For the past several years, independent artist champions Bandpage have been quietly making deals with the biggest platforms that music lovers visit to include a way for acts to sell their merchandise, concert tickets, and more. It’s important to be where the fan is, so if someone who loves a certain singer is looking up when they are coming to town on Stubhub, why not also have a small section where they can buy a new album? If someone wants to know the words to a hit new single, why not include the option to buy a t-shirt? On services like Spotify, this takes the form of a small area where deals are offered, and it looks pretty similar on other platforms, such as Shazam, YouTube, and Vevo. While that’s a good idea, there is much more work to be done in ensuring that artists can make as much money as possible.
Recently, Bandpage began working with streaming service Rhapsody on seeing just how far they could take the idea of presenting real fans with purchasing opportunities in the correct moment, as all marketers aim to do. Those listening on Rhapsody might be served a push notification via Bandpage with offers from their favorite artists, which look like pop up ads, but aren’t nearly as annoying (I promise), as they are coming “from” the listener’s favorite artists.
In order to make this new idea successful and authentic, Bandpage developed an algorithm that could identify “superfans”, differentiating between those just casually listening versus those who truly loved an artist. Not only does the algorithm look at how often a user listens to a certain song, album, or artist (One time? Ten times? Every day?), but it also examines other activities, such as how often a listener favorites a song, makes something available offline, or when they add a specific artist’s work to a playlist. All of these tell how dedicated a listener really is.
Once a superfan is located, the push notification they will receive is tailored. What they are offered depends on the level of interaction with an artist and their music on Rhapsody. Those that are fans might be notified of an upcoming tour or a deal on a t-shirt, while those that truly can’t get enough would more likely be made aware of the opportunity to buy a backstage VIP experience.
So, now that these notifications have been going out to thousands of listeners for a while, how successful have they been? Extremely, it turns out. While there isn’t available data about how much more money has been earned by individual acts, the click through rates on these ads have been incredible. According to Bandpage, those rates are twice as effective as Google searches, ten times as effective as a Facebook post, and about fifty times more effective than the typical web banner ad.
These push notifications are only found on Rhapsody right now, but with numbers like these, it wouldn’t be surprising to see others signing on in the near future. If such programs were instituted everywhere music touches online and on people’s phones, there is no telling how many millions (or billions) could be injected into a business looking for new revenue streams.
