It's only been 4 and a half months since I
launched ShareMyPlaylists.com but today sees the launch of version 2 of the Spotify community site. To be honest the site has taken off beyond my wildest dreams. It's gone from a standing start to generating between 8,000 and 10,000 visitors a day today, all grown organically. Back in April I
blogged about some of the techniques I used to grow traffic to the site and to generate some buzz - all on zero marketing budget. Well, those techniques have really paid dividends as today the 3 biggest sources to the site are Google, Twitter and Facebook. Twitter especially has been responsible for so much of the traffic and awareness that it's hard to believe that this time last year I was one of the people who still didn't "get" Twitter. In fact the ShareMyPlaylists.com
Twitter account now has almost 2200 followers, more than my personal account. I had lunch with a friend last week who has many thousands of Twitter followers and she told me that she sees mentions of ShareMyPlaylists.com all over Twitter, all of them really positive. There's just something about Twitter that seems to work when promoting websites, if you aren't tweeting then you're missing out.
I'm delighted that the site has also attracted the attention of some record labels and PR agencies. We've seen Spotify playlists submitted from the likes of Will Young, The Saturdays, Gary Go and Remi Nicole. I've had meetings with more labels too and they have all shown interest in running artist campaigns and promotions on the site, so watch this space. We've also signed a sponsorship deal with Vodafone that is now well underway.
Anyway I digress. One of the most requested features from visitors to the site was that they wanted the ability to have an account so they could "own" all of their playlists in one place. It would also make it easier for users to find playlists built by users with similar tastes to them. So that's exactly what we've done, if you visit our
registration page you can now sign up and get a free account. The free account also let's you do many few things, I've listed some of them below:
Blogs
Possibly one of the most important feature of the new site is the facility to enable individuals, bands and organisations to have their very own blog. I beleive there are a number of passionate music fans out there who would like a platform to share their musical interests with the world and connect with other fans, but maybe lack the technical know how to build a blog. Well, we're giving our registered users a blog that's easy to setup and maintain, all for free!
Playlists
Members can store and check out all the Spotify playlists that they have created for ShareMyPlaylists.com. Here they can also edit their playlists and submitted artwork with our new playlist editing tool as well as create a favourites list of other members playlists.
Groups
Members can create their own groups on ShareMyPlaylists.com based on their favourite artists or musical genres. In groups they can post information and create forum discussions.
The Wire
The wire is a place where friends and other ShareMyPlaylists.com members can connect by sending messages to a user’s ‘wire’. Private messaging is also possible with ShareMyPlaylists.com via an internal email system.
Friends
Members can send friend requests to build up their network and connect with like-minded music fans. Relevant friends with which to network can be searched for via profile keywords on the members directory.
Activity Streams
Members can keep up-to-date with friends’ activities on the site by following their activity streams. Here all information such as wire posts, blog posts, friendships and comments is listed, a bit like an RSS feed of your friend's activity.
As with any new launch there may be teething problems or features that you would like to see that aren't on the site. If you have any feedback, good or bad then please leave it
here and we will respond. Thanks again to everyone who has supported the site to date, please
head on over and tell us what you think of the new version!
What I'm listening to now: Black Eyed Peas - "The E.N.D."
about me
Welcome to my blog. My name is Kieron Donoghue and I am the founder of ShareMyPlaylists.com.
Nice site Kieron! You’re using buddypress by the looks?
Well done Kieron it’s great to have seen the progress of this site from launch. Will have to give Twitter another look over as I’m still in the “don’t get it” camp at the moment!
sounds like you’ve created a full on music based social networking site there. I hope it continues to thrive.
Awesome stuff Kieron. I’m not so suprised . I thought at the start that this idea was so viral that it could only do well.
The Social features can only enhance this so I supsect that combined with US Spotify launch will see some serious user growth. Real nice work man.
Indeed it is John, we had to change the code a bit to fit our needs though.
Cheers Fergus, we do plan to launch in the US after Spotify so interesting times ahead!
Nice looking redesign – interesting to see how Share my Playlists has evolved further into a community-based site. Have been using the site for a while now in conjunction with Spotify, and seen your banners in the programme!
Were your header titles inspired by Vimeo?
Love the site, good to hear it’s attracting a lot of industry interest! I often see your ads on spotify itself, how well are they doing for you?
No idea what you mean but – no
They do brilliantly! Probably because there is such a close connection between Spotify and ShareMyPlaylists.com
Interesting idea in my opinion. Something to share with friends but something that is new and fresh. Another way to express one’s feelings, to give something close to the heart. I like the idea. It’s nice.
Hi Kieron,
Great post – My question would be around monetisation. Its obviously been a costly process building such a rich site, and promoting (even if a lot has been free via twitter etc)
You obviously have a large user base now, but I dont see any heavy forms of monetisation.
Dont expect any juicy details, but do you have big plans for monetising it?
We have some sponsored ad slots (of which Vodafone have taken some) and that’s about it for now. I’ve always said that the most important thing to do when building any site is to make it damn good first. Make it the best site in it’s sector, get the people to it and then monetising it is the easy part of the process. Watch this space. Suffice to say, I am hoping that a well established music community with engaging content and loyal users will be of interest to someone some day.
Quote “We have some sponsored ad slots (of which Vodafone have taken some) and that’s about it for now.”
Does that mean it is not profitable at the moment?
Thanks Kieron – That makes sense.
From my perspective, being a small time affiliate/developer, its tough to build a great site without funding, juggling monetisation to fund build vs quality content to drive repeat visits.
Looks like I might be better off biting the bullit, funding out of savings, and hoping that long-term the site can be monetised.
I don’t think its worth worrying about. If its costing nothing (almost) to get up and running then it’s the user base we should look. It’s phenomenal.
With a steadily increasing user curve monetizing this is going to be easy. I can think of several routes off the top of my head.
Keiron one thing you might look at ( I am sure you have it covered) is linking with FB connect. That way Facebook feeds can be updated as and when SMPL is. Just a thought that could really help it’s virality
Great information! Especially I like that the members can create their own groups and share their own favorite artists with friends.
Thanks Fergus, we have indeed looked at FB Connect and may use it in the next update. As you say, I’m more concerned right now on making the site the best in it’s niche. Monetisation will come later.
Kieron, I’ve been watching the Share My Playlists since it’s debut, and I’ve really enjoyed watching it continue to improve! I am really glad to see that you are seeing so much success from your website, especially so early on! Indeed I remember that very twitter post you made =D
Till then,
Jean
Well done Sir! This is exciting stuff, I like the sounds of sponsorship deals with Vodafone, excellent!
Twitter is definitely proving to be the surprise of the new century, isn’t it. It is definitely proving to be a valueble tool in driving good traffic.
Congrats for getting more traffic! Really a good job to make this site so popular within a short period!