RockDex now open for business, subscriptions start at $23 per month

Yesterday afternoon, RockDex officially opened its service to the public, leaving private beta and launching its monthly subscription packages. “We had 3,000 peoplesignup for the beta and we let in about 500 to try it out,” Jimmy Winter, RockDex’s chief architect, said via email. “Up until now, our users were all labels…

Screenshot from RockDex.com. Pricing is determined by the number of Facebook fans an artist has accumulated: $23 per month is their lowest rate and $123 is their highest.

Yesterday afternoon, RockDex officially opened its service to the public, leaving private beta and launching its monthly subscription packages. “We had 3,000 people signup for the beta and we let in about 500 to try it out,” Jimmy Winter, RockDex’s chief architect, said via email. “Up until now, our users were all labels, managers and artists who had requested access.”

RockDex is a web-based application providing the music industry with social media metrics and insights. Launched in 2008 as a side project of Winter’s Music Arsenal band management application, RockDex released its latest version, formerly called RockDex Pro, in March of this year. This is the version now available to the public.

I caught up with Winter by email to get the scoop on the latest changes to RockDex, their revenue stream and their funding situation.

Silicon Prairie News: What allowed you to open it up and move out of private beta?

Jimmy Winter: What allowed us to get to public launch were adding some more computing capacity and just having enough time away from app development that I could write the code to automate billing. What a lackluster answer!

What are the latest changes or improvement to RockDex?

Our most important recent update is Facebook context tracking. For years the music industry has been based on simple numbers and charts. Older companies like Soundscan and Mediabase were all “unit” based (albums sold and spins) and newer music data startups have followed suit. We’re focusing on putting context behind the fan and what they are sharing and saying and how they’re discovering new music. Its nice to have a pat on the back and say, ‘I had 40 new fans on Facebook today’ but if those fans just Like an artist and forget, does it even matter?

Have you found a concrete revenue stream?

Our revenue stream is based on a monthly subscription fee. We’ve looking into a few other opportunities but that’s the primary driver.

Screenshot of rockdex.com/pricing.

Are you seeking, and if so, have you been able to secure funding?

We did seek funding last fall and fortunately we won the Invest Nebraska Venture Competition last December which has been able to hold us over. We’re considering it again in the future to speed up growth so we’ll see.

Here’s a screenshot from RockDex analyzing the locations of tweets mentioning the band blessthefall:

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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