A Shifting Environment
Nonesuch Records is a respected music label with a 40+ year history. Part of the Warner Bros. Music family, Nonesuch has an eclectic artist roster that includes luminaries and innovators in classical, Broadway, world music, alternative, and other genres.  Nonesuch has been successful by bucking trends, fostering artists and encouraging creative exploration, whether it be David Byrne with The Knee Plays or Wilco with Sky Blue Sky.

Many labels have seen revenues plummet of late, as digital downloads, file sharing and websites eclipse the record bin and local store as the hub of influence and sales.  With the redesign of their website, Nonesuch was looking to address this change in consumption patterns, applying their exploratory approach and pioneering attitude to the marketing of their artists and the sales of their catalog. The aim was to leverage the tools and interactivity available to build stronger one-to-one connections with their fan base and to provide their full roster of artists with the best possible means for taking advantage of the new technologies.

Strategy
Nonesuch’s strategy for the web site redesign was to extend their approach of openness, innovation and creativity to the website, with the dual goals of creating a gathering place for their fans while improving marketing support and online sales for the full Nonesuch roster. Furthermore, they wanted to create a place that each artist could consider their online home, especially if they didn’t have their own standalone sites.

User Interface Design
Sisu worked with Nonesuch to bring their goals to reality through a complete overhaul of the site’s content, features, design and technology.  Sisu and branding partner Axiom Design Communications created a look and feel that is open, light and modern to meet the brand’s heritage.  Sisu extended this into a full design system capable of presenting Nonesuch’s extraordinary depth of content in an intuitive framework that fosters cross-pollination of artist information and exploration of the site’s content.

Content and Features
For the re-imagined Nonesuch.com, we added a large number of new content and features while other sections saw radical transformations.

• The custom Flash media player offers videos and image galleries while driving users to the Store.
• The new Nonesuch Radio is an online radio station with multiple ‘channels’ such as World Music, Classical or Recent Releases. The Nonesuch staff curates the channels via quick updates in the CMS.
• On the roster page, a “ThinkMap” provides a visual, interactive exploration of the artists’ connections to one another. Nonesuch updates the Map through the CMS, and a custom algorithm balances editorial preferences, release dates and how artists are related.
• The individual artist’s page now serves as a proxy for a complete artist website. With search-friendly and easy-to-recall URLs, a fan can go directly to this page to find photo galleries, videos, history, a discography, and, of course, links to buy either physical or multiple digital formats of the artists’ recordings.
• The blog, known as the Nonesuch Journal, has been ported over and modernized, allowing Nonesuch and their artists to discuss new projects, tours and upcoming releases.

Technology
The entire site – including the new Nonesuch Radio and all Flash applications – are powered by a highly customized Drupal-based content management system.  Drupal, an open source solution, is known for enabling rapid development of custom sites.  It is preferred by the Warner Bros’ internal technology teams and is a favorite of Sisu’s as well.  Sisu’s developers created administration tools that are elegant, extremely easy to use and able to power every feature on the site. Additionally, the tools did not compromise the design vision for the site and enabled us to set a new design standard for a Drupal-based site.

Results
The final product fulfills the aim of providing the label and its artists with a robust, attractive new platform to directly interact with fans — introducing them to new artists and genres; supporting their exploration via blogs, radio players, videos and music tracks; and then driving them to purchase.  And all on a platform that can be supported by Nonesuch’s own resources and that can foster an active, engaged new type of audience.

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