Mobilizing the Fan Experience – An Interview with our Creative Minister
After an exciting three years of behind-the-scenes development of our backend-server technology and 6 months of beta piloting with several international artists of EMI, Atlantic Records and PIAS, the commercial release of Mobile Back
stage approaches its long-awaited disembarkation this June.
Steam Republic’s visionary Creative Minister Jussi Ruusila reveals that when his team started concept development and consequently won FinNode’s Web-2-Mobile business plan competition in 2007 for Mobile Backstage, no one spoke about mobile applications. Today there is a huge market for artist-branded mobile apps expanding uncontrollably as we speak. Mr. Ruusila is in charge of concept and technical development in Steam Republic.
Could you enlighten us a bit about the development cycle of Mobile Backstage?
We’ve added new features in every new version released, but the main focus above all is in usability. Instead of just adding url-links to some website outside the app itself, we want to make purchasing tickets, songs and merchandise inside Mobile Backstage as easy as in App Store without all the hassle on logins, third parties, confirmations etc.
Now that you’re releasing your commercial version, is the beta phase officially over?
Of course, we won’t stop developing Mobile Backstage. It’s never ready! There’s still a long list of new features to come, but this next version pretty much materializes my original vision. It will be somewhat of a milestone, as it’ll include features that were planned way back in our award-winning concept draft.
And what kind of developments may we expect in the near future?
In our last update, we brought some location based features and an interactive event calendar enabling fans to check-in gigs by GPS. The next step will be interactive music features where you can not only listen/buy music, but also comment and discuss the songs and albums. You can sort the whole discography based on ratings or comments and interact on songs while listening to them. Whether you’re at the gig or in a train listening to the new album, you can always connect and comment on everything with fellow fans inside Mobile Backstage. It’ll be the ultimate fan solution for mobile devices making it possible for bands and their fans to connect and share their experiences on-the-go.
How has the beta piloting phase generated feedback amongst clients?
The reception has been incredibly positive and we believe it’s mostly due to the fact that it’s not just a random app that aggregates content from the band’s website. Engaging fans in the next dimension requires an active place where the content is made by the fans and the band themselves. This strong band and fan presence is the very reason why we focus in the core audience , we don’t need everybody.
Finally, what about the reception from the fans themselves?
We’re proud to say that Mobile Backstage has proven to be able to generate as much (or even more) fan activity on behalf of the band’s existing social media channels, with just a few % of the band’s “Twitter-followers” or “Facebook-fans”. This is what happened with our first beta for You Me At Six. Having a direct connection and private channel to your fans’ pocket is a truly powerful asset.
Steam Republic will release the commercial version of Mobile Backstage in early June. More information to be announced soon.
“There’s an enormous value in having a relationship with your fans. More value even than in selling your records.” – Trent Reznor