Credit: Rhythmic Rebellion
The following comes from Rhythmic Rebellion, a company DMN is proud to work with.
WeVerse is owned by Hybe. Hybe is the South Korean music label that supports BTS, Tomorrow X Together, ENHYPEN and a variety of other music acts. Hybe is one of the most successful labels in the world, largely thanks to BTS.
WeVerse is a community building platform with an integrated merch store. Fans get access to exclusive content, there’s artist-to-fan messaging, and fan-to-fan interactions.
Why is WeVerse such a good idea? If you’re a label, artist manager, or indie artist, you’re frustrated with how difficult it is to communicate with your fans. Over 60% of your emails end up in the spam or junk folder. Many of you have switched from collecting emails to collecting phone numbers, but now there is a spam filter for it.
Thanks to Facebook and Instagram algorithms, less than 1% of your followers will see your posts. You are asked to pay the social media god to get more fans to see your posts. This makes many of you angry because you have already paid once to find these fans and now you have to pay again to communicate with them.
Hybe saw WeVerse as a solution to these problems. Now they have their own platform where they can control the fan experience and communicate freely with the fans. All their artists are there. The fan joins the platform once and can interact with any artist on the platform and buy merch.
Why should Sony and Warner worry? Universal Music Group was impressed by how Hybe opened up new possibilities and decided to work with them. UMG already has a few artists on WeVerse and plans to add many more of them there in 2023.
The most powerful tool in the world to drive fan action is the app. When Hybe can send a message through the app that says “BTS has released a new song, stream it on Spotify” and every registered fan sees that notification instantly on their phone, the results are phenomenal. This is by far the best means of communication there is.
Sony and Warner vs. WeVerse: As you can see, Sony and Warner are currently at a serious disadvantage in the music label war. Sony and Warner creating their own version? Probably, but creating these apps and platforms takes time and a lot of money.
Is there another platform that can compete with WeVerse? The Rhythmic Rebellion The platform is the only one that comes close.
It offers the community building, merch store, access to exclusive content, and maybe even better ways to communicate with fans than WeVerse. Each artist and label account has its own email system. A copy of the email will be placed in the fan’s message center and fans will be notified via the app…100% delivery. There’s a built-in music player so fans can buy music and start listening right away. There’s live video streaming, subscription fan clubs, and more.
Artists can also build their website directly on the platform, which is perfect for community building. You can find out more Here.
Should Sony and Warner develop their own platforms or should they take advantage of the RR platform? If there’s SonyVerse, WarnerVerse, and WeVerse, which platform do you think will have the largest community? Yes, WeVerse. UMG has many great artists through its many partnerships with other labels.
These artists will invite their fans to join them on WeVerse, and this community will have a “buying power” never seen before by a music label.
I expect UMG will start selling albums on WeVerse months ahead of the release on streaming platforms. UGM will offer subscriptions to exclusive content, including early releases of music videos and other exclusive artist content. Fans can rent and watch a film there. I can even imagine a day when Spotify tries to play hard with UMG, and UMG says, “Thanks to WeVerse, Spotify is no longer a necessity.” Diversification! It’s a smart business move.
As you can see, the future is bleak for Sony, Warner and not to mention all the indie labels and artists out there…or is it?
What if Sony and Warner decided to both join the Rhythmic Rebellion platform and then invite all indie labels and artists to join them? Born in 2017, RR is a proven platform with more functionality than WeVerse.
In a matter of months, Sony and Warner could have their biggest artists on the platform and be well on their way to having a larger community than WeVerse.
The indie artists banded together and invited their fans. This works for indie artists because RR isn’t just a platform for superstars and labels. It also features the DIY ability. RR management would get suggestions from Sony, Warner, and the indie labels and artists as to what the RR rules should be and what software to develop next. They can be reached at (email protected).
So what will they decide? One thing is for sure: you will either be part of a WeVerse-like platform, or wish you were. Stay tuned….