Artist Services Blog

Save time, use iLike to Post to MySpace

If you post bulletins and blogs on MySpace, this feature is for you.  Now you can use the iLike Artist Dashboard to post bulletins and blogs to your MySpace artist page.

Any bulletin, blog, video, and photo posted to iLike can be posted to MySpace.  What's more, when you use this feature we track the number of views and plays for the items you Post to MySpace. This means you'll get consolidated stats across iLike and MySpace so you can easily track how many fans you reach for each post.

It's easy to use, simply click the "Post to MySpace" link inside post options and follow the instructions.  If your post has a video, audio, or a photo we include that inside the post on MySpace too. This feature will save you a bunch of time.  We've already received very positive feedback from early adopters.  If you use MySpace, you should check it out today.

To close, we wanted to share another cool story about a band using iLike. Lady Antebellum reached the #3 position on iTunes Top Albums Chart last week, the first time a country band has ever landed in the top 10 with a debut album. Lady Antebellum has been using iLike as part of their multi-faceted, multi-month digital campaign to connect with fans in a unique, creative way.  Learn more about the band's digital strategy on iLike.   Congrats Lady A!

Stats you've been waiting for

Now you can track the number of views and plays for videos, bulletins, blogs, and photos posted to iLike.  This week we released new stats which enable you to analyze the number of impressions for content posted to iLike and syndicated across the web.  For each post we calculate the total number of views plus include graphs so you can see trends visually.  If it's an audio or video post we track the number of plays too.  And for you data heads out there, you can export the data to CSV just like all the existing graphs on the artist dashboard.

Even better, if you syndicate videos to any website, blog, or MySpace page using the iLike Video Player we track these plays too.  This means you can embed the video player anywhere across the web and iLike will collect play stats for you.  We think that's pretty cool and hope you like it.

To wrap up, we're always excited to share the creative things artists are doing on iLike.  Jason Mraz recently shared his impromptu freestyle with us.  Check it out.  Once you watch it, I bet you'll understand why we like it. ;) 

Add videos to your website using iLike

We're excited to announce the release of the iLike video player.  This player isn't like traditional embeddable video players.  Yes, it's the same size, it's shareable, and embeds just like YouTube but it includes features especially for artists.

The iLike player shows everything you've done recently on the iLike Artist Dashboard.  Now your fans can learn about new concerts, album releases, and listen to new songs just by using this video player. Further, fans can subscribe to get email updates from iLike.  We'll send them a weekly digest of your activity along with activity from other favorite artists.  Coming soon, fans will be able to iLike your videos right inside the player.

To get started, upload videos to the iLike Artist Dashboard.   Once the video has completed processing click "Embed video on my website" and just copy and paste the embed code into your MySpace page, website, or blog.  It's that easy.

Enjoy!

The iLike Team

R.E.M. launches album; 200k artists use iLike

R.E.M. premieres Accelerate, the band's 14th studio album, on iLike.  Accelerate will stream in its entirety exclusively on iLike.  Also, Michael Stipe has recorded a personal video message introducing and discussing the album that is only available via iLike.  Catch it here first, listen to Accelerate.

Now over 200,000 artists, including over half of the top 500 acts, have registered to use iLike to cultivate and communicate with their fans. Tens of thousands of artists regularly use iLike to syndicate their songs, videos, photos, bulletins, concert information and exclusive content across the web. 

To show off some of the coolest things that artists have been doing using iLike, we put together a "greatest hits" video. Posts like these get extremely positive responses from fans.  Personalized messages that tell stories, provide candid performances, or give fans backstage access are great ways to connect with fans.  Check out the amazing content a few artists have posted.

A new look for iLike artist pages

We’re announcing some big changes this week- we’ve improved the design and made it easier to find content on iLike artist pages.  Now it's much easier for fans to find your latest bulletin, video, blog post, or photos.  You’ll notice complimentary changes inside the Artist Dashboard which let you decide where to post your content.  We’re excited about these changes and hope they improve how fans discover and interact with content you’ve posted on iLike.

As part of this change we removed the iCast section, replacing it with Bulletin and Blog.  Since bulletins and blogs are two distinct ways of communicating with fans we wanted to break these out separately.  Bulletins are displayed more prominently on your page since they are often used to advertise special announcements, events, or contests.  And blogs are typically used for direct, personal communication from the artist.  We've given you tools to re-classify old iCast posts as blog, bulletin, video, or photo so they will show in these new sections.  Simply edit the post in the artist dashboard and choose the correct classification from the drop down.

So what happens to iCast?  iCast now becomes your channel for syndicating your iLike activity across the web.  In the artist dashboard you’ll see “My iCast” on the right-hand side of the page.  This shows everything you are doing on iLike- posting bulletins, blogs, photos, videos, songs, etc.  Very soon we’ll be offering cool new ways of syndicating your iCast across the web using iLike widgets.  Stay tuned!

The iLike Team

Reorder your featured songs!

Now you choose the order of featured songs on your iLike artist page.  Based on your feedback, we added support for changing the order of songs uploaded to the iLike Artist Dashboard.  Using this feature you can easily re-order songs previously uploaded or add new songs and move them to the top of the list.  We hope you like it!

We have other great news. We recently surpassed 23 Million users and now more than 200,000 artists are using the iLike Artist Dashboard to reach fans on Facebook, hi5, and Bebo. We're working hard to keep up the momentum and in the coming weeks we will also be launching applications on MySpace and Orkut. This means using iLike's Post Once, Publish Everywhere platform you'll have the potential to reach over 200 million music fans. For more information you can check out our recent press release and watch a video montage of the very unique and personal ways artists are reaching out to fans on iLike. Thanks for using iLike!

The iLike Team

New stats features: graphs, trends, and more!

This week we've added some cool stats features to help you analyze your growth on iLike.  Now you can track daily fan growth and view trends on how fans are interacting with and discovering your music. 

New Features:

- Summary Graphs: You can now track daily numbers for New Fans, Dedications, and Profile Adds.

- Song Graphs: Track daily dedications and profile adds for each song. 

- Export to CSV: Each graph offers the option to export the data so you may further analyze trends using your favorite spreadsheet program.

- Print Graphs: We offer the option to show all graphs on one page.  These may be printed and brought to weekly marketing meetings. 

- Newsletter Graph: Every week in the iLike Artist Newsletter you'll see a graph of daily new fans for the previous week. (see above)

We're excited about these new features and hope you find them valuable too.  We recognize stats are key to helping you track your growth-  Stay tuned, we'll be adding more stats features soon. 

The iLike Team

Reach fans on their iPhone!

This week we released a new channel to help you stay connected with your fans--iLike is now available on the iPhone.  iLike for the iPhone syndicates your concerts and artist activity so fans can keep up-to-date with their favorite artists.

The Concerts feature gives fans a calendar of nearby concerts, personalized by location and integrated with Google Maps on the iPhone. For artists, this means when you add concerts to the iLike Artist Dashboard, your fans can easily see when you're coming to town.

The Music Newsfeed provides fans a feed of videos, songs, concerts, album releases, and bulletins.  When you post content to iLike Artist Dashboard fans can now see your activity in their iLike Music Newsfeed on their iPhone. 

We’re constantly improving iLike on the iPhone. We’ll soon add more personalization and cool features, so stay tuned!

The iLike Team :-)

New look for the Artist Dashboard; Support for albums

This week we made a few changes to the artist dashboard  that will simplify your most common tasks.  We've added quick links to help you get started each time you return to the dashboard.   Now you can post an iCast, song, video, concert, or album right when you log in.  We've also moved the custom links into "Artist Settings".  Access it by clicking "Edit setting" from the right side of the dashboard.

We're also excited to announce you can now add albums to your artist page using the iLike Artist Dashboard.   We've heard your feedback- you are now able to add, edit, or hide albums that are listed on your iLike artist page.  Upload album art, add you own track list, and easily reorder tracks using the new album editing tools.

Check out the latest updates today!

The iLike Team

Reach fans directly inside iTunes via iLike!

In case you haven't noticed, we recently added a killer new feature to the iLike Sidebar for iTunes, and it's especially valuable to artists.  We've added an "Artist" tab containing a music feed so fans have yet another channel to hear from you.  As an artist, this means all your activity on the iLike Artist Dashboard will be summarized in a feed inside the iLike Sidebar.  Everyone who is a fan of your music will see your latest activity (iCast  posts, uploaded songs, videos, and new concerts).  What's more, your most recent posts are displayed prominently when fans play your music.

This is a huge step forward in artist-fan communication.  Artists can now connect with fans in a personalized way during the music listening experience.  You no longer need to wait for fans to visit one of the web presences you maintain.  Using iLike increases the relevance of your messages since they are delivered while fans listen to your music.  Further, since the iLike Sidebar works with Windows Media Player too it enables you to reach even more fans.

Even better, the iLike Sidebar is free and doesn't require people to sign-up.  Tell your fans to download the iLike Sidebar today so you can stay connected.