Hi,
I’m a fellow who is usually happy that the decisions made by Audiojungle/Envato are in everyone’s overall best interest, but one aspect of the site is, i think, criminally overlooked, and a wasted opportunity for all. That is the ‘featured author’ - or ‘featured musician’ as it is now called, which i discovered when I scrolled (and scrolled, and scrolled) down to check it out today.
The featured author section of the homepage can currently be classed as ‘Boo Radley Level’ - the ‘odd’ child that we’re slightly embarrassed about and would rather keep locked down in the basement. ‘Boo Radley level’ is only slightly preferable to ‘Sloth from the Goonies level’.
The ‘ultimate AJ goals and achievements thread’ does not contain one post from an author whose dream is to be featured musician. And the reason is that, being buried and hidden from buyers, it is of absolutely no benefit to an author. Not only that, but I can’t see how this feature is of any benefit to Envato either.
But I believe that making more of this feature would be beneficial to both authors and Envato.
For authors, the benefits are obvious - really good exposure will mean more sales, and more customers becoming familiar with your brand.
For Envato, there are also benifits: If ‘featured author’ became the new ‘holy grail’ for authors, and something that they really desired to be selected for, i think you would see more of the following:
- Authors wanting only great tracks in their portfolio - clearing out old tracks that aren’t up to scratch
- Authors wanting to create original work so they can stand out from the crowd
- Authors wanting to have a strong, coherent brand for their work, and to have their portfolio looking good in general
- etc
There are many ways Envato could make more of the feature, but may i politely suggest two simple things that would be enough:
-
Move the featured author block up the page. Controversially I would suggest it might even merit putting it above ‘featured tracks’. But if not, then certainly above ‘newest audio’. I can’t imagine ‘newest audio’ being that beneficial for anyone - a moment on the front page for authors, and a fairly random and uninviting selection for buyers. Maybe Envato have stats to show that buyers are buying from the ‘newest items’ block, and in that case I stand corrected. But at the very least it could be put above that ‘all the music you need’ section.
-
An email/newsletter - just an email once a week with ‘this week’s featured musician’.
So maybe Envato can start showing real pride in their featured authors and let them out of the basement!
Anyway, just sharing some of my thoughts. I’d like to hear anyone else’s point of view.
Take care
Jonny