Topspin

We were pleased to see some good pick up of this week’s announcement on TechDirt this week, but we were disappointed to see our position misconstrued as “Topspin can’t/won’t help the little guy”.

Those who know me know my personal tastes and anyone who reads this blog know we work with a lot of bands with smaller audiences because they’ve seen me ramble on about Imaad Wasif and White Denim. There are many more but I invite you to check out Les Blanks, Neal Casal, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, AI, Ben Taylor, The Old Ceremony, or Wendy and Lisa.

The honest truth is that who is using Topspin currently is a bit ad hoc, gated by how many hours we have in our day and how many people we think we can help be successful at the moment. As we mentioned this is ramping up, but still limited. Sorry about that. We appreciate your patience. We have even established a mailing list for *all* artists to come and share marketing ideas. Just mail us to get added. I assure you that our passion and interest lies in bands of all sizes. Compare that with solutions like Echo Music or even Sparkart, both of whom have a self-professed interest in “established” artists only. Our current limitations are practical ones, not philosophical ones. Be patient with us and we will get there. Our goal is to be a successful, long-term business.

Hearing Imaad Wasif and The Drones thank Topspin from the stage “for all your support” this week was refutation enough in my book but if you’d like a little more, check out this comment left on TechDirt by Joe Purdy‘s manager:

Hello,

Nice article except that I think that possibly you may not know that Top Spin DOES work with smaller artists. Not just Byrne or Beasties.

Have you ever heard of Joe Purdy? HELL NO you haven’t or you would know he used Topspin to launch his 10th album this week. Ok and I manage him so this is also a shamess plug as well but the point is that we’ve been working within Topspin’s philosophy for a few years now. Selling direct to fans without a label. His catalog has sold over 800,000 tracks on Itunes in the US alone.

When I heard about Topspin I went over to the office and they showed me what they had built and I crapped my pants. The platform is everything I was doing but on steroids. It’s true that they aren’t picking up every single artist under the sun out there. That’s for companies who build ugly widgets. They are picking up artists who have a growing base or artists who can expand their already successful base. I think that will set them apart from companies that pop up every 3 months with a Ralph Kramden idea to save the music business.

Joe Purdy’s new album sold about 500 downloads in the first 24 hours via Topspin. I was able to release it 2 hours after Joe finished his cover art and approved the mastered audio. His fans knew that from the email that we sent to them and they felt special! They knew that they had it immediately and felt empowered. AWESOME! Word of mouth, instant back end info on who is buying and where, direct email thank you to the fan, viral player that spreads our store across the web, super distribution, more fans, I love it!!!

Check out what I’m talking about. Buy the new album, hell buy the other 9 albums direct from Joe Purdy Records. http://joepurdy.com/lastclockonthewall.html

Thank you for reading my ramble.

Brian Klein

Thanks again for your patience and support,
ian c rogers
Topspin