Businesses I’m Diggin
I found out about this at SXSW back in March. Nimbit is a direct to fan marketing platform similar to Topspin Media, that artists can use to more or less manage their business, connect with fans through email and social media, and even set up their own online store to cut out the middle man (even though I suppose Nimbit is a middle-man).
The pricing breakdown is one of the coolest parts about the system because it gives artists a wide range of services to choose from and allows them to try the software before deciding to jump into a monthly commitment. It’s also an open service, in that anyone can use it. Topspin differs in this regard, requiring artists to meet some general criteria before they can dive into the system (see questions below).
1. Do you make more than $5,000 annually selling music?
2. Do you have at least 2,500 emails in your email database?
3. Does your web site get at least 10,000 unique visitors per month?
4. Do you have at least 15,000 fans on Facebook?
See Nimbit’s plans and pricing here.
Direct to fan marketing tools are very powerful and beneficial to artists if used and managed correctly. Artists like Trent Reznor, Band of Horses, and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones are all textbook examples of how these systems can be used even for large successful musicians. Being able to control information flow, study analytics, and sell directly to fans keeps the business of “you” in house and allows for creative strategies and flexibility. I’m planning on trying it out soon myself, so when I do, I’ll let ya know more details and my perception of the software from the other side of the coin.
RootMusic is another service I discovered in the land of Austin. This is a really simple to use band page generator for Facebook. It uses a ton of drag and drop features giving the user total control over the layout, look, and feel of their personal artist page. In the tour video, the presenter brings up a pretty bare bones page and spices it up with custom uploaded graphics, creative font editing, and a mix of colors to really make it stand out. After 3 and a half minutes, boom, he has a really cool looking page that took a very minimal amount of effort to construct. I’m definitely going to use this for managing artists presence on the ever expanding Facebook music space. OH WAIT! I didn’t mention that the audio tracks on the page are powered by Sound Cloud (which is freakin bad ass) technology, so it’s easy to stream, and even download music straight from the FB page. Check it! (Links to Oona’s page so you can dig in).
One other service that I found out about during my SXSW excursion, was HootSuite. This is a social media content manager similar to Tweet Deck, but involves more sites (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, WordPress, Linked In, Ping.fm, and Foursquare). It’s sick because you can link everything together and easilty manage all of your online communications without having to navigate a myriad of windows.
Another great feature is that multiple users can be added as admins to an account so that everyone can pitch in on the social effort. This is very useful for businesses who want to communicate news updates or content that is created or distributed from different parties in the business. Instead of having to mess around with email, texting someone, or yelling across the room, anyone can simply just post links to whatever they want in two seconds. Real useful stuff!
