Notes app musings: proposals for resonate community to consider from a label perspective

[topshelfrecords]

Hey just wanna chime in here and mention that I think there are many, many cases for a voucher as we are discussing it. But, as I brought it up in the original post here, it was in the context of a download code that comes inserted with a vinyl record. In this case, no email is required of the person redeeming it afaik. You just go to the URL, enter the code, and are prompted to download it without ever providing an email address. I could be wrong here though!

Thanks for the deeper dive into the logistics of this, @Nick_M! I think what you’ve outlined makes sense as well, as a form of not passing this cost on to the listener.

@Nick_M

So if Bandcamp verify the voucher codes using an email address to match with the one used to create the code and require the user to prove control of that address, the user would have pretty much the same experience as creating a sign-up account anyway?

This might be true, but I’d be wary of it as a listener. I don’t like feeling like my content is walled off from me, or held hostage in exchange for me performing an action. I would maybe arrive at this page, see I had to register for something and then just X out and consider it a loss. I am extremely off-put by stuff like that as a user, personally. This would have to be incredibly unobtrusive. In the context of redeeming a download card from inside a vinyl record, I already went through the hurdle of purchasing the album with money. Redeeming the code and being met with any kind of barrier feels like a violation of this transaction.

@Nick_M

That page showing the other albums redeemed for that email address sounds pretty much like an ‘account’ to me.

I see what you’re saying, especially in the context of everything else you’ve written and what @LLK has brought up, but I do think we should honor the intelligence of listeners to feel they have made this choice, not had it forced on them in order to redeem something.

@Nick_M

Perhaps it is just the perceived value of the code as a token that makes us think it necessary for the listener. Its value to the artist and the platform is as a tracking mechanism of course… ‘Closing the loop’ in the analytics so the platform knows who picked up on which promotion and when, because they have a redemption event to correlate with. Loyalty schemes are powerful.

In the case of a download card in a record, the redeemer’s email is never known. So, while I agree with what you’re saying in most contexts (that info is super useful), I think having this so that the code can be redeemed while a passive case for resonate is made while the listener is briefly on the page, that is the move. Similar to how weTransfer handles it. They let you know you could have an account, you could advertise, you could upload your own files, but you’re there specifically to download the file someone else sent you and then leave. But, enough of a % of people do perform those secondary actions and weTransfer grows little by little organically because of it. A well designed “landing page” that does this for redeeming Resonate download codes (“vouchers”) could do the same for Resonate I think.

@LLK

You nailed it yes, the reason why Bandcamp vouchers are so precious is they don’t require to create an account on the platform which I think @topshelfrecords will agree is an absolute prerequisite for a voucher service to be efficient for a musician.

Yep, that is in fact how I view it as well! Give people the freedom to choose and they’ll choose you eventually if what you’ve built is truly useful. I also agree with the rest of your post (and most things you post on these forums, to be honest). Thanks for helping to distill what this could be!

[LLK]

@Nick_M

So if Bandcamp verify the voucher codes using an email address to match with the one used to create the code and require the user to prove control of that address

Ah that’s probably where I wasn’t clear : the codes are “adress-less” or adress agnostic if you prefer, no email adress has been used to generate them, and if you hold a code can enter any email adress you wish with them, I’d need to check because I’ve never done that but it’s even possible a fake email adress would actually work fine and still take you to the download page since there’s no email verification step that I can remember.

So there’s no “loop to close” because there’s no loop to start, the download code is litterally the value of the album and the email adress is a tool to recieve the download link by mail so that you always have a pointer to that page if you’re not a Bandcamp member.

Bandcamp only displays the “albums” you have if it sees the same email adress has been used several times to redeem things, but other than that it’s got 0 personnal informations about you so I’d hardly qualify this as “similar to creating an account” both from the perspective of the platform and the listener.

[Nick_M]

Thanks @llk @topshelfrecords, that’s clear… we’d need to do anonymous download codes…

https://get.bandcamp.help/hc/en-us/articles/360007902593-Track-album-code-tutorial

Really nice feature and no tracking it seems, unless the artist/label’s own MailChimp or whatever campaign requires it.

There are some open source voucher code generators out there it seems, so we could avoid platforms like voucherify.io.

One for the roadmap then, if short term workarounds won’t cut it.

[boopboop]

hey @topshelfrecords just discovered your label, here’s my first attempt at a resonate playlist of topshelf tracks (one of your proposal items)

https://stream.resonate.coop/u/17929/playlist/top-shelf

[boopboop]

@Hakanto could we split these proposals into separate proposals?
They seem more possible now than in May - the playlist one semi-exists today for example.

Or is this something @topshelfrecords should do?

[topshelfrecords]

hey, THANK YOU! I will check this out and post on our socials. Oh, also, it’s Topshelf, one word just fyi

[boopboop]

updated