Topspin Media

Promoting yourself as a musician or band in today's times are proving to be as difficult as they are exciting. With so many companies offering services on ways to promote your music and brand as a musician, band, or artist, who's to know what will work or not. Topspin is a promising new media technology company from what the public can gather. They are claiming to offer "leading-edge marketing software and services that help artists and their partners build businesses and brands". Although they are not disclosing their platform to the public, and have not done so since their founding in in June 2007, They have worked with a handful of successful musicians to use their platform in marketing their brand.

Since the public has had no real hands-on experience with this software, we can only understand what they offer by their own descriptions and users testimonials. A description offered by Topspin on the free tech directory ChrunchBase states "The company gives artists the tools to manage their catalog and their fans, generate demand for their music, and gather insights to improve performance. Topspin's main product, the Topspin Manager, was introduced to a select group of artists and managers in January 2008 and uses permission marketing and technology best practices to help artists generate demand for their content and deepen engagement with their fans". As this sounds really amazing and breakthrough, we the potential users are sitting on the sidelines wondering what is actually under the hood and when we will be able to drive.

One cant be too skeptical of an elusive software company when you consider the people and bands that have partnered with them so far. From the Beastie Boys to Eminem and Arcade Fire to Brian Eno, Topspin has an already impressive catalog of artists and musicians who currently use their services to promote and sell their music and products. Trent Reznor, front man of the band Nine Inch Nails, is even quoted saying on Twitter, "Beastie Boys / Topspin get it right once again. This is how you sell music today." Impressive, but none-the-less all these artists in Topspin's catalog are well known and already have a large fan base either in the indie arena, major arena, or both. It remains to be seen if this platform will be effective for independent musicians that are up-and-coming and established musicians that have yet to harness the potential of these new tools. When this platform is opened to the public we will all be able to see the full extent of what Topspin is really offering and how much it is actually going to cost to use such a service.

Topspin Summary:

• Music source: Major and Independent Musicians
• Platform: Basic HTML based web servicec
• Target Audience: Major and Independent Musicians