music industry strategy and business models report
DESCRIPTION
This report analyzes the challenges and opportunities for the music industry within electronic marketplaces, statistical data highlight that the online sales in the UK alone will reach £78bn a year by 2010 (Econsultancy, 2009). The marketing endeavors have to be directed to the effective online promotion of music and keep in regard issues of design, security copyright management. Furthermore the Internet interactivity and customizability peculiarities have affected the communication model towards the emission of targeted and personalized contents. In this scenario the music business encourage the proliferation of niche markets based SMEs that focus on the satisfaction of their market segment with a comprehensive service inclusive of music and side products. Through the examination of the business model developed and implemented by the e-commerce music, merchandising and technological equipment website 'www.Trackitdown.net', this research aims to critically evaluate the best practice in the strategic management of the online music business.TRANSCRIPT
TRACKITDOWN: THE ONLINE DANCE MUSIC COMMUNITY
1.EXCECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report analyzes the challenges and opportunities for the music industry within
electronic marketplaces, statistical data highlight that the online sales in the UK alone
will reach £78bn a year by 2010 (Econsultancy, 2009). The marketing endeavors
have to be directed to the effective online promotion of music and keep in regard
issues of design, security copyright management. Furthermore the Internet
interactivity and customizability peculiarities have affected the communication model
toward the emission of targeted and personalized contents. In this scenario the music
business encourage the proliferation of niche markets based SMEs that focus on the
satisfaction of their market segment with a comprehensive service inclusive of music
and side products. Through the examination of the business model developed and
implemented by the e-commerce music, merchandising and technological equipment
website 'www.Trackitdown.net', this research aims to critically evaluate the best
practice in the strategic management of the online music business.
2.INTRODUCTION
'Producers can pick up on consumer trends, repackage them and sell them back to
paying costumers' (Bilton, 2007 p.152).
This report aims at critically investigating the business model deployed by the online
service www.Trackitdown.net. This online retailer for dance music and associate
products has cleverly mirrored its segment market, as states the above quotation, to
satisfy its needs and build up long-term commitment and bond of trust with
consumers (Chaffey et al, 2009). The Trackitdown director described the website as
a community where DJs and fans find the electronic music sub- gender they prefer,
the technological kit to play the tracks, the merchandising and the news related to the
dance background. The exploration of the website products and services will be
expounded throughout the company communication and revenue strategy. Thus will
be explored the contemporary opportunities and challenges the music industry is
facing after the electronic marketplaces blown up and capsized the established major
label control (Graham et al, 2004). The realization of a complete and factual analysis
of the case study implies the exploration of economical, marketing, technological,
design and legal matters. According to Chaffey (2009) generating an e- business
1
strategy means blending the traditional marketing, business and supply chain
management with the information system peculiarities. The study will keep in regard
the matter of fact of that the Internet is a consumer-generated medium (Jenkins and
Deuze, 2008). Websites are developed with CSS (Cascade styling sheets)
technology: 'style sheet language that allows authors and users to attach style to
structured documents' as asserts the word web consortium (www.w3.org). The
feasibility of customization changed the media communication standard, the users
are no longer passive receiver of the media content (push strategy) but they are
empowered to find information (pull strategy) (Hutchinson, 2006), and manipulate the
contents (Pelsmacker, 2010).
The online commerce has to grant security and data encryption in the transactional
phase, stated by the Distance selling Regulation
(www.berr.gov.uk/Policies/consumer-issues/buying-and-selling/distance-selling). In
addition, the sale of music implies the safeguard of intellectual property and
copyrights of the wide choice of tracks on the website archive (England and Finney,
2007). While providing all these components, the online service has to build up an
effective structure in which consumer can easily and effectively find and complete
tasks (Rubin, 2008). This exploration of the convergence of different fields of studies
in an unique business strategy will refer both to the academic and industry literature,
and will be supported by the direct evidence emerged from the declarations of the
director of the company (see Appendix 1).
2. OVERVIEW:
2.1 Trackitdown Backstory
The original idea of Trackitdown project dates back at the end of 90's, when the
company partners were DJs performing dance music mixes around UK music clubs.
They witnessed the at that time cutting edge, CD mix technology put side by side to
the traditional turntable plats. The music was still just sold in vinyl, but producers and
DJs were using digital technology to compose and easily restyle and remix tracks.
The professional dance music community started a massive interchange of CD with
their creations, the production of tracks increased while the clubbing culture was
taking over, also thanks to this huge network of artists (Leyshon et al, 2005). The
basic idea of the Trackitdown founders has been to adapt the iTunes electronic
delivery model to the dance music background.
2
2.2 The online music shop
The core product (Chaffey et al, 2009) of the website is the music download. The
featured music player follow the user in the exploration of the variegate dance music
genres, enabling the track preview and the creation of the play list to enjoy while
reading or commenting the news of the sphere, the updated artist profiles or just
checking out who's ranking in the chart. This is the Trackitdown atmosphere. As we
can deduce from the prior events, the music product online shop has essentially
been designed for the insiders, DJs and producers can easily find material for their
performances and they are supported by the secure download and the continue
upload of new tracks within the catalogue. The ulterior music genres diversification
characterizes the intent to engage the client through an accurate segmentation
according to users taste (Mintzberg et al, 2002).
The business action plan entails the 'affiliate programme', Trackitdown allows other
websites to present either all the music catalogue or select a part of it. Trough the
EDI (electronic data interchange) technology, a communication protocol and
standard for the data interchange among computer, the host website access to the
patron music database and can store it 'behind' its interface thanks to the CSS
technology. In this manner, the consumers don't feel redirected to another website
during the purchase phase. This forethought endorses the consistency of navigation,
a core trait of web usability (Sdl, 2010). The enterprise runs stores for Mixmax: the
online dance information service (http://mixmax.co.uk/), Kiss Fm: am online radio and
TV (vwww.totalkiss.com), and Dogsonacid: a Drum n' Bass massive online
community (www.dogsonacid.com).
The benefits of the cooperative sub contraction form (Graham et al, 2004) are
noticeable: extension of the business, prestige acquisition within the business
contextual relationships (Mintzberg et al, 2002) and also lower transaction costs and
less pricing competition (Laudon and Traver, 2009). Those advantages require high
standard commitment from Trackitdown in the management of the chain of suppliers,
both in the contractual phase and in the long- term venture, in fact even the minimal
variation of the website structure could affect the affiliates operative (Reymond,
2005).
3
2.3 Technological apparatus component
The website session dedicated to the sale of DJ equipment demonstrate the
company intent to maximize the value of the customer experience with the deep
knowledge of its costumer segment of the dance music niche market. The contents
segmentation practice 'allows the marketers to more efficiently direct the business
market effort (Bloc and Bloc, 2005) and affirm the online branding strategy of the
company (Ryan and Jones, 2009). The expertise demonstrate with the selling of
such dedicated and specific products corroborate the engagement of the company in
creating a bond of trust with the costumes, by providing them a complete service
within a customizable and consistent experience (Chaffey et al, 2009).
2.4 Merchandising
According to the opinion of Trackitdown director, the fans still prefer the CD as format
for buying music. The business patronizes every year the DJ Mag (www.djmag.com/)
top 100 DJ project, obtaining a 35.000 fans database with their votes, and therefore
taste and trends. The merchandising is a valuable ploy to monetize on the 'additional
features beyond the core product' (Chaffey et al, 2009, p. 451) and in this particular
framework represent the successful endeavor of the firm to broaden the audience
throughout the insertion of tailored products configured around the customer
proposition values (Pelsmaker, 2010; Preckumar, 2003). This branch of the trade is
successful, according the report of Trackitdown director, and a promotion tool
recently realized (May the 11th, 2010) supports the merchandising branch: a link to
the featured product of the track played on the music player.
3. CURRENT ISSUES AND PREFORMANCE
3.1 Building the online reputation
The electronic marketplace is an exciting field in which marketers are challenged to
contemporarily broaden the audience while narrowing the focus on the
individualization and customizability of the products (Ryan and Jones, 2009). The pull
interactive medium allows a direct and personalized dialogue with users (Nicholas
and Stokes, 2006). The users, on the other side have the power to manipulate the
reputation of the brand trough the world of 'click': the online version of the traditional
word of mouth and grassroots marketing (Hutchinson, 2006). These denotations date
back to Nicholas Negroponte (1995), who predicted the potential of the Internet users
4
to effectively pull in the medium ideas and contents instead of merely absorbing the
information flow propel by traditional media.
The challenge is the unpredictability of the users response (Jenkins, 2006):
marketers have to be proactive in renewing and evolving their strategies (Mintzberg
et al, 2002) in order to identify, anticipate and satisfy the audience needs (Caffey et
al, 2009 p.416). The Trackitdown tackle this process by providing various levels of
personalization; the company director states: 'We offer the opportunity to be part of
the community of Trackitdown, rather than someone that just download the music
and doesn't get involved'. With the creation of their online Trackitdown profile, users
not only access the purchase of tracks and goods, they can actually leave their
feedback or comments and choose a personalized newsletter service. The final goal
of this customized e- mails is the consumer retention, they facilitates the company
task to focus on the audience personal interests, and enhances the engagement with
the community (Pelsmacker, 2010).
The Trackitdown newsletter service is effective: not invasive and delivered on regular
basis, provide the user a shortlist of 'what's new' in the community within the
previously selected sub- areas. The interactive opportunity to filter the email
configurations convey trough the storage of the details furnished by the user in
databases, which are also valid tools for further analysis within the market segment
(Chaffey, 2009). In addition to these customizable services the website launches
periodical competitions; as well as all the tactics performed in the digital marketing
strategy, they are tailored for the Trackitdown audience. The business director
explains the market segment 'How sites work and how people feel about them largely
depends on whom you are selling to [...]. We are selling most to 18-30 years old:
they're very computer savvy, they know how the Internet works; they write music:
they know how to use the technology. But they are also very passionate about the
product...' (see Appendix 1).
3.2 Social networks: friends or foe?
Another powerful and controversial e- communication strategy is the usage of social
networks. The phenomenon is in its exponential expansion from the last few years,
they revolutionize the approach to the web, entitling the publication of photos, rich
media, text and music in a structured network of peer-to-peer contacts. Thanks to
their popularity those websites have become a powerful channel for the e-marketing
strategy. The creation of the brand profile on those websites is a largely diffused
practice in the contemporary industry scenario and opens a wide range of
5
opportunities. Those channels are the viral marketing forge: the public can interact
with the brands trough their favourite network, and exchange opinions with their
friends: (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). Becoming 'fan of a brand', reports E-marketer
on 02 April 2009, is a leading-edge strategy: according to Insite Consulting research,
35% of respondents has 'followed' a brand online (www.emarketer.com).
Furthermore, '64% of consumers report making a first purchase from a brand
because of a digital experience' (Schmitt, 2009).
Social media, along with the traditional channels of return of investment (ROI)
measurement, give the combination of the platform specific metrics with the
reputation monitoring tools (Econsultancy, 2009).
In addition, marketers can directly grab the audience exchange and gain the direct
feedback on their opinions (Ryan and Jones, 2009), reach and envision the impact of
early adopters (Advertising Age, 2010). The usage of social networks in a promotion
campaign, require the continuous commitment of the brand in the direct interaction
with the users and at the same time they increase competitions between similar
enterprises. The opinion of the audience can rank or destroy the online reputation of
a brand with just one click.
The Trackitdown approach to those social conglomerates is smartly aware of their
double-sided power, and their actions are targeted to en effective and cutting edge
service. First of all the 'benchmarking' of the sector they continuously update, plays
high attention on the ever-changing popularity of tools and channels. High dedication
is given to the currently most powerful and popular channel: considered that 16% of
Trackitdown downstream traffic is generated via Facebook
(http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/Trackitdown.net), a member of the company is
dedicated only to the management of the profile of the community. They also have
developed an application dedicated to Facebook, the device is the adaption of the
music player available on the patron website, this ploy reinforce the branding
awareness of the costumer and ease the audience stream towards the commercial
online zone (Schmitt, 2009). Facebook provides also the immediate measurement of
the outcome of the application, on the 12th May 2010 the instruments has 11901
users, while Trackitdown Facebook fan page counts on 10329 followers
(www.facebook.com).
3.3 Services Upgrade
Online since the 28th of January 2004 Trackitdown can be considered an established
business within the 'young online marketplace', they are a powerful hybrid between
6
emerging and mature industries. They are moving within an environment created by
technological and sociological recent breakthroughs. it is interesting to see how they
reached the grade of experience in which research and dynamic stability combine the
best of mass customization and continuous improvements aimed to the long- term
customer bond (Mintzberg et al, 2002). The Trackitdown e-crm (electronic customer
relationship management (Chaffey et al, 2009) is positioned towards the continuous
implementation of tools and communication facilities. The attention of the in- house
development team is addressed to the needs of their customer database and to the
stakeholders’ collaborative partnership (Miles et al, 2005). Working in relation to the
effective marketing segmentation, the organisation makes use of online surveys for
the analysis of the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threatens (SWAT
analysis), in order to improve their service while maximizing the business marketing
efforts (Chaffey, 2009). The survey is planned in a way that identifies the consumers
'awareness, preference or intention to consider or purchase', its questions focus on
variables that measure not only the statistic data but keep in regard the psychological
influences of human response to the marketing strategy (Block and Block, 2005). The
online questionnaire recently proposed to the audience included the investigation on
the awareness of the features and their effectiveness. The scope was to verify the
consumer response to a tool or a website session and establish the subsequent
pattern (see Appendix 1).
The next implementation planned by the company, consequent to the data analysis,
is the online sale of the tickets of dance music live events. The feature will allow
clubs and promotes to add their events on the website and to link the sale of the
ticket with the music preview and purchasing. The ploy is meant to broaden both the
connection with fans and strengthen the company network within the professional
dance scenario. Besides, the professionals will share the ROI (Return of Investment)
of this effective tool of promotion with Trackitdown (Ryan and Jones, 2009).
3.4 Business to business trust approach: copyright guarantee
The business model based on the charge of the music downloading proposed by
Trackitdown is an effective response to the piracy issue, each track on the website is
protected by mechanical rights. However, in order to meet the music producers and
DJs needs, they are not subjected to the DRM (Digital Right Management)
restrictions: once purchased the track can be played, performed and edited.
Furthermore the tracks are available both in wave and in mp3, to fulfill all the possible
uses the file will be allocated and therefore meeting all the dance DJS and music
7
producers’ requirements. According to Premkumar (2003) the reorganization of the
supply chain after the impact of illegal peer-to-peer downloading, implies a deeper
understanding of customers’ needs, and the education of the public on copyrights.
This standpoint is reinforced by the research conducted by Sandulli and Barbero
(2007), in which they remark that the ethical issues related to illegal download are
advertised as harmful for the economy and the artistic production, while previously
was promoted the opposite perspective. The authors, in addition analyze the
differences between peer-to-peer sharing and Legal Digital Music Providers. The first
difference they present is the better reproduction quality in legal stores (Sandulli and
Barbero, 2007); Trackitdown guarantee the quality of the files by dealing directly with
the record labels. The company, is planning to offer an additional royalty
management service to the record labels they store by protecting and monitoring all
the links related to each track available on the website (see Appendix 1). The other
difference, which is also an advantage of Legal Digital Music Providers versus pirate
downloads is the trustworthiness: peer- to- peer downloading entail connection
hurdles, and, above all, 'many P2P systems are highly vulnerable to pollution attacks,
in which attackers target specific content and inject corrupted versions of it into the
system' (Sandulli and Barbero, 2007, p.68). Users are aware of the danger; therefore
the tendency is to address their attention to a charged but secure service, taking
advantage of (Meisel and Sullivan, 2002; Shultze et al, 2004).
3.5 Multiple, easy and secure transactions
Secure online transactions in UK are guarantee by the Data Protection Act of 1998.
The necessity of regulation in the subject stewed from the rapid diffusion of
computers in 1970s, which implied the increased speed and quantity of data
operations (Carey, 2000). The compliance with electronic commerce law within the
personal and financial data processing and storage operations guarantees the
trustworthiness of the online transactional operations (Bart et Al, 2005). The
technology that undertakes the protection of data storage and transmission is the
encryption, a procedure throughout textual data are converted in 'cipher text' that
cannot be read by anyone other than the sender and the receiver' (Laudon and
Traver, 2009). In addition to the security of transactions and personal data
manipulation, Trackitdown offers different currencies and payment systems to ease
the process and facilitate the customer retention (Chaffey et al, 2009).
8
3.6 Navigation and color schemes: creating a smooth and captivating design
The planning of a user- centered design is a core issue, in fact 'commerce sites can
influence their impression of trustworthiness by carefully designing their site to avoid
amateurishness, set and meet reasonable user expectations, trust and usability'
(www.phisophe.com). Usability 'refers to how well users can learn and use a product
to achieve their goals and how satisfied they are with that process.”
(http://www.usability.gov/basics/index.html). Statistical results remark that the 82% of
customers is less likely to return to a website, if its design lacks in the application of
usability essentials (Econsultancy, 2009).
The first step for a website intuitively usable is a well-organized web architecture, that
structures contents and information in a coherent search optimization taxonomy, and
communicates the overall site organization (White, 2010). Then, the architecture has
to be supported with a correct and transparent linking strategy, 'if the customer can't
find a product, then he or she will not buy it' (Nielsen, 2002, p ). Furthermore, the
description of the product should inform the consumer on the information necessary
to make the purchase. In addition, the checkouts page has to set the transactional
phases clearly, and comprehensive of data protection details.
The speed of page load is an ulterior guarantee of mastery and affordability, which
will drive to customers’ satisfaction and retention (Nielsen, 2002).
The Alexa online analysis reports the Trackitdown average load time as 'Very Slow
(7.883 Seconds), 94% of sites are faster' (www.alexa.com). Also Nielsen (2002),
recommended 4 seconds as the maximum webpage loading time.
Working on the loading time issue should be a task designated in the action plan of
the company, since it encompasses the whole design and the quality of the service in
terms of applications and graphics definition (www.philosophe.com). However, the
overall website content, is effectively delivered, and matched with the target audience
computer literacy, taste, scopes and inclinations.
The contemporary creative challenge of web designers is to apply the universal
principles of web usability and web design, and shape them after the exploration of
the cultural background they are targeting, as stated by Lupton (in Armstrong, 2009)
'we are developing our particular voices as people - as men and women, as
members of a generation, as participants in local communities and institutions, but
also practitioners of a global design discourse (Armstrong, 2009).
9
In this framework the choice of color scheme is essential: the influence of colors on
human perception is outstanding to cultural and physical patterns of associations. In
the web design context, the color selection affects the responsiveness of the
customers to the communication strategy (www.colormatters.com). The Trackitdown
color configuration appears appealing, in particular the selection of the 'hot pink' for
the music session. Pink is normally associate with the female sphere, while the
audience of the website is predominately male. Historically, the pink had a different
connotation, as a derivate of red it was associated with power and activity, hence
masculine. In addition, the color has often been associated with good fortune and
liberality (www.colormatters.com). These historical and cultural connotations could
have subconsciously leaded the team in the selection of this color; they are all men,
after all.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS:
This case study presented music business incorporated in the framework of
electronic commerce and promotion, the experience of the company examined
consented and effective and complete exploration of the matters in question. The
core nodes of the online strategy are the continuous updating of contents and service
in order to mirror the clients expectations and create with them long time commitment
and willingness to purchase and making positive reviews. The marketers’ ability to
cluster and follow the continuous evolutions of demands is triggered and constantly
challenged by the interactive power of consumers; therefore a good practice is a
flexible and coherent strategic approach of CRM (Bilton, 2007). Trackitdown
orientation reflects this perspective and offers a complete online dance music
experience, their efforts are well targeted to the creation of an enduring bond of trust
with new and affectionate costumers. The brand evolution could address the
endeavours in the promptness of page loading, which seems to be the weak spot in
the valuable content delivery.
10
REFERENCES
Alexa, the Web Information Company. Available at: http://www.alexa.com/ [Accessed May 25, 2010].
Armstrong, H. 2009. Graphic Design Theory: Readings from the Field, New York, N.Y: Princeton Architectural Press.
Brands Vie for Credibility on Social Networks - eMarketer. Available at: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007608 [Accessed April 3, 2010].
Color Matters - Business, Marketing and Trends. Available at: http://www.colormatters.com/color_trademark.html [Accessed May 12, 2010].
Color Matters - Symbolism and Emotions. Available at: http://www.colormatters.com/sym2.html [Accessed May 12, 2010].
Color Matters - Symbolism and Emotions. Available at: http://www.colormatters.com/symbolism.html [Accessed May 12, 2010].
Distance Selling Regulations | Policies | BIS. Available at: http://www.berr.gov.uk/Policies/consumer-issues/buying-and-selling/distance-selling [Accessed May 10, 2010].
DJ Mag. Available at: http://www.djmag.com/ [Accessed May 25, 2010].
Dogs On Acid :: The world's largest dance music forum: Drum and Bass / Jungle message board with news, reviews, dubplates, audio, video, mixes, merchandise, clothing... Available at: http://www.dogsonacid.com/ [Accessed May 25, 2010].
E-commerce: A Beginner's Guide | Econsultancy. Available at: http://econsultancy.com/reports/e-commerce-a-beginner-s-guide [Accessed May 25, 2010].
Gawker announces "branded traffic" as a new way to entice advertisers | Blog | Econsultancy. Available at: http://econsultancy.com/blog/5681-pageviews-and-core-readership [Accessed March 31, 2010].
Getting to Know Your Audience – philosophe. Available at: http://philosophe.com/understanding_users/ [Accessed April 28, 2010].
Information Commissioner's Office - ICO. Available at: http://www.ico.gov.uk/ [Accessed April 22, 2010].
KISS | The UK's best Dance, Hip Hop and R&B on radio and TV. Available at: http://www.totalkiss.com/ [Accessed May 25, 2010].
Privacy Alliance, Protect your privacy OPnline,Guidelines for online privacy policy Publishers and Users information. Available at: http://www.privacyalliance.org/ [Accessed May 12, 2010].
ROI of the Online Channel. Available at:
11
http://www.sdltridion.co.uk/downloads/white_papers/roi_of_the_online_channel.asp [Accessed May 10, 2010].
Standards - W3C. Available at: http://www.w3.org/standards/ [Accessed May 25, 2010].
2002. The Strategy Process: Concepts, Contexts, Cases 4th ed., Harlow: Pearson Education.
The Ultimate Mixmax. Available at: http://mixmax.co.uk/ [Accessed May 25, 2010].
Trackitdown - Dance Music MP3/WAV/Merchandise Distribution Centre. Available at: http://www.trackitdown.net/ [Accessed May 25, 2010].
Usability.gov - Usability Basics. Available at: http://www.usability.gov/basics/index.html [Accessed May 13, 2010].
Web Site Quality Assurance – philosophe. Available at: http://philosophe.com/qa/ [Accessed May 25, 2010].
Welcome to Color Matters - Everything about color - from color expert Jill Morton. Available at: http://www.colormatters.com/entercolormatters.html [Accessed May 25, 2010].
Bart, Y., Venkatesh, S. & Sultan, F., 2005. Are the Drivers and Role of Online Trust the Same for All Web Sites and Consumers? A Large-Scale Exploratory Empirical Study. Available at: http://www.atypon-link.com/AMA/doi/abs/10.1509/jmkg.2005.69.4.133 [Accessed April 22, 2010].
Beaird, J., The Principles of Beautiful Web Design. Available at: http://articles.sitepoint.com/print/principles-beautiful-web-design [Accessed April 30, 2010].
Bilton, C., 2007. Management and Creativity: From Creative Industries to Creative Management, Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Block, M.P. & Block, T.S., 2005. Business-to-Business Marketing Research 2nd ed., Mason, Ohio: Texere.
Bozsak, E. et al., 2002. KAON—Towards a large scale semantic web. E-Commerce and Web Technologies, 231–248.
Carey, P., 2000. Data Protection in the UK, London: Blackstone Press.
Chaffey, D., 2007. E-Business and E-Commerce Management: Strategy, Implementation and Practice 3rd ed., Harlow: Pearson Education.
England, E. & Finney, A., 2007. Managing Interactive Media: Project Management for Web and Digital Media 4th ed., Harlow, England: Addison Wesley.
12
Graham, G. et al., 2004. The transformation of the music industry supply chain. International journal of operations & production management, 24(11), 1087–1103.
Hutchison, T.W., 2006. Record Label Marketing, Amsterdam: Focal Press.
Jenkins, H. & Deuze, M., 2008. Editorial: convergence culture. Convergence, 14(1), 5.
Jenkins, H., 2006. Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture, New York: New York University Press.
Kaplan, A.M. & Haenlein, M., 2010. Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business Horizons, 53(1), 59–68.
Kretschmer, M., Klimis, G.M. & Wallis, R., Music in electronic markets: An empirical study. New Media & Society (Sage), 3(4), 417–441.
Laudon, K.C. & Traver, C.G., 2009. E-Commerce: Business, Technology, Society 5th ed., New Jersey: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
Leyshon, A. et al., 2005. On the reproduction of the musical economy after the Internet. Media, Culture & Society, 27(2), 177.
Mangold, W.G. & Faulds, D.J., 2009. Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix. Business Horizons, 52(4), 357–365.
Meisel, J.B. & Sullivan, T.S., 2002. The impact of the Internet on the law and economics of the music industry. INFO-CAMBRIDGE-CAMFORD PUBLISHING LIMITED-, 4(2), 16–22.
Miles, R.E., 2005. Collaborative Entrepreneurship: How Communities of Networked Firms Use Continuous Innovation to Create Economic Wealth, Stanford, Calif: Stanford Business Books.
Mirton, J., Color Matters - Color Chatter - Pink. Available at: http://www.colormatters.com/colors_pink.html [Accessed April 28, 2010].
Murray, S., 2010. 'Remix My Lit': Towards an Open Access Literary Culture. Convergence, 16(1), 23-38.
Negus, K., 1998. Cultural production and the corporation: musical genres and the strategic management of creativity in the US recording industry. Media Culture and Society, 20, 359–380.
Nicholas, C. & Stokes, D., 2006. Managing creativity and innovation. The challenge for cultural enterpreneursJournal of Small Business and Enterprise Development Vol. 12 No. 3, 2005 pp. 366-378
Nielsen, J., 2002. Designing WEB Usability: The Practice of Simplicity, Indianapolis, Ind: New Riders.
Pelsmacker, P.D., 2010. Marketing Communications: A European Perspective 4th
13
ed., Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall.
Premkumar, G.P., 2003. Alternate distribution strategies for digital music. Communications of the ACM, 46(9), 95.
Ryan, D. & Jones, C., 2009. Understanding Digital Marketing: Marketing Strategies for Engaging the Digital Generation, London: Kogan Page.
Sandulli, F.D. & Martin-Barbero, S., 2007. 68 Cents per Song: A Socio-Economic Survey on the Internet. Convergence, 13(1), 63-78.
Schmitt, G. (2009) 'Feed: The 2009 Razorfish Digital Brand Experience Report'. Razorfish [online]. Available from: http://feed.razorfish.com/downloads/Razorfish_FEED09.pdf . [Accessed: 20th February 2010].
BIBLIOGRAPGHY
Boost your Google rank today! - .net magazine. Available at: http://www.netmag.co.uk/zine/discover-culture/boost-your-google-rank-today [Accessed April 26, 2010].
BPI | Copyright. Available at: http://www.bpi.co.uk/music-business/article/copyright.aspx [Accessed May 6, 2010].
BPI | Free music? Available at: http://www.bpi.co.uk/digital-music/article/free-music.aspx [Accessed May 6, 2010].
BPI | The future of music. Available at: http://www.bpi.co.uk/digital-music/article/the-future-of-music.aspx [Accessed May 6, 2010].
Boorsma, M., 2006. A strategic logic for arts marketing. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 12(1), 73–92.
Chan-Olmsted, S.M., 2004. Introduction: Traditional media and the Internet: The search for viable business models. International Journal on Media Management, 6(1), 2–3.
Conference_Guide_Distribution_of_Music.pdf. Available at: http://www.soundstreams.ca/images/Conference_Guide_Distribution_of_Music.pdf [Accessed May 2, 2010].
Cova, B., Kozinets, R. & Shankar, A., 2007. Consumer tribes, Butterworth-Heinemann.
Cyr, D., Head, M. & Larios, H., 2009. Colour appeal in website design within and
14
across cultures: A multi-method evaluation. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies.
Deuze, M., 2006. Participation, Remediation, Bricolage: Considering Principal Components of a Digital Culture. Information Society, 22(2), 63-75
Du Gay, P, 1997 Production of Culture/Cultures of Production, London: Sage
Fuchs, C. 2007 Internet and Society: Social Theory in the Information Age: 9, London: Routledge
Eleniak, M., Essential Navigation Checklists for Web Design. Available at: http://articles.sitepoint.com/print/checklists-web-design [Accessed April 30, 2010].
Eliott, F., Internet users could be banned over illegal downloads - Times Online. Available at: http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article3353387.ece [Accessed May 1, 2010].
Ecommerce information. Available at: http://www.clickdocs.co.uk/ecommerce-information.htm [Accessed May 10, 2010].
Fetscherin, M. & Knolmayer, G., 2004. Focus Theme Articles: Business Models for Content Delivery: An Empirical Analysis of the Newspaper and Magazine Industry. International Journal on Media Management, 6(1), 4–11.
Gelder, G. & Robinson, P., 2009. A Critical Comparative Study of Visitor Motivations for Attending Music Festivals: A Case Study of Glastonbury and V Festival. Event Management, 13(3), 181–196.
Gill, M., Take online payments today! - .net magazine. Available at: http://www.netmag.co.uk/zine/discover-culture/take-online-payments-today [Accessed April 28, 2010].
Kusek, D & Leonhard, G. 2005 The future of music: Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution, Boston, MA: Berklee Press
Marshall, L., 2004. The effects of piracy upon the music industry: a case study of bootlegging. Media, Culture & Society, 26(2), 163.
McCue, S.S., 2006. Farce to Force: Building Profitable E-Commerce Strategies, Mason, Ohio: Thomson Higher Education.
Nielsen, J., Usability 101: Definition and Fundamentals - What, Why, How (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox). Available at: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030825.html [Accessed April 30, 2010].
Negus, K., 1999. Music Genres and Corporate Cultures, London: Routledge.
Online Privacy Alliance. Available at: http://www.privacyalliance.org/resources/ppguidelines.shtml [Accessed May 3, 2010].
Passman, D. 2008 All You Need to Know About the Music Business, London: Penguin
15
Peltier, J.W., Schibrowsky, J.A. & Schultz, D.E., 2003. Interactive integrated marketing communication: combining the power of IMC, the new media and database marketing. International Journal of Advertising, 22(1), 93–116.
Presenting. Available at: http://www.effectivemeetings.com/presenting/index.asp [Accessed April 8, 2010].
Rubin, J., 2008. Handbook of Usability Testing: How to Plan, Design, and Conduct Effective Tests 2nd ed., Indianapolis, IN: Wiley Pub.
Rubinoff, R., How To Quantify The User Experience. Available at: http://articles.sitepoint.com/print/quantify-user-experience [Accessed April 30, 2010].
Schulze, B., Hess, T. & Eggers, B., 2004b. The Internetʼs Impact on Content Utilization Chains: An Exploratory Case Study on Leading Publishers in Germany. International Journal on Media Management, 6(1), 12–21.
Sisson, D., Trust & Trustworthiness – philosophe. Available at: http://philosophe.com/ecommerce/trust/ [Accessed April 28, 2010].
Vaccaro, V.L. & Cohn, D.Y., 2004. The evolution of business models and marketing strategies in the music industry. International Journal on Media Management, 6(1), 46–58.
White, E.B., Contents | Web Style Guide 3. Available at: http://www.webstyleguide.com/wsg3/index.html [Accessed April 30, 2010].
Wodtke, C., Information Architecture Defined. Available at: http://articles.sitepoint.com/print/architecture-defined [Accessed April 30, 2010].
Yin, R.K., 2009. Case Study Research: Design and Methods 4th ed., Los Angeles, Calif: Sage Publications.
16
APPENDIX 1
Interview with Nolan Shadbot, Trackitdown Director
Friday, 19th March 2010
Q: How did you come up with the idea of the virtual dance music and associate
products store and community?
A: At the end of the 90's in the clubs there were both the vinyl players, but also the
CD players, the thing was that you could not buy music on a CD, just on a records.
We (Nolan is a former DJ, the Trackitdown staff includes DJs) were sending files to
each other, music producers were sending us mp3s of tracks they had written, and
then we put them on CDs and played them. And I said 'this is crazy, why don't we
just sell all these files...' and then Itunes came along and start doing it for pop music
and we decided to do it for dance music. That's why our slogan is 'Time to burn'.
Q: Trackitdown offers to the customers a complete branding around music: su-
genres, Dj kit, merchandising, info and news. The target audience is well defined:
expert, professional. Do you plan to widen you audience maybe with more synergies
with other industries branches or by promoting side areas of entertainment: clubbing
or live performances?
A: The merchandising is really an effort to target more the clubbers, rather than just
the DJs: there are far more people in front of the decks, dancing on the dancefloor,
so that's why we have all the t- shirts. Typically the fan don't like to buy digital
products, so if they want to buy an album they would still much rather have the CD
than buying the download, so every year we sponsor a big project for the Dj Mag Top
100 and we receive about 35000 votes from around the world from fans who are
voting for their favourites DJs, we've go to this enormous database of fans, so we
need to find more products to sell for them. So we are planning to introduce ticketing
in the near future, clubs and promoters will be able to add their events to the site, and
17
all the music will be linked trough it, so fans can listen to the artist and also buy the
tickets for their gigs.
Q: The online promotion of Trackitdown works with the sharing, linking to social
media: Facebook app, Twitter profile...Is a good tactic to involve and attract more
audience? Which of these tools is generating the best feedback?
A: Facebook, Facebook, Facebook! We have a member of the staff dedicated to
Facebook, we don't care for Myspace anymore, and it’s dead. Everything we do is
99% Facebook and 1% Twitter, because Twitter is so quick and easy to do, but we
really invest a lot of time and energy in to Facebook. I think 10% of our traffic comes
via Facebook, it is a network of information exchange and it's free, without paying
anything extra we can reach anyone within this space. Teenagers probably are
spending more time on Facebook than watching TV; I read that communication via
Facebook email has overtaken actual email, which is incredible. This tendency will
probably continue for the next two or three years, but, as I always said to people
when Myspace was massive you would never believe that a new site will come
along, somebody could arrive with a new crazy idea that just seem to work and
people will get interested in that, so we wait and see. We heavily focus on what's
going on between other social networks.
Q: The website membership includes a wide range of possible customizations and
facilities to find tunes. What has been your strategy to get this high quality service
together with the bond of trust with consumers in the transactions? And are there
more features in program?
A: Yes, we are building a brand new application. Sometimes people buy 200 tracks in
one order, or an album that has 50 tracks, with this application you click just one to
complete the order. We are generally developing new features all day every day, we
have two in house team members, and one who's out in Canada, who does the
graphical interfaces. We work on the site everyday we see all the pitfalls and
improvements needed. Also the email from the fans, ask us for new features or
changes, and when we can we do that. Building new features is always exciting but
is also very difficult, because our website now is so huge that even making a small
change somewhere actually affects a lot of things. We also have the affiliate system,
so we run stores for other websites, so when we make a change on our store, we
have to consider how it impacts on their stores. We have a set of standardized set of
tools, so a part from the ticket selling for the moment we are not adding anything
else.
18
Q: Describing Trackitdown design in terms of web usability, what is your philosophy
in terms of the choice of tools, session and colours?
A: This is actually our second revision, before it looked completely different: dark
background, the colours were blue, black and grey. It was 2006 when we changed it,
I had an album out and its cover had white pink, gray and black on it and we thought
looked fantastic, so that's how we chose our colours. Because they were nice, simple
and fresh colours, but the pink had some kind of jazz taste, that gave us soft feel,
easy on the eye and land. The merchandise session is white, yellow and gray; the Dj
kit has green. We previously have a game session; it all was black, with blue, instead
of pink. We really liked that, and I'm still tempted to change the whole website again,
but is quite difficult when you get this level, costumers expect a certain thing. Is very
important to choose the colour scheme and layout. Some people prefer to shop with
us purely because we are a better looking website. It's all about building tools and
interfaces that people can use: packaging is very important, the better a site looks,
the more people will like it.
Q: You mentioned a game session...
A: It just ended: it wasn't very popular. When were building it we were doing a
customer survey at the moment, and we asked with which platform people played
games. Most people played on their computers, according to our survey, but our
game session just weren’t very popular; it didn’t sold enough to work out. We are
trying to focus on what we know well and it is dance music. The merchandising is
working so well, even if we don't know anything about making t- shirts.
Q: What do you think is the orientation of the music industry in terms of copyrights,
patents, DRM, moral rights?
A: I think that all of that is pretty much over now, I think it's pointless to try to stop
piracy by applying DRM: it doesn't work, it frustrates the people that are paying to
being legal. A still major problem is with government legislations are trying to make
the Internet providers to chop people off when they are caught three times
downloading illegal files. We are introducing a new service, which is called
'Trackitdown protect' where we will actually represent record labels and protect their
copyrights online. On a title-by-title basis, we will ensure that any link to the file online
for the legal download. We have relations with all of the major hosting such as Rapid
Share, so this is another service we provide to labels to help control the amount of
piracy that is the main issue. Going back to DRM the problem are computer crashes
19
and all your licenses stop to work when you reload your hard drive. Especially in the
dance music perspective, once you purchased the file you probably want to edit it
within a sound editor, to enable you to manipulate your DJ performances, you
definably want to put on CD on Ipod...so being flexible with the format is what is
required. And DRM didn't allow people to be flexible. I think an effective business
against piracy is offering a better service to the customers. If it's cheap, easy and
safe to buy they're happy. If they are downloading illegally, they don't know if they are
getting a virus, so it's very important to buy music cheaply, safely and conveniently.
We offer the opportunity to be part of the community of Trackitdown, rather than
someone that just download the music and doesn't get involved and doesn't have the
features or the news.
Q: Could you explain the affiliate program more in detail?
A: The affiliate program runs from 2005, it allows any other website to present either
the hole of our catalogue or selected parts of it. So, if a record label website has a lot
of traffic, they can put our store's data but it will look like their website. People don't
think to be sent somewhere else. We run stores for Mix Max, for Kiss FM; we
probably have five major earning stores at the moment, and they are pretty much
communities for specific styles of music, so the main could be Dogsonacid, that is a
Drum'n'Bass website, they have an incredible traffic, a massive blog. For the users
it's easier to buy the music from that website, the host website also makes money
and helps Dogsonacid to provide music to their community.
Q: So Drum'n'Bass is still huge?
A: Yes, massive: it's bigger now than in the last couple of years, it had a couple of
years being quite, now it's returning. We are really strong in Drum'n'Bass, my
business partner is a hardcore fan, and we sell a lot of it.
Q: How would you describe your working philosophy?
A: Well, essentially my job is to understand how people work, how they shop and feel
about things. Just like we talked about the colour scheme of the website, I have to
understand how people are going to think about the pink. It is a girlie colour, and
maybe they see it in different way...or if they are going to understand ho the layout
works. When we build a product, we know how it works, because we built it, bur
when we give it to our customers, it may be very complicated to use. We have to
show them the best way to use it. We are doing a customer survey and some
20
questions sound like 'do you know about this feature?' or 'are you following us on
Twitter or Facebook?' and it's amazing how someone use the website either every
day or every week but don't know about its features. For us those are great
information, because we know where we need improvements, how we can help the
users understand all the features and make their shopping easier. I used to say
content is king, now I say content is important, but, the costumer need to know how
to find the content and how to navigate them. How sites work and how people feel
about them largely depends on whom you are selling to; how invested they are in the
product you are selling. We are selling most to 18-30 years old: they're very
computer savvy, they know how the Internet works, they write music: they know how
to use the technology. But they are also very passionate about the product that we
sell, sometimes in a positive way, sometimes in a negative way, for example some
people like only specific Techno, and if the session has other kind of Techno in it,
they don't want it. They only want what they think is the best, and so we have to
design system to enable them to find just what they want.
Q: Yes, Hardcore Techno I know there's a lot of people crazy for this kind...
A: I was a huge fan too, when I was younger...(laughs)
Q: It's too hard for me. Ok, I'm done with questions, thank you...
A: You're more than welcome. Anytime.
21