Just over two months ago I had the incredible fortune of being named Topspin’s CEO. But Topspin’s story starts long before that. The seeds of Topspin date back seven years to founders Peter Gotcher (Digidesign) and Shamal Ranasinghe (Real Networks, Musicmatch, Yahoo! Music) discussing the future of music marketing. They rightly sat on their idea for many years (knowing “being early is the same as being wrong” in the startup world) but finally took it off ice and threw it on the grill one year ago this month. Since then Topspin has been growing an all-star team and quietly building three products which will come to form a marketing software platform helping artists (and their business partners) build their businesses and their brands. Today we’re unveiling the modest beginnings of one of those three products (via this Web site and an article in Billboard Magazine) and having a party down in Venice, CA to celebrate the company’s first year (if you didn’t receive your invite but would like to come, please mail us and we’ll see if we can fit you in).
Topspin is founded on the principle that while costs of production and distribution in the music industry are dropping, unlimited choice for consumers only increases the importance of efficient marketing. Marketing means both connecting and cultivating relationships with your existing fans (much of what Seth Godin describes as “Permission Marketing” applies) as well as discovering new fans. Topspin is building software tools to help artists market efficiently.
But we are not a “marketing services” company. Topspin is a technology company loaded with experienced software developers in Santa Monica and San Francisco and our aim is to be the platform of choice for many of the great marketing services companies already in existence. If you are such a company, please drop us a line so we can talk about how we might work together.
Also, Topspin does not have a consumer-facing brand. We’re about helping artists build *their* brand, not trying to pollute the space with one of our own.
Eventually we’ll be opening up the Topspin platform to anyone who would like to make a living from their art. But for starters we’re working with a few select artists, labels, and managers who get it, are fun to work with, give us great feedback, and have been patient and supportive as we build the features they need to be successful. Look for some very fun and exciting projects and releases from Topspin-powered artists and labels this summer and fall; part of the reason for coming out of stealth mode is so we can talk about these experiments as they happen. Subscribe to this blog to be kept in-the-know.
We’ve worked with about ten artists in the past year. Here are three I think you should go try right now:
Jubilee is Aaron North (Icarus Line, NIN, Buddyhead) and Mike Shuman (Queens of the Stone Age, Wires On Fire). They recorded a (GREAT) four-song EP earlier this year and are just putting a finished album in the can now. It’s a great, rock record, KROQ-ready. But Jubilee took an interesting approach. Instead of shopping a deal they decided to go direct to fans and use the money they made to fund the rest of the record. They shopped the record around a bit (and had interest from traditional labels) but decided to stay independent, sell on their own using the Topspin platform, and license the album internationally to territories they plan to tour in (Australia and Japan, for starters).
The Topspin platform is flexible in terms of how an artist wants to structure their offer, but the Jubilee guys went with a hybrid: four songs a la carte at $0.99 each, the whole EP for $3, or “our entire recorded output for the year” for $20. Amazingly, more than 60% of their customers are taking the $20 option. Considering Jubilee is a band who has never released an album before, this was surprising and encouraging to us.
Jubilee have become big Topspin fans and you’ll see them release another EP via Topspin in another week (and at our party tonight, too). Get over to Jubilee.la and buy the $20 package now and you’ll not only receive a colored 7-inch vinyl record, but be the first to know when the new music drops.
Josh Rouse is an incredible singer-songwriter who used to record for Rykodisc but has since gone independent, releasing his “Bedroom Classics” records via his Web site. He recently started a new subscription service on his site, JoshRouse.com, where you can download the latest Bedroom Classics release a la carte or as an album, or you can subscribe and get *everything* he releases on the site, which just in the past month is 40 songs on five albums. He started with a limited edition version at $100, which comes with signed and numbered CDs, but those are gone and the subscription is now just $30.
The Dandy Warhols recently left Capitol Records after a string of masterpieces, none of which sold to the label’s liking but all of which achieved cult status. For their new record they decided to reward their biggest fans first by offering a subscription package including: the new album months before it hits stores, a silkscreened poster and the physical CD in your home mailbox, and every b-side as it’s released in your email box for $35. The record is fantastic and you can preview the whole thing on their site for free. Try, buy, enjoy.
Since much of the value Topspin adds is in the artist control panel which is behind the scenes, these three examples show only the very tip of the proverbial Topspin iceberg. The visual design for each of these is done by the artist, Topspin is the enabling platform underneath. And what you can’t see, the back office where the artist manages pricing, catalog, metadata, fans, and most importantly marketing campaigns and analytics, is our bread and butter.
Just to show you Topspin can scale to large consumer demand, I’ll give away a little secret: we pitched in and offered up our content delivery network to Nine Inch Nails for the Ghosts release and the first few weeks of The Slip. While we had nothing to do with the front-end of those (incredible, inspiring, historic) promotions, we stepped in to help after their first couple of days of downtime and subsequently when you downloaded the albums they were coming from our servers and we moved hundreds of terabytes of data for them. It was an honor to be involved, even tangentially. On a related note, I wish Girl Talk would have used us for his incredible new album, I spent twenty minutes yesterday morning trying to download his new album. Took me four tries. And that redirect from IllegalArt.net is pretty amateur. Come on, man, get a real technology company in the mix. We’re here for ya. 
One point I want to make clear: we are not just another digital distribution company. Our belief is there are some very good digital distribution solutions out there already, and digital distribution is quickly becoming a commodity. What’s not anywhere near commodity status is marketing, and we are a marketing tools software company. We are about demand creation, not demand fulfillment. I call this out because the line is admittedly blurry in our above examples, since our first product is very much about direct-to-fan marketing, which in many ways resembles demand fulfillment from the consumer perspective. Note that none of the examples above are “just digital downloads”, they’re all compelling *packages* and include a physical component.
If you’re an artist, artist manager, agent, or other artist business partner, please drop us a line and we’ll see if we can get you a demo. But please be patient with us. We’re still small and even though we’re coming out of complete stealth mode the velvet rope is still up and we’re being very strategic about who we work with. This gives us the space to learn, make mistakes, correct mistakes, and in the end release a killer set of products to everyone. Thanks for understanding.
Congrats sir, I am very proud of you and your team.
This is rad and I’m very happy you guys are doing this. And how awesome is that cover?!
Congrats on the early accomplishments! Looking forward to the party tonight
Oh hell yeah. Nice product. Listening to Jubilee now, looking forward to more artists and services.
So awesome Ian, nice work all around. Can’t wait to see the ripple effect of this.
First time I’ve ever seen Shamal in a suit. Not bad!! Congrats on the BB cover. See you guys tonight.
yo,
sounds good to me
I can’t wait to see more.
keep it up ian.
-b
Congrats on the launch! That Billboard cover is badass. Looking forward to hearing more about Topspin in the coming months.
Congratulations and Happy 1 Year, Topspin!
Nice. Factoring in an ad-supported model, too?
Ian and team,
Congrats on the launch. Seems awfully smart.
Ian, I shed a small tear of pride last year when you spoke truth to the industry on Yahoo’s users’ behalf. You have a great sense and vision, and I wish you and your team the best.
We’re all rooting for a reasonable and honest music industry. It seems this is an important step in that direction.
hear hear!
Thanks,
Nate
Ian, congrats to you and Team Topspin! This is super exciting and you’re rocking the best mag cover of 2008!
Congrats! I wish you all the best of luck: what you’ve unveiled looks really slick. BTW, not too shabby of an ollie either.
The Clips and Unfamiliar are looking forward to working with this amazing tool! Thanks.
This will flourish. Hands down, no question. The world has been waiting for this. It’s about time someone made the leap.
Congratulations.
I will be one of your first artists, you know, when you open the doors to the world
Very impressive, Ian. As a “John Q. Consumer”, I truly believe you have a winning product. I just bought an advance purchase of O.A.R.’s new album. They used Atlantic Records and I had to download some funky .exe and it wasn’t a great experience to say the least. I look forward to the first album, or year’s library, from an artist who uses Topspin. Please tell Gary hello and congrats on this crazy cool product!
This is gonna change everything. As an independent artist this is absolutely the company I’ve been waiting for. Congratulations and thank you!
Congrats to Ian and the team. You all deserve to be on more magazine covers!
I’m so super psyched for you guys and will be following closely. I think if there’s anyone that can do what you’re trying to do, you guys can. Jubilee got my $20. All the best. See you tonight.
what, you can’t skate in dress shoes!!!
congrats!!! going to 11….and fast.
Thanks, Rich. Those are wool Vans slip ons, dress/skate shoe hybrid?
Thanks to everyone for the kind words. We’ll work our asses off to make you proud. No sleep til…
ian
I am in awe once again – congratulations Ian and everyone at Topspin.
this is great stuff Ian! congrats to you and the team. time to show folks what it’s like at the next level.
that’s hot dude. your legend continues.
Awesome service – excited to see it take off!
Ian,
I starting constructing a project a few months back that didn’t have a viable platform for use. After reviewing your business model, I know my module would increase growth in your venture. Being a serial entrepreneur myself, I know that you have negative free time, so if you are intrigued shoot me an email when you get this.
Regards,
Jason Mueller
Congrats Ian, you guys are really onto something here. Looking forward to seeing what we can accomplish with the platform.
Great party last night!
What a great cover.
Ian, you’re a superstar!
Been waiting years for this!!!
All the best, man.
When are you signing on Ween (:
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With an billboard like this one, it’s a slam dunk
Good stuff Ian!! Way to go….
Congrats Ian. Keep up the good work.
Ian. Awesome work, my man. I can’t wait to see how this makes change in an industry that seriously needs some guidance in the realms of digital distribution and promotion. Congrats! -b
PS: That’s a bad-ass magazine cover, sir.
Very interesting. I’m looking forward to hearing more about Topspin.
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I’m enjoying watching Topspin develop already and I know amazing things are on their way. I’ll add my voice to the chorus — that cover rocks beyond belief.
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Congrats to all of you! It’s gotta feel good to be able to talk about it. I can’t wait to see more.
very exciting stuff.
Does top spin teach artists how to write good songs? I’m not sure what the secret is all about-
you either have a great record, or you don’t- if you deliver garbage in a creative and cost effective
way- what have you accomplished? This room smells of 1997- Your funders will only be hip to your ego for so long. Why would talented artists need your help? Water seeks it’s own level.
Ego Deflation 101: I agree that quality will be the most important factor in determining success (and I think this is a good thing), but to exclude technology from the equation is to ignore the effects the player piano, radio, MTV, ProTools, and the Internet have had on the business. When Radiohead posted In Rainbows their site was down for a large number of visitors, ditto for NIN’s Ghosts. Incredibly talented artists, but they could have used our help on the technology side. Why should they have to become technology experts to be successful? The only musician I know who writes his own recording software is Justin Frankel…
Thanks for the comment.
ian
Ian- thanks for the response- I certainly respect your work past, and present- Technology is key I agree. It’s making the software readily available to artists small or large (NIN & Radiohead have budgets to hire pros) – Bottom line- everyone is on the take somehow- and the beauty is that artists are realizing this more every day. Perhaps the end goal is to have some big social site buy the stuff from you- I dunno. Also -developing trust with fans to digital purchase music(and pony up CC card)outside of iTunes platform for developing artists- or perhaps that’s your plan to work with Jobs somehow- Snocap seemed to think it would be automatic on MySpace- nope. That trust factor is a massive “permission mktg” thing to tackle- People like reading, listening, and watching, but buying takes more- the songs have to be great. I will watch from the sidelines- Keep On It! Perhaps we will work on a project one day- for now I am agent ego deflation 101-
It sounds like you sould sign artists and be a label- and swallow up all the heavy hitters at the end of their contracts.
massive congratulations ian! very exciting to see this start to come to fruition. nme magazine’s ‘Future 50′ and now billboard! awesome.
Our band has a strong digital presence, but with no marketing/publicity. As an artist, i’ve been looking for a way to do it cost effective without having to sign away rights/royalties to a label. I understand the “exclusive packaging” you offer, but what else would be available besides an email system (that i already pay for at another site)?
Also, I’ve been wondering the same as Ego Deflation . . . ITunes, and even Beatport (for our genre), have such a loyal fanbase. How would TopSpin and our band find a way to get them away from those sites and come here first? AND put their CC in your system!? Would it be wiser to join hands with them, and let this be the “exclusive boxset – radical fan” site?
I don’t want to be negative, because I’m ALL FOR what you’re tackling. But as an entrepreneur, you have to ask these questions and i would love to know your answers.
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I think you guys found out wonderful concepts in this chaotic world! While existing business model in music industry is being collapsed, it seems there is no such perfect ‘glue’ to bridge the Gap between Old and New. I think you could be the one.I love your content creator-centric model, too.(Seemingly, consumer-facing business already becomes ‘Red Ocean’-like.) Best luck of you all. I’ll keep an eye on Topspin!
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@YUI Rep Nate:
“We’re all rooting for a reasonable and honest music industry.”
How do you define “honest”?
Whatever “technology” Ian is “bringing to the table”, it does not appear to be backed by reason. A group of people who didn’t ask even one technical question beyond the utterly basic followed up by Chris who cursed incessantly at me during the interview and asked 0 technical questions, kinda makes go “huh?”
Hi Garrett,
Sorry you had a bad interview experience with us. I’m sure you can
appreciate that who we choose to put on our team is a very important
decision and unfortunately many more people interview than are hired. We wish you the best, and hope that you can do the same for us.
ian
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