Today has seen the launch of the latest incarnation of Myspace Music. Unlike previous updates, these are not simply a few design changes but a complete shift in the News Corporation owned company’s offering.
Where Spotify has led the way in streamed music, Myspace appears to have built on this with a much larger music library and, this is the hook, for free. Music streaming from Myspace will continue to be ad funded but crucially, unlike Spotify, adverts will not interrupt listeners between songs. Courtney Holt, President of Myspace Music told BBC 6 Music:
“We provide streaming audio, video, a comprehensive suite of artist tools, original content and programming all wrapped up together in one nice package”
Also now available on the new improved site will be DRM free MP3 downloads in conjunction with Apple iTunes.
Possibly though, this move has come too late with Last.fm seeing around 40 million monthly users of its music streaming service and Spotify gaining a great deal of press and publicity. Spotify has also made music more social by allowing playlist sharing. Myspace has taken note of this and now also offers users the option of sharing their Myspace playlists (although for some reason they are currently featuring a playlist by that epitome of d-list narcissistic vanity, Jordan).
I’m sure it’s in the pipeline but I look forward to the iphone app (as they have just partnered with Apple for the DRM free downloads, or desktop player. What Spotify and Last.fm have done really well is allow users to listen to their music as easily as posibble, Last.fm with it’s ’scrobbling‘ and Spotify with its desktop application and both with their respective iphone apps. I envisage a whole lot more partnering if they are to gain back market share. Last.fm did this well when it partnered with X-box Live and saw 1 million additional users sign up in just a few days (300 new users per minute). We are in the age of collaboration for mutual gain.
Fiat are the first to be involved with the new playlist function with following their successful ‘500c’ Spotify playlist. Their Myspace page allows users to select a playlist of song from any of the last 16 years, to mark the 16th birthday of the Fiat Punto. They only have three friends though so far…
Sometimes being in digital we can loose perspective of things. All i’m saying is, it’s important to remember that the users of different social media often don’t view the various platforms as we do (these are made up examples by the way, I haven’t been out doing focus groups or anything)
Facebook: Digital perspective – “Facebook allows brands to connect to people on their territory. By creating Facebook pages, applications and targeted ads, we can really interact and carry out a meaningful conversation.”
Facebook: Non digital perspective – “It’s a site I go on to talk to my friends look at photos of other people and add pictures of myself. I don’t even really notice the adverts and sometimes play games like Scrabulous or Poker.”
Twitter: Digital perspective - “With 20 million users per month globally, Twitter’s growth has made it THE social network of 2009. Celebrities and brands can converse directly with their audience without the Chinese whisper effect of offline comms. ” The open API has allowed for a whole host of third party applications to embrace Twitter, helping to increase its reach and functionality.
Twitter: non digital perspective – “Twitter? Why would I want to use Twitter, when I already have Facebook. I joined to follow ‘insert celebrity here‘ but he/she never replied to me so I never went on it again.”
Youtube: digital perspective – “The sharing of ‘glance-able content’ on platforms such as Youtube is perfect for providing engaging content to users/customers. With branded Youtube channels we can ensure maximum ROI and brand awareness. Click through overlays on videos can augment the ROI potential and a carefully moderated comment thread promotes interaction.
Youtube: non digital perspective – Er…I watch funny videos on it. Sometimes on my phone to show friends. If I really like it, I comment but I usually like to just read other people’s comments.
Linked In: digital perspective – Linked In has gained in popularity in 2009 and this is likely due, in part to recession related job losses/worries. It is a wonderful platform for companies to connect to individuals, particularly with respect to recruitment. Linked In allows offline business relationships to be taken further by connecting online with new and existing contacts.
Linked In: non digital perspective – Er…I never heard of Linked in. Why would I use that when I have Facebook.
Myspace: digital perspective – Since Myspace’s rise to prominence in 2005 this social network has waned in popularity. It does allow for some marketing opportunities though through page takeovers, banner ads and applications. The user profile is that of a younger audience and centred around a shared love of music. The Myspace platform provides blogging functionality as well as music uploads and artist pages, with profile pages being fully customisable enabling maximum brand focus.
Myspace: non digital perspective – “Yeah I started a Myspace a few years ago but when Facebook came out I started using that instead. Now I mainly use it to listen to new bands but not really for talking to friends.”
Every other post here seems to be about Spotify these days…
Mobile operator 3 UK has announced plans to include Spotify Premium for mobile on their first Android handset, the HTC Hero. Thats the good news, the bad news is you have to have a 24 month contract to secure it.
Users will have to pay £99 for the handset and 3 will include 24 months of subscription to Spotify Mobile for free.
One of the (few) good points remaining that Myspace has to offer is it’s music upload function. Artists can, with relative ease, create a profile and upload their music to their page. This then allows users of Myspace to listen to tracks and discover favourite new bands.
Spotify has now hinted that it too will soon be allowing artists to upload their own tracks to the music streaming service. Here’s what they say on their website:
“We are constantly adding albums and tracks to Spotify and want to offer our users all of the music in the world. We aim to release an uploading platform relatively soon so that content owners can partner with us easily.”
Spotify is currently allowing artists to register their interest and no date is set nor details given on how this will work. It will probably however only allow labels or signed artists to upload rather than every Tom, Dick and Arctic Monkey to upload music.
Now, this isn’t a scientific study you understand. More something that strikes me as obvious. Mention social media and you will instantly start thinking of Facebook and Twitter. However, it occurs to me that there is nothing quite as sociable as email.
And here is how I arrived at this mad crazy postulation:
Email has mainstream acceptance – When I say mainstream I mean everyone who has a computer can use email. I can (and do) email my wife, my friends, my colleagues, my clients, strangers (should I wish to send spam, which I don’t) and family. I speak through email with my Great Aunt who is approaching 92 years of age.
Content – An email can contain text. This could be a quick note to a friend or a lengthy business case. You can attach photos, video (ok not large files I agree) or documents. Links can be inserted and HTML emails can have external content embedded.
Mentions – Email had ‘mentions’ long before Twitter appeared and Facebook copied. It’s called CCing someone in. Even this gives you the option to include everyone in a conversation OR blind carbon copies to maintain privacy.
Social – Once an email has been sent this can then become collaborative and therefore social. One can forward, reply and crucially for this argument ‘reply to all’. Users can forward emails to anyone in their address book meaning an email can (and often does) go viral, much like Twitter.
Management – Who needs CoTweet et al to manage relationships when you have Outlook! List all emails, order by name, size, date or subject. Segment and store messages by keyword, subject, contact.
Obviously email is a dated technology but it really does have all of the elements synonymous with social media and the arrival of Google Wave is its natural evolution.
I’ve long been a fan of how the BBC take the internet seriously. They have great team in place and this culminates in their brilliant BBC Internet blog. Who is this blog written for? I don’t know. It seems to be random pieces of information surrounding BBC Online, recent projects and challenges. I love it.
Then there is also the upcoming Digital Revolution series commissioned by the BBC for 2010. This will be a User Generated Content (UGC) TV series and I look forward to it hitting our screens.
Strictly Social
A fab recent example of their innovative digital approach is the Strictly Social project. Forget ‘red button’ interactive TV, this is truly interactive – and social.
Designed for use both during the show and throughout the week, Strictly Social allows viewers to ‘play along at home’. The most notable thing about this is…I actually do play along at home. The number of time I find myself shouting out ‘7′ just before the judge does. So, rather than being abstract, this actually matches a real life demand.
What is it?
A Flash application that allows viewers to play along at home. It consists of five main elements:
1) The Video Screen – This displays the actual show.
2) Emotional Reaction Visualisation – Allows viewers to react to the show using ‘boos’, ‘wows’ and ‘gasps’. 3) Guess The Judge’s Score – Does what it says on the tin. allows viewers to pre-empt the judge’s verdict on dances. Users are then awarded points depending on how accurate their predictions were. This is a good loyalty feature. 4) Have Your Say – Comment or view other user’s comments. 5) Answer This – Quiz with random in-show questions.
Large Audience
Of course, with it being the BBC there will be no problems around seeding or advertising the service. The BBC website broke its own record for unique visitors when 300,000 people visited on the day the Strictly dancers were revealed. These are big numbers, at the level most commercial brands only dream of attracting. As the BBC admit themselves;
“The TV show traditionally has an older, female audience who don’t tend to come online, whilst the site attracts the younger web savvier audience.”
They hope that this application will attract the older viewers to the website and, I presume, the younger online users to watch the TV show. The team have made the conscious decision not to focus on the Strictly Twitter feed, as a large part of their audience don’t regularly use Twitter.
Recently Mark Cridge of digital agency Glue wrote a feature for NMA online raising the point that social media use has become so widespread that brands can now handle their own social media. We are so surrounded by Twitter and Facebook that it is almost a given that anyone with an ounce of sense can ‘do’ social media. Well they can. Just not very well. And certainly not as well as those working for agencies who offer social media as a product.
Why choose an agency rather than do a DIY social media campaign?
1. Experience
Many digital agencies will have undertaken social media campaigns for different client across a range of industries. They will have learnt from previous mistakes and have processes in place to avoid them in future. They may have specialist ‘gurus’ who’s expertise lie in particular areas from content creation to seeding.
2. Immersion
Any digital agency staff will/should make it part of their daily routine to keep appraised of industry news and updates. This ensures they are aware of the latest techniques being applied to social media and can learn from recent campaigns by other companies. If they know what everyone else is doing then the agency can go 2 steps better and create an even more innovative (and therefore attention grabbing) campaign.
3. Not what you know…its who.
Agencies who regularly deal with social media campaigns will know how/where to get the best media space for display ads to drive traffic to social media. They should have among their freelancer list a selection of the best Flash guys, developers & creative kooks.
4. Economies of scale
Particularly in measurement and metrics – agencies handle several client’s social media campaigns (and therefore you’d hope) the measurement of the success/failure of these campaigns. They should already have these tools set up and so have all the processes in place to track your brand with ease.
5. Passion!
Any one who is lucky enough to get a job at a digital agency doing good social media will/should be extremely passionate about social media. As well as wanting to do well for you, the client, they will want to create the most creative, impacting, innovative and successful campaign they can. Just because they love it! No other reason. This is in contrast to those people client side (not all, just some), to who social media is part of the ‘to do list’ that needs grudgingly ticking off.
So…
Those who use social media best know that it’s a means to an end. It’s not the be all and end all. The social media campaign isn’t the story it’s just the channel.What is important is the conversation, and the language of this conversation differs so much between campaigns that it takes a real specialist or someone doing it day in, day out to understand it.
Facebook? Twitter? They’re just tools. Social media specialists* are artisans who can use these tools to create amazing things.
*ACTUAL social media specialists of which there are very few, not social media ‘experts’ of which there are a lot!
Back in 2000 Jack Dorsey signed up for a site called LiveJournal which led his trail of thought to something more instantaneous. After six years this resolved itself in to Twttr which, of course became our one and only Twitter. As Jack says on his Flickr post of 2006,
“The 6th year; the idea has finally solidified (thanks to the massively creative environment my employer Odeo provides) and taken a novel form. We’re calling it twttr (though this original rendering calls it stat.us”
Here’s what it was sketched out to look like in 2000
Uncannily similar in layout with the status bar featured in the centre and most recent, short updates showing underneath. Interesting to see Twitter was first thought of as ’stat.us’
Its been all go with Facebook the last couple of weeks. On the one hand we have them emulating Twitter by allowing @mentions in status updates and now, with a new plug-in from Vivox they may be taking a slice of the Skype pie. Oh and they’ve also launched their own version of Google Labs called ‘Prototypes’.
Friend Status Tagging
Two days ago Facebook launched the @mentions feature (although in keeping with Facebook lingo they call it ‘friend tagging)’. This allows users to invite their friends in to conversations by placing an @ symbol before their friends name in the status bar. Since it’s launch I have only seen one person use this feature (and they work in digital). It’s not setting the world alight. Yet.
Voice Calls To Facebook Contacts
Yesterday, cnet news covered the launch of Facebook voice calls through the app/plug-in by 3rd party developer Vivox. Although developed independently of Facebook, according to Mashable, “it’s likely Facebook will have a hand in its implementation or gave Vivox the thumbs-up for its deep site-wide voice integration.” This will allow users of the social network to enjoy Skype style internet phone calls with their Facebook contacts. This will also include the option for group calls. Will anyone actually use this feature? My guess is not really. Surely it would be far more useful to be able to extend the existing Facebook chat feature to allow collaborative chat (groups). Hopefully Facebook has this in the pipeline.
Facebook Prototypes
“For all the products that wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to see the light of day, we’re introducing Facebook Prototypes.” This is a list of features/apps that users can choose to use by ‘activating’ and then providing feedback. For example, Facebook Desktop allows users to be notified on their desktop if ‘interesting activity happens on your profile’
To access Prototypes, visit the Application Directory and filter by “Prototypes.” From there, you can activate or download any of the Prototypes listed.
How Facebook has mimicked Twitter in the last few months:
1) Facebook purchased FriendFeed a real time status & sharing site. Facebook have since opened up the Friendfeed API to 3rd party developers. This is the tactic that has helped Twitter grow so well.
2) Facebook launched real time search
3) Facebook Lite launched – Status centric version. Twitter is status centric.
4) Facebook add @mentions. Possibly the biggest Twitter copy of all.
Today has seen the launch of the latest incarnation of Myspace Music. Unlike previous updates, these are not simply a few design changes but a complete shift in the News Corporation owned company’s offering.
