For long enough widgets have been a cool, ‘nice-to-have’ way to get information to your desktop, publish your music and video interests or photos online or to get people to interact with you in the social networking sites, but TheBizmo now is set to change that by making its users money.

TheBizmo widget is brought to us by the developers behind Groove Mobile – the world’s largest digital download platform with the aim of making consumers and content owners into business partners. TheBizmo simply describe its widget as “the music industry in a box” because it turns the consumer into the retailer.

While existing social network widgets enable users to indicate their interests, they lack the financial opportunity their recommendations open up. TheBizmo is a fully functional media player which offers users the opportunity to discover and promote both user generated and mainstream media content, and in so doing, earn from their discovery and interests as they engage their friends and networks.

TheBizmo works because it offers artists a genuine (and free) marketing tool, putting their content in the hands of the people who use and promote their content the best – their fans. Unsigned bands benefit as much as the mainstream label-backed groups because TheBizmo puts them on a equal platform. As MySpace has become a quasi-search ground for talent, TheBizmo takes this phenomenon and puts the mechanics of a turnkey store behind it, delivering the content to your PC and mobile.

The “music industry in a box” analogy describes TheBizmo perfectly because as a one-stop shop TheBizmo enables users to buy the track(s) they like and the ticket(s) to see the band perform. Put into context, one of London’s leading independent music promoters FeedMe Music has just announced that they are now using TheBizmo’s pioneering new widget to sell ‘e-tickets’ for their events. Gig goers can instantly buy tickets to FeedMe events simply by inputting their ticket requirements into the widget and receiving a text message as an e-ticket to their mobile phone. In addition to this, users are also sent a bar-coded PDF ticket to their email address.

A unique function of the widget is that is can be easily implemented into any digital space – MySpace, FaceBook, personal blogs - and instantly empowers artists and promoters to start selling their own digital content and gig tickets directly to their fans. Implementing the widget requires no technical knowledge whatsoever. A simple cut and paste, and fans and artists have instant access to the music widget at all times.

At Ariadne, we get to see a lot of technology and services with no real focus or user benefit, but we were impressed with TheBizmo because it brings together all the stakeholders in the value chain with a simple yet powerful discovery and monetisation tool. Dave Grenfel, managing director at FeedMe Music agrees.

“The widget is amazing. So easy to use and implement, providing both bands and us as promoters with an instant and powerful viral marketing tool,” he said.

We see TheBizmo as the biggest step change in music since iTunes, which revolutionised music in the 21st century. As Last.fm and MySpace have proved, the power of music and content is best harnessed by the fans and TheBizmo now takes this power and adds monetisation – an industry win-win.

By David Scholtz, associate, Ariadne Capital