Artists House Music blog - Latest Comments in The Golden Age of Music Widgets? Nah.

Re: The Golden Age of Music Widgets? Nah.

Dexter Bryant Jr. — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 13:57:34 -0000

Excellent post!

If you don't mind I'm going to re-post this on my blog The Hit Music Academy and link back to your original post.

Re: The Golden Age of Music Widgets? Nah.

Andrew Goodrich — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 14:20:06 -0000

Thanks for your insights, Mike --

I didn't mean to dismiss the rest of the Topspin package - my intention (though I could've/should've been clearer) was to say exactly your point here --

Re: The Golden Age of Music Widgets? Nah.

Mike King — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:01:47 -0000

Hey Andrew,

Cool piece, but to be fair, there is a whole lot more to Topspin than just widgets. I've had an opportunity to take a pretty close look at the software over the past few months for the Berklee course I am writing on online music marketing using Topspin. Certainly the widget campaign played a part in Byrne/Eno's success (2 million streams from the widgets, which were embedded on over 100 sites), but I think more importantly Byrne/Eno leveraged their widget campaign with many of the other tools available in Topspin (analytics, email, bundling, etc) to create a highly integrated and targeted campaign.

In regards to the poll, I'm not surprised either that 81% have not purchased from a widget. As you suggest, I think the main benefit of widgets is to capture engagement and funnel it to a landing page where either a sale or email sign up can occur.

Building your community and engaging your fans (via a product offering they want) is a big part of the way forward. Byrne not only used the tools in Topspin to sell Everything That Happens Will Happen Today in several iterations, but he also leveraged the tools to build up his digital touchpoints (particularly email), which will be instrumental in the promotion of his next release(s).

Keep up the great work!

Mike

Re: The Golden Age of Music Widgets? Nah.

Andrew Goodrich — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:21:21 -0000

I think you are right on, Matt - thanks for sharing that article

Re: The Golden Age of Music Widgets? Nah.

Matt MacNaughton — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 23:43:36 -0000

When it comes to converting fans to paid transactions I believe it comes down reaching fans where they have the intention of purchasing music. I recently read an article by a brilliant entrepreneur Chris Dixon that has just recently brought this concept into light for me. Check it out --> http://www.cdixon.org/?p=1179 its about online advertising but I think it applies well to the discussion about Widgets effectiveness as a sales platform.

Re: The Golden Age of Music Widgets? Nah.

alexjacobi — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:41:13 -0000

I think affiliate marketing is the best incentive for adding a widget. As well as supporting a band a fan really likes. While putting a widget on a website is as simple as embedding a youtube video, it can be done by many

Re: The Golden Age of Music Widgets? Nah.

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Re: The Golden Age of Music Widgets? Nah.

ryanve — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:42:54 -0000

I agree 100%. Music widgets act to accelerate discovery but aren't the place for transactions.

Re: The Golden Age of Music Widgets? Nah.

Suzanne Lainson — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 01:58:58 -0000

It's a lot simpler to keep your buying to as few places as possible. If you already have accounts at iTunes and/or Amazon, are you really going to want to buy digital tracks from multiple sites?

And if you are buying physical objects, you can usually save on shipping if you buy from a central location rather than multiple sites.

As for putting a band's widget on my own site, well

(1) I don't have a personal website where I can add widgets for bands I like.
(2) I can be a fan/friend of bands on Facebook, MySpace, etc. without adding a widget to my own pages.
(3) I am fans of too many bands to add widgets for all of them. So how am I going to narrow it down to just one band?

If I am using a widget as a form of affiliate marketing and I get a piece of everything sale I drive to a band, then maybe I would have an incentive, but otherwise, probably not.