Interview: OKCool, the First Facebook Record Label?
While MySpace may have long cornered the attention of the music industry as far as social networking sites goes, with its phenomenal growth over recent months Facebook can no longer be ignored as a channel for music marketing and distribution. Recently English developers Pushhit turned their attention to Facebook as a music distribution channel with the launch of the MusicWall application (link requires Facebook login).
MusicWall is a Facebook application that allows for the streaming download of MP3 files, and the sharing of tracks with other Facebook users. After developing the application, the developers decided that it wasn't enough to have developed the delivery mechanism, they wanted a say in the music as well, and so OKCool Recordings was formed. Since launching the label and the Facebook application just a week ago , OKCool has been joined by Web savvy label SMtv Music and drum and bass artist DJ Krust and other labels are approaching Pushhit every day.
With MusicWall still boxfresh at only a week old, I spoke to Pushhit director Mark Panay about developing MusicWall, OKCool and developing for the world's fastest growing social networking site.
Download Squad: What is the background of Pushhit and the MusicWall?
Mark Panay: Ok-Cool.com was set up as a bit of fun where we can post silly stuff, things that we've learned and progress on our projects. We have a few projects on the go; we run a company called SimpleWeb ltd for which we've created a client/website management system with a funky online page editor for small businesses, this is our bread and butter and is coming along nicely since starting at the beginning of the year. We also have a longstanding project called pushhit - we created a prototype of this late last year, tested it in the wild with a handful of users and have now turned this into a company - pushhit ltd. We have just secured some angel funding to progress this further and Music Wall is the first released project under the pushhit banner. The pushhit ethos: social publishing and distribution, we've termed this Digital Gossip...
Download Squad: What was the motivation behind setting up OKCool?
Mark Panay: Ok Cool Recordings was essentially created as a way for us to test Music Wall without spending ages trying to get content and worrying about copyright issues. I used to make music (still do a bit) so it seemed a simple way forward. I used to work quite heavily in the music industry on the mobile side of things and also a ran a long standing music blog. I've never liked DRM, but think it essential that artists are valued so I've always been vexed by the online and mobile music industry. So our mandate is pretty simple - do whatever you like with our music, just not for profit, you want to license it or book an artist for a gig, ring us...
Mark Panay: Being in a closed environment and being at the mercy of a third party for our application is a massive concern for us. An example is the facebook notification system which is changing very soon, this may be good news but it's a bit of pain really... Also if fb decide that our app is a threat or unfit they can pull it, for a business this is not really great. Facebook also is pretty tight on any PR to do with them which is a concern too. All that being said developing for fb is quick and easy.
Mark Panay: It's been online a week, in its current form for just three days and the response so far from the people that have used it is great. We've had various organizations and labels contact us but more importantly the users like it too. The fact that a user can send a tangible gift seems to be a bit novel but it is sinking in. People are so used to biting people and turning them into zombies that at first the fact that they are getting a full 192Kbs mp3 to download for free didn't seem to sink in... Interestingly the music seems to be finding the path of least resistance, so people will think of their friends that might like it, send a few out and sooner or later it gets through to people that genuinely like it, who then send it on.
Music Wall is part of a bigger picture which I won't go into here. While it would be easy to say we'll charge to market a labels track, we may or may not do this. Although one of the most interesting features of Music Wall is the "limited edition" nature of the "releases" - each track can be sent as gift a finite amount of times. Essentially creating the old 1000 promo pressings that we used to love on vinyl. When the promo runs out it can no longer be downloaded but can still be sent on as a gift, the download link becomes the track page with more info, so even when it's finished the track is still promoting itself. Users like to know what edition they got...
Mark Panay: Initially to get it up and running it took two days. The latest version has had another four days of coding since, but the idea has been formulating for a long time and there's still a long way to go yet.
Mark Panay: We have a pretty large indie label wanting to do a trial in the next week or so with quite a few smaller ones getting on board. Honestly we've had far more than we expected in our first week with no publicity, so while we really interested to get as many more in as possible there are things that we need to organize at our end to make sure that they get serviced properly.
Mark Panay: Ok Cool Recordings was essentially created as a way for us to test Music Wall without spending ages trying to get content and worrying about copyright issues. I used to make music (still do a bit) so it seemed a simple way forward. I used to work quite heavily in the music industry on the mobile side of things and also a ran a long standing music blog. I've never liked DRM, but think it essential that artists are valued so I've always been vexed by the online and mobile music industry. So our mandate is pretty simple - do whatever you like with our music, just not for profit, you want to license it or book an artist for a gig, ring us...
Download Squad: What were your biggest concerns about designing an application for Facebook?
Mark Panay: Being in a closed environment and being at the mercy of a third party for our application is a massive concern for us. An example is the facebook notification system which is changing very soon, this may be good news but it's a bit of pain really... Also if fb decide that our app is a threat or unfit they can pull it, for a business this is not really great. Facebook also is pretty tight on any PR to do with them which is a concern too. All that being said developing for fb is quick and easy.
Download Squad: What has been the response to the application so far?
Mark Panay: It's been online a week, in its current form for just three days and the response so far from the people that have used it is great. We've had various organizations and labels contact us but more importantly the users like it too. The fact that a user can send a tangible gift seems to be a bit novel but it is sinking in. People are so used to biting people and turning them into zombies that at first the fact that they are getting a full 192Kbs mp3 to download for free didn't seem to sink in... Interestingly the music seems to be finding the path of least resistance, so people will think of their friends that might like it, send a few out and sooner or later it gets through to people that genuinely like it, who then send it on.
Download Squad: What response have you had from the music industry?
Mark Panay: The response so far has been fantastic, bear in mind that haven't really told anyone yet. We're getting about one label a day at the moment. They are fascinated by the concept, they all instantly see the possibilities of the viral nature of marketing a new track and it "finding the right people". It's quite a big leap really for traditional labels to be giving away music but the trick is - traffic to their site, new fans and general awareness, for just a few minutes of work. Couple this in with the artists and labels starting groups and you have a pretty powerful way to market...
Download Squad: What is the business model for OKCool and MusicWall?
Mark Panay: The label's model is simple - give music to consumers for free. If there is a sufficient fan base created money will come, through touring, merchandise, licensing to compilations, mobile, sync, etc - it's not full time for us, so it's an experiment, let's see how far we can take it.
Music Wall is part of a bigger picture which I won't go into here. While it would be easy to say we'll charge to market a labels track, we may or may not do this. Although one of the most interesting features of Music Wall is the "limited edition" nature of the "releases" - each track can be sent as gift a finite amount of times. Essentially creating the old 1000 promo pressings that we used to love on vinyl. When the promo runs out it can no longer be downloaded but can still be sent on as a gift, the download link becomes the track page with more info, so even when it's finished the track is still promoting itself. Users like to know what edition they got...
Download Squad: How long did the app take to develop?
Mark Panay: Initially to get it up and running it took two days. The latest version has had another four days of coding since, but the idea has been formulating for a long time and there's still a long way to go yet.
Download Squad: What artists do you have coming up?
Mark Panay: We have a pretty large indie label wanting to do a trial in the next week or so with quite a few smaller ones getting on board. Honestly we've had far more than we expected in our first week with no publicity, so while we really interested to get as many more in as possible there are things that we need to organize at our end to make sure that they get serviced properly.
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Rajat said 3:08PM on 9-22-2007
Hi Gordon,
You tried to reach me on Facebook. However, I am unable to respond to your message there. Please add me as a friend or, send an email to the address given here. I can then respond to your queries :)
Regards,
Rajat
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