UPDATES FROM OURSTAGE CEO, BEN CAMPBELL
posted in: Features
Dear OurStage Community,
I’d like to start by thanking you all for your continued support and extraordinary passion for OurStage and the forum we provide. Last fall, when the global markets collapsed, we had no idea what the future would hold for us in terms of fan and artist activity on the site. We were all pleased to see that the economic troubles did not adversely effect your enthusiasm for OurStage, as evidenced by a substantial growth in site usage over the past few quarters. This time last year we were getting about 2 million unique visitors per month: now there are over 3.5 million per month. At the same time, we only had about 50,000 artists and 300,000 registered users on the site. We now have over 100,000 artists on the site and over a million registered users. Given the small amount we spend to market the site, this increase tells us one thing loud and clear”more and more folks believe in the forum and the opportunities OurStage is providing and are talking about it to their friends.
However, I’d like to assure everyone that our recent success has not gone to our heads. On the contrary”it has renewed our passion to make the site even better. We appreciate the feedback that you, the community, are giving us every day and we know that there are improvements we need to make. Here are just a few changes that we’re currently working on that you should expect to see rolling out in the coming weeks:
1. The ability for artists to remove songs from their profile.
2. Greater focus, exposure, and awards for fans who carefully judge and accurately predict the wisdom of the crowd each month.
3. A biannual “Best of the Best” competition that narrows the few hundred quality artists that the fans choose each month down to a Top 10 superstar-caliber few who consistently rank high over multiple months.
4. More partnerships with major industry players who will offer more life-changing opportunities for great OurStage artists, as well as for fans, than ever before.
5. A broader array of music and entertainment on the site with which fans can engage, share, and enjoy.
6. Closer integration with the major social networks so that fans can more easily share media and information between their OurStage pages and their primary social networks on which they hang out.
OurStage is continually evolving into the best NEW-music discovery site in the industry. We know that lots of people still see us as just a contest site: we hope that this view changes as we grow. The competition aspect is key to how we (YOU) pinpoint the best music and best artists from the millions of aspiring musicians out there. This is just the engine in the background, the mechanism” if you will”for filtering greatness. Our ultimate long-term goal is to be the central platform for the future of new music discovery and for all types of music-centric promotion. So over time there will be less focus on how the sorting takes place and more attention on opportunities and exposure for great artists and dedicated fans alike.
With this in mind, please continue to give us constructive feedback”we really do want to hear from you. Knowing what our community wants is critical to being able to build the best music discovery site available. At the same time, I’ll also ask for your patience in terms of how quickly we can build or change features. We have 18 employees in total, with only 9 being engineers. Every one of us cares as passionately about music, enhancing the site and improving the industry as much as we know you do. So I ask you to please give everyone the benefit of the doubt when giving us or another artist feedback.
This is a brief update. I’ll try to send news every couple of months in order to keep you all posted on the latest goings-on from inside OurStage. Historically, I know I haven’t been very good at this (its one of the things you all have made me aware of), so I promise to do better.
Thanks again for playing a part in what we hope will become a true global movement that helps shape a better music industry for all.
Best Regards,
Ben