At Music Geek Services we have been loving the new-ish Download Anywhere functionality from Topspin. It allows one to customize the confirmation page for the email4media widget and place it, literally, anywhere on the web. A few weeks ago we saw a creative use of it mentioned in a blog post by Topspin’s Chris Carlson. This inspired us to come up with a creative implementation of our own.

One of Music Geek Services’ newest clients is Rhett Miller (of the Old ’97′s). We just signed Rhett up to Topspin as he launched a PledgeMusic campaign for his next studio solo album project to be released on his own label. We wanted to make sure that during the pledge campaign we were taking advantage of all opportunities to drive traffic to the PledgeMusic project page.

So, when you use the email4media widget to sign-up for Rhett’s mailing list on his web site:

…and you confirm your sign-up, we use the Download Anywhere customization features to display a message from Rhett about his PledgeMusic campaign and deliver the fan to the actual project page on the PledgeMusic web site. You can also choose to share the news on your Facebook or Twitter feeds.

Thanks,
Chandler
Music Geek Services

Topspin has been testing a feature they call ‘Download Anywhere‘ for a while. You may have seen it in action on some artist e4m confirmation pages. Instead of the default Spinshop location you can declare any web page as a download location for media associated with an e4m. Hence, the name Download Anywhere. Old school users may remember that you used to be able to do this with “the pill” and some custom php. But not many Topspin users took advantage of that. The Download Anywhere feature makes it drop-dead easy to set-up as long as you take a few minutes to get familiar with the various settings.

If you are using the email for media widgets just for mailing list sign-ups without offering a track for download you can still utilize the Download Anywhere. The download page will just be a landing page of sorts after the fan clicks the “Confirm” button in the email.

The new customizable settings they have recently added are the ability to insert an image into the modal window, set the size of the modal window, control the text of the close link, and even put a background image under the overlay. It isn’t clear, yet, if you can use the modal box image with a download button — at least I couldn’t get it to work with both. As the image covers up where the download button would normally appear.

However, I currently have a client that is currently using the e4m widget just for mailing list sign-ups so I gave the new settings a shot. Here’s a screen shot of the result…

You know you have seen them. Those glossy credit card things being given away or sold at shows. Sometimes they are glossy paper, sometimes plastic, or even there cool Seedcards which fans can plant after redemption. Those cards are collectively known as drop cards. While you could make them yourself, a New Jersey-based company called, what else, Dropcards, do them best. They cost anywhere from $0.50/card to $0.25/card depending on the quantity you get printed. You can create custom designs and Dropcards will print them up and include unique redemption codes on each cards that you can tie together with anything you want.

Music Geek Services has been working with Dropcards for over two years. They were a big success at the Sloan merch table on the North American tours over the past two years. They allowed Sloan to sell their digital-only EP at the shows. They were often bundled with buttons, stickers, or a poster and sold for $5. This allowed a fan to take something physical away from the show even though the EP was a digital-only release.

Now Topspin has partnered directly with Dropcards so that you can generate redemption codes within Topspin, connect to your Topspin account inside Dropcards, and allow your fans to redeem the download or merchandise through the Topspin platform. It is an exciting integration that is sure to become a popular feature of both services.

Best of all, you can sign-up for a free account with Dropcards to learn more before you ever get around to ordering the physical cards.

Here’s the promo video that Topspin included in their recent blog post announcing this service to their users:

Each week Topspin’s CEO, Ian Rogers, and VP of Product and Marketing, Bob Moczydlowsky (Bob Moz), have been doing live webcasts with interactive chat for current and prospective Topspin users. Usually it is the ‘Ian and Bob Show’, but they often have guest hosts or others making quick appearances. It is a great way to get to virtually meet the Topspin team , hear the latest news and announcements from the management team, and be able to ask questions directly via the chat.

Watch the webcast via the archive.


News & Announcements

Product Development

Partnership and Facebook Integration with Root Music
Gives you the ability to put a Topspin store inside a Root Music Facebook Band Page. Rolled out this week. If you notice any bugs, please email Bob.

Page Gate Technical Specs
Parker wrote up a “how-to” and posted it in the forums.

Expression Engine Topspin Module
Has been submitted by Oniracom and is being reviewed by Topspin. Keep your eyes peeled on the Topspin blog for news as to its upcoming release.

Topspin is Hiring
Topspin is looking to hire the following positions:
Software Engineer (RAILS and BDD-nerd)
Software Engineer
User Experience Designer and Creative Director
Director of Marketing (SEO, SEM, DSP Expert Required)
Fan Support Specialist

Artist Spotlights and Features

Artist Facebook Pages That Integrates Root Music Band Page and Topspin
Pixies
Beastie Boys
Matisyahu


Topspin Community Q&A

Q: How does one style the purchase flow white
A: This is done when you are creating the buy button in the Topspin app.

Q: Who developed the Drupal/Topspin integration?
A: 80 Elements

Submit Your Questions for Next Week’s Webcast

Topspin encourages us to submit questions, in advance, whether or not you can attend the web cast, live. You can submit your questions via this Topspin Community Forum Topic.



Music Geekery
Back in 2005 Chicago-based musician, Devin Davis, released his debut album “Lonely People of the World, Unite!”. The story was that Devin recorded most of this album in his basement apartment. The well-crafted pop songs bring to mind Brendan Benson, The Raconteurs, Sloan, and even Elliott Smith. I even hear some Neil Young influence, at least in the guitar tones and the shaky tenor vocals. I discovered the album in the summer of 2005 and I played it a lot. The album kicks off with “Iron Woman” that will certainly have you singing along before the end of the first chorus, trust me.

I saw Devin open up for Smoosh at Schubas and was impressed with how well he pulled off these carefully crafted and orchestrated songs in a solo setting. In April 2006 I had the honor of mixing sound, and recording, another Devin Davis solo show at the private venue Hotel S n’ S in Chicago. It was part of a Jeff Tweedy charity benefit house concert weekend. Amidst a large crowd in a packed, dark basement of a condo in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood, armed only with his acoustic guitar, Devin had the crowd singing along to these awesome songs. I still pull that recording out, every once in a while, and give it a spin.

Do yourself a favor and seek out this album. You can stream tracks on his web site and some of them are up on YouTube. If you like what you hear, please seek out this album and buy it. There is no current information on his web site, wiki page, or anywhere else that I can find as to what happened to his planned 2007 album or what he’s up to currently. If I find out, I’ll let you know.

Music Geek Services is an artist services company based in Chicago and Nashville. Headed by brothers Jay and Chandler Coyle, Music Geek Services is a Topspin-Certified Marketer that specializes in helping artists achieve deeper connections with their fans through digital media. We provide a full suite of artist services including web development and design, Topspin platform consulting and execution, social media consulting, project management, and full-service artist management.

We have worked with Sloan, Barenaked Ladies, The Zambonis, The Odds, The Movings Label, Walter & Wendell, Dick Prall, Mike Evin, Dolly Varden, Steve Dawson, The Carter Administration, Broken: a Musical, and Callann Lane.

Each week Topspin’s CEO, Ian Rogers, and VP of Product and Marketing, Bob Moczydlowsky (Bob Moz), have been doing live webcasts with interactive chat for current and prospective Topspin users. Usually it is the ‘Ian and Bob Show’, but they often have guest hosts or others making quick appearances. It is a great way to get to virtually meet the Topspin team , hear the latest news and announcements from the management team, and be able to ask questions directly via the chat.

Watch the webcast via the archive.


News & Announcements

Product Development

New Streaming Players Launched This Week
New players have fill-frame setting. May need to adjust your existing installation of these HTML5 players if you adjusted your size settings to preserve aspect ration. In the near future you can set the aspect ratio when you are creating the player in the publishing interface. Another upcoming piece that will be added is more customizability (skinning/styling). The skinning stuff will be launched the week of 6/6, hopefully. Then the following week there will be deeper XML customization (targeting the player controls).

Partnership and Tech Integration with Root Music
Will be announced and launched on Monday 6/6.

iFrame Embed Codes vs. Flash Embed Codes
While some users love the old Flash embed codes, the web is really not Flash-friendly, especially on mobile devices. Of course, MySpace doesn’t like iFrames. But Topspin is siding with the web masses (including the YouTube way) and moving away from Flash embed codes.

Artist Spotlights and Features

Randy Travis Custom Gating Stream Behind e4m
Chris Carlson wrote a blog post about the recent Randy Travis use of an e4m gating a full album stream.

Kevin Smith SmodCast
Bob mentioned some cool things being done by filmmaker Kevin Smith on his podcast SmodCast web site. They are starting with really basic, but great deal. What is worth watching is that each week things are going to change with that offer using some creative ways of using Topspin.

Topspin Community Q&A

Q: We’re still not able to get a widget on our Facebook fanpage.
A: Check out this thread in the Topspin Community forums

Q: International billing (Brazil???), how is that going?
A: Still something they need to move forward, but no new information or progress as of now.

Q: How about changing the time to ship [for products]?
A: You can only do that, right now, via the pre-order functionality. Under normal circumstances you shouldn’t sell when you can’t ship right away. But, Topspin understands there are certain circumstances where this is unavoidable. Put the question in the Community Forums as there are other concerns surrounding this that need to be discussed before this can be considered further.

Submit Your Questions for Next Week’s Webcast

Topspin encourages us to submit questions, in advance, whether or not you can attend the web cast, live. You can submit your questions via this Topspin Community Forum Topic.

Webcast Archives
Each week Topspin archives these webcasts on their site. You can check them out here.


Music Geekery
The webcast opened with a sampling of the classic album Desolation Boulevard by Sweet. Ian and Bob discussed that they were essentially a ‘Backstreet Boys’ of their day in the U.K., a pre-fab band produced to sound like Bowie and T-Rex. I, personally, don’t think it was that contrived and that Sweet were unfairly painted as ‘bubblegum’ or compared to The Monkees due to the pairing with the songwriting team of Chapman-Chinn, who often brought in session musicians.

The U.S. version of Desolation Boulevard was released one year after the U.K. version, and was actually a combination of tracks from Sweet’s prior release Sweet Fanny Adams. One side contained all Chapman-Chinn songs, the other side was all Sweet originals. Another interesting bit of information – the version of “Fox On The Run” included on the U.S. L.P. was the 7″ variation which was much different than the original (U.K. album) version. The original version didn’t have the synth parts we’ve come to know and love and definitely has a rawer sound. The U.K. album also included a cover of The Who’s “My Generation“.

Music Geek Services is an artist services company based in Chicago and Nashville. Headed by brothers Jay and Chandler Coyle, Music Geek Services is a Topspin-Certified Marketer that specializes in helping artists achieve deeper connections with their fans through digital media. We provide a full suite of artist services including web development and design, Topspin platform consulting and execution, social media consulting, project management, and full-service artist management.

We have worked with Attwater, Twenty Ten Music, Sloan, Barenaked Ladies, The Zambonis, The Odds, The Movings Label, Walter & Wendell, Dick Prall, Mike Evin, Dolly Varden, Steve Dawson, The Carter Administration, Broken: a Musical, and Callann Lane.

Each week Topspin’s CEO, Ian Rogers, and VP of Product and Marketing, Bob Moczydlowsky (Bob Moz), have been doing live webcasts with interactive chat for current and prospective Topspin users. Usually it is the ‘Ian and Bob Show’, but they often have guest hosts or others making quick appearances. It is a great way to get to virtually meet the Topspin team , hear the latest news and announcements from the management team, and be able to ask questions directly via the chat.

Friday May 27, 2011 11a PT
Broadcasting from a secret remote Topspin location
Ian Rogers (C.E.O.), Andrew Mains (V.P., Artist and Label Relations and Services), and Jason Spitz (Director, Marketing). With special guest Alessandro Cortini (SONOIO).

Watch the webcast via the archive.

News & Announcements

International Fulfillment

Topspin used to have the option to have a different fulfiller in each continent. While this was good for shipments, it was not in terms customer service or inventory management. It was just plain confusing for fans.

For the future, Topspin is setting up centralized control of worldwide fulfillment. So Topspin handles the customer service and the inventory management, but contracts with warehouses where appropriate. Being used by Paul McCartney now. This solution lives within the fulfillment business, not the software app. But also can be controlled by your own fulfillment vendor, provided they manage the multiple shipping locations properly. Bottom line is it is not going to be handled within the software.

Guest Topspin Employee – Andrew Mains

Andrew is Vice-President, Artist and Label Relations and Services. Oversees the professional services department of Topspin. Prior to Topspin, Andrew worked at Interscope for nine years in many areas, including “new media” efforts.

Product Development

Topspin/Facebook Store Launched This Week
It was a total ground-up re-write. The whole purchase flow stays within Facebook. For Topspin users it is really simple to set-up. If you watch the video within the app, and you already have your Topspin Spinshop configured, you can set it up in less than 5 minutes w/in Facebook. More details about the Topspin Facebook Store can be found via this blog post.

New Streaming Players Launched This Week
Much more streamlined and a lot better looking. The sharing buttons are in a better location. The call-to-action button is bigger, and in a better location. They are HTML5, not solely Flash-based. So they work on “i” devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch). Skinning functionality is coming in the next few weeks. When the video or audio plays, it provides a clean look without the buttons or controls. More details on the updated streaming player and other features released at the same time are detailed in this blog post by Jason Spitz.

Fan/Email Section Revisions, Progress?
Still currently being worked on, no target completion dates, yet.

Artist Spotlights and Features

Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwo’ole
Mountain Apple Company and their artist, the late Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwo’ole were featured in the first edition of the Topspin Artist Spotlight blog post.

Special Artist Guest: SONOIO
Alessandro Cortini who works under the moniker, SONOIO, stopped by the Topspin office and was interviewed by Ian. He has a new album, out now. Ian and Alessandro were discussing the bounds of the “album” package should really be what is comfortable for the artist, not what is dictated by the industry. This was a topic recently discussed by Bob Lefsetz. Be it 4 songs, 8 songs, or 15 songs, or more. He sells more digital tracks from his own web site than he does via iTunes.

Topspin Community Q&A

Q: Is there a way to add a free offer to the Topspin Facebook tab, without adding it to the Spinshop store?
A: No, there is not. But you can create a separate tab. For more info, check out this post in the Topspin Community Forum.

Q: How about setting up Topspin to recommend other services, like audio engineers.
A: Really out-of-scope for the Topspin platform. But a great idea, in general.

Q: How do you set-up gated fan-club access for external features, like Tiny Chat?
A: Ask in the Forums. Also, Bob Moz mentioned they’ll try to work on a detailed guide on how to do it.

Submit Your Questions for Next Week’s Webcast

Topspin encourages us to submit questions, in advance, whether or not you can attend the web cast, live. You can submit your questions via this Topspin Community Forum Topic.

Webcast Archives
Each week Topspin archives these webcasts on their site. You can check them out here.

Music Geek Services is an artist services company based in Chicago and Nashville. Headed by brothers Jay and Chandler Coyle, Music Geek Services is a Topspin-Certified Marketer that specializes in helping artists achieve deeper connections with their fans through digital media. We provide a full suite of artist services including web development and design, Topspin platform consulting and execution, social media consulting, project management, and full-service artist management.

We have worked with Sloan, Barenaked Ladies, The Zambonis, The Odds, The Movings Label, Walter & Wendell, Dick Prall, Mike Evin, Dolly Varden, Steve Dawson, The Carter Administration, Broken: a Musical, and Callann Lane.

Each week Topspin’s CEO, Ian Rogers, and VP of Product and Marketing, Bob Moczydlowsky (Bob Moz), have been doing live webcasts with interactive chat for current and prospective Topspin users. Usually it is the ‘Ian and Bob Show’, but they often have guest hosts or others making quick appearances. It is a great way to get to virtually meet the Topspin team , hear the latest news and announcements from the management team, and be able to ask questions directly via the chat.

Friday May 6, 2011 11a PT
Broadcasting from Topspin HQ in Santa Monica, CA
Ian Rogers (C.E.O.), w/ Brad Barrish (Sales/Artist Relations), Jason Spitz (Director of Marketing) and a special guest appearance by Parker Todd Brooks (Pro Services).

Watch the webcast via the archive.

News & Announcements

Product Development

Without their resident platform cheerleader, Bob Moz, there were wasn’t much discussion on the new features we are all waiting for except that things are getting closer for the new streaming player (5/23), the new Facebook store (very, very soon), the new email functionality (making fast progress).
[Read more...]

Each week Topspin’s CEO, Ian Rogers, and VP of Product Marketing, Bob Moczydlowsky (Bob Moz), have been doing live webcasts with interactive chat for current and prospective Topspin users. Usually it is the ‘Ian and Bob Show’, but they often have guest hosts or others making quick appearances. It is a great way to get to virtually meet the Topspin team , hear the latest news and announcements from the management team, and be able to ask questions directly via the chat.

Friday April 29, 2011 11a PT
Broadcasting from Topspin HQ in Santa Monica, CA
Ian Rogers (C.E.O.), w/ Bob Moczydlowsky (VP of Product Marketing) and Jason Spitz (Director of Marketing)

Watch the webcast via the archive.

News & Announcements

Heads Down Week for Topspin Development Team

Bob Moz commented that the new embeddable store offers feature was launched this week, new streaming player development progress continues, there has been cool progress on the new email functionality, and the new Facebook/Topspin Store is still undergoing debugging and quality assurance testing. Overall, it has been a heads down and get some work done week for the Topspin Platform Development team.

A cool thing to look forward to on the new features of the email functionality of the Topspin platform – the ability to have what I call ‘smart triggers‘. Where you can set things up so that people who, for example, purchased tickets to a show in Chicago will get a follow-up email in two weeks time. I can see that being used to either send them some detailed information on where to enter the venue, maybe send them a free track to thank them, timed right before the show, or maybe give them details about a planned meet and greet.
[Read more...]

Each week Topspin’s CEO, Ian Rogers, and VP of Product Marketing, Bob Moczydlowsky (Bob Moz), have been doing live webcasts with interactive chat for current and prospective Topspin users. Usually it is the ‘Ian and Bob Show’, but they often have guest hosts or others making quick appearances. It is a great way to get to virtually meet the Topspin team. They even had one broadcast from their San Francisco office where we got to meet Bill Thompson, who among other things, manages Topspin’s Community Forum and Fan/Customer Services.

Since I’ve been watching each week and taking notes as news items are announced and the usual Q&A takes place, it made sense to share my notes and thoughts with the Topspin community to give a user’s perspective on what transpires each week during the webcast. So here’s the first post based on this past Friday’s webcast with Ian and Jason Spitz.

Friday April 22, 2011 11a PT
Broadcasting from Topspin HQ in Santa Monica, CA
Ian Rogers (C.E.O.) w/Jason Spitz (Director of Marketing)

Watch the webcast via the archive.

News & Announcements

Major Updates to Streaming Player Coming Soon

Ian discussed a recent Topspin blog post written by one of Topspin’s newest development team members, Greg Ipp. Greg’s post went into great detail about the background of the old Flash-based streaming player and the new i-device compatible streaming player. The user community has been slightly frustrated about the new streaming player’s lack of configurability. It was great to hear, from Greg and Topspin, that this is being addressed and Ian mentioned things are “really close”, targeting a release in early May. Future updates beyond this next release may include “full skin-ability”. Ian encouraged users to comment, either on Greg’s blog post or in the Topspin Community Forums, if they had any further questions or comments. (After you read the blog post, check out Tricil. He’s the artist featured in all the player images. Power Topspin user, active community member, and all-around cool guy.)
[Read more...]