Nicholas Vegas
Play to Win
Level 2 of Traxsource.com / Site ReDesign
When you are the market leader, making improvements to your product can be a very tricky proposition. On the one hand, you are sort of inclined to keep things as they are, since most users of your product seem perfectly content with the status quo. On the other hand, there’s always competition nipping at your heels, trying to build and offer a better mousetrap. Such is conundrum facing online music store Traxsource.
Well, perhaps it isn’t exactly a conundrum, but it is certainly a delicate balance that Traxsource owners Brian Tappert and Marc Pomeroy and their team must strike. What the Web site www.traxsource.com offers right now is just fine, and requires little explanation. We all know how to conduct searches, choose between bitrates and can easily purchase the tracks that we want. But, as I said in an earlier post, Traxsource faces an onslaught of competition from a host of Web sites--all of which are aiming to push Traxsource off its pedestal.
These are the things that Traxsource management had to weigh before unveiling what they are calling Level 2 of Traxsource. The new Web site is slated to be launched next week. But I had the privilege of getting an early look at the revised Web site ahead of next week’s official launch
What the Traxsource team has done puts a new shine on something that was already sparkling. The look and feel of the new Web site are familiar, but freshened up to achieve a much cleaner look. Navigating the site has gotten a lot easier, and the number of clicks from song search to purchase have been greatly reduced. What’s more, the main page seems much easier and faster to load.
Perhaps the biggest change to the Web site—and one for the better—is the new and greatly improved search function. Where Traxsource now does everything you would expect when search results are presented, the new version takes things several steps further. Under the old version of the Web site, you’d have a listing that would reveal song title, artist, label and release date. In the new version, that data is bolstered by the ability to view from the outset each remix, the song length, the ability to listen to a sample of the track and the ability to either put the track on your wish list or add it to your shopping cart.
By having that information laid out for you cleanly and immediately, you have just saved yourself several clicks. What’s more, you can continue to look at your search results and sample more songs without having to hit the back button of your browser. Plus, you know how when you do hit that back button you’ll sometimes get those pop-up messages about how the page you are trying to load contains postdata that has expired from cache? Gone. Outta here. A thing of the past.
In talking with Brian Tappert about the new Web site, one thing he seemed particularly excited about is in fact the new search engine, which he says is much more powerful than the previous one. He is absolutely correct. Using a much more robust search technology, Traxsource’s search function now allows you to conduct a lot of neat searches that were much more challenging under the old model. And because things are listed in terms of relevance, you can do searches with fairly scant information and still get results. For example, I did a search on the old system for “Jon” and “Pete” and got no results. Under the new system, the search results included at the top of the list the two tracks I was looking for by Jon Cutler and Pete Simpson: “Living” and “Runnin’”. It is by no means perfect—I did a similar search for “Angela” and “Dennis” and the result I was looking for, Dennis Ferrer’s remix of “Can’t Stop” by Reel People featuring Angela Johnson, did not show up until the bottom of the second page of results—but it nevertheless showed up and is a vast improvement and a lot more robust than the search engine it replaces.
Another very helpful and cool feature is the Web site’s new “What’s New” page, which allows you to easily view the newest tracks that have been added to the Traxsource catalog since either your last purchase, the last seven days or the past 24 hours. This now allows you to focus solely on the latest tracks available on the Web site.
Traxsource now has a page called “My Favorite Labels,” which enables users to select the labels that they like and put them on a sort of watchlist. The way it works is you select the labels that you like, and when you visit that particular page later, a box in the lower right-hand corner listing all of the available labels sold on Traxsource puts at the top of that list your favorite labels. They are denoted by an orange “F.” If the label has some new tracks available, a blue “N” sits next to the “F.” Now you can quickly check out what your favorite labels are offering, thus saving you time and effort.
That is only the beginning. By identifying your favorite labels, the Traxsource site will make sure those labels jump out at you immediately upon signing into the site. For example, your favorites will be easily identified on the “Upfront Pressure” page, allowing you to focus solely on those tracks.
In the convenience department, Traxsource now allows you to set up a profile with which you can also save time. I am particularly fond of the ability to set your preferred mp3 bitrate so that every track you buy will be at the bitrate you want. Also, you can set the particular page that you want Traxsource to load once you arrive. It also has the ability to keep you logged in from the get-go. Another great feature is the “My History” page, which lists the tracks that you have recently viewed.
Overall, the guys at Traxsource have fulfilled their mission of taking their Web site to “Level 2.” Indeed, they have improved upon virtually every aspect of the Web site, and clearly had ease-of-use in mind when they thought about how to revamp their Web site.
I said a few months ago that their challenge would be to keep the momentum going in the face of stiff competition from the likes of Beatport (which has also recently revamped its Web site, though as far as I can see the changes are largely minor cosmetic tweaks and little else, which doesn’t have to necessarily be a bad thing), Clickgroove and others. It seems clear they understand that being a first mover doesn’t mean you rest on your laurels. Instead, they see it as giving the competition something else to emulate.
Review by :LL Cool Hinge
Ich hab den Original Link verbummelt
, sonst hätte ich nicht alles gequoted, sorry ,
ist aber recht interessant, und das mit Market Leader,
naja, man kann sich ja viel schönreden
wenn der tag lang ist
Ist aber trotz allem ein guter Shop
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