9 ms·

Hipset Launches Artist Discovery Program

32 points by schlichtm 14y ago

flexxaeon 14y ago
Would be interested to know who 'verified artists' are Is the $20 for the feedback or the promo?
- schlichtm 14y ago
  The $20 is for the feedback. If the song is good we promote you but there is no additional cost to you as the artist.
  - dorkrawk 14y ago
    How does a song get qualified as good? If the production is bad but the song itself is good, will it get attention? Is there a specific style of music for which your artist reviewers have expertise/preference?
    - schlichtm 14y ago
      If the production, vocals, and presentation (good branding, etc) are at a level where most people who like that genre would play the song and think "Yeah, this sounds like a real song..." then we will work hard to make sure those people hear the song. Our artists are good at reviewing rap, pop, edm, country, rock, etc. All genres. Currently we can help the most with promoting rap, hip-hop, pop, and edm. We can help all genres find labels (we know a lot of them).
      - wavesounds 14y ago
        LOL - anyone that gives this guy $20 is out of their minds. "Yeah, this sounds like a real song..." hahahaha great review!
  - flexxaeon 14y ago
    Gotcha Without some details like a list w/ credentials of the reviewers, it comes off as less than credible. I'd wanna know who was reviewing me and what makes them qualified. Even if they're not the biggest of names, I'd be less leery if seeing more than 'verified artists'. Calling Rap Genius "the #1 hip hop site" adds to this leeriness. Aside from the fact that it's not (no disrespect to Rap Genius), specifying a hip hop site as the success story on a page with limited details kind of pigeonholes it into seeming like a "rap thing" - potential artists that aren't making hip hop music may think they aren't qualified, or may become disinterested.
    - schlichtm 14y ago
      This helps, thanks for the feedback. We'll work on being more transparent to add to our creditability.
      - flexxaeon 14y ago
        No prob. Like some others here I'm a musician myself so I've seen offers like these several times. A 'seasoned' starving artist is going to be looking for rep & credibility. Doesn't have to be major artists, major labels, etc. Just show me that the music is gonna be reviewed by someone who might know what they're talking about and I'm interested.
- tarice 14y ago
  I imagine the $20 also acts as a nifty spam filter. Some minor feedback: on the scrolling album background, one of the squares looks like the icon for Pandora, the music streaming service. Was that intentional? Bit of an odd choice in my opinion, since it's not really an artist.
schlichtm 14y ago
Please post your feedback! Our goal is to discover talented artists and then help them grow an audience and monetize it online.
- powrtoch 14y ago
  Talented artist here :-) I think there's definitely a market for helping artists get discovered, especially as more and more of them tend to operate online from their bedrooms instead of going on tour. So kudos for trying to help them along on that front. From the other comments here, it looks like the $20 goes to the "feedback", and not the promotion to labels. From an artist's point of view, this seems backwards. Personally I can't see why I would pay $20 just for feedback on a recording. If it's a demo recording, then there will be lots of things about it that could be improved, but I will already know this. If it's a professional recording from an album I've done, then it's sort of too late for feedback on it to do much for me. I suppose I could take it into consideration going forward, but my ability to act on this information still seems pretty minimal. So it's not clear why the "feedback" would be worth my $20, especially since there are lots of free ways out there to get feedback on your music. "Submit your music for free, and if we like it we'll contact you about paying to have it promoted (and maybe give you some feedback)" is a model that would make more sense from my POV as an artist. That said, I know it's not the easiest model from your POV, as you'd be inundated with YouTube acoustic guitar covers. So my advice would be to work on making it clear why the $20 will be well spent. I'd be more likely to pay up if I knew how likely I was to be "liked" by you, how likely I would be to get in touch with record companies if this were to happen, and exactly what benefit I could get from your feedback if I wasn't selected. This might something that gets easier once reputational effects start to play in. Hope that's helpful! P.S. My band, in case any one feels the need to investigate my boasting: http://doctorsquid.bandcamp.com/track/on-my-way http://doctorsquid.bandcamp.com/track/on-my-way
  - schlichtm 14y ago
    Super helpful! (powrtoch, add me on Facebook, I'd love to chat more > http://facebook.com/mattfs http://facebook.com/mattfs) Here's what we're thinking: - If your music isn't good enough to go viral yet then we can provide you with feedback on how to improve and reach that point. - If your music IS good enough to go viral the we want to promote you, get you press, get you featured on YouTube, Ustream, etc (these are all things we can do very easily if your music is good - we already have these relationships). - If you are really taking off we can help you monetize this growth in very interesting and artist/fan friendly ways. When you reach this stage we will enter into a production style agreement and take a % of the revenue we generate you. This is where we make our money and NOT on the original $20. Concerns: - If we don't charge we will be bombarded, like you pointed out, with low quality content. This is a problem we want to avoid. - If we don't charge then we will be paying artists to review your content out of our own pocket. Question: What would this site have to say so that when you saw it, as a musician, your reaction was "Holy shit I have to do this and would be stupid not to"?
d0m 14y ago
I don't like the facebook connect where it says Hipset can post on my behalf. Isn't it possible to give basic info but ask for permission later on if/when there's something to share?
- d0m 14y ago
  Also Ctrl-Click on links should open in a new tab rather than the same window.
tarice 14y ago
At the bottom of the page it says: "Forbes: Hipset Is Next Generation Music Site >>" ...which seems like it would be a link to the article. But I can't seem to click it. In fact, I can't even find that text in the DOM, which is confusing me something fierce.
- schlichtm 14y ago
  Ah, looks like Optimizely had an error. Fixing this. Here's the link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/08/19/hipset-is-next-generation-music-site-from-y-combinators-tracks-by/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/08/19/hipset-is-...
benwerd 14y ago
My sister is an artist (https://soundcloud.com/hannahwerdmuller https://soundcloud.com/hannahwerdmuller) and I would like to front her $20. The website as it stands looks like a lottery, mostly because of the "if we like it" component. How can I reassure her and get her to agree to submit her music to you?
- jimbobimbo 14y ago
  Well, being an artist IS a lottery - an occupational hazard, if you will.
whiddershins 14y ago
This is what YC has come to? Funding pay-to-be-discovered scams? Because whichever way you slice it, this is pay to play. Sad.
- dbalatero 14y ago
  I imagine the $20 is to keep artists out that are less serious, and therefore make the queue of songs to review more manageable. And to pay the folks reviewing stuff so they can go in depth. I agree pay-to-play can be sketchy, but the alternative (which I do all the time) is put my music out there for free to writer's overcrowded inboxes and hope that they take a look (which they often do not). I put in $20 just to give it a shot. If nothing happens, no big deal.
  - schlichtm 14y ago
    This is exactly right.
    - wavesounds 14y ago
      Actually its exactly wrong. For a lot of real artists $20 is a BIG deal, thats dinner for the band or gas to the next gig, any real artist would never agree to this, by charging $20 your only going to get desperate bands that everyone else ignores because they suck. It takes a minute to listen to someones mp3, your kidding yourself thinking charging is going to give you better overall quality.
- orangethirty 14y ago
  Why is it sad? I'm curious.
- ebf 14y ago
  VC:Seed Accelerator::Record Label:Hipset The payment is just acting as a low level barrier for initial contact.
dbalatero 14y ago
I submitted a track from my band. If you don't like the track or don't think it's promotable for whatever reason, will you give me that specific feedback? I'd like to have that feedback vs. a form letter, especially if I pay $20.
- schlichtm 14y ago
  Yes, absolutely, you will receive specific feedback from us about the production, vocals (if there are any), and presentation. Thank you for trying our new service out!
danhodgins 14y ago
Smart move to charge $20 up front to eliminate the majority of crap - definitely keep charging (and don't forget to A/B test your pricing). My hunch is that you'll have to provide more than just another artist's opinion for the $20. Consider additional value you could bundle up for the $20, and create a 'killer offer' that you believe in, and that provides excellent value for the artist. Play with the parameters you bundle into the offer to make it absolutely irresistible. A/B test the offer of course. Some ideas for bundling additional value into the $20 price: 1. Offer to make it a video review, and transcribe it as well. 2. Publish both the video and transcript on one (or all) of your web properties with links to the artist's website and top social media handles. Get the artist who does the reviews to also link to the artist being reviewed. 3. Create a 'discovery' directory with listings of each artist who paid the $20 for their review - I'm curious to find out about these artists myself - even the ones you don't want to promote - the $20 is an effective filter for both you and I! Cool idea, and I LOVE to see people taking some risks and innovating the business model for music.
- schlichtm 14y ago
  Thanks for the feedback - we're looking into how we can make more of a "killer offer". We've received quite a bit of feedback that videos would be very desirable.
  - danhodgins 14y ago
    I'm all for charging - it's the best way to eliminate the tire kickers. You obviously have to provide good value for money, and it sounds like you're getting some great feedback already, so keep up your data-driven feedback loop and I'm confident you'll end up with something really interesting and innovative.
orangethirty 14y ago
I like how this is a twist on the old music label agent. Where artists would hound them with demos ande whatnots hoping to get discovered. One interesting take is the fact that artists are being charged money without much explanation as to what they will receive. I'm not implying that this is a scam. No sir. My point is that one should at least have more information available from the website. Maybe a little FAQ page would help convert those people who may have any doubt about this. Now, artists are quite an unique market. They will gladly pay for this type of service. I'd say you should test charging more, because $20 dollars might come off as being too cheap. I think $99 is a good number to test. Enough to only bring in serious prospects and not hinder the aparent quality of your process. The record labels list would be better served with their logos. Record labels are powerful brands. Artists dream with having those logos on their productions. Though I'm curious about the business model here. I can assume you will take n amount from the profits of an artist whom you discover. Do you aim to represent the artist or merely just introduce them to people in the industry? I hope you are ready to sort green M&Ms. ;)
- schlichtm 14y ago
  FAQ is a great idea. We're working on an updated design that includes record label logos, it looks MUCH better. You are correct on the business model. Green M&Ms, Yellow M&Ms, as long as they are making great content, whatever they want ;)
  - orangethirty 14y ago
    I would not do the usual bulleted FAQ, by the way. You are dealing with artists, and for them the presentation is as important as the content. Also, you should research what makes artists anxious. Address that in your copy. For example: (Picture a website with an image of a backstage with some pretty sketchy looking folks in there). We know you don't want to be taken for a ride. That is why we work with select insdustry people. You will be introduced to them. If you feel uncomfortable, will have the choice to decide against working with them. Our aim is to create a good team that will propel you towards the top of the charts and not nickel and dime you over every aspect of your career. * And so on.
wavesounds 14y ago
Tons of blogs will review your music for free and give you exposure. Charging for maybe access to an old boys network of major labels if some random person likes it, is really taking advantage of peoples hopes and dreams. Please ditch this idea and start a label, zine or venue instead. Something that will actually benefit artists and the art world.
kdazzle 14y ago
Preying on the insecure. And I'm willing to bet that only the worst artists will pay for this crap.
- schlichtm 14y ago
  Our goal is to discover artists, grow their audience, and help them generate real revenue online. We've already found quite a bit of incredibly talented artists. Check out this recent submission from an artist in San Francisco: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7jcfFrpvMA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7jcfFrpvMA
UAintMySon 14y ago
I want to sign my artist up for this, he has a pretty large fan base i'd like to know more. i added you on fb my name is Jada Brown and i'd like to chat. i know Mazy btw. I dnt mind the $20.

32 points by schlichtm 14y ago

flexxaeon 14y ago

Would be interested to know who 'verified artists' are Is the $20 for the feedback or the promo?

schlichtm 14y ago
The $20 is for the feedback. If the song is good we promote you but there is no additional cost to you as the artist.
- dorkrawk 14y ago
  How does a song get qualified as good? If the production is bad but the song itself is good, will it get attention? Is there a specific style of music for which your artist reviewers have expertise/preference?
  - schlichtm 14y ago
    If the production, vocals, and presentation (good branding, etc) are at a level where most people who like that genre would play the song and think "Yeah, this sounds like a real song..." then we will work hard to make sure those people hear the song. Our artists are good at reviewing rap, pop, edm, country, rock, etc. All genres. Currently we can help the most with promoting rap, hip-hop, pop, and edm. We can help all genres find labels (we know a lot of them).
    - wavesounds 14y ago
      LOL - anyone that gives this guy $20 is out of their minds. "Yeah, this sounds like a real song..." hahahaha great review!
- flexxaeon 14y ago
  Gotcha Without some details like a list w/ credentials of the reviewers, it comes off as less than credible. I'd wanna know who was reviewing me and what makes them qualified. Even if they're not the biggest of names, I'd be less leery if seeing more than 'verified artists'. Calling Rap Genius "the #1 hip hop site" adds to this leeriness. Aside from the fact that it's not (no disrespect to Rap Genius), specifying a hip hop site as the success story on a page with limited details kind of pigeonholes it into seeming like a "rap thing" - potential artists that aren't making hip hop music may think they aren't qualified, or may become disinterested.
  - schlichtm 14y ago
    This helps, thanks for the feedback. We'll work on being more transparent to add to our creditability.
    - flexxaeon 14y ago
      No prob. Like some others here I'm a musician myself so I've seen offers like these several times. A 'seasoned' starving artist is going to be looking for rep & credibility. Doesn't have to be major artists, major labels, etc. Just show me that the music is gonna be reviewed by someone who might know what they're talking about and I'm interested.
tarice 14y ago
I imagine the $20 also acts as a nifty spam filter. Some minor feedback: on the scrolling album background, one of the squares looks like the icon for Pandora, the music streaming service. Was that intentional? Bit of an odd choice in my opinion, since it's not really an artist.

schlichtm 14y ago

Please post your feedback! Our goal is to discover talented artists and then help them grow an audience and monetize it online.

powrtoch 14y ago
Talented artist here :-) I think there's definitely a market for helping artists get discovered, especially as more and more of them tend to operate online from their bedrooms instead of going on tour. So kudos for trying to help them along on that front. From the other comments here, it looks like the $20 goes to the "feedback", and not the promotion to labels. From an artist's point of view, this seems backwards. Personally I can't see why I would pay $20 just for feedback on a recording. If it's a demo recording, then there will be lots of things about it that could be improved, but I will already know this. If it's a professional recording from an album I've done, then it's sort of too late for feedback on it to do much for me. I suppose I could take it into consideration going forward, but my ability to act on this information still seems pretty minimal. So it's not clear why the "feedback" would be worth my $20, especially since there are lots of free ways out there to get feedback on your music. "Submit your music for free, and if we like it we'll contact you about paying to have it promoted (and maybe give you some feedback)" is a model that would make more sense from my POV as an artist. That said, I know it's not the easiest model from your POV, as you'd be inundated with YouTube acoustic guitar covers. So my advice would be to work on making it clear why the $20 will be well spent. I'd be more likely to pay up if I knew how likely I was to be "liked" by you, how likely I would be to get in touch with record companies if this were to happen, and exactly what benefit I could get from your feedback if I wasn't selected. This might something that gets easier once reputational effects start to play in. Hope that's helpful! P.S. My band, in case any one feels the need to investigate my boasting: http://doctorsquid.bandcamp.com/track/on-my-way http://doctorsquid.bandcamp.com/track/on-my-way
- schlichtm 14y ago
  Super helpful! (powrtoch, add me on Facebook, I'd love to chat more > http://facebook.com/mattfs http://facebook.com/mattfs) Here's what we're thinking: - If your music isn't good enough to go viral yet then we can provide you with feedback on how to improve and reach that point. - If your music IS good enough to go viral the we want to promote you, get you press, get you featured on YouTube, Ustream, etc (these are all things we can do very easily if your music is good - we already have these relationships). - If you are really taking off we can help you monetize this growth in very interesting and artist/fan friendly ways. When you reach this stage we will enter into a production style agreement and take a % of the revenue we generate you. This is where we make our money and NOT on the original $20. Concerns: - If we don't charge we will be bombarded, like you pointed out, with low quality content. This is a problem we want to avoid. - If we don't charge then we will be paying artists to review your content out of our own pocket. Question: What would this site have to say so that when you saw it, as a musician, your reaction was "Holy shit I have to do this and would be stupid not to"?

d0m 14y ago

I don't like the facebook connect where it says Hipset can post on my behalf. Isn't it possible to give basic info but ask for permission later on if/when there's something to share?

d0m 14y ago
Also Ctrl-Click on links should open in a new tab rather than the same window.

tarice 14y ago

At the bottom of the page it says: "Forbes: Hipset Is Next Generation Music Site >>" ...which seems like it would be a link to the article. But I can't seem to click it. In fact, I can't even find that text in the DOM, which is confusing me something fierce.

schlichtm 14y ago
Ah, looks like Optimizely had an error. Fixing this. Here's the link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/08/19/hipset-is-next-generation-music-site-from-y-combinators-tracks-by/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/08/19/hipset-is-...

benwerd 14y ago

My sister is an artist (https://soundcloud.com/hannahwerdmuller https://soundcloud.com/hannahwerdmuller) and I would like to front her $20. The website as it stands looks like a lottery, mostly because of the "if we like it" component. How can I reassure her and get her to agree to submit her music to you?

jimbobimbo 14y ago
Well, being an artist IS a lottery - an occupational hazard, if you will.

whiddershins 14y ago

This is what YC has come to? Funding pay-to-be-discovered scams? Because whichever way you slice it, this is pay to play. Sad.

dbalatero 14y ago
I imagine the $20 is to keep artists out that are less serious, and therefore make the queue of songs to review more manageable. And to pay the folks reviewing stuff so they can go in depth. I agree pay-to-play can be sketchy, but the alternative (which I do all the time) is put my music out there for free to writer's overcrowded inboxes and hope that they take a look (which they often do not). I put in $20 just to give it a shot. If nothing happens, no big deal.
- schlichtm 14y ago
  This is exactly right.
  - wavesounds 14y ago
    Actually its exactly wrong. For a lot of real artists $20 is a BIG deal, thats dinner for the band or gas to the next gig, any real artist would never agree to this, by charging $20 your only going to get desperate bands that everyone else ignores because they suck. It takes a minute to listen to someones mp3, your kidding yourself thinking charging is going to give you better overall quality.
orangethirty 14y ago
Why is it sad? I'm curious.
ebf 14y ago
VC:Seed Accelerator::Record Label:Hipset The payment is just acting as a low level barrier for initial contact.

dbalatero 14y ago

I submitted a track from my band. If you don't like the track or don't think it's promotable for whatever reason, will you give me that specific feedback? I'd like to have that feedback vs. a form letter, especially if I pay $20.

schlichtm 14y ago
Yes, absolutely, you will receive specific feedback from us about the production, vocals (if there are any), and presentation. Thank you for trying our new service out!

danhodgins 14y ago

Smart move to charge $20 up front to eliminate the majority of crap - definitely keep charging (and don't forget to A/B test your pricing). My hunch is that you'll have to provide more than just another artist's opinion for the $20. Consider additional value you could bundle up for the $20, and create a 'killer offer' that you believe in, and that provides excellent value for the artist. Play with the parameters you bundle into the offer to make it absolutely irresistible. A/B test the offer of course. Some ideas for bundling additional value into the $20 price: 1. Offer to make it a video review, and transcribe it as well. 2. Publish both the video and transcript on one (or all) of your web properties with links to the artist's website and top social media handles. Get the artist who does the reviews to also link to the artist being reviewed. 3. Create a 'discovery' directory with listings of each artist who paid the $20 for their review - I'm curious to find out about these artists myself - even the ones you don't want to promote - the $20 is an effective filter for both you and I! Cool idea, and I LOVE to see people taking some risks and innovating the business model for music.

schlichtm 14y ago
Thanks for the feedback - we're looking into how we can make more of a "killer offer". We've received quite a bit of feedback that videos would be very desirable.
- danhodgins 14y ago
  I'm all for charging - it's the best way to eliminate the tire kickers. You obviously have to provide good value for money, and it sounds like you're getting some great feedback already, so keep up your data-driven feedback loop and I'm confident you'll end up with something really interesting and innovative.

orangethirty 14y ago

I like how this is a twist on the old music label agent. Where artists would hound them with demos ande whatnots hoping to get discovered. One interesting take is the fact that artists are being charged money without much explanation as to what they will receive. I'm not implying that this is a scam. No sir. My point is that one should at least have more information available from the website. Maybe a little FAQ page would help convert those people who may have any doubt about this. Now, artists are quite an unique market. They will gladly pay for this type of service. I'd say you should test charging more, because $20 dollars might come off as being too cheap. I think $99 is a good number to test. Enough to only bring in serious prospects and not hinder the aparent quality of your process. The record labels list would be better served with their logos. Record labels are powerful brands. Artists dream with having those logos on their productions. Though I'm curious about the business model here. I can assume you will take n amount from the profits of an artist whom you discover. Do you aim to represent the artist or merely just introduce them to people in the industry? I hope you are ready to sort green M&Ms. ;)

schlichtm 14y ago
FAQ is a great idea. We're working on an updated design that includes record label logos, it looks MUCH better. You are correct on the business model. Green M&Ms, Yellow M&Ms, as long as they are making great content, whatever they want ;)
- orangethirty 14y ago
  I would not do the usual bulleted FAQ, by the way. You are dealing with artists, and for them the presentation is as important as the content. Also, you should research what makes artists anxious. Address that in your copy. For example: (Picture a website with an image of a backstage with some pretty sketchy looking folks in there). We know you don't want to be taken for a ride. That is why we work with select insdustry people. You will be introduced to them. If you feel uncomfortable, will have the choice to decide against working with them. Our aim is to create a good team that will propel you towards the top of the charts and not nickel and dime you over every aspect of your career. * And so on.

wavesounds 14y ago

Tons of blogs will review your music for free and give you exposure. Charging for maybe access to an old boys network of major labels if some random person likes it, is really taking advantage of peoples hopes and dreams. Please ditch this idea and start a label, zine or venue instead. Something that will actually benefit artists and the art world.

kdazzle 14y ago

Preying on the insecure. And I'm willing to bet that only the worst artists will pay for this crap.

schlichtm 14y ago
Our goal is to discover artists, grow their audience, and help them generate real revenue online. We've already found quite a bit of incredibly talented artists. Check out this recent submission from an artist in San Francisco: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7jcfFrpvMA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7jcfFrpvMA

UAintMySon 14y ago

I want to sign my artist up for this, he has a pretty large fan base i'd like to know more. i added you on fb my name is Jada Brown and i'd like to chat. i know Mazy btw. I dnt mind the $20.