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I have 404,772 users. Now what?

pud.com

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Re: I have 404,772 users. Now what?

#121

Post by toyg »

khangtoh wrote: post #29

All of the suggestions or what Philip had been thinking of are pretty "generic" solutions to the "problem". I spent 5 mins on the site, clicking around and my first impression of the Fandalism is the community and Fandalism's tag line is "Use Fandalism to show your work and meet other musicians". The community is most likely a mix of musicians AND music lovers. So even Fandalism's original goal of serving musicians i…

Sellaband.com has been doing that since 2006.

For the record, most artists, including winners (I personally know one of them), say it's a double-edged sword: it gives you exposure, money and a foot in the biz, but in the end it's all about marketing and getting viral rather than concentrating on making music.

Re: I have 404,772 users. Now what?

#122

Post by toyg »

Just add features incrementally, you don't have to go for broke straight away. I'd start with small ones that can give you an easy return (marketplace etc), then see how it goes.

You're lucky: at the moment the market for "social network for musicians" is wide open, thanks to the demise of MySpace and the fact that Facebook doesn't seem to mind that space.

Re: I have 404,772 users. Now what?

#123

Post by kami8845 »

pud wrote: post #81
staunch wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Focus on engagement . Sign ups are almost meaningless if the users bounce and never return. The reason Facebook is so amazing is not just that they have a billion users, it's that they have 80% of them checking the site 5x per week (or whatever). See how many users you can get into the habit of coming back to your site on a regular basis. That's the number that ultimately will drive everything: revenue, long term net…

I hear you regarding user engagement. However when I first built the site, I envisioned more of a LinkedIn-type thing where engagement is relatively low but the value is in the database. In other words, I don't use LinkedIn very often. But when I need to, it's a godsend (or at least, better than anything else that does what it does.) Interesting.

i would say, don't let what you envisioned the product to be hamper its' evolution.

Re: I have 404,772 users. Now what?

#124

Post by anthonyb »

replax wrote: post #65
mladenkovacevic wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an idea that probably doesn't have much revenue generating potential but it could be a cool new feature (to me at least). I spent about 20 seconds on the website so sorry if you already have this, but I didn't notice it. The users could have the ability to do interactive jam sessions, even if they are miles apart. Maybe something like a high fidelity audio only version of Google Hangouts.Each participant would…

While the idea sounds good/okay, it wouldn't be ready for prime time yet. That is, because a) HQ microphones are not a very usual thing to have and they are not cheap and b) because lag will probably kill the experience, even with a very good connection, a delay of, say, 150ms will be noticeable when playing music relying on reacting to each other.

Microphones aren't that expensive though - maybe a couple hundred for a semi-decent one and a reasonable sound card? Lots of people would spend that on a guitar.

The latency might be an issue live, but there's no reason that the musicians couldn't (eg.) Lay down drum tracks, bass tracks, etc. and mix them up afterwards.

Re: I have 404,772 users. Now what?

#125

Post by pm »

phzbOx wrote: post #94
pm wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm all for finding the "best musicians in the world", but what really shits me about Idol and similar shows is that they find technically brilliant singers, but they can't write a song if their life depended on it. The same with many brilliant musicians I know - they have the technical chops, but have no basic idea how to structure a song other than chorus-verse or maybe AABA. There's got to be a market for musician…

Look, watch that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_hHc7TZjyY That beauty transformed into this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY-vXcmpZIw Please, don't blame the musicians.

I'm well aware of Lady Gaga's songwriting ability and talent as a piano player. However, the Gaga persona seems to be her of her own creation, and I'm quite sure that at least for her first album, she wrote most of her own material.

I'm not blaming anyone - the music industry is a strange beast. But the true rarities are people like Gaga (as much as her I dislike her music), who can write and perform their own material well.

Re: I have 404,772 users. Now what?

#126

Post by nikcub »

pud wrote: post #110
dools wrote: post #86

A few months ago I did a post[1] where I promoted a page I made for my dad Nick Dooley[2] which was basically to test whether a simple "online busking" model has legs. The results were that about 4000 people downloaded the 1st track, about half that the second and roughly 350 each for the last two (I didn't do enough analysis to know if those last 350 or so people were the same ones or not). Out of those, about 20 pe…

Cool concept -- I remember your original post on HN. I definitely think a site where musicians could ask for donations would be cool and I'd put my music there. I'm apprehensive to do this on Fandalism though. If I promise money to my users I'd be setting them up for disappointment since the vast majority wouldn't make any. In other words I'd probably rather the message be "Use Fandalism because it's fun and cool!" r…

do it as an app or widget they can install on their profiles

Re: I have 404,772 users. Now what?

#127

Post by bizodo »

I would also apply to a start up hosting program. Many hosting companies offer big discounts or even free hosting in exchange for a "powered by" on the bottom of site. Not going to solve your problem but at least reduce monthly cost.

Re: I have 404,772 users. Now what?

#128

Post by Sujan »

pud wrote: post #56
mattmaroon wrote: post #50

For now I'd focus 100% on improving the product. You're building a social network of sorts, which means the network effect is your big hurdle. You're in a land rush. Forget about anything other than winning that land rush right now. Build a network so populous and engaged that even if someone builds a better site (and if your growth keeps going, they will) it won't matter. If the server bill gets too high, toss in th…

This is probably the correct answer (focus 100% on improving the product). The product is at a state where people like the idea of it so they sign up en masse -- but I'm not sure the site lives up to the expectation yet.

Ask them what they expect - and see if you can and want to match their needs. Profit will come natural.

Re: I have 404,772 users. Now what?

#129

Post by jwblackwell »

I would try and use a couple of methods. Firstly highly targeted ads are pretty much a no brainer. Look at ultimate-guitar.com - they are constantly pushing video lessons etc.

Use the data you have and display the most relevant ads possible a la Facebook.

Secondly, I would consider a low cost premium model. Most musicians are desperate to promote themselves so a few dollars a month to get in front of nearly half a million viewers is good value.

You might find many people are looking for band mates as well, a premium model could make this process easier for them and I think would be well worth a few dollars. With half a million users you don't need to get many premium subscribers to earn a decent living from this.

Finally, I would try and contact some advertisers and maybe even record labels or something directly and see if they have any suggestions. They likely have more experience and will probably bite at your ankles to get some exposure on such a targeted network.

Bottom line, try multiple revenue streams and test, test test!

Good luck!

Re: I have 404,772 users. Now what?

#130

Post by yoshamano »

I'm not a musician, but I have some friends who dabble with music. I've seen them hunt for guitar tabs online to learn new songs, and it always looks like a sad night of romance with Notepad. Is there a better system for sharing tabs than a basic text file?

Either way, how about a more elegant system of recording tabs that can also be sync'd to streaming tracks (like SoundCloud, except with scrolling tabs instead of the spectrum graph) or sync'd to YouTube videos.

All this talk of monetizing and better user connections is great, but what about better technical tools that make the actual creation of music easier? Build a garage of well-loved tools and they'll finish the rest of the house for you.

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