Comments on: benefits of song pages

By: gurdonark

gurdonark — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 01:49:07 +0000

Song pages are like neither.

Song pages are a preliminary step in the evolution of a new art form–a new multi-media, wikified way to “see”, “hear” and “experience” music.

By: alf

alf — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:33:45 +0000

I’ve been mentioning this concept to visual artists recently, too - do you think there’s a difference between ’song’ pages and ‘painting’ pages?

By: Mark Collier

Mark Collier — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 05:33:07 +0000

To answer your question, Yes.

By: Eric

Eric — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:05:50 +0000

>> Are song pages more like…
big-ass gatefold

> every song should have a URL.

then shouldn’t every song have a URL with a little information about the song. should this URL be embedded in the sound file? so you learn more about the song?

By: Jay Fienberg

Jay Fienberg — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:55:14 +0000

The web is very interactive (constantly clicking around) compared with traditional audio and video mediums (click “play” one time, and then sit back for a while).

The massive mp3 library / iPod autoplay / web of music technology is a bit of a failure when it comes to helping people really engage in a focused music experience. The tech is about an abundance of choices, and that’s not always a good thing when it comes to listening to music.

So, I hope that song pages can work as a way to focus people more on one song at a time; and also help people hear and enjoy the connections between a handful of songs at a time. The “at a time” part is maybe more web time than linear time–but, it’s the difference between hearing Frog in a Well once and forgetting about it and hearing it once and remembering it, thinking about it, going back to hear it again, recognizing it in other tunes, playing the melody yourself sometime, etc.

By: lucasgonze

lucasgonze — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:08:09 +0000

lucy, you’re right that the analogy doesn’t have to line up perfectly for the product to be a good thing. What’s important is to make something more affecting and fun than a bare mp3.

By: lucasgonze

lucasgonze — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:33:07 +0000

The distinction that one is a pre-sale freebie used to encourage sales and the other is a value-add on items sold seems critical to me. I’m going to shamelessly swipe that idea from now on. :)

It seems to me that that this also gets to the issue of how you’re monetizing music. If you’re aiming to make money on upsales to merch and tickets, use a song page. If you’re aiming to make money on downloads, use a… Dunno what you’d call it, but it’s a different flavor of this concept, anyway.

I can also imagine a hybrid business model where you’re selling plain ol’ downloads, but authorized downloads have a way-cool page in the link and downloads from filesharing networks have a skanky sleazeware site in the link.

By: Patrick Woodward

Patrick Woodward — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:32:16 +0000

Now this is what I’m talkin’ about. I’m glad you are making the point that a song page a place where a copyright owner can get creative with a new way to express a song.

Gatefold albums and music videos are both promo items but one is usually free to the fan and another is not. If song pages are additional content for an artist’s site then I would say they are more like music videos.

By: lucy

lucy — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:14:44 +0000

good question. but does it have to be one or the other? i see the beauty of it being that it can be both. it’s added value, aesthetically pleasing, engaging and promotional all at the same time.