BandPage & Rhapsody Discover Major Breakthrough in the Way Musicians Monetize Streaming

Using Streaming Behavioral Data Is 10 Times More Effective Than Facebook at Driving Music Customers to Musician’s Stores

BandPage targeted notifications are more effective than other marketing channels. (Graphic: Business Wire)

SAN FRANCISCO--()--BandPage, the central profile that over 500,000 musicians use to engage and sell to hundreds of millions of fans, and Rhapsody, the music streaming pioneer, have announced the numbers from their recently launched partnership and the results are staggering. This partnership is focused around BandPage’s behavioral data algorithms which enable musicians to reach and connect with their biggest customers on streaming services. Over the first few months of the partnership, push notifications have been sent to thousands of consumers and the level of engagement on these notifications far exceeds typical click-through rates for other powerful platforms often used by musicians. On average, this click-through rate is twice as high as Google Search1, 10 times higher than average Facebook ads2 and over 50 times more effective than web display advertising.3

Click-through rate is a metric used by marketers to evaluate the relevance and appeal of a marketing message to a potential customer, in this case a music fan. Rhapsody leverages BandPage’s data analytics engine to identify super-fans, the artist’s most engaged and passionate fans. Based on real-time analysis at the time a Rhapsody user plays a track, a highly relevant push notification is sent to the fan with a message from the artist. These messages notify fans of special experiences available in that artist’s BandPage Store or let the user know if the artist is coming to their town to play a gig. Notifying a consumer in the “moment of intent” is proving to be the newest, most effective way for musicians to reach and monetize their customers online.

The music business is going through a major shift requiring the industry to rethink its business model and the way musicians reach, engage and monetize their customers. “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,” said Flo Rida, international hip-hop star and entrepreneur. “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.”

“We at BandPage are in the business of finding new opportunities that open up significant revenue streams for musicians in the most efficient way possible,” said J Sider, CEO and Founder of BandPage. “In a time where streaming services are driving the most engagement with a musician’s customer base we have made it our job to turn that engagement into revenue on behalf of musicians around the world. Today I’m excited to announce that we have uncovered what we believe to be one of the major drivers of revenue and engagement for our industry moving forward.”

The benefits of these communications aren't limited to artists. Rhapsody has seen significantly higher engagement rates from users with these notifications compared to their historical average. This is a strong indicator that fans find these targeted communications to be highly relevant and compelling, causing them to directly engage back with Rhapsody at a higher rate than they otherwise would. At a time when user retention is of paramount importance for streaming services, this kind of outreach as enabled by BandPage may be a streaming service's most important tool to help engage and retain users.

Greg Spils, Senior Director of Traffic & Demand at Rhapsody International said, “The response from our users shows music fans are delighted to connect more deeply with their favorite musicians. Rhapsody customers’ engagement rates are up to 50% higher with these artist-based notifications than our existing personalized notifications.”

1 http://www.ppchero.com/what-is-a-good-click-through-rate-ctr/
2 The Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Advertising Benchmark Report
3 http://www.richmediagallery.com/tools/benchmarks

About Rhapsody International

Rhapsody International is the parent company of leading streaming music services Rhapsody and Napster. Now available in more than 30 countries across the U.S., Europe and Latin America, Rhapsody and Napster give members ad-free access to more than 34 million songs. Whether they're listening on their phone, at home, at work, or in the car, Rhapsody and Napster go where our members go. Our expert team of editors creates a curated music experience that makes it easy for members worldwide to gather and enjoy new original content including videos, playlists, reviews, and radio stations -- anytime and anywhere. Follow @Rhapsody on Twitter and keep up with the latest on the Rhapsody Facebook page.

About BandPage

BandPage is the central profile that more than 500,000 musicians use to engage and sell to hundreds of millions of fans across the largest music services in the world. The BandPage Platform and Marketplace powers musicians’ content and stores across Spotify, Rhapsody, iHeartRadio, Shazam, Google, VEVO, Live Nation, Xbox Music, LyricFind, Rdio, StubHub and more. Musicians can set up their BandPage Profile for free, which includes their music, tour dates, photos, bios, videos and store at: www.BandPage.com.

Contacts

Rhapsody
Jessica Abramson, 206-979-0914
jabramson@rhapsody.com
or
BandPage
Doug Scott, 415-377-8185
doug@bandpage.com

Contacts

Rhapsody
Jessica Abramson, 206-979-0914
jabramson@rhapsody.com
or
BandPage
Doug Scott, 415-377-8185
doug@bandpage.com