Like many in the music industry today, Sony Classical, a division of Sony Music, has seen an increase in competition and thinner profit margins, especially as more music lovers embrace the Web – as opposed to CD purchases -- as a prime tool for learning about and hearing new artists.

According to Sony Classical, with the increasingly huge role played by the Web in the marketing of its artists and albums, its site needed to not only attract listeners, but also draw them in and provide them with the information they need to move on to the ultimate goal – an album purchase.

Up until about a year ago, however, Sony Classical.com was just a static HTML site, listing artists and their latest works. Even at that, the site was becoming increasingly demanding to upgrade and maintain. Sony Classical knew it needed to become a more dynamic, interactive resource for classical music fans. It decided to use Macromedia Flash MX to redevelop the site. The idea was to create a more compelling site that could orchestrate the interplay of video, audio and interactive elements for a unique multimedia experience.

The results of the upgrade have been better than Sony hoped. Now, when users enter the site, they immediately see the top artists in Sony Classical’s repertoire, and when they choose artists and click on their pictures, an interactive screen pops up with all the latest information about that artist, upcoming concerts, CD releases and so on. In addition, tracks from their latest Sony Classical CD load and play in the background, providing a visually and musically compelling experience. And of course, an interactive link appears, enabling users to immediately purchase a selected CD.

The site has been a hit with Sony and its classical music fans. For example, in the first month, the number of unique visitors per week increased by 16,000, while the number of unique visitors per week now averages from 50,000 to 88,000. Page view times have increased by 120%, while newsletter sign-ups are up from 8,000 to 15,000 in just six months.

Plus the site is now easier to maintain. For example, the overall development time for adding a new artist or CD to the site has been reduced, in some cases by 50%, over HTML-based development times, Sony Classical said.

In addition, the company used Flash MX to create two new projects: a new site for violinist Giuliano Carmingnola  and a new music video "jukebox" application. The projects leverage Flash MX’s dynamic loading of audio and JPEG files at run time to save on overall file size and production time, since developers do not have to re-package images and sounds into Macromedia Flash content for playback. Audio files can also be updated quickly and easily, Sony said. Plus, support for streaming playback of video within Macromedia Flash sites saves SonyClassical.com viewers from having to download other players.

For more information, visit the SonyClassical.com site here.