Midemlab 2014: Marketing & Social Engagement
Today on Rockol we take a look at the 10 startups that made it into the final stage of the Midemlab competition in the Marketing and Social Engagement Category.
Feature.fm by EQuala.fm is a USA-based platform that aims to provide artists with a cost-effective method to promote their music on streaming platforms and blogs. The company is essentially an ad network with a twist since it focuses especially on playing music to relevant listeners and provides a host of information on the ad’s performance via its own dashboard.
Feature.fm mentions streaming services as one of their platforms of choice but I couldn’t find references on exactly which streaming services incorporate Feature.fm today. There’s definitely an interesting gap for an ad network that caters solely to music promotion and if Feature.fm could strike the right partnerships it could well fill that.
Huggity is an Irish company and its product FanPic allows large event organisers to obtain a super-high-resolution picture of the crowd: the photo is then made accessible to fans that can go and find/tag themselves. The platform provides a great way to engage fans after the event and people really seem to respond to finding themselves in a crowd. FanPic has seen an enthusiastic response from football clubs which make up the lion’s share of the company’s output so far. There is definitely scope for increasing the music industry’s involvement in the project but costs in this space are definitely an issue, getting that super-high-res photo is not a cheap undertaking.
Hello Stage is an Austrian startup that tackles the needs of the classical music industry by providing a tool that unites promoters, performers, managers in an easy-to-navigate environment. The website aims to make it easier for promoters to find performers and vice versa and operates on a subscription basis.
Lalilala is a game created by Appiway, a French company that with this project wants to take SongPop to the next level by creating singing contests between friends. The app utilises the Deezer and MusixMatch APIs to source the music and lyrics, presenting them to users in a gamified environment to create the next “music superstar”, within your circle of friends that is.
LINSR is a marketing and content distribution platform hailing from the USA. The company has developed a technology that allows the delivery of content to consumers via inaudible audio tags. These audio tags can be picked up with LINSR’s own app or the implementation can happen via API so that any brand/company can integrate the technology on their own apps. They have already worked with the likes of AT&T, Sony Music and Rocnation amongst others and have a proven, solid piece of tech here.
Noise Fish is a UK startup that wants to connect anyone working in the music industry: the goal is ultimately to generate work and discover new talent. Essentially we’re talking about a LinkedIn for the music industry: as always with these projects the key issue is getting to a critical mass of data that would allow Noise Fish to become a reference point for those working in the industry.
Rushmore is a portal that allows fans to keep up-to-date with the latest from their favourite artists. The startup collates releases, gigs, photos, news from a variety of sources presenting them is a clean, streamlined fashion. The site looks good and works smoothly but as streaming services start adding more and more of these features themselves it’s going to be tough to give people a reason to keep using the platform on a regular basis.
Starlize is a project by German company Mobile Motion. The mobile app allows fans to record themselves in a music video set to the tune of their favourite artists’ tracks. The content is compelling for the demographic the app is targeting: featured artists include One Direction, Katy Perry and Justin Bieber. The app includes some free tracks that allow users to try the service but right now they are not clearly marked making the experience a bit confusing. Videos created by fans are then uploaded to YouTube were they are monetised according to the YouTube Partner Program.
Tunespeak is a USA startups acting as a loyalty platform for fans. Whist still in beta Tunespeak is already powering campaigns for the likes of Kings Of Leon, Steve Vai and John Mayer. The company lets fans choose a concert they would like to attend and then lets them explore and share a wealth of content on the artist in question. The more they engage and share the content the more points they rack up until eventually one fan wins tickets to the gig. Sounds linear enough, and probably effective for that very reason.
Finally Vidrack, a Canadian startup, is not strictly music-oriented but allows anyone that happens to visit your website to leave you a video message in a snip. The technology works seamlessly and could be a fantastic way to activate fan bases and encourage interaction. It looks like right now the recordings are stored in the backend of the site and are not published right away, meaning that on a large scale this could end up being a lot of work, but the idea is promising and could be a really interesting tool to enrich artist video blogs with some fan commentary.
Stay tuned on Rockol.com in the next couple of days for the rundown on the third and last Midemlab category: Direct to consumer Sales and Content Monetization.
(Andrea Leonelli)