When we announced our landmark partnership with Rhapsody back in June, we were excited to breach a new frontier of opportunity for artists to earn more money from streaming. The idea was simple: use the power of data to give fans what they want from their favorite artists, whether it’s a VIP ticket upgrade, custom recordings, signed LPs, or anything else an artist might offer. Never before had listening data from a streaming service been used in this way, and, while optimistic, we weren’t sure just how effective these efforts would be…
We are the musicians, we are innovative and creative and the streaming services that are innovative with us will benefit from having our support.
~Flo Rida
Today, I am thrilled to announce that the results are nothing short of staggering! To date, we have sent tens of thousands of push notifications with artist offers to Rhapsody listeners whom our algorithm identified as “super-fans” of particular artists. And fans are engaging at an incredible rate. We’re seeing clicks at double the rate of Google Search ads, 10x the rate of Facebook ads, and at over 50x the rate of traditional web display advertising. It’s now clear that this is the most effective way for artists to reach their fans and generate significant incremental revenues from streaming services.
Musicians with whom we have shared the results, including some of the biggest in the world, are rallying behind this incredibly powerful way for streaming services to support artists and help generate new revenues. Last week, international Hip-Hop star and entrepreneur Flo Rida stopped by the BandPage office in San Francisco where we had a chance to show him the results of our Rhapsody partnership first hand. He had this to say:
“The fact that these two companies now allow me to engage my biggest fans at the moment they are listening to my music is incredibly impactful to my business, the numbers speak for themselves. This is an important path forward for musicians and I hope all streaming services make efforts to support musicians in this way. I, for one, will be directing my fans to use the streaming services that do this and I suggest the same to my fellow musicians. We are the musicians, we are innovative and creative entrepreneurs and the streaming services that are innovative with us will benefit by having our support. It’s a win win. The solutions that BandPage has created are the kind of innovations that change industries and it’s time for us as an industry to act on it.“
As if that weren’t enough, it turns out that fans love receiving these notifications. Rhapsody users are engaging with these BandPage targeted messages at a rate 50% higher than other personalized messages sent by Rhapsody. So Flo had it right, this is a win for artists, a win for streaming services and a win for fans who are now more connected to the musicians they love.
In the coming months, we will be working tirelessly to scale this program, increasing the number of artists that can take advantage of this new revenue opportunity. At full scale, taking advantage of this program will be as simple as logging in to your BandPage, uploading your offers to your profile, and we’ll take care of the rest. If you already have offers on your BandPage, we’ll start syndicating those offers to Rhapsody automatically in the coming months. We will also be working to bring on new streaming partners so you can continue to use BandPage to reach your biggest fans wherever they are. And, of course, we’ll continue to distribute your content and offers free of charge.
In the meantime, if you are interested in participating in the Rhapsody pilot phase, log in to your BandPage account, click on the ‘Audiences’ tab, and click ‘Request’ next to Rhapsody.
Here’s to building the future of the music(ian) business,
J and the BandPage Team
