The following comes from Rhythmic Rebellion, a company DMN is proud to be partnering with.
WeVerse is owned by Hybe. Hybe is the South Korean music label supporting BTS, Tomorrow X Together, ENHYPEN, and a host of other music acts. Hybe is one of the most successful labels in the world, mostly thanks to BTS.
WeVerse is a community building platform with a merch store built in. Fans get access to exclusive content, there is artist to fan messaging, and fan to fan interactions.
Why is WeVerse such a good idea? If you’re a label, an artist manager, or an indie artist, you’re frustrated with how hard it is to communicate with your fans. Over 60% of your emails go into spam or promo folders. Many of you have swapped from collecting emails to collecting phone numbers, but now there’s a spam filter for that.
Thanks to Facebook and Instagram algorithms, less than 1% of your followers see your posts. You are asked to pay the social media god for more fans to see your posts. This makes many of you mad, because you already paid once to find these fans and now you must pay again to communicate with them.
Hybe saw WeVerse as a solution to these problems. Now, they have their own platform, where they control the fan experience and can communicate freely with the fans. All their artists are there. The fan joins the platform one time, and can interact with, and buy merch, from any artist on the platform.
Why should Sony and Warner be worried? Universal Music Group was impressed with how Hybe was creating new opportunities for themselves and decided to partner with them. UMG already has a few artists on WeVerse and plans to place many more of them there in 2023.
The most powerful tool in the world for driving fan actions is the app. When Hybe can send a message through the app that says “BTS has a new song out now, go stream it on Spotify”, and every signed up fan instantly sees that notification 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 huge disadvantage in the music label wars. Are Sony and Warner creating their own version? Probably, but creation of these apps and platforms take time and a lot of money.
Is there another platform out there that can compete with WeVerse? The Rhythmic Rebellion platform is the only one that comes close.
It has the community building, the merch store, access to exclusive content, and possibly even better ways to communicate with fans than WeVerse. Each artist and label account comes with its own emailing system and a copy of the email is placed in the fan’s message center, and the fans get notified through the app…100% delivery. There is a built in music player, so fans can buy music and have instant listening. There’s live video streaming, subscription fan clubs, and more.
Artists can also build their website right on the platform, which is perfect for community building. You can learn more here.
Should Sony and Warner build their own platforms, or should they take advantage of the RR platform? If there is a SonyVerse, WarnerVerse, and WeVerse, which platform do you think will have the biggest community? Yes, WeVerse. UMG, through their many partnerships with other labels, has a lot of huge artists.
These artists will invite their fans to join them on WeVerse, and this community will have “buying power” that’s never been experienced before by a music label.
I expect UMG will start selling albums on WeVerse months before they release it on streaming platforms. UGM will offer subscriptions to exclusive content, which will include early releases of music videos and other exclusive artist content. Fans will be able to rent and view a movie there. I can even imagine a day where Spotify tries to play hard ball with UMG, and UMG says “Thanks to WeVerse, Spotify is no longer a necessity.” Diversification! It’s a smart business move.
So, as you can see, the future is bleak for Sony, Warner, and let’s not forget all the indie labels and artists out there….or is it?
What if Sony and Warner decided they would both join the Rhythmic Rebellion platform, and then invite all the indie labels and artists to join them there? RR was born back in 2017 and is a well seasoned platform, with more functionality than WeVerse.
Within a few months from now, Sony and Warner could have their biggest artists on the platform, and be well on their way to having a bigger community than WeVerse.
The indie artists would join in groves and invite their fans. This works for indie artists, because RR is not just a platform built for super stars and labels. It also has the DIY capability. RR management would get suggestions from Sony, Warner, and the indie labels and artists on what the RR rules should be and what software should be developed 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 type platform, or be wishing you were. Stay tuned….