POLL: DO YOU USE EMBEDDABLE BAND WIDGETS?
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 at 11:00am by Vince NeilsteinThese days a lot of metal record labels seem to be releasing “widgets” — those embeddable flash jobbies with streaming music, photos, tour dates, etc — to promote new albums. Three years ago when MySpace was all the rage this made sense since, hypothetically, fans would embed these widgets on their pages thus spreading the word at the low price of whatever it cost the label to develop the widget. But it’s 2009 now; MySpace is still plenty vibrant as a music delivery tool but virtually dead in terms of social networking; Facebook and Twitter don’t support embedding; and, as a blog proprietor, I can say I’d much rather link out to another site than embed a widget that takes time to load. Yet labels still seem to be pumping out widgets like Gene Simmons pumps out verbal diarrhea.
So, my questions to you, MetalSucks Minions: do you embed widget on your pages? If you see a widget on someone else’s page, do you bother to click/listen/explore it? Are widgets cool or are they lame? As usual, feel free to elaborate in the comments.
Record labels, you can thank me for the free market research later. I’ll accept payment in the form of beer at CMJ. Lots of it.
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21 COMMENTS on “POLL: DO YOU USE EMBEDDABLE BAND WIDGETS?”
Myspace is dead as a social networking tool? Because I pretty much only use Myspace for that reason. I despise Facebook and I am not even going to fuck with Twitter….Myspace has a status update and from what I gather…that is all Twitter is. Pointless.
Same here, except for the twitter thing. I hate facebook.
Says the guy who’s posts link to his facebook profile…
Same with me… MySpace is still big, over here in Europe at least…
Widget are just annoying… if anyone has widgets on his profile, he tends to have dozens of them and I end up paying attention to none of them…
A show of hands from whomever checks their Myspace profile and or updates feed every day?
One hand is visible in my little picture there (Ironically linked to my Facebook profile that I hardly EVER check) so I guess that will have to do.
I check mine too, only when I receive notifications though (RSS, email) Actually I have a ton more music contacts on there than anywhere else on the web. Although I may not be the best example because I work in web and I’m a huge nerd, so there’s that. :P
Myspace used to be a great tool for music discovery, and is still ok, but the search and browse functions for music have been hobbled since they got in bed with the major labels. I used to be able to browse for bands by genre within a 5-10-20-50 mile radius and they would all be there. That seems impossible to do now. Unless you know what you’re looking for there really is no way to find a complete list of all the music in your area.
Looking at the main music page on myspace now hurts my eyes. I’m not some tech retarded granny but I can’t understand how anyone can find that mess usable. Online karoke? Fuck that!
I have to agree with the MySpace comment. It’s still great for music delivery, especially since you can get pretty much all of the information about a band as well as being able to listen to full songs on a single webpage. Band websites aren’t always the most user friendly, especially when they try to be clever and do artistic things with links which you have to click about 10 links before you can even find what you’re looking for.
As a social networking site, MySpace is dying a slow slow death, and has been for awhile now. I see Facebook doing the same thing in a couple years. That’s just how trends work. Anyone remember Friendster? Twitter is retarded and I refuse to switch over based on the principal of the thing. “Hey, let’s take everything that makes MySpace and Facebook cool and get rid of it and just leave it as a status update and only a status update.” I don’t consider myself interesting enough to let people know what i’m doing at all hours of the day. Shit… I only use my Facebook status update to pretty much let people know when I’m at work or if I have some sort of good news.
The poll should have an “I don’t care” added.
Myspace + band page = good for music + tour dates.
Youtube = good for songs not on myspace page.
Business wise, widgets are a great idea. Low advertising costs are always a plus, espcially when thousands of people will see the ad. But, personally, the only reason I would ever use one is to tell my friends about a CD/event, I wouldn’t go out of my way to put one in on a public page.
I can see widgets as being incredibly useful for bands to embed on their OWN websites, especially if the band doesn’t have access to a flash coder nerd, but I don’t imagine The Kids are really all about plopping the latest streaming widget for their favorite bands into their webjunk.
Then again, what the hell do I know about what The Kids are up to?
You can embed widgets in facebook.
I agree with using a widget on your own page, but I find it rude as shit when people clog up your comments box with widgets of their shitty band, auto-playing on top of whatever music you have on your own page. I typically remove that person from my friend list entirely.
I’m not sure what a widget is. Not that I really care. And also fuck Myspace everyone needs to get on VampireFreaks, It is a great place to meet nice single ladies :D
I dunno what the hell a widget is either and I have no desire to find out. I think I read about them when I took the ACT…”Company A produces 500 widgets per hour…”
the Widgets are VERY handy if they’re the only way to hear new music (like the cormorant widget you had up here, for example).
If that’s the only way I get to hear the music, then so be it. If there’s a more convenient way, bring it on. I have a feeling that this poll, which is very one-sided, will just mean you guys link to the original page where the widget is found, anyway.
The only reason I use them is because at my high school they aren’t blocked!
Let’s just take away bands’ ability to market themselves entirely. That way they’ll be kvlt enough and cool enough for everyone. Also, lets make sure they never tour, because I just hope they all van flip anyway. Lastly, they should always have to keep their day jobs. If a band gets big enough so they can quit their day jobs, I don’t like them anymore anyway.
there should be a poll option that says….
– I dont know what the fuck you just said whiteboy!!?
As was posted above, I think that they’re incredibly convenient, quick, and easy for listening purposes, and from an advertising standpoint are certainly eye catching. Quite honestly though, I really don’t think much would be missed by using a good old fashioned link. I wouldn’t go as far as to say widgets are lame, but I don’t think they’re going to make or break a fan base. Speaking of CMJ, have any show picks for this year?