Adva Mobile Relaunches Fan Engagement Platform With Free HTML5 Mobile Apps For Musicians
About a year and a half ago I wrote about Adva Mobile's free mobile sites for musicians here at Hypebot. At the time the feature set looked promising but the design elements were a barrier to some musicians coming on board though many did anyway. Last week Adva Mobile relaunched their website and mobile site services and yesterday I talked to CEO Jack Kelly about the improvements they've made over the last year.
Adva Mobile announced their relaunch last week after a total redesign of their own website and of their mobile sites for artists. The new mobile sites are HTML5 based and viewable on any device. They can also be wrapped and distributed as native apps for iOS and Android via iTunes and Google Play.
The new designs aren't radically fashion forward but they definitely support Adva Mobile's future development in an increasingly design conscious world. You can see the two basic free design options on offer via mobile sites for:
When I first spoke with CEO Jack Kelly back in August 2011, the feature set was impressive for their free offering but they clearly needed some help with design. Later that year they launched a crowdfunding campaign to fund their redesign efforts.
Yesterday I spoke again with Jack Kelly and he explained that they've had their head down since then and spent the last year not only redesigning their services but redeveloping how their sites were created making them available in HTML5.
SMS text messaging is a key aspect of their marketing and fan engagement features and is included for free. Text messaging is also tied into their analytics features.
So, for example, when a fan texts "getgda" (for Glen David Andrews) their number is stored in the artist's database for identification and return text messages. When the fan buys content, that information also appears in the analytics dashboard.
Rather than simply being presented with aggregated numbers of visitors and sales, artists can begin to identify who their core fans are and provide special goodies just for them. That's one example of how Adva Mobile is developing mobiles sites as fan engagement platforms.
You can find out more on the site but key features include:
free ecommerce services for artists – artists set the price for digital content fulfilled by Adva Mobile, a 10% fee is added to the price for Adva Mobile as well as PayPal fees
basic designs are free with a $1000 charge for custom designs – they are planning to provide a larger range of designs in the future
HTML5 mobile web apps can be wrapped for iOS and Android – Adva Mobile handles the submissions process for a $400 setup fee and a $500 annual fee (or $50 a month)
There's clearly a lot of room for development but Adva Mobile now has a solid base on which to build. Kelly said they were looking at creating responsive designs so the sites would be more appealing on tablets and desktops. He also pointed to other options they wished to improve, for example, ticketing sales options.
The goal is to create a full fan relationship offering rather than simple mobile sites and the relaunch has definitely been a big step forward in that direction.
More:
- Adva Mobile
- Startup Adva Mobile Using Crowdfunding To Improve Free Mobile Sites For Musicians
- Adva Mobile Offers Free Mobile Websites Designed for Musicians
Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (@fluxresearch/@crowdfundingm) also blogs at All World Dance: Videos and maintains Music Biz Blogs. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.
