Topspin Expands Platform, Opens API

# SXSW  - Fan aquisition and monetization platform Topspin used SXSW 2010 to announce the public availability of a suite of APIs that more seamlessly integrates their e-commerce and promotional tools into major website platforms and social networks. The company also recently upgraded their public web site TopspinMedia.com.

“While working with hundreds of professional artists and their business partners in 2009, we were able to identify and solve many key problems they face building profitable direct-to-fan businesses,” said Topspin CEO Ian Rogers from SXSW. “Artists don’t need another ‘store’, they need the ability to integrate their direct-to-fan offerings cleanly and simply into their existing websites, MySpace Music and Facebook pages; to acquire new fans and fuel viral activity on social media outlets, such as Facebook and Twitter; and to easily ship physical goods to fans.”

The Details: 

The new more open platform enables integration of the Topspin shopping cart, streaming players and data capture tools into Wordpress, Drupal, Ning, Facebook and MySpace. Plug-ins for WordPress and Drupal are open source and offers created on Topspin now automatically publish to artist  websites and Facebook pages and can be instantly modified or removed via the platform’s self-serve publishing system. 

Topspin has also expanded its email-for-media functionality to allow similar promotions on Facebook and Twitter. For example, artists can give away media via Twitter in exchange for re-tweets and follows. IN addition, the API lets artists integrate with anyone for fulfillment rather than a pre-chosen provider.