Topspin Media is a leading provider of sales and marketing software
for musicians, filmmakers, and other creative professionals.
Founded in 2007 by Shamal Ranasinghe and ProTools co-creator Peter Gotcher, Topspin Media is made up of a passionate group of music lovers, film nerds, marketers, and developers who wake up every day inspired to help artists find new fans, promote their work, and sell new products.
To date more than 55,000 musicians, comedians, labels, managers and filmmakers have used the Topspin Platform to grow their audience, communicate with fans, and sell music, video, merch and ticket bundles. As a result, the average transaction across the Topspin Platform is greater than $20. When you look at optimized campaigns - what some might call the typical Topspin campaign - the average is greater than $50. Add tickets to the campaign and the averages start to approach $90.
Why is this important? Nielsen estimated that the music industry is losing as much as $2.7 billion in overall value by not better targeting music fans with more creative products. The Internet has created an attention economy, where distribution is easy but attention is scarce. Success is now determined by the strength of an artist's connection to their audience. At Topspin Media, we build software for artists to establish lasting and meaningful relationships with fans, communicate with them around the web, and sell far higher-value products in return.
In 2014, the Topspin Platform was acquired by BandMerch and since then has been based in Burbank, CA.
Contact:Joe Glaser
Topspin Media
When the Pixies, the reunited stars of 1980s alt-rock, decided recently to play a special show in Los Angeles, they wanted to make sure their biggest local followers were invited first.
So last Thursday morning, the band sent e-mail messages to 8,031 fans with Southern California ZIP codes, announcing the show and alerting them that “tickets are on sale RIGHT NOW.â€
What’s changed, is the way those interactions can now be tracked, analyzed, and used to sustain lifelong (or at least career-long) relationships, which is what gets people most excited about Topspin. The Pixies, for example, used the company’s software to collect email addresses of fans, pinpoint them by zip code, and book an entire tour playing cities often overlooked on normal touring schedules. Smaller acts can use Topspin to give away an MP3 or two and then grow their fan list to the point where they have 2,000 followers, then 5,000, then even more. ‘You build it up until you’ve got a little business. That’s a gigantic innovation for artists.’
With two days to go before the film’s official theatrical release, the director had already managed to recoup “Bones Brigade’s” entire $500,000 budget. In fact, he reached that target a few weeks earlier.
Call it payoff for Peralta’s Sundance gamble.
After David Byrne and Brian Eno self-released their album Everything That Happens Will Happen Today last August, they generated profits equivalent to a label advance. How? Software marketing, of course.
The Pixies, the influential American rock band, have begun building an online gigography and uploading recordings of their shows that fans can download for $3.99 each. More than that, however, they’re asking fans to upload photos and video of the shows to create a real archive.
Pixies continue to innovate online with gigography download site.