But now I'm going to tell you everything that I think is wrong with this:
1. On the artist's page, there is no contact information. What if I wanted to get in touch with the artist and tell them how much I love their music and that I want to help spread the word?2. The artist is giving away a free track, but I didn't have to give anything in return! Why oh why would you ever do this??? Get the fan's email address at the very least. That way, you can contact an individual who clearly likes you; they went out of their way to download your song. Email them and find out to what degree they really like you. Form a relationship with that fan.3. When the song imported to iTunes automatically after the download was complete, there was no album artwork. When I send someone a track via email, the artwork goes with it. This should be the case when someone gives a song away like this, too.4. Lastly, there is a field in the "info" window in iTunes called "Comments". Why not include a personal "thanks" for downloading the free track, a way to get in touch with the artist, and a URL???
These are missed opportunities that for some reason or another artists do not consider, but need to ASAP.
For S's and G's (shits and giggles), here's the link to the artist's page in question. If I can somehow find a way to contact them, I'll point them to this post.
Posts
Lot of good points! I wonder how much of that is stuff the artist can control on their iLike page? It's all stuff they can and should do on their own real web page! If you google Andrew Belle you'll find his MySpace, maybe you can send him a message through that?
ReplyDeleteThanks Heather! I did go to his MySpace, which led me to his personal blog where I left a comment on his most recent blog post (the one of him eating a whole thing of wasabi).... it's still awaiting moderation though...
ReplyDeletere: getting an email address in exchange for a song
ReplyDeleteI have a bit of a hangup demanding that, for a couple reasons.
1) What if someone is downloading the song to sample it? They don't know if they like it yet. I don't like being asked for personal contact information just in order to find out if I like someone's music. I'm more inclined to just pass it over. That's demanding an email address before a relationship is formed.
2) Why should someone have to fill out a form just to download a song? That's forming a relationship, but a bit of a bureaucratic or formal you-are-my-customer relationship. And from a technical perspective, that immediately means you need some download system, instead of using straight audio files on a web server that people can easily link to or stream elsewhere. And, if someone comes back to download something else, they've gotta give you their email address again? It seems like an unnecessary technical hurdle, a mental transaction cost.
Thoughts?
Blaise,
ReplyDelete1) The song is available to stream. So there's your sampler right there. Downloading it, in my mind, means you really like it so it makes sense that they'd be down for giving up their email address.
2) Every scenario would be different, but try this one on: an artist has a new release coming out and they give away one of the tracks in exchange for an email address; however, anyone already on the mailing list, simply gets a link to the download without having to re-give their email address. (and they get this email BEFORE the track is available on the webiste... b/c this artist treats their fans like gold)
It should be simple... easy... straightforward... here's a great example: Byrne & Eno. Click on "Download the Free MP3" and tell me what you thought. (btw, you can stream the whole album and embed the player elsewhere... this sort of thing is the future)
Wow, can't believe I ignored streaming. Of course, that's the way most people will sample.
ReplyDeleteThe Byrne & Eno website seems well done, but I think highlights one of my concerns. I can't download anything. Or buy anything, for that matter. It's all in flash, and it's completely unresponsive. When looking at the FAQ, there are two points about flash problems. Says you need at least Flash 9. I have Flash 10. I've no interest in spending more than 5 minutes trying to figure out why I can't download a simple file from the website. If it had worked, I would have checked out the free track.
That said, I'm working on a different approach for my site (which is still very much a work in progress...). I've created a sort of, download landing page, where I can highlight the mailing list and possibly a donate or pay-what-you-want type thing. I'm still using straight up files, no delicate/breakable flash stuff, just a landing page. I'm still playing around with the format, but you've convinced me to focus on that download stage. I'm still not convinced about requiring an email address though.