Musicnotes rings up 30% sales growth through early May

Sheet music and guitar tablature retailer Musicnotes Inc. reported $3 million in online sales from January through May 5, 2008, a 30% increase compared with about $2.3 million in the prior year period. Musicnotes.com sold almost 500,000 downloads in the first four months of the year, says Tim Reiland, chairman and chief financial officer.

Growth has come from two areas. “We continue to focus on adding great content and enhancing the customer experience,” Reiland says. “Musicnotes currently offers more than 75,000 downloadable songs and we plan to at least double that number in the years ahead.”

Musicnotes.com has reached a 4% conversion rate in large part because its sheet music content runs parallel to current pop music hits. And because the company is a publisher and retailer, publishing rights can be secured and music posted in days or weeks rather than weeks or months, Reiland tells Internet Retailer.

Another success factor is site search capabilities. The sheet music business has been historically inefficient, Reiland says, because in most cases shoppers drive to a music store and don’t find what they seek. Searching online can speed the process and make it easier on the shopper. Musicnotes uses site search technology from Omniture.

To enhance the shopping experience, the company added Google Checkout and online chat.

Musicnotes also ventured into viral marketing late last year when it posted a video of an employee demonstrating a voice-activated feature in its downloadable guitar lessons. The feature enables students to keep both hands on the guitar while interacting with the lesson. The demo has been watched more than 150,000 times, Reiland says.

The web site currently receives 80,000 unique visits a day, Reiland says, and cites traffic data from Hitwise indicating Musicnotes has more than a 70% share of the downloadable sheet music market.

The digital sheet music market so far has proven to be immune to the fluctuating U.S. economy, Reiland says. “There is certainly no recession at Musicnotes. If anything, we have seen our growth accelerate over the past several weeks.”

Musicnotes, No. 487 in the , is in the early phase of developing its advertising-supported guitar and drum tablature web site MXTabs.com. The company expects to announce details regarding the formal launch of the site soon.

Reiland is speaking at the , June 9-12 in Chicago in a session titled .
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