SONG CONTEST BLOG

LoudFeed made its introduction on Hypebot yesterday as yet another website and widget creation service for artists.  In terms of features, LoudFeed appears to be competing directly with Nimbit, which currently provides a more complete and competitive solution in my opinion.   Although there are a number of distinct advantages to managing your own sales and distribution hub, I’m still not convinced that you can’t get everything you need from Word Press, along with ecommerce plugins, and a super SEO-friendly architecture, for free.  Check out WPBest.com for premium themes and WP-Cumulus for a cool dynamic Tag Cloud.  TDMhosting will host your Word Press site for $4.99.  Bargain.

Online streaming radio and music tastemaker, Jango, has launched a somewhat controversial artist promotion programme called Jango Airplay.  Essentially a pay-to-play scheme [and reminiscent of terrestrial radio “payola” which has been illegal since the fifties], Jango Airplay provides artists and their agents a direct means of plugging their songs to Jango’s listener base of 6 million for a fee.  Much like the StumbleUpon advertising initiative, displaying a sponsored web page for every nine unsponsored web-pages, the promotional value of this scheme is not absolute: “If you get 50 positive ratings, your song starts playing for free in general rotation on Jango. If your song continues to get good ratings, it will be played more and more often and in more and more stations.”  For $30, Jango Airplay offers 1000 plays, each track linked to its distributor (i.e. Amazon, iTune).

Pay-to-play may be an unpopular paradigm among musicians but this is actually an unprecedented opportunity for artists and labels to reach a new audience and guarantee some rotation.  For not much more than pocket change, bootstrapped musicians can gain some insight on who is most likely to listen to them, rate them up, and perhaps even purchase something.  Assuming that Jango Airplay plugs sponsored tracks appropriately, this is a truly awesome marketing platform for the music industry.

Related Post: SeeqPod

Over the weekend, I learned that Nimbit, which has been on my radar since Jon Delange of Tinderbox Music introduced me to the company’s CEO, Patrick Faucher, several months ago, has secured venture capital to the tune of $1 million.  The company provides eCommerce solutions for artists and music promoters, and bespoke services such as digital distribution, CD/DVD replication and merchandise production, and web design.  The company’s turnkey approach incorporates web technology to market and distribute digital music with physical solutions such as download cards and promotional prints.  Nimbit appears to be acting in two ways: the first, as a technology company developing digital retail and marketing solutions such as embeddable storefront apps; and, the second, as a broker for commercial print requirements, from CD/DVD replication to custom-branded merchandise which complements its web facet. 

Nimbit’s DownloadCards (credit card-sized branded cards with a unique ‘download’ code) can be sold or given away to the fan at the live venue and later redeemed online as digital tracks through a custom Nimbit store.  This is an excellent example of digital commerce converging with physical commerce, however, DiscRevolt offers an almost identical solution.  Emusu is also competing for a share of this market.  In terms of digital music distribution, Nimbit is facing strong competition from TuneCore, ReverbNation, and CD Baby.  As for print and duplication, Discmakers dominates the US music market and recently acquired Oasis, another formidable opponent in this space.  Although Nimbit’s individual services are not particularly competitive as stand-alone features, the services, as a group offering, and Nimbit’s convenient all-under-one-roof approach, may satisfy artists and promoters with a slight edge.

A citizen of the United Kingdom, Don immigrated to the United States from Australia, where he jump-started his career by doing record promotion for several labels, including Chess and Capitol Records. During that time, he was involved in the promotion of The Beatles, and was singularly recognized with the only Golden Apple Award ever presented by them for “outstanding promotion in launching Apple Records in the United States”. At Capitol, Don was also Manager of International A&R/Promotion, where he signed Little River Band, and Director of Merchandising and Advertising. When Capitol created a second label, EMI America Records, in 1978, Don became its Vice President of A&R. His credits at EMI America include Michael Johnson, Kim Carnes, Sheena Easton, Kate Bush, Sir Cliff Richard, J. Geils Band, and Kenny Rogers. In 1982, Don moved back to Capitol where he signed and helped guide a number of hit-making acts, including Heart, Joe Cocker, Freddy Jackson, Melba Moore, Steve Vai, Megadeth, WASP, and George Clinton. He was personally involved with the recording careers of Tina Turner, Bob Seger, Anne Murray, The Motels, Duran Duran, Power Station, Thomas Dolby, Ashford & Simpson, Billy Squier, and assisted in the emergence of Crowded House, Poison, The Smithereens, and Great White. In 1987, Don resigned from Capitol to join CBS/Sony as Senior Vice President of A&R, Epic Records, where he personally signed and worked with such acts as Celine Dion (via Sony Canada), Bad English (finding their #1 hit “When I See You Smile”), Iron Maiden, Basia, as well as bringing his expertise to bear on the careers of Cheap Trick (finding their #1 single “The Flame”), Cyndi Lauper, Gloria Estefan, REO Speedwagon, The Jacksons, and Europe. Under his direction, the Epic A&R staff also signed successful acts, including Living Colour, Indigo Girls, Allman Brothers Band, Alice Cooper, Social Distortion, Firehouse, Suicidal Tendencies, Front 2423, Ottmar Liebert and Joe Satriani. In 1993, Don created Drive Entertainment, a company with emphasis on classic artist and niche market catalog exploitation, where he compiled and packaged over 140 albums. Five years later, Don chose to reenter the broader-based music market and, to date, operates his own independent consultancy and music supervision company. We Are Listening is delighted to have Don on board!