We build a lot of complicated application but we also build some simple ones that simply work well and are cost effective. A good example of this is the “Subscribe To Download” widget we built for BEC Recording artist August Burns Red (check it out at http://www.merchdirect.com/augustburnsred).  The widget (which is embedded on the band’s merch site) allows fans to download a sampler (handpicked by the band) in exchanged for subscribing to a newsletter. Also embedded in the widget is a SoundCloud player. What really nice about the widget is that is uses BEC’s own Amazon S3 account to securely deliver the download. Our download API’s integrated directly with their Amazon S3 –  this means they don’t have to pay us any extra for the bandwidth associated with the promotion (78MB x 10–20K fans quickly adds up), at the same time they benefit from having a secure download they control and download stats/reporting via Amazon S3.

Like-Gating content on your Facebook page is a simple way to increase your number of likes and custom applications are probably the best way to automate and scale that process! We have built a lot of these Facebook “Like” gate application and thought it would be a good idea to share some examples. The idea is simple – “Like” gate every piece of exclusive or semi-exclusive content and you’ll grow your Facebook fan base in record time. Fan-gating has the added benefit of allowing existing fans get the content “for free” but forcing new fans to “Like” your Facebook page in order to get it!

Here are common and creative example of a broad range of “Like” gated application we have helped deployed:

• Music Downloads (Single/Direct)
• Music Downloads (Multiple/Codes)
• Exclusive Videos
• Game Download
• Sweepstakes Entries
• Events and Tours
• Music Chords
• Album Covers (Crowdsourced)
• Album Covers

Related Posts:

• Like Gating Content on Facebook to Grow Your Fan Base (Gaming)

Here are some post related to Instagram applications and sweepstakes.

• Bi-Lingual Facebook + Instagram Application
• More Instagram Applications..
• Using Instagram as Part of Event Promotion: Alfie Boe
• The Invasion of the Instagram Applications
• Another 3 Component Combo: Keith Harkin Instagram App
• Video + Pinterest + Badge: Packing More Value Into Apps
• Instagram Application for Facebook and Contesting
• Instagram Applications
• Dart2iHeart Facebook Application
• Enrique Iglesias and Jennifer Lopez Tour Tickets Giveaway & Microsite
• #HashTagMap – Social Media Mapping

Morgan Frazier is an up and coming country music artist signed with Curb Records. To help promote her new single “Yellow Brick Road”, we launched a promotion that included a sweepstakes, user generated content (UGC) and as well as a radio component. The ideas was to engage fans by with a “Like” gated application that allowed them to two things. The first is to enter a sweepstakes for a chance to win a private concert from Morgan and an autographed guitar. The second is to “claim a brick” by posting and sharing what was at the end of their yellow brick road.  The application also allowed radio to participate by “sponsoring a brick”.  Users could also automatically share their post on their Facebook wall. You can check out the application here: http://meta2.us/mf

Yellow Brick Road
Application features a music player, buy links, a dynamic scrolling yellow brick road that features users posts and radio sponsored bricks, a sweepstakes and discussion board.

Sweepstakes
Users who “Liked” the page are able to enter in the sweepstakes.

User Generated Content
Users are able to claim a brick by sharing their story.

Radio Admin
This is a separate application send out by the radio team to radio stations that allows them to quickly and easily sponsor a brick.

Vine is a video sharing app, a combination of photo and video sharing with sounds. Basically, you can think of Vine as Instagram meets Youtube with a dash of Twitter.  Recently launched by Twitter, and the new social media channel is becoming extremely popular, which means it should become a part of your social media plan.

Music artists have already began to use the social media channel as both Mashable (35 Ways Musicians and Music Brands Are Using Twitter’s Vine App) and HypeBot (Top 10 Ways Musicians Are Using Vine) document in their recent posts.

At Metablocks, we have always tried to stay ahead of the curve. In the past we have launched marketing solutions for new social networks that include Pinterest and Instagram, that’s why we’re in the process of building out our Vine social marketing suite of music apps, and need your ideas and input. If you Vine application or idea you’d like to deploy, let us know!

Here are some of the more creative uses that have social marketing potential

• Impromptu Contest (Paul McCartney)
• Album Reveals (Pistol Annies)
• Valentines Day Cards (Mindless Behavior/VH1)
• Conversation Starter (Robbie Williams/Vevo)

Here are some inline Vine examples:

Also read:

• Twitter Vine for Musicians
• 35 Ways Musicians and Music Brands Are Using Twitter’s Vine App
• Top 10 Ways Musicians Are Using Vine

We are often asked to design and develop music download application on Facebook (like our recent Covergirl/NERVO download app), but this application is unique in three different ways.

• It delivers free music chords in PDF format. Music is not the only exclusive content download available to music labels. Depending on who your fans are, music labels need to be flexible and creative when creating digital incentives for fans. In addition to music, you can offer videos, chords and other digital assets to your fans.
• “Like-gates” are popular but they are not the only way to extract value from Facebook fans. Consider subscribe-gates (as in this example), share-gates and other types of value-added gating. Some of our most successful applications have featured multiple gating mechanisms to create critical mass more quickly (see album cover reveal app).
• Email deliver is another option to consider when designing application that deliver exclusive content. This particular application asks fans for an email address and sends the music chords to that address as a way of verifying it.

Album reveals have been a very popular and effective way to Like-gate or Share-gate exclusive artist content (album cover, i.e.) as a way of generating social media buzz around the release of a new single or album. We have many options available on both Facebook and Twitter depending on your preferred social network, unlock mechanism and potentially album or single create.

In general these are the available album reveal approaches:

• Single Like-Gate: user likes the page to see the album cover
• Crowdsourced Like-Gate: when a certain number of users like a page, a part or all of the album cover is unlocked
• Single Share-Gate: user shares a message on Twitter or Facebook to see the album cover
• Crowdsourced Share-Gate: when a certain number of users share a message, a part or all of the album cover is unlocked
• Comprehensive (Multi-Action): user is asked to do multiple actions such as liking, sharing on multiple players, watching videos or listening to music in order to unlock pieces of the album cover
• Game Driven: users plays a game or solves a puzzle (such as a graphic puzzle) in order to reveal the album cover
• Time Driven: users are encouraged to share, but album cover is revealed based on a timer

PLATFORM-BASED AND PATTERN-BASED EXAMPLES:

Facebook

• Comprehensive Sharing – Like, Share, Tweet, View (Dwight Yoakam, WBR Nashville)
• Comprehensive Sharing (The Killers, Island Def Jam)
• Simple Like-Gate (Various)
• Jigsaw Like-Gate (Ricardo Monaner, Sony Latin) –  Crowdsourced version

Twitter

• Mosaic Reveal (Portugal The Man, Atlantic)
• Mosaic Reveal (My Children, My Bride, Tooth and Nail)
• Twitter Countdown (Cody Simpson, Altantic / Alajandro Sanz, UMG Latin)

Other Options

• Timed Release (Alice In Chains, EMI)

By Pattern:

• Jigsaw (Ricardo Monaner, Sony Latin)
• Horizontal Slide (Alice in Chains, EMI)
• Stages (The Killers, Island Def Jam)
• Pixel Reveal

Metablocks develops a broad range of applications for its music and entertainment clients, these include Like-Gated and Share-Gated music download apps that leverage both Facebook and Twitter. The idea behind these application is simple – motivate fans to “Like” a Facebook page or share a message (on Facebook or Twitter) in order to download a FREE MP3 track (or album) from their favorite music artists.

Facebook Consumer Examples:

• Dunkin Donuts/ UMGL Music Download
• Sears / UMGL Download
• Kraft / Curb Records Download
• Bruegger’s Download

Facebook Music Label Examples:

• Music Application Round Up

Stand-Alone (mpCloud.com) Examples:

• mpCloud Download Applications

Tweematic Examples

• Luke Bryan and Gary Allan (Twitter and Facebook)
• Lee Brice (Twitter and Facebook)
• B.Reith (Twitter and Facebook)
• Assembly of Dust “Buy It or Share It” Album Download (Twitter, Facebook & Email)

We have talked about our voice and text application beta program in the past, and we are finally beginning to launch some of the applications we have been working on during the last couple of weeks.  Stay tuned for other new voice and text application in near future.

New telephony infrastructure platforms such as Twilio and Plivo are enabled a new generation of voice and text applications that are significantly better and less expensive than the first generation tools from companies like Mozes (now ePrize), TextMarks, and SayNow (now Google). Unfortunately many early adopters who initially flocked to these tools to manage their mobile marketing campaigns has since moved on as the cost and inflexibility of these systems  far out-weighed their value.

So, what makes our new voice and text application solutions different:

• Cost: Forget expensive monthly fees or multi-year enterprise-wide licensing, instead use these application on  a per artist, pay-per-use or per project basis. Don’t throw away valuable existing mobile lists or mobs that you may be paying monthly to maintain! Instead we can help you move them and use them on a pay-per-use basis.
• Flexibility and Creativity: There is more to mobile marketing that just texting! We can develop application that use voice, voice and texting, or texting only. While 1st  generation tools pretty much focused entirely on texting, the new generation of telephony applications combines voice, texting, click-to-call, VOIP, SIP and a handful of other technologies to create apps that are creative and engaging.
• Full-service vs self-service: While most simple service service tools that cost $20 a month are nice, more often than not you get what you pay for! Building compelling voice and texting application requires a certain level of creativity, flexibility and control not available in self-service offerings.
• Social media integration: Most 1st  generation mobile marketing tools pre-date social media and lack proper integration with social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.  Even today, many of these tools surprisingly lack ANY real social media integration.  Our goal is to make social media integration a priority and not an after-thought. By marrying voice and texting with social media profiles, clients and artists can better identify and communicate with their customers and fans.

Maggie Rose Song Premiere and FREE Download Voice Application
This week we launched a unique voice application for RPM Music country music artist Maggie Rose. This two-part voice application includes a phone number that fans can call  (442-333-ROSE or 442-333-7673) and a Facebook page that fans use to download a FREE acoustic track.  You can visit the page here: http://www.facebook.com/MaggieRoseMusic/app_476237192426082

By calling 442-333-ROSE, fans can premiere Maggie’s new single ‘Better’ and unlock exclusive content in the process. Once they call the number and preview the song, they unlock a free MP3 download from Maggie’s Facebook page by simply entering the phone number they called from. Fans can also leave Maggie a message (some of which will be featured along with the fan’s profile). Additionally, the voice app allows fans to get download/buy links immediately texted to them  as well as to subscribe to updates from Maggie on their mobile phones or via email.

Some of the application’s technical highlights and features include:

• Voice and SMS integration
• Text-based mobile marketing signup system that is rules compliant (you can text to: 442-333-7673 to signup for news updates)
• Vanity Numbers: 442-333-ROSE (442-333-7673) –  support for both local and toll-free vanity numbers
• Facebook Integration – your phone call is married to your Facebook profile allowing the application to  personalized content
• Built-in reminder features for users who forget to get the free download
• Voice message player with automatically generated audio waveforms
• Google analytics integration for both the voice and Facebook application

Our new Flashmatic platform allows clients to drive digital signage at trade shows or POS locations and deliver real-time content and social media feeds. This new XML-drive web-saavy platform allows clients to combined both static, promotional and dynamic content to create compelling experience for show participants. We were recently asked by our client Curb Records to deploy a solution for them at CRS 2013 in Nashville and here is a clip of that application.

Features and Functionality

• Dynamic updates with ability to control source and frequency on the fly
• Ability to run or cache content locally (plus support for system to fallback to local content if connectivity is lost)
• Real-time monitoring
• Social media feeds (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, FourSquare i.e.)
• Feed moderation and curation
• Support for images, video, audio, and text
• Pre-built modules including: Twitter, Instagram, Weather, RSS, Photo Gallery, Voting i.e.
• Marketing support for advertising, QR-codes, texting i.e.
• Trade show, Point-of-Sale (POS) and mobile application scenario support

Stay tuned for more updates and news on the Flashmatic or give us a call if you interest in deploying applications on this platform.