mobile streams, and a big source of traffic and fan discussions (get as many as a thousand comments on a post).
• Mobile: Atlantic pushes the site’s mobile companion site as a “first class citizen”.
• Artist Communities: Have 3 people on the rock and 3 on the urban side that moderate artist communities. Eric also talks about their use of Ning and other technologies to build artist communities.

Eric also talks about moving from being a “music company” to being a “content company”. I also like the fact that his team tries and do something for every artist, every day – believe me, this can be a challenge for most labels. My suggestion to labels is they explore ways of automating content creation and saving time and money by synchronizing information between web properties (publish once approach) to keep content fresh and new.

• Had a good conversation with @hypebot, definitely knows what he is talking about! Convinced me that direct music sales are the future! #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

Artistmatic is a new service from Metablocks Sound and Pictures and allows music labels, management, marketers and artists to get realtime social media analytics. Artistmatic is essentially an analytics dashboard that allows helps labels, musicians and bands analyze and measure the online success of their music as it relates to digital sales, fans and followers, blog and twitter mentions, and other important trending data.

The dashboard pulls into a single location information from popular social networks (Facebook, MySpace, i.e.), micro-blogging sites (Twitter), online music stores (iTunes, Amazon, i.e.) as well as Internet traffic related information directly from an artists site (Google Analytics, i.e.) or through public proxies for that information (Alexa, Compete, i.e.). 

By bringing together valuable social media information, Artistmatic significantly reduces the time and cost involved in collecting it (for each one of a music label’s artists), and allows “brand” managers to quickly identify and potentially exploit important social media trends, as well as “remix” and republish content or metrics via Twitter, blogs or email. If you are interested being part our limited beta program, email us.