Who here is a "Indie" artist and who here would want to track their downloads?

[composer]

I am not sure how to create a poll here, but am doing some research for a company that is about to go out (public) big time with some MAJOR music companies, or rather, those that control single digital downloads.

Anyway the question (although I did place two in the poll box at the bottom - will have to see what screen it brings me to would pay $10 a month to track any of your songs downloaded anywhere in the world? It would then be $2.00 (US) to add an artist, and they are thinking about adding an incentives program whereas an artist gets (x) amounts of other artists to register, they get their month, year, free.

For Labels/Publishers, it would be a $5.00 return for every artist that signed up!

The plus? If you are a band, you can see who is downloading you music, where they are downloading it (anywhere in the world) and then you can focus your energy on that particular part of the nation. In addition, it also shows you a 3D graph of where your song stands in comparison to the "users" collection, as in how many times it is played.

It is the only company in the world that is doing this - and they have some people with really deep pockets interested in licensing this technology. In addition, this same company also has a software algorithm that REALLY REALLY works.

What it does on some MP3 players is, you press a button, it plays 3 seconds of a song and moves on to the next, when you finally find something you like you hit the button again and poof, your playlist is in the same genre and not created based on HUMAN input "meta tags." It really does work, and every song is in the same vain.

So please, give me some feedback on what you would do, would you sign up, what incentives would you like to see, how many people (indies first) do you think would sign up?

After the grass roots movement and the major HARDWARE people get involved, all of the MAJOR labels will be approached with this as it would be an excellent way to track singles releases for a particular artist, or ANY of there songs, allowing them to focus in on what songs are still popular and to perhaps, invite creative discussion on upcoming song creation.

Thanks for your feedback. This is a very cool program and I would appreciate any and all feedback on this one.

Thanks!

[composer]

Cool, it worked, appreciate any and all feedback. I will try to direct questions and FAQ as I can.

[swisha31]

sound alright i guess but 1) what major music companies are you working with and 2)why only 3 seconds of a song and then skipping on to the next?. thats not enough time to even gather myself after a sneeze so you want me to listen to a song and like it after only 3 seconds of playing to skip to the next? wow.

[DowntownScience]

Sounds very interesting, I would definately sign up to this, for about a year and a half myself & a few other artists have been searching for something like this. We don't want counters on our websites & counters are not regionalised anyways, plus we want to know who DOWNLOADED it not viewed. Sounds great, assuming everything was controlled legitamately legally & the quality was not jeopardised ala` "myspace" I would definately use such a service & know a good handfull that would also

[Blast9]

Yeah... Even 30 seconds isn't enough IMHO

I think 1 minute is better.

Nice idea... $10 per month? I feel this is a bit high.

I think established touring indies would go for this.

[sneezebomb]

As an artist, i do want to know more information about who is listening to my songs.

As a citizen, i fugging hate being tracked, traced, and marketed to. A lot.

i guess it would all depend on how specific the information being collected was as to whether would participate or whether i would plot crafty revenge against the data scavengers.

[composer]

Originally Posted by swisha31

sound alright i guess but 1) what major music companies are you working with and 2)why only 3 seconds of a song and then skipping on to the next?. thats not enough time to even gather myself after a sneeze so you want me to listen to a song and like it after only 3 seconds of playing to skip to the next? wow.

Right now, we are not approaching the majors - as the music business, for right now is mostly digital downloads. The 3 seconds has nothing to do with the "Music Reports" - the 3~4 seconds is a different technology that I shouldn't have posted as this confuses the issue. The 3~4 seconds sampling is on the MP3 player in order to build a new playlist - -and is dead on accurate. Without going into to much detail as I want to focus on the Music Reports, the MP3 device plays back a few seconds of a genre then moves on to the next genre, when you find one you like, you hit the button again and it creates an new PLAYLIST where all the songs have the same "vibe, feel, punch (or not), et-cetera) for the mood that you happen to be in. We can talk more about this down the road.

My title, for the record, is Director Artist Relations, A&R.


So, for now let's stick to the MUSIC REPORTS only.
The stuff you need to know...

* Where your fans are located, so you can plan your next tour or a new promotion
* Where similar music is popular, to determine new cities or states to target
* What other types of music your fans enjoy, so you can market yourself to them more effectively

New to Reporting Services?
* $10 a month for unlimited tracks by a single artist
* $2 a month for each additional artist, which still includes unlimited tracks by every artist
* Take a look at a sample report

* More questions? Read our FAQ.

What is reach, and what does it mean?
Reach is an indication of how many times we have encountered your track in software around the World that uses our technology.

At any given time, you can expect that any number of people working with their digital music collection are using software that includes MusicIP for either identification of your tracks, or creating playlists that include your music.

Reach should not be confused with the numbers associated with locations identified on the map. The numbers associated with the dots are actual times we've identified your track from that location. For example, if you have a dot in Boise, Idaho that has the number "356", we've actually identified your track 356 times in Boise, Idaho. Better make sure to book a show there on your next tour.

With reach, the higher the better. It indicates your music is gaining ground!

What is a musically similar track?
A musically similar track is a song that sounds acoustically similar to the track you're running the report on.

Anyway, here is a link to image shack that will give you a detailed idea.
It uses one song and I opened a few windows for the USA (you can choose any song, any country).

Its really quite cool.

Files size is small, 284K in comparison to original. But is 1900 across so you can have a good sense of seeing all the graphs.

ImageShack - Hosting :: musicreportsonlineff8.gif

Let me know what you think!

[composer]

PS. Give the file a few seconds to load as it (while small in size 284K), it has to resize it so it can show up on your screen, then you can click on it for full size and see the detail.

I think this picture ala graph can help explain the reports a bit better!

Thanks!

[composer]

I also wanted to add (still not launched) that this image that I put together is actually a collection of images - - the program itself is not static. It is interactive, flash, and html based.

Just so you know.

Thanks!

Will let you know when I have a beta site up.....

Some of you might be able to access the sample reports beta page if you email me...
for now, use this email.

frankii@mac.com
and I will see what I can do as well as any problems you encounter in signing up, and so forth, remember, this is in a beta test stage as well as both this site and a new site to launch at the same time, so we can focus on artists.

Thanks!

[johnmanning]

too bad this information will be relatively useless the second 1 person downloads your song and posts it on their mp3 blog with a link to mediafire/sendspace.