Rivmixx is a new UK startup which is aiming to be the ‘one-stop shop’ for the music industry and music fans alike. That’s quite a tall order, so how are they going to do it?
The site – currently in private beta – is designed to allows bands, DJs, clubs, music venues and record labels to showcase their activities via profile pages, and allow fans to stay in touch with their favourite artists. New and unsigned artists can use the site as a promotional resource right across the board, and build that early adopter support that’s so important to new acts.
Unfortunately, this is more or less what sites like MySpace and Facebook fan pages do, so what’s the difference?
When a user becomes a Fan of an artist, the artist’s data will appear in the user’s unique magazine page. The industry can channel information via their regular news feeds and personalised blog updates, and every time they add new music to their player the Fan will be notified.
Rivmixx says this process allows Fans to be more informed about what’s going on with their favourite artists, labels and DJs – all customised under one roof. The tagging system within the site provides a fan with a free online magazine for which they can tailor the content according to their musical preferences. You can define yourself as Friend – in the ‘industry’ – or fan. You can also have an MP3 or CD store, merchandise store (actually a deal with Backstreet-merch.com) and a few other features.
This genre-based news is supplemented by an industry news service created by Rivmixx writers.
The core feature of the site is getting music business people to use the site to target fans by gender, country and city by direct internal messaging and various other methods. The site warns against spamming users.
Overall, Rivmixx is a good idea – in theory. Fans love to track information about their favourite band.
The trouble with Rivmixx is the experience. The 40 re-written press releases and an ‘All Artists’ index that comprised of about 100 artists, most of you probably haven’t heard of doesn’t inspire one with confidence.
The breadth of their ambition is basically too wide and is going to take a critical mass of fans, DJs, artists, clubs and labels all to sign up en masse, more or less all at once. That is unlikely to happen in one fell swoop, especially when the industry is already all over MySpace, Sellaband and any number of other services. Yes you can personalise the service, but that requires investing time, and on this iteration the site doesn’t warrant that investment.
As an experienced music industry person their MD – Danny Mac – and his 8-strong team appear to be well connected enough but the site is at the mercy of how much of the music industry wants to be involved.
In all the site seems to be trying to do too many things at once, and could probably do with more focus on one compelling proposition. Content appears to be their strong suit at the moment. The question is, is that enough? And right now fans are raving about things like Songkick and Spotify, not a competitor to NME.com.