20bits - Latest Comments in Where the iTunes Store Fails: Community

Re: Where the iTunes Store Fails: Community

Isma — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 17:42:22 -0000

http://quickitunes.ismaserr...

Re: Where the iTunes Store Fails: Community

Jesse Farmer — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 23:34:57 -0000

Yeah, I agree about Alexa, Compete, etc. I've been it both underestimate and overestimate traffic by orders of magnitude.

But I've found it reliable for trends, and it seems like none of those sites are growing, certainly not in proportion to the shift towards digital distribution over the last year or two.

For the artists a high engagement site might have all sorts of other benefits, like increased word of mouth and more people who will pay to see them live.

Or maybe it varies from artist to artist. Well-respected but niche artists get good traction in the niche store, and well-respected but more mainstream artists use it to keep in touch with their hardcore fanbase. It plays of more than one motivation, I imagine.

Thoughts?

Re: Where the iTunes Store Fails: Community

Adam Wiggins — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 23:25:48 -0000

Alexa is not a very good measure of niche products, so I don't think those data points are very helpful. It does appear that respected artists in their respective electronica subgenres (for example, trance: Christopher Lawrence, progressive house: John Digweed) release their material there simultaneously with vinyl or CD releases through tranditional channels, which seems to me about the biggest endorsement there is. But that doesn't give any info on how many DJs are getting their tracks through Beatport vs. their local vinyl shop, or how many listeners get their mix CDs there vs. amazon.com.

Re: Where the iTunes Store Fails: Community

Sonja Jovan — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:30:45 -0000

I suppose it's valid point.
And, before you ask, Yes, I do have iTunes.
But, No, I don't buy the music there. I buy CDs. I like CDs.
Then I upload them on to my computer (iMac).

But, I have Spotify on my computer. And, I listen to anything I like, whenever I like; FREE!

Re: Where the iTunes Store Fails: Community

Jesse Farmer — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:30:40 -0000

I feel a bit daft since "electronica music store" has Beatport as its first result, so thanks for pointing that out.

I found a few others, too: http://mondomix.com/ for world music, and http://www.insound.com/ for indie music.

Do you know how successful these communities are? Compete, Alexa, etc. indicate very low volume with little growth over the last year.

One core hypothesis of this strategy is that revenue ~ volume*engagement, so you shouldn't need millions of pageviews per month if you have a highly engaged community. Still, I wonder how the numbers play out.

Re: Where the iTunes Store Fails: Community

Adam Wiggins — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:23:29 -0000

Beatport is pretty much exactly what you described, for dance electronica.