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October 09, 2009
Do bankers understand retailing?
We enjoyed a meeting of the Financial Services Club this week with Bob Bayman, a director with i-am associates. i-am associates are design fiends and work extensively on bank branch designs, so Bob’s presentation looked at how to make a bank cool based upon cool branch designs.
After my recent tirade against branch-based banking, you may wonder why we would have a branch design discussion at the Club.
Answer: branches are still required, just in a different way.
As Bob put it: “the branch is dead, long live the branch”, and illustrated this by saying how he was taking note that the new CEO of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Retail Banking “gets it”.
“Gets what?” I ask.
“Gets the internet”, Bob replied. “Just in the first few weeks of arriving at RBS, he’s made it clear that the internet is the network and the branches sit on the network, rather than the other way around. That’s a fundamental mind shift for most people. To realise that the internet is the core network connection and everything else sits on top of that infrastructure.”
I had to smile as I got into a big debate with one reader two years ago, who thought I was trying to promote replacing all humans with machines. What I actually said was that the internet is the foundation of all banking, from mobile through call centre and branch, and that banks must redesign from the internet network base foundations, rather than the branch-based foundations of the past.
Here’s that debate:
- Part One: Bank strategies are fundamentally flawed
- Part Two: To dump or not to dump the branch
- Part Three: Bank designs versus architecture
This builds on the other recent entries made about branch-based banking (parts one and two).
The core point in all of this is that branches are still going to be needed to connect, sell, advise and engage in real human contact. The question is how many branches and how they are structured.
I’ve made the contention that it will be a tenth of today’s volume of branches, and the ones that are left will be super sales centres. The rest will be satellite footprints that are there for automated services such as this automated booth from Garanti Bank in Turkey:
This was one of several examples Bob highlighted of new bank structures and he proceeded to cite several examples of ‘cool bank branches’ including Garaniti in Turkey, Che Banca in Italy, Caja Navarro in Spain, Deutsche Bank in Berlin, Jyske Bank in Denmark, HSBC worldwide and Barclays showcase Piccadilly branch in London.
I will present more details of those discussions here next week due to time limitations. Suffice to say, the big point that came up is that banks aren’t retailers. They offer retail banking, but do not understand bank retailing.
Retail is a mentality that some are superb at delivering. We think of brands like Virgin, Nike, Sony, Apple and note their leadership in branding, distribution and retail. Then we try to think of a bank that comes close ... and struggle.
There are a few – Commerce Bank in America being the name that usually comes to mind - but these are few and far between.
Bob summed it up well by using the example of Nike and football.
Earlier this year, Man United were beaten by Barcelona in the European Champions League Cup.
Nike made a point of their association with the teams by dressing their flagship branch in Oxford Circus, London, in new livery the morning after the final:
This was at 8:45 the morning after the final. Similarly, they altered their website to suit.
These are fundamentals of retailing: you leverage your brand and your retail associations through your key sponsorships and links to your product.
So, what does a bank do?
Barclays Bank sponsor the UK Football Premiership Division.
That’s the one that is dominated by Manchester United, with close rivals Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool.
So what did the Barclays Bank website look like the day after Man United won the Premiership:
Mmmm ... guilty as charged m’lud.
Posted at 10:33 AM in Barclays Bank, FSClub, Marketing, Retail Banking | Permalink ShareThis
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Friday, October 09, 2009
From The Financial Services Club's Blog: Do bankers understand retailing? This blog makes a solid point.
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
From the NYT. Prepaid, but Not Prepared for Debit Card Fees
Buying a prepaid debit card these days is just about as easy as picking up a bottle of shampoo or a candy bar. Walk into a Wal-Mart or almost any major drugstore, and rows of plastic worth $25, $100 and even $500 beckon from kiosks alongside prepaid phone cards and gift cards for retailers.
Skip to next paragraph
Brent McDonald/The New York TimesTyrell Blocker of Brooklyn said that fees started to accumulate on his card as soon as the cash from his paycheck landed on it. He complained to Pay-O-Matic and only then was provided a detailed list of card fees.
This article is part of a joint reporting project with the PBS program "Frontline."
Multimedia
Related
Look at All Costs When Weighing a Prepaid Card (October 6, 2009)
More Articles in This Series
Readers' Comments
Share your thoughts.“No Credit Check. Safer Than Cash. No Bank Account Needed,” says the Green Dot Visa Prepaid Card: Just pay at the register and the card is ready for A.T.M. withdrawals, store purchases and online shopping.
For many people who do not have bank accounts, or cannot get a credit card, the appeal is irresistible, making the reloadable cards among the consumer banking industry’s fastest-growing products. But their convenience comes with a catch: fees, often hidden in the fine print.
The MiCash Prepaid MasterCard docks cardholders a $9.95 activation fee. Like many competitors, it then charges numerous recurring fees, including $1.75 for each A.T.M. withdrawal, $1 for each A.T.M. balance inquiry, 50 cents for each purchase, $4 for monthly maintenance, $2 for inactivity after 60 days and $1 for a call to customer service.
The Millennium Advantage Prepaid MasterCard goes further, listing an application fee of up to $99. The Silver Prepaid MasterCard advertises that it does not charge for overdrafts as many debit cards do, but it gives itself the option of charging a $25 shortage fee if customers exceed their balance.
“It’s a very expensive way to bank,” said Jean Ann Fox, director of financial services at the Consumer Federation of America.
A cottage industry only 10 years ago, reloadable prepaid cards have tapped into the vast pool of about 80 million consumers who have little or no access to bank accounts. The market includes college students who do not want to carry around wads of cash and consumers who do not want to type their credit card number into the Internet.
More typically, it comprises low-income people and immigrants who have fewer financial options than other Americans. Often, they turn to these cards because they cannot open a bank account, or they become fed up with the costs of check-cashing stores or overdraft fees on checking accounts.
Industry officials say the cards are a good deal because users can avoid the fees charged on low-balance bank accounts and at check-cashing stores.
“If you look at these products today compared to even a checking account, many consumers have found that they can be far less expensive,” said Gary Palmer, chairman of the Network Branded Prepaid Card Association.
But even as the industry expands, many prepaid cards continue to charge fees — including for purchases and paying bills — that can quickly accumulate.
Like many workers, Tyrell Blocker, 20, of Brooklyn, could ill afford the surprise when he took such a card last week to a Pay-O-Matic Financial Services store in Manhattan after a bank turned him down for an account because he lacked one of two required pieces of identification. As soon as the cash from his paycheck landed on his card, he noticed fees accumulating. Mr. Blocker returned to Pay-O-Matic to complain and only then was provided a detailed list of more than two dozen fees, he said.
“I need every last dime I got; I’ve got a newborn,” Mr. Blocker said. A spokesman for Pay-O-Matic said the card was fairly new and the firm was working to make the fees more transparent.
Little Regulatory Scrutiny
Because it is a relatively new industry, prepaid cards have not undergone the Congressional and regulatory scrutiny of credit and debit cards. In the spring, lawmakers restricted interest rate increases and hidden fees on credit cards, and regulators are now examining stricter rules on overdraft fees on checking accounts. Even gift cards, which expire when the money runs out, will soon be subject to new rules limiting monthly fees and expiration dates.
Congress has asked regulators to determine if prepaid cards warrant the same protections extended to debit and credit cards. The industry’s trade association says such measures are unnecessary and would make cards more expensive.
But consumer advocates say the lack of regulation means that prepaid card users can continue to be blindsided by hidden fees, and have few legal protections to recover their money if a card is lost or a charge disputed.
Mike Henry, who owns a small print shop in California, had not been able to recover $50 stuck on his Only 1 Visa prepaid card after it stopped working. He gave up after numerous calls to customer service — at 95 cents each — went unresolved. Only 1, meanwhile, continued to send daily updates of his balance as it was eaten away by monthly fees. His account was finally whittled to zero.
“For the last six months, I turn on my computer and check my e-mail and get slapped in the face,” he said.
Only 1 officials said they regretted his inconvenience and were refunding Mr. Henry’s money.
Among the beneficiaries of these cards are Visa, MasterCard and Discover, which receive about a nickel to 20 cents each time a credit or debit card emblazoned with their logo is swiped. While the companies do not disclose income from prepaid cards, their efforts to add tens of millions of users represents a potentially significant source of new revenue.
Financial firms that issue the cards are often little-known companies with names like Green Dot, NetSpend and AccountNow. Since they get money upfront from the consumer, there is relatively little risk with prepaid debit cards, compared with credit cards and other loan-making products.
Given the number of people who have little or no relationship with a bank, both in the United States and abroad, the financial industry is betting on a boom. In 2008, for instance, customers loaded about $8.7 billion onto prepaid cards, a 125 percent increase over the previous year, according to the Mercator Advisory Group. The industry is expected to balloon to $119 billion by 2012, Mercator predicts.
“Every year we’ve seen big growth,” said Steve Streit, the founder of Green Dot, now one of the largest reloadable prepaid card companies. “There’s a part of me that believes we are just at the entry ramp to growth right now.”
The cards are part of a larger universe of plastic that includes prepaid phone cards and gift cards, payroll cards and government benefit cards. Industry officials are particularly excited about the explosive growth from government agencies and companies as they replace paper checks with prepaid cards to save money. Social Security payments are now offered on prepaid cards to retirees without bank accounts, and many states do the same with welfare payments. Wal-Mart recently said it would pay employees only on prepaid cards if they did not have a bank account for direct deposit.
These fees tend to be lower than those on commercial prepaid cards. But critics question why there are any fees at all, particularly when the recipients do not have a choice.
“To me, it’s a terrible thing to give people their pay on a card that has fees on it,” said Linda Sherry, director of national priorities for Consumer Action.
Reloadable prepaid cards hardly existed a decade ago. Then, as credit cards surged and the Internet bubble lifted the economy, a handful of companies noticed an untapped market in teenagers who wanted to shop on the Internet, but were not eligible for credit cards. But it soon became clear that the larger market for prepaid cards was people who do not use banks and the uncreditworthy.
In the years since, dozens of companies and banks have latched on, some offering celebrity branding to lure customers. Johnny Cash, Usher, Carmen Electra and the football player Vince Young have all had their name attached to a prepaid card, and the hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons continues to back the RushCard, mainly to African-Americans, as a “better alternative” than banks and credit cards.
But these efforts are not without controversy. Mr. Simmons, for example, has batted down repeated criticism that his card saps money from low-income users. His Pay-as-You-Go card has come under scrutiny for charging a $19.99 activation fee deducted from the cash first loaded onto the card; a $1 convenience fee for the first 10 purchases every month; and a fee of $1 for every bill paid with the card.
Fees Are Declining
Industry officials say fees have been declining, especially after Wal-Mart this year trimmed fees on the MoneyCard Prepaid card it sells, which prompted several other issuers to cut prices too. They add that consumer complaints are rare and that surveys indicate the vast majority of customers like the cards.
An industry-sponsored study by Bretton Woods, a bank advisory firm, said that cards like Green Dot, Wal-Mart and NetSpend are cheaper than a checking account, whose annual cost can be as high as $353, assuming six overdraft charges, compared with $207 for a direct-deposit prepaid card.
Yet in many instances, even the lowest-fee prepaid cards can cost more if consumers are able to avoid bank overdraft fees. That should get easier after several large banks announced recently they would let customers decline overdraft protection.
While most major banks charge $10 or less a month for a low-balance checking account, a survey of two dozen prepaid cards released in August by the Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports, found that the cheapest, the Wal-Mart Money Card, cost $16.59 in the first month and $21.54 in the second.
By contrast, the most expensive card, the Millennium Advantage card, cost $115.05 in the first month, because of a $99 application fee, and $27.95 the second month, the survey, compiled by Michelle Jun, a lawyer for Consumers Union, showed.
And the actual fees charged can be confusing. A spokesman for the Millennium Advantage card said that while it lists the $99 fee, the company charges only up to $30. A spokesman for the Silver card said that it does not actually charge the $25 shortage fee shown in its fine print, and is working to remove it from company documents.
“How are consumers supposed to keep the fees straight if the companies can’t?” said Michael McCauley, a spokesman for Consumers Union.
In the meantime, bewildered by opaque terms and often dodgy customer service, many consumers are fending for themselves.
Damon Saxton, 34, said he had given up on prepaid cards and hoped to return to a bank, if they will have him. Mr. Saxton began using a prepaid card after being barred from getting a bank account for cashing a check from an eBay sale without realizing it was fake.
But Mr. Saxton, who lives in Florida, said that the two years he used his Vision Premier Prepaid Visa Card were marred by petty fees and horrible customer service.
Mr. Saxton said that when he punched the wrong code into an A.T.M., the bank charged him $2.95 for a declined A.T.M. transaction. When he called to complain, he said, they charged him an additional $1.95. When someone got hold of his card number and racked up several hundred dollars in shortage fees, Vision Premier covered the fees with Mr. Saxton’s tax return, which was directly deposited onto the card, he said.
A spokesman for the Vision Premier said Mr. Saxton’s experience was not the norm. The company eventually refunded the fees.
“I wasted countless hours dealing with this problem, not to mention the stress,” Mr. Saxton said. “I think the whole business is based around nickel and diming.”
Recommend Next Article in Your Money (1 of 46) » A version of this article appeared in print on October 6, 2009, on page A1 of the New York edition.
Saturday, October 03, 2009
FINALLY!!! From Engadget. BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac now available.
This ONE fine example of just how good it is to have an official version. After weeks of messing up my BBBold's contacts list using suggested software, I have FINALLY performed a proper sync. Thank you, RIM!
Now, if I can only figure out how to cut down my phone bill. This first foray into BB-land has just broken the bank. Didn't anticipate how being socially-connected can cost so much. If this is the cost of connectedness (?) and convenience, well... I'd have to rethink this a bit now and perhaps find a way to regulate my appetite for information. Arrrrggggghhhh!!!
Thursday, October 01, 2009
From AdAge. How to Mobilize Your Social Media.
How to Mobilize Your Social Media
Your Entire Social-Network Audience Is Not on a Computer
Posted by Webster Lewin on 10.01.09 @ 10:05 AM
Recently, Advertising Age reported on the 400% surge in mobile video uploads to YouTube, attributed to the new iPhone 3GS. Beyond the implications of what that may mean for the value of ad inventory on YouTube, one thing is clear: There is an inseparable link between social media and mobile devices.
--> As the capabilities of these devices expand, we can expect that updating social-network sites via mobile will continue to increase and may eventually even surpass the wired web. Social networks like Twitter and Facebook are remarkably dependent on mobile access for the value they provide to their users. I would also argue that mobile status updates are, by their very nature, timelier, more relevant and potentially more interesting to their readers.The mobile web version of YouTube is outstanding, and has well over 4.6 million users that log in many times a month.Today, every major social network offers its users a range of mobile services, from mobile web access to downloadable mobile applications. Although consumers with high-end devices may be the primary users of these mobile services, some social networks also offer a number of SMS-driven features that allow consumers to stay engaged by text, even on low-end mobile phones. This represents a big opportunity for brands to maximize their efforts and move consumers easily between their mobile and social media experiences.
While social media campaigns are becoming more common, we often see that when agencies and brands begin their engagement with social networks, they act as if their entire audience is on a computer -- the mobile aspects of social media are frequently neglected. And the reverse can also be said about many brands' initial mobile marketing efforts: They often neglect to effectively integrate the power of mobile social-media elements (even when these elements already exist) to further engage consumers and fans of the brand.
Twitter is a great example of the power of mobile and social media working together. According to Nielsen, more than 3 million Twitter users in the U.S. alone regularly access the service via the mobile web. Additionally, many consumers are frequently using Twitter through SMS and a range of downloadable mobile applications for iPhone, BlackBerry and other mobile devices. This makes Twitter an easy and seamless way to drive consumers to mobile content.If you're already actively using Twitter for a brand, consider how mobile-friendly your tweets are. If you're including links to content on YouTube, Flickr and many other social-networking sites that automatically redirect users to their mobile versions of pages, you're doing great. But if you are sending Twitter users to a page on your all-Flash website or content that could potentially crash a phone's browser, you should consider posting both mobile-friendly and non-mobile links to important content that you want to share.
--> Also, if your brand has a mobile site and a Twitter account, then why not invite your mobile users to click over and follow your tweets right then and there? I've only seen a handful of brands take advantage of this easy integration point.Some social networks offer a number of SMS-driven features that allow consumers to stay engaged by text, even on low-end mobile phones.
According to Nielsen, Facebook is the No. 7 mobile website in terms of reach. About 15% of Facebook users (11 million) in the U.S. regularly access the social network's mobile web version (not to mention various downloadable versions and the roughly three million users who use SMS). Users visit the mobile web version an average of over 18 times per month and each visit lasts about 10 minutes.At the time of this writing, Facebook fan pages are just beginning to be supported on the mobile web, and hopefully soon on mobile applications as well. Once they are fully supported, that will open up mobile social-media integration opportunities. Already, the Facebook Connect service is allowing brands to link their iPhone apps to users' profiles, and Facebook Connect has potential for mobile websites as well.
Facebook recently launched a new feature for fan pages that allows users to subscribe via SMS. This is a free service that essentially gives any brand with a Fan Page the ability to send targeted SMS updates to their fan's mobile phones if they have opted into the service. However, only a few brands have effectively used this new feature, and more work needs to be done to actively engage fans with it by including content that is relevant to mobile users.
YouTube
YouTube is a powerful social network and content site, and by far the most ubiquitous in terms of the number of platforms and devices that it can be accessed from. Even on mobile, there are a number of distinct ways that users can access the full range of mobile content. The native versions of YouTube that come pre-installed on iPhones, Android phones like the G1, and the Palm Pre offer the best mobile user experience. However, the mobile web version is also outstanding, and has well over 4.6 million users that log in many times a month.Any brands that are on YouTube and are also doing mobile, but are not integrating the two, are missing an important opportunity. Your mobile site is just a click away from lots of video, and you can add links to video descriptions that can be used to drive users back to your brand's mobile site for more. Also, consider the power of video to influence consumers at the point of sale. Virtually everyone who walks down a store aisle these days has a device in their pocket that gives them the ability to get to your brand's video content. You just need to take a few simple steps to connect the dots.
Quality vs. Quantity
Both mobile and social media are more about reaching niche audiences and getting them actively engaged than they are about massive reach. They are about getting personal with the consumer, which makes both social media and mobile impressions more valuable. These consumers are fully engaged. They have raised their hands and want to know more. And once they've told you they're interested in more, they will be disappointed if they don't get it.Some who look at social media and mobile through marketing goggles question reach and how these channels can be used to sell consumers more stuff. But in the era of Web 2.0, part of the selling process is increasingly becoming about the art of being there for the consumer in the always-on environment of mobility- charged social media. It's about offering something of value, creating movements that build over time, engaging with passionate fans and giving them the tools to influence others.
By using a multichannel approach to social media that fully leverages mobile communications, you will have a much greater likelihood of gaining critical mass for your social media initiatives. You'll gain even more valuable social media impressions, and most importantly a growing list of brand fans that you can continue to communicate with. It will allow consumers to digitally participate in this brand movement anywhere -- and anytime.
~ ~ ~
Webster Lewin is senior VP-director of digital innovation and strategy at MS&L.0 Comments
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
From TechCrunch. Your Guide to Music on the Web, Part II
Last month, I published Part 1 of my Guide To Music On The Web, which covered music recommendation sites, Web radio, independent music sites, playlists, and music visualizations. Today, in Part II we’ll take a tour of music search engines, Web players, ways to share music on Twitter, and music mixing apps.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading all of your comments and insights on my previous post and of course, took them under consideration while creating this second part. Please bear in mind that I can’t list ALL the music applications out there. I really tried to find the best and the most used applications that will probably still be here to serve you tomorrow too.
So readers’ main concern was the companies’ business model. You are right. A few of the services might make an exit, and most of them are probably not going to have one, and some are just for fun. I think music services can make money by being innovative enough to get it. Anyway, I don’t want to get into the business model stuff too much, but I will tell you this: The Internet is too competitive, you may be succeed by just being simple, but you may also need to be sophisticated. The era where creating an application first, then two years later thinking how to make money from it, is bygone now, and companies will need to think how to make money sooner than later if they aim for it – This is where innovation comes in and usually wins.
Music Search Engine:
Back in 2007, SkreemR
was truly my favorite MP3 search engine. SkreemR locates MP3 files on blogs and webpages, then indexes them on its site, allowing anyone to listen to their favorite music right on the spot. There is no registration required, all you need to do is to search for your desired song/artist, and browse the results. See something that you like? You can play it, rate it, buy it on Amazon, get the song lyrics, watch the video, find related photos on flickr, find concert tickets, download as a ringtone, and finally – yes – you can also share and tweet about it. Unfortunately, now SkreemR has jumping ads all over the site. I understand the need to make money, but did they have to choose the most annoying way to achieve that goal?
I remember the hype around Songza
when it first launched… it is a slick Ajax-designed service, which makes it easy to stream music on the web. Well, it still does. Songza became popular for its great usability and the fact that you can easily create playlists, and share music with your friends. At first Songza aggregated music from Seeqpod
, then switched to YouTube videos and imeem (where imeem
= 30 seconds of a song, and Youtube
= full video, low quality). Somewhere around October 2008, the service was acquired by Amie Street for its marketing potential.
Another acquired service is FoxyTunes, this time by Yahoo! in February 2008. FoxyTunes Firefox toolbar extension (launched in 2004) enables control of your favorite music player from the Firefox browser. It supports almost any media player and lets you also find lyrics, covers, videos, bios and much more – all from the comfort of your browser. Today, it has more than 50,000 weekly downloads, and a cumulative total of nearly 11,000,000 downloads! FoxyTunes also released an additional add-on called TwittyTunes, which allows you to post your currently playing songs to Twitter with a click. On their behalf I have to say, they where the first to offer that. Their search engine: FoxyTunes Planet
, is a mashup Netvibes-like page, that gathers music information from Rhapsody, Yahoo!, Flickr, Last.fm, Youtube, Pandora, Amazon, and more.
I sure noticed the difference when I tried Mufin
. Looks like they put an emphasis on the site’s usability and design. The interface is so clean and easy to use. Like other services, Mufin will search for your favorite music and will play it on the spot, via Youtube (what else?) It also lets you create playlists in a snap. But what makes it unique is its visualization tool (vision) that lets you discover more music, based on similar artists. Mufin also provides a player which can be downloaded to your desktop for free. The player will help you organize your music, create playlists, find similar music, share tracks with friends on Last.fm, Twitter or Facebook, and so much more.
search engine has no special feature really, it’s just built really well. The service has a simple look & feel, which allows you to listen to music that streams from Youtube, and create playlists if you are logged in. You can connect your Twitter, Friendfeed or Facebook accounts, and share with your friends’ music in realtime. There’s not much to say other than that.
has quite an impressive history since they launched way back in 2006; At first, it was just a plug-in
allowing you to organize your own library better, so you would be able to find the right song at the right time. Then Qloud released ‘My-Music’: A music app for social networks (Facebook, Bebo, Hi5, Myspace, etc), which led them to 1M Facebook users! And finally today, it’s all of the above, plus a real-time music search engine, and a pretty good one. You can search and find music that you like, save and organize your favorites, share music with friends, or find new friends based on shared music taste. You can also import your iTunes or Windows Media Player library, and play your playlist directly from your browser. There’s a rumor that Qloud was acquired by Buzznet last year, but I couldn’t find any formal confirmation about this at either site (Qloud or Buznet).
And finally MySpace Music
: A massive hub of free music on the web. MySpace Music gathers all of its music accounts into one searchable page by genre. You can see the entire discography of your favorite artists from anywhere on the globe: view the artists’ music pages, listen to their music, track local concerts and much more. You can also search entire collections of free-to-watch video uploaded by artists or users. Read reviews by users, blog posts by both users and artists, and basically dive into an endless amount of content. Addictive.
Worth mentioning: Wearehunted
, which is a playable chart of the most popular songs on the Web..
Web Players:
From your Desktop to the Web, Moof
allows you to have a full back up of your own music. Export an xml file of your iTunes library, and listen to your favorite music from any computer. If you don’t want to do that, you can still browse through the Moof music library and play any song you like on-demand from the Web. Moof looks and behaves like a desktop player, with the additional ability to share and see music from friends. If your friends are on Moof, you can browse their entire collection of music, and add favorites to your own personal library. Overall, it’s a great way to find new music. Note that Moof has the coolest registration form ever
is so awesome, but fails to explain the service to its users. What you see when you enter the site is a Web Music Player that lets you find the music you want, then play it right away. What you don’t see is the powerful feature that allows you to see what your friends are listening to in real-time! How it works: Just sign up for the service, invite your friends to join in, and each time you play music on the site, your friends will be able to see what you’re listening to as you listen to it, and vice versa. The music streams from all kinds of free sources—not Youtube.
Like most of the Web Players, Grooveshark
allows users to find any song in the world and listen to it instantly. But there are several things that makes it different than the rest; first off, the application’s UI is stunning, and the experience using this site is absolutely a joy. Other than that, there’s so much that you can do: search, find, organize, favorite and add music that you like. Also interact with people in the community, and discover new music from others’ choices. With a team of 40 people they must have a business model (or a lot of VC cash). Grooveshark has a paid VIP version with some exclusive features, and a special interface for VIP users ($3/month or $30/year)
Youtube probably has the largest music database in the Internet, but finding music can be very frustrating since it’s not well organized. I’ve already recommended Jogli
as a service that gathers Youtube music into albums in the first part of this guide. JukeFly
does the same but also lets you listen to the music as if it was on your desktop music player, only it’s on the Web. JukeFly prepares everything for you, so you don’t really need to create playlists, you just need to choose from a variety of content already made for you. Additionally, JukeFly can stream music from your desktop, but you’ll have to download their plug-in to be able to do so. The player has more features and functionality, which you may or may not need, so don’t be surprised if eventually you find yourself using it as your new music center on the Web. JukeFly is working on a newer version, which will include an iPhone app, concert information, chat, fan-clubs, and Internet radio.
searches an entire database of songs in addition to the millions of songs indexed by MP3 search engine SkreemR
to bring you the best results possible. If you sign up for the service you will be able to save your favorite songs, create playlists by simply dragging & dropping tracks into a box, and share playlists with anyone. Users can upload custom album art to any playlist, then embed the playlist at their blog/site. All from a sexy web interface.
How disappointing is it to find out that Lala
works only in the U.S when everyone keeps telling me how great this service is… Anyway, I can give you a brief overview of the service from the information I picked up on the site. Windows users can move their entire music collection from the desktop to Lala on the web. Most of your music will be matched to Lala’s catalog and will be available online in minutes; The rest and unmatched music can be uploaded to Lala. If your personal music collection is not enough, you can play over 7 million songs once for free. If you’d like to add songs to your collection, it’ll cost 10 cents per song, and your first 25 songs are free.
plays music over a nicely done application with a great visual experience. The application was created by two students trying to change the stereotype that access to free music is an illegal activity while immersing the user in a unique visual experience. So what can you do at the site? You can listen to music you like, create online music collections & multiple playlists, and hopefully share favorite tracks with friends (it doesn’t say this anywhere, but I presume it does) – not much different from the rest of the services here, except for its nifty UI. BTW, even with their goal to show the world that music can be free and legal, they use Youtube like most services, so I’m not sure what’s unique about that.
Since Seeqpod.com’s
service is mostly dead, every service that used them switched to Youtube instead. The pros: Its video ability. The cons: The music quality (but hey, at least we have free music). Same applies to Streamzy
, an Ajax-based media player that lives on the web and allows users to create quick playlists from their favorite music. Streamzy says it merely provides search results for media being hosted elsewhere on the Internet – Well, I can’t argue with that. Anyhow, sign in if you want to save playlist, or use it as an alternative music player occasionally.
Post Music on Twitter:
is by far my favorite Twitter music service. It is also the first service that allowed people to send music to twitter in a very easy way, which is what made it what it is today. What makes it so great is that you can use it with or without a Twitter account. Some use it via the Twitter connection, other use it as their main music playlist and enjoy the community within the site only. Anyhow, you can discover new music, and new friends based on your collections. Once you sign up to the site, you can set Twitter to send notifications each time you suggest a new song to friends. It looks like Twitter, it behaves like Twitter, but angled around music only.
project Twisten.fm
, came out a bit later than Blip.fm and offers pretty much the same service. Sign-up with your Twitter credentials, and share music with your friends on Twitter. The site streams music from Grooveshark, allowing you to enjoy the quality of music played there (blip.fm streams music mostly from Youtube). Overall, it’s a cool place to save your music into playlists, and share directly with your Twitter friends. I wish that both Blip.fm & Twisten.fm would allow people to buy mixed CDs created from their playlist, instead of having to buy each song separately.
is the new kid on the block, basically the same as Blip.fm and Twisten.fm except with a killer tool—a nifty Bookmarklet! While you play songs on Youtube or Myspace, you can immediately add them to your playlist in Funnel. Another unparalleled feature is the ability to integrate your Twitter account or Tweet only the songs that you want. This way, you don’t feel bad about inundating your Twitter stream with too many of those annoying music updates. Also, you can easily comment on songs that you like.
If you wish to share MP3 links with your Twitter friends, you can do it with the help of Song.ly
. Enter an MP3 link, and Song.ly will generate a small player for easy listening over the web. I have to admit that the whole process is somewhat an unnecessary hassle. After all, who’s uploading songs these days when everything is searchable on the web already? On the other hand, you can enjoy a list of songs that’s already been uploaded by others, and are of very good quality, of course. I’d summarize it as a user generated MP3 search engine.
Another successful service, is Twt.fm
which finds music that you like and posts it to Twitter in a cool way. All you need to do is to log in via Twitter, type in an artist/track and click preview. Twt.fm then generates a track page using your Twitter page design. Post it on Twitter and your friends will be able to leave you comments on the same page – Example
.
Worth mentioning: Listento.fm
, and Twones
.
Mix & Share:
Not a pure mix service but it still falls into this category, 8tracks
allows you to create a Mix (playlist) with your favorite songs. It’s actually very similar to a service that already shut down, Mixwit
—so if you missed it, you might as well try 8tracks. Once you sign up to the service you can start searching for music, or uploading it from your computer to build your Mix. You can publish a Mix of no more than 8 tracks and only two of these can be from the same artist. Visitors at the site can listen to Mixes without signing into the service—but for creation and music uploads, you’ll have to become a member.
A fun service to close the list with, Jamglue
brings music and fans together. Any artist can sign up for a free Jamglue account and upload music in multi-track format for others to remix. There are several Creative Commons licenses to choose from. These licenses allow others to share and remix work, as long as they follow the artist’s restrictions. Fans can remix other folks’ stuff, and share the results.
Conclusion:
To summarize this whole guide, I have to admit that I’m somewhat concerned: Let’s say Youtube closes its doors tomorrow or decides to stop streaming music—there goes about 80% of what I’ve listed. Which brings me to my next point, the future of music on the Web doesn’t looks so bright right now. Not if every service depends on Youtube so heavily as its music source. For once, I wouldn’t mind paying a yearly fee if it meant listening to an unlimited source of any music that I like with good streaming & with awesome quality. And, I don’t even need to download the songs to my computer, all I really want is a place where I can play my favorite music based on monthly/year fee. Is it too much to ask? Oh wait, this is exactly what Rhapsody offers; Unfortunately, only in the U.S. . . .For now, I suggest you try the services above and enjoy them as long as they last. For some reason, music services don’t stay around very long but I guess that’s the way they roll.
Since I can’t list them all, please feel free to add services that I’ve missed in your comments and make them handy for everyone.
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