Topspin And Berklee College Partner For Online Music Marketing Course
Six months ago Topspin and The Berklee College of Music announced a partnership to offer an online course teaching implementation of the Topspin digital music marketing and sales platform. The course is now ready and the registration is open for the course which begins January 11th.
Non-credit registration costs $995 ($200 more to get college credit) and includes a Topspin account. The course also marks the beginning of Topsin's wider release. To date, they've been a bit selective about who they work with because, as CEO Ian Rogers admits, "Frankly, it hasn’t been ready". "We’ve been using it ourselves all year and know its shortcomings," says Rogers. "We’ve been reshaping it to meet our needs and are excited to see how it meets the needs of other marketers, starting with the Berkleemusic.com course."
A Wider Topspin Release Plus Video
Sometime next year Topspin says it will open is platform for wider use. But for now, the Berklee online course is the best way to get your hands on these tools. And even after a public release, any tools are only as good as the skills of the person using them. Head instructor for the Topspin course is one of my favorite d.i.y. music experts and bloggers Mike King. You can get a free taste of how Berklee's online courses work here.
Well that’s got to be the joke of the month!
Those who can do.
Those who can’t teach.
The money is obviously in selling the dream to the wannabees.
$995.00 a pop should make Topspin and Berklee a nice taste.
Only time will tell if its worth the money. But I know a little bit about the people involved, the tools they are teaching and the work that went into this course; and think it might worth it.
I’m actually trying to see if Kyle and I can take the course so we can find out.
The internet age has left us all thinking that everything should be free. Some stuff costs and people (like artists too) need to get paid sometimes. Let’s not be too quick to judge…
I have signed up for the course (opted out of the college credit) because I went through the syllabus and watched all the videos and really think it will provide/add value. And getting Topspin free isnt bad either, especfially because its damn near impossible to get approved for it by signing up on thier website.
The grand total was $1,044.00 ($40 reg fee)
I will report back with my experience during & after the 12-week course begins on Jan 11.
– Danny
And there’s one hell of a lot of teachers out there right now – yet to discover one that has the right answers.
Anyone who reads my site knows I am a cynical and verbally abusive critic of all mankind.
That said, I’d still consider a $1k buy-in. (It’s cool to front like it’s a “college course,” but let’s call it what it is.) I’d prefer if it was Topspin techs teaching the course, as opposed to…well, I just have to wonder, isn’t Mike King gonna be blogging about all this anyway? He’d be a dope instructor, though, and remember, indie artists can’t get on Topspin just because they want to yet. I’d still rather be able to ask questions of the people who designed and built it. (Guess I’ll have to wait for tech journalists to do more/better interviews.)
If you think your music is going to be liked and bought by a lot of people, is $1k a reasonable investment? It is, right? On the other hand, when you look under the hood of a system like the Get Busy Committee, is it really worth $1000 for tiered pricing (which almost every e-commerce platform can handle already) and email widgets?
I’d say it is, unless you’re lucky enough to have friends who are total nerd ninjas willing to do custom coding jobs that take over 100 hours at least. We just did a custom CMS for our label site and it went over…two years…past our imaginary deadline.
I think if you’ve got product you believe in, this is cheapish for a platform that will 1) work, right now, and 2) be able to scale up once you get popular.
Because you’re awesome.
Is that really so naive? I don’t think so.
Dawg, stop hating the man reflexively. These are operations with overhead who pay employees and rent huge amounts of space.
Some parts of the music business do actually run on money.
I just registered for the course. I think it is worth it just for the Topspin account. Danny Dee is right, its close to impossible to get in at the moment, so why not be one of the first to learn how to use it from the ground up. See you all in class.
This gave me a good LOL.
I’ll have to say I think it’s worth it. I’m already using Topspin and being able to use their system is already saving me $1600 a year on sending out emails. There are other platforms out there like Reverbnation that give you some of the same tools, but what they’ve assembled and what they teach will be well worth the money.