JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Could WaTunes Be On The Cutting Edge In The Music Industry?

Taken from the blog:



In the the past month, WaTunes has announced a slew of distribution services for its artists and record labels including its Streamline technology, Pay-As-You-Go, and for the first time ever, distributing mobile apps on the iPhone App Store. But could WaTunes really be on the cutting edge in the music industry? Founder & CEO Kevin Rivers seems to think so. Focusing on branding WaTunes into a consumer service where fans can discover new music, Kevin has spoke about the change in the industry of digital distribution and digital music discovery.

"As CD sales begins to decline, digital downloads are still on the rise. People are looking for ways to directly focus on their favorite artist. Its been a huge milestone for us to create innovative ways to provide music discovery using simple, easy-to-use, effective methods. Our goal has always been to bridge the gap of social interaction between the artist and fans by sharing and displaying contents, making better buying decisions, and establishing interactive communications effortlessly."

WaTunes social platform enables fans, artists, and record labels to create their own profile, share other social sites information, post comments, embed any widgets from their favorite video sites, and make instant calls to each other via Skype.

So whats going to happen next at WaTunes?

Kevin talks about his recent deal with MediaNet, a leader in premium digital media content to launch a new music store service dubbed the WaTunes Marketplace. The WaTunes Marketplace is a fresh new music store service that enables WaTunes users to buy and download millions of songs, connect with old favorites, and share them with their friends. Artists of WaTunes can sync their marketplace pages to their own profiles to provide an On-Demand approach to music discovery. The service is scheduled to launch this coming Friday.

"We are very excited to work with MediaNet on such a game changing level. The Marketplace is a very big innovative concept that will empower record labels and artists to reach out to the fans more socially and direct. With our innovative social platform, users are able to get what they want, when they want, with little to no effort. In conjunction with the Marketplace, we believe our users will find what they are looking for using our simple interface."

Just to give you guys a quick update that Friday is the launch of WaTunes Marketplace. From there, you'll be able to sell music or buy over millions of other songs from your favorite artists. Definitely keep a watch out for us this weekend everyone!

Hey Kevin,

What artists will be available and where did they come from? Do you have a direct relationship and communication with them or are you just a retailer dealing through a wholesaler?

Tell us more about what you are offering? Also, do you have investors behind you or is this a private mom and pop type of entity?

Congrats on your launch, I look forward to learning more about all of this.

Brian

Hey Brian,

The WaTunes Marketplace is a remarkable system. This is by far not your average mom and pops store. As of today, we will hold catalogs from every indie distributor as well as majors Universal & EMI. This means that you'll be able to purchase contents from artists including Taylor Swift, Bon Jovi, Jay-Z, Drake, Lady Gaga, and lots more!

The Marketplace will work hand-in-hand with our next generation social platform. Every user already (artists, fans, labels) can create their own profile, share other social sites, embed any stream/video player (including YouTube, MySpace, ReverbNation, and VEVO) and make instant calls to each other via Skype.

Below is a blog post on how the WaTunes Marketplace can work for not just majors but also indies as well.

http://watunes2.blogspot.com/2010/02/watunes-shows-new-music-store-with-jay.html

Stay tuned as we launch this service tomorrow!

Hey Kevin,

I've followed what you've been doing since you started WaTunes, and a big thumbs up from where it's come, to where you are now.

Digital distribution is not easy, and it has a lot of competitors, and a very tough market place.

So, to cut to the chase ( I'm playing devils' advocate here, so please bear with me ) , what is different about your service ?

For example when I release a tune, I use Tunecore. For a $9.95 flat rate per year, it's fed to iTunes, emusic, Rhapsody, Napster, and a bunch of others, Nokia ringtones etc. They do the accounting, provide it with a ISRC code, collect all the dues and give a monthly collective statement. So, on my website ( yes, I know I've got a lot to learn about website design LOL ) the punter is offered the purchase choice of whatever provider they are associated with.

As a punter, can I buy a song from your site, say, through my iTunes account ? Do I have that option, or do I have to set up an account with WaTunes, through one particular payment service ?

Is it easy for me to clck and pay with the provider of my choice ?

Second point : Why do I want to come to your site, when I already have a digital muscical provider ( in my case mog.com ) where I can stream any song I wish, set up playlists, share those with friends, and don't even need to buy the song, because it's always there on demand ? To be fair, I get that service, in exchange for being a content provider.

So, convince me. Why should I switch, and what are the elements of your service that would want to make folks want to come to your site ? How is your site different ?

cheers, niteshift

Hi Niteshift,

These are some amazing questions you have here. So let me explain about the competitive advantage with WaTunes in the digital distribution space:

WaTunes enables you to sell unlimited music entirely free on iTunes & MediaNet (which powers the WaTunes Marketplace). This means that you do not have to pay any upfront fees + you receive 100% of all sales generated. For more services like Amazon, Rhapsody, eMusic, etc. You can utilize our Pay-As-You-Go (RUSH which starts at $25 per album) or Subscription (VIP which is $12.95 per month) services.

WaTunes also offers Music Video distribution (starts at $50 for 0-5mins) and for the first time in history, we enable you to create and distribute your very own Mobile Apps which we deliver to the iPhone App Store, Palm, Blackberry, and Android smartphones.

Like Tunecore, we also provide free UPCs and ISRC codes on any distribution plan.



Unfortunately no. You have to create a WaTunes account in order to buy songs from the WaTunes Marketplace. Creating a WaTunes account is free for all artists and music lovers alike!



Can you elaborate more on this question?



The difference between MOG & WaTunes is that MOG is pure streaming. And with most streaming services, offer premium downloads through other services like iTunes, Amazon, and even 7 Digital through affiliate links. WaTunes offers both streams & downloads under one experience. We can do this because we give every user the ability to embed any widgets from any third-party source right on their WaTunes profile. This includes MySpace, YouTube, ReverbNation, etc.

With the WaTunes Marketplace, you can link your Marketplace artist page to your WaTunes profile and give your fans instant access to your music without leaving the site. WaTunes next generation social platform already enables you to share other social sites (Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter), personal websites, blogs, photos, music & video players, and the ability to make instant calls to each other via Skype.

I hope this answers some of your questions

Hey Kevin,

Good response man, and I'll come back after some much needed sleep.

cheers, niteshift

Hi Niteshift,

Not a problem. Let me know if you have any other questions regarding the WaTunes Marketplace.

Couple of observations, the first with my 13+ years of professional software industry experience, the others as an average Joe:

* The UI on the site is not well-designed. Tough to see how you will stand out from the competition as this is a huge barrier to converting potential customers, fan or otherwise.

* Were all the links supposed to work at this point?

* Why should I be excited about this as an artist? Even if it does certain things "better" than its competition or saves me a few dollars on its services, how is this a game changer?

* Why should I be excited about this as a fan? I'm already over-innundated with services (i)Like this that are crowding the web and mindshare. As a fan all I've learned is that I will have a new flavor of the day or two every year that are cool, but for the casual user the differentiation on features are not compelling enough to change my usage patterns.

Am I wrong on this? Software/services are a commodity at this point. How can you transcend a marketplace that is frankly mostly not necessary?

Cheers and g'luck with it regardless!

-Ethan

Hey everyone,

I am proud to say that the Marketplace is now LIVE. Feel free to visit our site and let us know what you think!

Ethan,

I have many of the same questions. It's a very crowded marketplace in all directions. Ease of use, convenience, or something truly brand new are things I would be looking for. A greatr GUI, Compatibility, Price and Selection are assumed at the start to be competitive and without those 4 things you're dead. I must get email from at least 1 or 2 new players in this overcrowded field each week. I've taken an interest in Kevin because he's smart enough to actually step into our community directly instead of a series of lazy template emails. But now that he's in my office (literally I guess by using this board), he's gotta sell me a bit better, OR give me some reason to nudge 50K artists to check out his site. I'd still like answers to my other questions as well. If this is just another generic market place, it's a waste of our communities time. If, however, there's truly a benefit to our folks, I am happy to listen. Selling artists that you have zero relationship with is hopeless. Mixing the two isn't much better. If you want mass cattle calls, stick with iTunes and Amazon for digital downloads. That's where your fans are going now.. why move them?

Brian

Hey Brian/Ethan,

Both of you have some very challenging questions, so I'll get straight to the point.

First question asked is:



Me speaking as a musician myself, I can sum this up in one word: Opportunity.

WaTunes provides artists more opportunities and options than what any other distributor would do without breaking the wallet. For digital distribution, if an artist would rather prefer to pay $35 or $20 a year for each albums to get on iTunes, then its all commendable. But if there was a way to bypass those fees and go straight to the lion's gate without sacrificing any of my share of royalties, wouldn't that be a better opportunity to grow and exploit sales options? I believe so.

Another reason why I'd be excited as an artist is innovation. This is where WaTunes obviously lead. Because WaTunes has tapped into other markets (i.e. Mobile Apps, Gaming Consoles, etc.) this provides, once again, more opportunities for the artists to exploit.

Now moving to the new WaTunes Marketplace. Now speaking on myself as an artist, not as a CEO, I like this idea because it gives me a base to direct my fans to sell music without the hassles of getting my fans to create an iTunes, Amazon, or eMusic account. Granted that because its still relatively new, I'd direct fans to still buy on iTunes. However, like ever other music stores, this one is a very promising alternative to iTunes because unlike other stores, the Marketplace centralizes music discovery. This means that I can search for profiles that I like, listen to their full tracks, and buy them without leaving the site.

Example: Say I want to check out some songs from Brian Austin Whitney and I happen to check out his WaTunes profile. Saying that Brian has embed a player where I can stream his music (MySpace, ReverbNation, or even a JPF Player). I am able to get instant information about him before I dive deep into making a purchase.

Now lets say I like some of his songs and I want to buy them. Well normally, I'd have to leave the site, open up my iTunes player, search for his name, and then see what albums he has on iTunes. Now the time it takes to do that is about 1-3 minutes.

Vs.

Say his content is available on the WaTunes Marketplace and he has linked his Marketplace page to his profile, now I can simply click on the "Marketplace" button located on his WaTunes profile and it will display all of his available albums instantly.

The approach is very similar to a CD Baby Artist selling and directing his/her fans to CD Baby. The bigger difference is that the cost of putting my content on the WaTunes Marketplace & iTunes is nothing. Zilch. Nada. I also keep 100% of all sales generated from both iTunes and the WaTunes Marketplace.

Opportunity. Now the second question is:



This one is very crucial and let you both mentioned before there are many in this space already. Also it deals with GUI, Pricing, Compatibility, and Selection. Another thing I will add to this menu is Value. If there is no value, nothing innovative to the mix, then its dead.

Fortunately, I strongly believe that WaTunes has all those propositions and heres why:

GUI: Surely the site is not the best designed, but it is definitely the most practical. We've made it extremely easy to navigate and discover content. My approach was to make the site very simple. This creates faster performance on many levels of our services and produces greater results.

Compatibility: In terms of the WaTunes Marketplace, what better quality to sell music then 320kbps MP3s? This enables everyone to purchase their favorite songs without the hassle of converting them from MP4 (iTunes format) if they have an MP3 Player. I buy content on iTunes all the time (fortunately for me I have an iPod) but for others, we've make it simple to just download & import your music to any player.

Price: The pricing model of the WaTunes Marketplace is remarkable. The prices are very reasonable and makes purchasing much easier and faster.

Selection: I strongly believe we have a very good selection of music. Millions of songs from every indie distributor and majors creates a fair balance in music discovery.

Value: This is where I believe we step out. One of the values we have in conjunction with the WaTunes Marketplace is our social platform. Enabling fans to share music with their friends, embed any music & video widgets, share their social sites, and make instant calls via Skype is compelling. The social platform gives fans and artists what they want: Flexibility & Simplicity. There is a lot more value we will add next month to this platform that will really make things interesting.

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for the response. I'm not really sold, but you've said everything you have to say in your position.

I'll keep my feedback brief:

* As an artist, the monetary amount I spend on digital distribution via anyone is a DROP IN THE BUCKET compared to my other expenses. Even if you are the leader on best common pricing option, this won't excite me. I'd argue I won't feel the pain of digital distribution up to about $50-60 per year. I just want convenience and reach.

* Like Brian, I'm reluctant to hitch my wagon to anyone other than the leaders. Whatever my fans are using, I will adapt to their usage patterns - I'm not going to try to change them. See previous feedback point for why I don't care...

* I see what you're trying to promote on the social-networking and ease-of-use front for navigating/exploring content. It's the back door that iTunes has still left open for the competition. I 100% support the vision...

* ...but as far as WaTunes goes, I don't think you can decouple this notion from site design. It sounds like you're under invested in design and this is going to kill you. Maybe for WaTunes 2.0 you can get it right, if you still have the money to do so?

Anyways, in the big picture, I'm hoping someone gets it right. You've identified one of the big items for fans - but as an artist that's not for me to decide. The marketplace will pick the winners and losers, and meanwhile I'm perfectly willing to spend $50-60/year to make sure I'm covering all the options.

Best of luck, truly!

-Ethan

Hi Ethan,

Thank you for your strong feedback and I will definitely take them into consideration. Your feedback is what strive WaTunes to be better! I always welcome any ideas, suggestions, and comments as this is what powers the imagination of WaTunes.

My final conclusion is that regardless of the service, every artist's success is dependent on one word: Approach.

Whatever your approach is to your career is what determines your own success as a musician. Now do I believe that WaTunes strikes a perfect balance in services and offer a killer product? Of course, but I'm biased.

I do acknowledge that the WaTunes' innovative and forward thinking approach may not be for everyone. Nevertheless, I will commend that any approach aimed to help consumers and musicians as a whole is definitely a winning approach.

Best of luck everyone!

The press it now out everyone. Go ahead and visit our new site and check out some great music from indie bands as well as major artists