Without doubt ReverbNation is becoming one of the most important sites for independent (music) artists and appear to be the website that is implementing the best strategies for success - below is an unedited email interview with Jed Carlson who is the Chief Operating Officer of ReverbNation. (First published on SystemCulture.org)
- Playlist 7 is another joint venture between ReverbNation and Windows. What are the fundamental differences between this program package and the earlier 'Sponsored Song' free download extravaganza?
Playlist 7 is trying to bring the fans more into the equation than in Sponsored Songs. Fans are charged with the ability to determine who moves into the featured slots and who gets the bigger money prizes (over $500 each for featured Artists).
- The band equity charts are a great concept (points gained are based on track plays, visits, hits etc.) these scores are used to divide and share advertising revenue between the artists and ReverbNation, which to me seems a radical idea. Is this idea unique and do you think it is sustainable in the long term?
Band Equity is a score that attempts to gauge the 'brand value' of an artist at any given point in time. Band Equity looks at 4 factors of an Artist:
1. Reach: How many people are being touched by the music? All else equal, the Artist that reaches more people should score higher.
2. Influence: Of those people, how many engage with the music, listen to the whole song, come back for more, etc? All else equal, the Artist that engages fans more deeply should score higher.
3. Recency: How recent are the interactions? All else equal, the Artist that has reached and engaged their fans more recently should score higher.
4. Access: What % of your fans is the Artist engaging with? All else equal, the Artist that engages a higher % of fans should score higher.
We devised this metric to more 'holistically' understand Artists the board. It IS ENTIRELY UNIQUE to ReverbNation - we Invented it! We do think that is holds water for many Artists out there, but it isn't perfect by any means. Band Equity Scores have undergone more than a dozen refinements over the course of the introduction of the metric. We will continue to commit to it as a standard for measuring Artists in terms of their brand value going forward and hope that others adopt it.
- Playlist 7 is a fantastic way for consumers to download free music via the Internet. With the collapse of the 'traditional' music industry monopoly, the independent artist has been able to take more control regarding recording and distributing their work. Do you think the business model of the 'Sponsored Song', with its embedded advertising is the future of the (download) music industry and do you think paying for tracks via iTunes, Amazon etc. will become a thing of the past?
Music retailing will never become obsolete. People will always trust retailers to deliver music to them. We hope that the concept of embedding adverts inside the download will play a big role in the future of ad-supported music. We even filed a patent on it. But the future of music is likely to be fragmented. As a result, the future of music consumption will be dominated by a large variety of models that provide for it. Embedding adverts into the album art is likely to be just one of them.
- ReverbNation have without doubt the best toolbox for the independent artist; the ability to control songs, newsletters, fans, merchandising and distribution from one place is second to none. What do you think the future of ReverbNation will be and what are the ultimate goals?
Our goal is to provide ALL of the solutions that an Artist needs to compete, cooperate, and differentiate in the new music environment. We are on our way to providing that now.
- I have noticed that more mainstream and more well know artists have appeared on ReverbNation - this is in many ways a double edged sword. Do you think the influx of established 'stars' will alter the philosophy of the site (which appears to be - to enable and support the independent artist) or are you confident that your strategies are robust enough to cope with the change?
ReverbNation is agnostic to the 'type' of Artist that uses our system. We want to build the best solutions and let anyone who wants them come and use them. We approach every feature with an 'Artist First' mentality. That is to say that we don't build anything that doesn't first help the Artist. Whether its an indie Artist or an established Artists, we don't really care. We are building for a future where every Artist has a fair shake, and our tools serve them equally. If more established Artists want to use our tools, so be it. We are here for every Artist who wants to take control of their future. That's what makes us different. We don't have an angle per se. We just focus on building great technology for everyone.
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