This post was originally posted on the ArtistData blog

Last week we announced that ArtistData would be opening up the platform and allowing third party developers to build applications. We will provide a robust artist-focused content management system and a flexible billing solution, all accessible through a complete set of APIs. Industry feedback has been phenomenal.

One big question we’ve been getting is “Why do it?” After all, ArtistData has been growing like a weed recently from viral marketing alone. One might think because our growth was solid and our name was spreading quickly throughout the industry that we should stay the course and continue focusing on our syndication product. It wouldn’t make much sense to change focus when people were finally paying attention, right?

ArtistData was created to help musicians be more efficient and effective with the little time they had. Instead of data entry, we wanted them to spend their time more productively on our partner sites: interacting with fans. We didn’t want to compete with other music sites, but instead make the sites’ interaction with artists more meaningful.

Recently, we’ve found ourselves more often labeled “another artist DIY tool” and being asked by our users to compete with potential partners by expanding our feature set. We want to avoid that.

In launching the platform, we are revisiting the initial strategy of giving artists a central place to utilize different services. We plan to empower artists by empowering developers. We will provide a solid, robust platform on which developers can create top quality apps and artists will get a convenient way to access and subscribe to those apps. We think the industry needs this.

So again, why ArtistData? I think the advantage we have is because we like being neutral. By launching apps alongside our own, we even open ourselves up to people building better syndication tools than us. We’re okay with that. We would applaud someone who would build a better solution for publishing to 3rd party sites than we have. If it helps artists better, we’re happy.

How will this help developers / entrepreneurs?

We feel that by giving developers a robust platform to build on that is already in use by tons of musicians, development will be faster and the apps will get in front of the intended customers immediately. If you’re a developer who wants to build better mailing list software for bands, you can build it within a dashboard artists are already using. If you want to build a way for bands to calculate how much they’ll spend on gas while on tour, you can create an app that pulls existing tour data. Developers won’t go through the trouble of getting bands to enter data one more place, and they won’t have to convince artists to try out an entirely new platform or website.

The other big thing is conversion. Research shows that conversion rates (getting someone to buy something after they visit the product’s page) are higher when the customer doesn’t have to go through the entire purchase process. With our platform, developers will have the option to collect payments through ArtistData. Artists will simply click “Subscribe Now” and their card on file will be processed. We think this will lead to much greater revenues for the developers (allowing them to continue to build awesome tools) and make subscribing to different services much more convenient for artists.

Besides consolidating subscriptions, how else will it help artists?

Right now, there is a huge number of DIY tools available for artists. The problem is, there is no consolidation. Some companies have built expanded feature sets, but the inherent problem is that as a single team builds more and more features, each feature gets less and less attention. This leads to a reduced quality in the tools. We’re guilty of that as well. Our Tour Book creator hasn’t been updated in a year. It could be much more useful for bands, but it’s not our focus. So the usefulness of that tool has suffered.

What we want is to create a place where focused teams can build high quality apps. This will mean that artists will have one interface to interact with where they can have access to a variety of applications built by dedicated teams. We think that will lead to a greater number of higher quality tools in the most convenient environment possible for the artist.

So what’s next?

We have already assembled a great group of initial app developers, who are all intending to use ArtistData in really creative ways. We’re going to work with these people on finalizing the platform to make sure they can use it exactly how they want. I want to make something really clear: this is going to be a very transparent process. We are going to be very open about exactly what this platform can and will do. And we want your participation! Please, visit developers.artistdata.com and sign up on the developer list to be part of the conversation. Also, always feel free to send questions and concerns to partners@artistdata.com

Sorry for the long post, but hopefully it adds some insight into our vision.

This is going to be exciting. Thank you so much for being a part of this journey!

Tags: ArtistData, Music