RootMusic’s BandPage, Facebook’s most popular music app, just upgraded to HTML5 and now includes a powerful new viral channel. Using the Open Graph capabilities launched at f8, all songs within the app’s musician profiles now include Like buttons that instantly share playable tracks to the news feed. RootMusic’s Director of Pages Matthew Conn tells me “I would expect very large increases in sharing”.
Considering BandPage has 28.6 million monthly active users, the volume of songs shared could be massive. The updated app will make the news feed a better place to discover music, and since BandPage doesn’t auto-share listening activity like Spotify, there’s no risk in exploring.
Without an official solution from Facebook for artists who want to stream their music, RootMusic’s BandPage has snowballed to host over 300,000 musicians. The company employs a freemium model built for bands scrounging to make rent, with most functionality offered free and premium accounts costing just $2 a month. Still, competitors including ReverbNation and Bandcamp are trying to undercut RootMusic by offering entirely free apps that instead charge musicians to sell their songs.
To stay ahead, RootMusic has been steadily releasing new features and making more of them free. While snazzy video players and customizable design improve the experience for existing fans, what most bands really want is exposure that nets them new fans. That’s what this update is about.
When users play a song or video on a BandPage they’ll now see Like and comment buttons that let them share media that can be played in-line from the feed. Previously, users had to click multiple times through a foreign proprietary sharing flow to publish songs. Conn tells me BandPage’s faster, more familiar sharing flow will increase clicks because “users now do what they’re used to doing on Facebook: Liking and commenting.”
More sharing means more friends listening to songs in the news feed and clicking through to artist BandPages. This virality will help bands gain new fans and drive downloads and concert tickets sales. In turn, today’s update makes BandPage a better streaming solution that more artists will want to use and pay for.
BandPage is the central location for musicians to update music, bio, photos, videos, and show dates and push them out to their other websites. BandPage’s mission is to revolutionize the way musicians, fans and the industry interact. They aim to become the most trusted music technology company by continually creating new opportunities to discover and experience music online. Used by over 500,000 musicians ranging from local bands to singers and performers like Rihanna, Jimi Hendrix, Mayday Parade and many more, BandPage is a fully-featured...
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