Music Marketing Has Issues — Are Link Shorteners the Solution?

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Music marketing is often more art than science.  Found.ee thinks link shorteners can help.

We’ve seen numerous startups and companies attempt to solve issues related to online music marketing campaigns.  One such issue involves tracking, with artists oftentimes unable to view or analyze how their campaigns are doing — especially if they’re not willing to pay money.  Fans can show up to concerts or buy merchandise, but the band oftentimes can’t capture the customer.

Against that backdrop, found.ee is pushing a web platform solution that helps bands and music-related companies target online advertisements.  It does this by showing ads to people that have previously shown interest in the product.  It also serves as a  handy link shortener, complete with stats graphs.

I’ve only been using the platform to create short-links. It’s pretty handy, even though you have to create the short-link in one window and move to another window to copy the link you made. Found.ee provides fairly detailed stats on link clicks, and if you decide to run a campaign the re-targeting pixel is already deployed.

Of course, lots of other platforms are moving along the same lines, including behemoths like Facebook.

DIY distributors are also hoping to edge into this space, with better marketing tools a way to de-commoditize platform distribution.  In terms of business model, it’s unclear if found.ee is a feature that can easily be replicated by competing platforms (including the ones found.ee wants to track).

In terms of setup, users log into found.ee and create a shortlink, which serves as a retargeting pixel. For example, The Faint used a found.ee link when they blasted out their new album pre-order news. Even though the album was being sold through a third party site, The Faint could then keep track of who clicked on the pre-order link through a cookie installed in fans’ browsers.

There’s a “Manage Pixel” menu option that allows users to edit code and associate found.ee shortlinks with digital marketing campaigns. For example, The Faint could target Facebook or Google advertisements to everyone who clicked on their album pre-order link.

Jason Hobbs, founder of The Found Group,  told me that a customer usually has to see a product around seven times before they’ll make a purchase. With found.ee, these potential customers will see the product multiple times, drastically increasing sales numbers.

Jason says that found.ee has helped some of his campaigns greatly surpass their sales goals. He says the service was directly responsible for helping Sublime With Rome improve ticket sales by a large percentage, selling 20,000 more tickets than projected.

When Nina Ulloa isn’t writing for DMN she’s usually reviewing music or at a show.