Tuesday, August 05, 2014

Innovation for independent musicians continues to up the game at ReverbNation

ReverbNation has made some big changes over the past year and while I tend to focus on the larger community I have built on Soundcloud, I am increasingly impressed by the tools and options that the folks at ReverbNation are delivering.  Promoting your music online is a constant effort and involves a lot of tools and services so the efficient and effective ones definitely stand out.

The new HTML5 player widget is now solid and if you want to remove ads etc you can with the pro version.  Here is the free version with my music.



The musician's dashboard is pretty impressive.  It gives you a quick view of your fan stats as well as your chart position locally, nationally and globally.  You also have quick access to your inbox, social integrations, and other tools. The default layout for the artist page, which you can modify extensively, provides a ton of useful options and with a bit of planning you can build one that works well on mobile devices.  Here I show my page with the Admin console closed on a desktop browser.



The team at ReverbNation has invested heavily based on user feedback in the new HTML5 player by first adding better controls and adding Share, Download, Favorite, and Playlist options. Go to the far right and head down the Rabbit Hole...I leave that for you to explore.



In that same vein, they have added more options to the widgets including one targeted for press clippings and reviews as well as one that automates the signup to your personal newsletter, FanReach.  The other options are shown here.



I truly hope this kind of innovation continues and I hope the community continues to grow and engage.  It makes it more accessible for listeners and much more powerful and credible for musicians to consider the investment of time and effort in another tool and community.