Download Website Competition Analysis - Zachary Dremann

Erik Eickhoff
Jessica Baldwin
Zachary Dremann
http://zach.dremann.net/IS301/index.htm
Website Competition Analysis
Introduction - Top 5 Competitors1
The top five competitors in the free music streaming industry can be determined by their
productive (pros) and contrary (cons) actions. Because revenues for the industry are based on
different enhancements and expansions, the top competition in the free music streaming industry
cannot be properly evaluated through revenue. The top competitors as determined by pros and
cons are as follows: Grooveshark, Pandora, Last.fm, Slacker, and Spotify.
Grooveshark stakes its place as the top competitor due to its music on-demand features, a
productive action. Of the other top competitors, only Spotify allows on-demand music. Major
contrary actions accompanying Grooveshark are the advertisements. Under the list of cons,
Grooveshark also has two associated smartphone applications, Remote for Grooveshark and
iGroove. Remote for Grooveshark does not actively play music from your phone, but rather
allows you to control music streaming from the Grooveshark website on your computer. iGroove
does not allow on-demand streaming. Instead, iGroove offers the typical playlist/station stream
as the other top competitors.
Pandora is commonly believed to be the top free music streaming distributor. It takes
second place because it of the 40 hours per month free streaming capacity on the Pandora
smartphone application, which includes advertisements every three songs or so. It also only
1 http://www.zeropaid.com/news/94765/
offers station streaming, as opposed to on-demand song requests. Pandora does offer unlimited
free streaming on its less popular desktop application, which is ad-free.
Last.fm is a station-streaming distributor that separates itself from the competition
through the ability to create a playlist by up to three tags or artists. Where the Fall Out Boy
Pandora radio station may play fifty different artists similar to Fall Out Boy, Last.fm will only
play the artists you select. Last.fm also offers a smartphone application, however it does not
allow on-demand streaming. A major con of Last.fm is the video advertisements that constantly
interrupt the streaming station.
Slacker is similar to Pandora and Last.fm in its station streaming. Contrary to the other
station streamers, Slacker recalls the genres, stations, and artists to best suit the needs of the user
to tailor the preferred experience. Also, when the upgrade is purchased, on-demand music
streaming is available. Similarly to the other competitors, advertisements are a frequent
complaint.
In last place of the top five competitors in the free music streaming industry, Spotify
integrates other social networking websites to share the interests of the user with those who may
have similar interests. Spotify is completely free and doesn’t limit your streaming to genre and
artist like the competitors above. Aside from the advertisements, the only reason Spotify takes
last place is due to popularity. Its features suggest it should take a higher place on the list.
Website Analysis – Grooveshark
Grooveshark is an internet radio website, which allows users to stream music to their
computers or mobile devices. The company was founded in 2006 by three undergraduates from
the University of Florida. The current CEO of Grooveshark is Sam Tarantino.2 Grooveshark
currently operates its headquarters in Gainesville, Florida, employing 130 people.
Grooveshark’s business model was easily determined as a content provider, being that
they provide users with online music streaming. Users can search for specific artists or genres
and immediately find a playlist to listen to for free. Interestingly enough, all of this can happen
without having to pay a subscription fee. Grooveshark operates based off of two of the business
model revenues: advertise and subscription. Grooveshark allows advertisers to have “custom site
homepage takeovers, static or animated banner ads, artists’ sponsorships, and targets based on
age, gender, location, and listening habits.” 3 Grooveshark also has a subscription based account
for users. If you purchase an account for five dollars a month, you may listen to your music AD
free, save customized playlists, have better use of the mobile app, and personalize your
experience with themes for Grooveshark. Grooveshark also has qualities of a social media
platform. The site has a community where users may “follow” each other, enabling the users to
search and listen to their follower’s personalized content.
When navigating to Grooveshark, you’ll notice their logo in the top left corner of the
screen acting as a shortcut for several pages. Next to the logo on the top and centered is a search
bar, providing users with an easy access to search for personalized content. The top right hand
side of the website contains four icons: sign in, settings, upload music, and signup. Underneath
all three of these top items lies a giant banner ad. The banner ads seem to be set up to advertise
Grooveshark while at the homepage, but viewing other pages changes the content to various
paying companies. Under the banner ad is a navigation strip with five buttons: home, genres,
2 http://www.grooveshark.com/about
3 http://www.grooveshark.com/#!/about/advertising
broadcasts, community, and popular. Beneath the navigational buttons is the content of the
website in a table. In this table there is an ad in the top right hand corner, underneath the giant
banner ad. These are the only two spaces of advertisement on Grooveshark. The body of
Grooveshark lists playable content in genres to quickly listen to such as 90’s alternative rock,
easy listening, hard rock, classic rock, Motown, etc. It will also provide live broadcasts being
produced just as if a radio station talk show were happening. At the bottom of the website you
are provided with a static queue bar. This bar allows users to drag and drop songs they would
like to listen, allowing them to personalize their listening experience. At the very bottom of the
page is the basic website criteria of information: Upgrade, Advertise, Merch, Press, Careers,
Privacy, Copyrights, Terms, and Help. Grooveshark made a mistake by placing their social
media buttons down at the very bottom with the useless information most users don’t end up
seeing.
Grooveshark has many positive aspects about its site, which really appeal to me.
Grooveshark has a wonderful placement of their search for content bar. The bar is statically
placed almost dead center at the very top of the page by the address bar. The smart search will
automatically try and find what users are looking for before they finish typing it. Another aspect
I enjoy is that a log-in is not required to search and listen to music. Most internet radio websites
will require that you make a log-in regardless if you are paying a subscription fee or not. This
allows for happy users to hop on and hop off without being interfered with a prompt to enter
what could be sensitive information. Thirdly, I thoroughly like how I can customize a playlist
myself. I can drag and drop songs from any genre or album, easily rearranging them to fit my
groove. This allows users to personalize what they listen to even further than picking a genre to
listen to. Lastly, the most impressive feature of Grooveshark is what you can do with the media
queue of songs in your static bottom bar. Along with being able to personalize and rearrange the
playlist, with Grooveshark users have an unlimited amount of skips, can enjoy songs without ads
in between, and can fast-forward to any point within a song. I’ve personally never used an
internet radio site that allows users to skip to any point within a song that is currently streaming,
and skip an unlimited amount of times without a consequence.
While having many impressive features as is, Grooveshark has room for improvement or
change. One problem that I have with Grooveshark is their choice of a gaudy orange
background. I find that the orange background is a little much to the eye, and unappealing.
Grooveshark should change their background color to something a little more subtle for users
who don’t pay to have a theme. Another aspect of Grooveshark that I would improve is the
playlist feature. If a user picks a Grooveshark generated playlist of a certain genre, it will
continually run, automatically generating songs when the list ends. If a user decides to search for
songs and manually customize a playlist, when the list is over the songs will end. It would
improve Grooveshark if they automatically added songs to a manual playlist, which generated
based off the last song that played in the list.
Website Analysis – Pandora
Pandora Internet Radio is a station streaming website that allows users to create and listen
to radio stations customized by artist, genre, and composer. Pandora is listed as a webcast
content provider founded in 2000 by composer Tim Westergren, who personally travels the
world seeking feedback on Pandora Internet Radio. 4 In being a content provider, Pandora offers
music and comedy streaming for free through a subscription. A paid subscription removes the three
4 http://www.pandora.com/corporate/team
advertisement blocks located on the right side of the website when listening to a song. Pandora generates
revenue through advertisements, subscriptions, and smartphone application sales.
The homepage of Pandora Internet Radio displays a simple, but large search bar in the
center of the page. In the search bar, Pandora places lowlighted search suggestions to aid the
user. Once the user searches a term, Pandora opens the station closest related to that term,
without asking for the user to sign in to their account. For example, a new user may search the
artist “Fall Out Boy.” The station immediately chosen by Pandora is Fall Out Boy Radio.
Pandora gives a short blurb about the station to inform new users of its content. Pandora
describes Fall Out Boy Radio with “To start things off, we'll play a song that exemplifies the
musical style of Fall Out Boy which features electric rock instrumentation, mild rhythmic
syncopation, repetitive melodic phrasing, interweaving vocal harmony and a clear focus on
recording studio production.” 5 Because the stations create playlists by similar artist and genre,
their description allows the user to visualize the content of the radio station without recognizing
the initial station artist. After the initial search, the search bar appears at the top left of the page,
below the Pandora logo.
The Pandora logo in the top left corner of every subpage returns the user to the
homepage. The top right of the homepage displays three options: register, sign in, and help. The
bottom of the homepage features a centered display of links arranged under Company, Music
Genre Stations, and Pandora Everywhere in list form. The Music Genre Stations column
structures the stations available to Pandora users by genre. The Pandora Everywhere column lists
the portable options available to users, such as phone, car, home and business. Lastly, the
Company column lists links to the important facts and aspects of the company.
5 http://www.pandora.com/station/play/1702907431283607387
A fun feature that Pandora offers is its comedy channel. In this aspect, Pandora is
attempting to cater to users who may not enjoy music or may leave its website in boredom.
Another handy element that Pandora offers is their Pressroom. This allows curious users to read
about recent press releases that involve Pandora Internet Radio, learn about their executive team,
and see tweets and Facebook posts from the company. 6 A key component of the website is
Pandora’s advertising choices. This page, located as “Ad Preferences” under the Company
column, allows users to opt-out of targeted ads from certain companies. The best part is that you
don’t have to be a registered user in order to remove the targeted ads. 7 Finally, Pandora syncs its
music selection based on the Music Genome Project, which categorizes songs and creates
playlists by analyzing 450 different musical characteristics, and is updated constantly with new
song releases. 8
One area of Pandora Internet Radio that could be improved would be the repeat visit.
After the initial visit to Pandora’s website, the homepage no longer shows the search bar.
Instead, it has been replaced by a free registration form, needed to further utilize the site. The
smartphone application also requires an initial registration. There is another similar aspect that
could be changed. After viewing your initial search (without logging into your account), any
attempt to click a link or button not related to playing the song (aside from the links listed under
Company) brings you to a registration page to continue use. This wouldn’t be an issue, however
they place a “play bar” (a bar that consist of the play/pause button, thumbs up and down buttons,
mute, the song title, artist and album name, and the search bar) at the top of the registration page
6 http://press.pandora.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=251764&p=irol-overview
7 http://www.pandora.com/advertising/preferences
8 http://www.pandora.com/about/mgp
to give the appearance that you can still control the station, however the entire bar and all of its
features are inactive.
Website Analysis – Last.fm
Last.fm is an internet radio website owned by CBS. It was founded in 2002 by 4 German
music enthusiasts. It later joined with AudioScrobbler, a computer science project created by
Richard Jones. 9
Last.fm uses a combination of several revenue models: Advertising, Subscription, and
likely Transaction Fee. Last.fm places a large banner advertisement at the top of the page, and
advertisements at periodical intervals while the user listens to radio. They also place related
advertisements on the artists’ information pages, and in lists, Last.fm places advertisements in
place of content sometimes. Users can pay three dollars per month to remove advertisements,
and be able to play Last.fm’s radio on their mobile app or in their desktop application. 10 Lastly,
users are given an option to buy the currently playing song from Amazon, 7digital, or iTunes. It
is likely that Last.fm receives a small cut of the sale if a user purchases a song through these
avenues.
Last.fm allows the user to create a radio station based on other music they like. This can
be done even without a Last.fm account. By ‘liking’ or ‘banning’ tracks from the station, the user
can refine what type of music they like. When the user is logged in with a Last.fm account, this
information is stored, so when they return to the station, the station will continue to be tailored to
the user’s tastes. By logging in, Last.fm also has another useful feature: one can install a plugin
to other music players, and “scrobble” the songs they play to Last.fm. Scrobbling means that the
9 http://blog.last.fm/2007/05/30/lastfm-acquired-by-cbs
10 http://www.last.fm/subscribe
software the user listens to the songs with sends the name of the songs to Last.fm, so Last.fm can
find what songs the user like to listen to, and further tailor its radio to them.
At the top of all Last.fm pages, there is a red navigation bar containing:

The last.fm icon, which links to the homepage.

A music search box.

A “Music” link, which goes musician pages.

A “Radio” link, which lets the user create radio stations.

An “Events” link, which shows upcoming music-related events, like concerts and
festivals.

A “Charts” link, which lets the user find what music is most popular on Last.fm.

An “Originals” link, which features musicians talking about their experiences, or
behind the scenes looks at the making of music.

Links to either Join, Login, or information about the logged in user, depending on
whether the user is logged in.
At the bottom of the pages, there are assorted links to get information on the company,
find plugins for desktop applications, getting help and support, etc. When listening to radio, the
user is presented with a box in which the radio player resides. There are 3 sections to the player.
At the top are the controls to play/pause, move to the next song, and rate the song (like or ban).
There is also a link to create a new station, and the name of the currently playing station. Below
the top bar is the largest portion of the radio player. It houses a slideshow made of photos related
to the currently playing song, and the position within the current song. Below this central section
is the bottom bar, which houses the volume controls, slideshow controls (play/pause), and a
button to turn on/off scrobbling of the songs played on the radio station. To the right of the radio
player is an advertisement, a list of recently listened to songs, a list of recent stations, and a list
of the user’s saved stations. Below the player is information about the currently playing artist,
and comments on the currently playing song.
Last.fm has several positive aspects to its website. Not having to sign in to create a
station is a big plus, as a user may try the service before deciding to sign up. Last.fm’s
“Originals” page is an interesting feature, which might make users come to the site. Getting a
look “behind the curtain” makes the user feel like they are part of something that most people are
not. As radio is Last.fm’s most important feature, they did a smart thing by putting the music
search always present on the top bar. The user can create a station from anywhere on the website.
Last.fm’s most unique feature is scrobbling. Taking the music that one listens to at home and
providing suggestions based on music the user likes is a unique and positive feature.
On the negative side, the Last.fm website feels somewhat dated. The whole website
visibly refreshes on changing the page, whereas their competitors generally have fancy
transitions between pages, and only reload the changed parts of the website. It is likely a function
of this that any navigation from the radio page opens in a new window: if the page were
reloaded, the music would stop. Sites like Pandora have a clear advantage here: The user can
navigate all over the website in the same window, and the music continues playing in the
background the whole time. Another negative aspect is the frequency of advertisements. An
advertisement plays at the start of every station, which can be very annoying. Additionally, some
of the advertisements are placed in lists of content. It is jarring and annoying to have
advertisements where the user is expecting another track to be listed.
Comparison of Top 3 Competitors’ Websites
When typing in a website for the first time a user has no idea what they are going to see appear
on their screen. Some users could be turned away after the first visit if they had an unpleasant
experience while browsing. I have chosen five guidelines to follow while comparing and
contrasting the above websites: can you listen free without a login, can you mix stations or
genres, search bar accessibility, what does a subscription award a user, can ads be found before
or between songs? The reason I’ve chosen these specific guidelines is exactly for the reason I
listed above, having users not come back to your website based on their first impression. If
Pandora were to place a flash screen or ad before actually entering the website (i.e. Forbes),
many people would be turned off.
How many logins have you created in your lifetime? Dwelling on this question makes me
ask myself why I should even be required to make a login just to view content on any website.
With Grooveshark and Last.fm, you are able to listen and stream music without a login. On the
other hand, the first time you load Pandora on a browser, you may play music without a login.
After a second visit to Pandora, users are prompted to create a login for listening. Grooveshark
and Last.fm allow users to jump right in and listen to any station, regardless of how many times
the page was refreshed.
One feature about internet radio that users enjoy is being able to mix stations or genres.
Many people enjoy listening to several genres of music at once, customizing their experience.
Last.fm does not allow users to mix genres or stations of music. They do offer scrobbling, which
will customize playlists by sorting through music applications on a user’s computer such as
iTunes. Grooveshark and Pandora allow the users to pick various stations and mesh them
together, drawing songs to play from either genre. However, Grooveshark will allow users to
pick any song and add it to queue regardless of what genre or playlist is running. Grooveshark
also allows for users to place the song anywhere they would like in the stream to change priority
of songs. Pandora only allows users to select genres to pull from, not song or queue changes like
Grooveshark.
A key component to a successful e-commerce website is allowing the user to search for
content within the website. Fortunately, Grooveshark, Pandora, and Last.fm all have an easily
accessible search function. With Grooveshark, users can find content with the search bar located
conveniently at the top center of the page, regardless of which page their browsing. Last.fm and
Pandora have a similar search function as Grooveshark. At the homepage the search bar is nice
and big, but after the first search users are forced to search content on a shrunken bar located top
left of the website. I find that leaving the search bar like Grooveshark in a static position and size
is the right approach, making a more user friendly environment.
Wouldn’t you love to browse the internet AD free without ever being bothered? With a
subscription fee users may browse Grooveshark, Pandora, and Last.fm with endless AD free
uninterrupted streaming. For five dollars a month Grooveshark allows users to enjoy an ad free
environment, access exclusive theme layouts, and mobile apps. 11 With Pandora One, users pay
four dollars a month for ad free streaming, a desktop application, themes, and a high quality
stream. 12 Last.fm provides uninterrupted streaming, ad free environment, mobile apps, and
11 http://grooveshark.com/#!/settings/subscription
12 http://www.pandora.com/one
desktop scrobbler for only three dollars a month. 13 Each subscription allows users to view
content with an ad free environment, which users are happily willing to pay for.
One problem with content providers is the advertisement space they have available for
sale for their websites. While using Grooveshark, the user never encounters an ad before playing
a song or while the song are changes. With Pandora, users will never encounter an ad before
playing music, but will be interrupted with ads between songs. Last.fm will prompt users with a
flash ad before the first station they stream starts, and will also place ads between songs like
Pandora. Each website has different approach with how to present the user with ads, but
Grooveshark blows all of them out of the water with no ads between songs.
Improvements and Future Developments
With the most recent iOS release, Apple launched iTunes Radio, an internet streaming
distributor. 14 Having only been in effect for a few months, I do expect it to compete heavily with
Pandora and Last.fm when it has the same amount of launch time under its belt.
Personally, I think we are a good many years away from seeing Grooveshark disappear. It
has been popular since its release in 2006 due to its on-demand feature, which makes it stand out
from the competition. According to experts, Grooveshark adds 200,000 users a month and
continues in growth. 15 Until other internet radio providers step up their on-demand game,
Grooveshark with hold its long-standing first place position.
With the rapid enhancements of interconnected vehicles and technology, one thing we
can be sure of is the development of a car radio system with on-demand music, thus eliminating
13 http://www.last.fm/subscribe
14 http://thenextweb.com/apple/2013/09/19/hands-on-with-apples-iradio-internet-radio-for-the-masses/
15 http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2013/09/grooveshark-is-adding-200k-users-a-month-ceo-says-future-depends-on-live-music-fans.html
the need for the connection between the two technologies. BMW is the lead in this innovation
with its Mog app that ads on-demand music streaming through its vehicles. 16 Mog still requires
an active application to run inside the vehicle, however, this is only one of the first steps in a
long line of possibilities available to the internet radio industry.
16 http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-57325153-48/with-mog-bmw-adds-on-demand-music-in-the-car/