After coming off of the Billboard FutureSound event, I came away with one resounding message:
Every music service is trying to ‘get more social’.
We see this in trends such as the Facebook Music integration unveiled at f8. We see it in new services gaining traction such as BCKSTGR, TrackTrack.IT, Rexly, Thinglink, Ticketfly, Root Music, Turntable.fm, Cricket’s Muve Music service, and the plethora of internet radio services now available. Newly added to the fold is Myxer Social Radio. Digging in on Myxer for a moment, let’s take a better look at how they are using social media to build their business. Follow me…
Long recognized as the top mobile destination by consumers and advertisers alike, with 50 million users, more than 30 million monthly mobile visits, and 2.7 billion downloads of ringtones, MP3s, and other mobile apps, Myxer continues to innovate. They just launched a Facebook integrated radio service: Myxer Social Radio. It is built from the ground up and merges the concepts of sharing music on social networks, following friends, going into genre or artist related ‘rooms’ for group listening, and even has a ‘stories’ section for users to be able to record a video of them sharing what that song or artist means to them, which other users can then view on the fly. This service is free, monetized through advertising, and fits the behavioral patterns of their massive installed user base. Keep your eyes on this one folks. And check it out yourselves! www.myxer.fm is now live online, and across iOS and Android platforms.
I know it seems like since there are so many players in this space, and so many people to possibly reach, that it must be pretty easy for each of these services to gain traction and succeed. However, developers and programmers still need to create compelling services that engage and excite fans. There is no shortage of social media tools at their disposal to do so. But finding the right combination is proving to be the secret sauce. They’ll need to mix location, discovery, recommendations, sharing and more to solve the problem of getting fans attention, their time, and their dollar.
The great news is we are all using the same social graph to measure engagement. It’s an exciting time to be a service in the music space, and artist, and a fan. I am eager to see which become the frontrunners and which remain just fans.
