Songkick – The perfect example of an affiliate site?
The UK Affiliate Industry is dominated by large voucher code and cashback sites. It’s the first thing you think of when someone mentions the word ‘affiliate’. A recent article on the Affiliates4U site claimed that the UK was ‘teetering on extreme coupon culture’ and it’s sometimes easy to forget the other innovative ways companies use affiliate income.
This brings me to Songkick and why it’s the perfect example of an affiliate site.
About Songkick
For anyone unfamiliar with the site, Songkick tracks your favourite bands/musicians and compiles a personalised calendar of all the upcoming gigs in your area that you might be interested in… genius.
It will also give you practical information about the venue, gig times and suggestions for similar upcoming events. Optional email updates tell you when new gigs are announced, so you’re always up to date with what’s happening. If you have Facebook buddies using Songkick, it will even show who’s going to the same gigs.
There’s also a Spotify app, the ubiquitous iPhone app and you can import your musical preferences from LastFM or even Pandora (for those lucky enough to have access to it). I use it all the time and think it’s a great service. Oh… and it’s free!
Songkick was launched in October 2007 by co-founders Ian Hogarth, Michelle You and Pete Smith. The site has grown steadily since launch and last month celebrated an investment of $10 Million by venture capital firm Sequoia Capital (you know, the same guys who invested in Google, Paypal, Apple, Youtube and Instagram to name a few). It’s a rocket ship of a company and will continue to grow from strength to strength in my opinion.
So, let’s get back to the affiliate stuff. Alongside all the tour dates for your favourite bands, there are links to all of the major ticket retailers where you can buy tickets for the same event. These are affiliate links and I would imagine they generate the majority of Songkick’s earnings.
How does it work?
Every time someone buys a ticket through the site, Songkick get a small kickback from the ticket retailer. I say small because I’m basing my assumptions on the commission levels of a VERY FAMOUS ticket retailer’s UK affiliate programme – without giving away any secrets, let’s just say you would need a few sales before you could buy a first-class stamp with your commission.
Songkick may have a separate agreement in place and for all I know, they could be at the stage where they’re charging the retailers to appear on the site. (If anyone from Songkick is actually reading this, then that’s something you really should be doing)
This is the perfect example of a great affiliate site. The customer (me), get’s a great service and some valuable information from the affiliate (Songkick), before purchasing the final product from the retailer (insert famous ticket supplier’s name here). Literally everyone wins. The customer gets tickets to a gig they may not have known about, the affiliate gets a commission from the sale and the retailers sell more units – perfect!
Read more about our comments on Songkick.
