Fight the Power,
Critique:
Overview:
The website has a lot of potential, because the music
industry is becoming unalterably tied to the internet and the four major record
labels actually haven’t even come close to tapping the vast market potential
that distribution of music on the internet holds. While the idea for the site sounds good on
the outset, the website does have a very long way to go in terms of
workability.
Major Issues:
The competition “Fight the Power” is facing is vast, and
almost overwhelming. Apple, especially,
has an eye on the online music distribution market and has done a very good job
of establishing itself in that market.
Itunes and Myspace were both mentioned as competitors, along with what
they are doing right and wrong. However,
it is not entirely clear how “Fight the Power” is going to be better than
Itunes/Myspace. Myspace has the enormous
advantage of already having millions of users, so bands using Myspace to
advertise their music already have millions of potential customers that they
can freely advertise to. Itunes, as you
mentioned, is a very established brand name and people feel very comfortable
buying from them.
The website itself is not present, so it is hard to critique
the way the page operates or how accessible it is to users. It would be nice to see an outline of what
“Fight the Power” will look like and how the site is set up. Ease and usability of a site is a key
feature, especially when the site is trying to attract a very large number of
potential customers.
Food For Thought:
How much of the proceeds does Itunes take? You take 10%, I’d be curious on the
comparison.
Consider the subscription method instead of 10%, this is
where users pay a certain amount per month/week/year and get unlimited
downloads during that time.
“the big record labels overlook great
music because they don’t think it will turn a profit, the entire music
community misses out” – Music makes profit because it is popular a large
number of people like it. If music isn’t
popular and large number of people don’t like it, it won’t turn a profit, thus
record labels WILL overlook it. Is that
still great music? Record labels are it
in for the money, but so are you.
Inside the Wires:
Overview:
The site looks very visually appealing, and very easy to
use. I like the layout and the links
(Part 1, 2, 3, etc.). I think the idea
is sound as well, especially because once the site is complete, I know I’ll be
reading it. The business plan is good,
and the argument for why the website is needed makes perfect sense.
Issues:
Really, the only main issue I can mention is the large
amount of text in the introduction.
Users see: Inside the Wires, an approachable guide to the working of the
internet, and immediately after a whole bunch of text that doesn’t look very
approachable. I know that it is only the
Welcome page and you haven’t yet gone into the actual guide, so Part 1, 2, 3,
etc. may more approachable, but at first glance, the site is slightly complex
and readers may lose interest.
Other:
I would like to see the actual substance of the website, to
see how approachable it is. And because
I want to learn more about the internet.
page last edited: Andrew Schroeder, 06/05/2008
