BREAKTHROUGH BAND: Competitive Analysis

Sample Company Analysis for BreakthroughBand.com

Breakthrough Band is positioned within an unsaturated niche of music blogs where options are limited, but the resources are very powerful.  Rather than diving into comparisons with the plethora of music blogs, the focus here will be on three resources aimed at aspiring musicians.  These resources include Artist House Music, Indie Band Advice and Head Above Music.  Each of these web sites tackle the struggles of music industry careers from a unique standpoint and offer a web presence that Breakthrough Band can aspire to compete with.

Artist House Music

Artist House Music is a video heavy resource for aspiring musicians that allows users to watch clips and interviews from music industry professionals.  While the web site has room for articles and blog posts within, video is the primary media utilized on the site. 

Artist House Music has built a large database of interviews and content from professional musicians, producers, managers, and other industry professionals which offers a certain element of credibility to the messages that similar web resources may struggle to build.  Users also have an opportunity to create their own profile and customize a content page with favorite video clips where they can return and find content easily.  These customizable content pages are necessary with the size of library that Artist House Music has, but it also allows the aspiring musicians to network with other users.  In addition, this web site has done a great job at defining and creating categories and sub categories for users to navigate through.

After several visits to Artist House Music, users will get the hang of things.  This web site has a lot of information and it is easy for a user to get lost or confused in trying to find and organize content.  Although there is a tutorial video to help explain the navigation process, there is a learning curve for users.  In addition, outside of the main page, there seems to be little reference to new content.  While the date of new content may not be as important as the content itself, returning visitors may not notice new content.  With further exploration, there appeared to be opportunity to connect with an RSS feed or email newsletter, but there seems to be a small learning curve again here for users.

Breakthrough Band has identified a great network of knowledge with Artist House Music and sees what a fully functional and establish web resource can develop into.

Indie Band Advice

Indie Band Advice is a resource for aspiring musicians to network and request specific advice within the music industry.  Built around a Q & A user involvement format, this web site offers content that the readers want.  Included in this are featured artists which support and credit the advice given.

The biggest strength that Indie Band Advice brings to the table is content that is directly requested by the users.  The age old classroom encouragement is acted out here understanding that if one person has the question, there are probably others with the same question.  When there is little debate over the content the target audience wants, there is tremendous opportunity to build a loyal reader base.  In addition, Indie Band Advice also featured certain artists - helping promote indie music and encourage bands and artists to get involved further.  While this web resource is organized in a number of topics, each page features a tag cloud that readers can easily find content based on popular keywords.

Indie Band Advice seems to be organized well in terms of categories and topics, but lacks a sense of direction.  For a resource that is structured around Q & A, when a user first arrives on the site, this concept is not clear.  The advice is sound and users can find content they want, but the purpose is in question.  This could just be a formatting issue and could arguably be solved with a simple explanation on the home page.  Another distraction comes with the text heavy design.  The web site is split up in tables but the white tables and white page background blends them all together.  What you are left with is a few small floating pictures amidst a see of text that is distracting to the reader’s eyes.  Blogs in general struggle with the need to have as much content visible as possible without overcrowding and clutter.

Breakthrough Band has identified a blog resource that has some great advice and content but seems to have missed a few opportunities to take advantage of the Q & A style blogging.  Content has also ceased to be updated since August 2009.  This is a great web site to draw ideas from.

Head Above Music

Head Above Music is a compilation of expert advice that hits on a number of important categories for aspiring and touring musicians.  With content written by those who have already struggled through it, the content has credibility and relevance.

From the first page landing at Head Above Music, the purpose of the web site is stated and the content is listed and organized for easy navigation.  The web design is intriguing and users can access whatever they are looking for easily and quickly.  There is also an attractive option to register an email address with the mailing list to stay updated on new content.  While this feature is nothing special in and of itself, Head Above Music has handled this dangerous option very well.  The e-newsletters that come are clear, relevant, and purposed, rather than annoying repeats of advertisements and spam.  A great strength that Head Above Music has developed is a string of expert advice and clear opportunities to submit articles directly to the web master.  As a web master, you can provide relevant content and maintain the web site without burning out as a single writer.  The writer involvement also has the potential to encourage reader loyalty and greater reach… not to mention credibility that comes with expert advice.

There are few challenges with Head Above Music.  The only area of opportunity identified lies in structure of the individual categories.  Users can click on categories across the top of the site or navigate through article listings.  By clicking on the top categories, articles seem pasted in a large string of text, images, advertisements, and other cluttered links.  Whereas navigating through the article listings allows readers to find the exact content they are looking for without the clutter.

Overall, Breakthrough Band has identified a strong resource that is serving its purpose in offering interesting articles, tips and advice to aspiring musicians.  In addition, this web resource points out areas of opportunity for Breakthrough Band.