Warner Music is adding new social networking capabilities to a number of its artists' sites through a partnership with Cisco Systems. The label will be the first firm to test Cisco's Entertainment Operating System (Eos), a white label platform designed to integrate social networking, content management and site administration.
Warner has added the site functionality for two of its artists - Sean Paul and Laura Izibor - and aims to roll out the platform more widely over the rest of the year. Eos is designed to increase revenue and cut costs by creating an immersive space for fans to communicate, in a similar way to MySpace or Facebook.
"As the web shifts from the enterprise to the consumer in terms of where the traffic is coming from, the social media revolution - which is all about fans interacting with artists - is going to provide an enormous opportunity," Warner Music's EVP of digital strategy and business development, Michael Nash, tells Reuters.
"This is a recognition that having a social media strategy is not just about partnering with social networks, but it's also about what we do with our direct-to-consumer efforts."
The move into social media comes a month after EMI relaunched its home page as a social music site, allowing fans to create profiles, stream whole albums and watch music videos. EMI described the beta launch as a "learning lab" and says it forms part of a wider experiment with new digital platforms and direct-to-fan sales.
The Eos platform was launched last week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, alongside a number of other new Cisco products. The company, which was founded in 1984 as an enterprise networking solutions firm, began moving into the consumer market in recent years.
Other new releases include the Linksys by Cisco Media Hub, which organises all the media stored on various devices in a user's home, giving centralised access to videos, photos and music. This can be used at home or accessed from anywhere in the world via the web.
Warner announced in November that digital revenues were up 28% year-on-year in Q3, driven by growth in online downloads and, to a lesser extent, mobile music sales. In line with its digital focus, Warner - alongside Sony and Universal - announced a new iTunes deal last week, agreeing to offer DRM-free content to the market-leading download store for the first time. EMI previously already offered unencrypted downloads through the service.
StrategyEye's related categories: Music Labels - Major Labels, Social Networks - Consumer
StrategyEye's related companies: EMI Group, Warner Music Group, Facebook, MySpace, Cisco Systems, Inc.
