Buttondown vs. Supertape

Over the years, social media has taken the music industry by storm. It has undoubtedly influenced the way that the masses discover, interact with artists, and consume music. Social media may attract attention, but email newsletters are where relationships with fans are built. Newsletters are the best way to directly communicate with fans by updating them on your newest projects, merch drops, tour announcements, and more. Proven to be more reliable than ever-changing social media algorithms and lead to more conversions, newsletters are essential for all musicians. When it comes to email marketing, choosing the right platform is paramount. One company you might consider is Supertape. New to the scene, Supertape is an independent software company founded by musicians with backgrounds in design, tech, and media. Supertape’s main gig is a site-building platform catered to musicians. Supertape has recently expanded to offering newsletter marketing. Supertape’s built-in newsletter marketing feature gives users access to limited core email marketing tools. 

• Analytics 
• Import and export contacts
• Drag-and-drop editor
• Custom domains

Being a newer addition, Supertape’s newsletter tool lacks advanced features that would streamline and advance your newsletter.

Do more with Buttondown

Here at Buttondown, we are all about the humanity behind the screen. Your subscribers want to hear from you! We offer the same features as Supertape, however, we focus on designing powerful core email marketing features that encourage connection while at the same time utilizing automation and data to elevate your newsletter at a fraction of the cost! Our plans begin at a low cost of $9/mo. 

Analytics

Data is king when it comes to newsletter campaigns. Maintaining and growing your newsletter hinges on audience data and campaign performance. Analyzing key metrics allows you to gather a better understanding of what interests and engages your audience. Supertape’s analytics cover the basic key email metrics like delivery, clicks, opens, and bounces. If you want extensive analytics that provide the ability to dive deep into audience data, Buttondown is the better choice. Our advanced analytics lets you dig deep into performance and subscriber behavioral metrics by looking at opens, clicks, browser usage, referral analysis, subscriber events, bounce rates, and more. You can even do A/B testing by comparing email performance, optimizing performance for future emails. Our analytics tool allows you to continuously refine your newsletter strategy.

It’s important to note that Supertape has email send requirements—users must keep bounce rate less than 10% and spam rate less than 1%. Any of your campaigns that fail to meet these requirements will be paused, and you’ll be notified. Buttondown has no fine print for sending email campaigns. In fact, we encourage you to send multiple emails; that’s why we have unlimited sends. Plus, Buttondown’s deliverability is among the highest in the industry, and our spam protection is best-in-class.

Import and export contacts

Need to import contacts but don’t feel like doing the work? We’ll do it for you! Buttondown provides a concierge migration service at no extra cost. Supertape leaves it up to you to import contacts.

In addition, Buttondown makes it easy to export your contact and reporting data. Whether you are periodically exporting your newsletter data to a spreadsheet or you are using it to build a custom dashboard, we make it as easy as possible for you to get your data out of Buttondown. Your data can be exported in CSV or JSON format. 

Easy-to-use email builder

Building your newsletter with our intuitive editor allows you to create beautiful emails with ease. Supertape’s editor is configured for website building that carries over to newsletters, limiting the ability to switch up email designs.

Keep the streams flowing by adding songs, links, music videos, tour photos, and whatever other content you’d like to share with your adoring fans using our attachments feature. Supertape’s attachment feature gives users the ability to add videos, photos, and links.

Marketing automation

There’s no need to cut your studio time when using Buttondown. Our marketing automation ensures your newsletter doesn’t skip a beat. In addition, all users have access to our targeted segmentation tools. Create tags based on subscriber behavior like clicked tour links, purchased merch, engagement with specific content types, and more. 

Artist-friendly integrations

Buttondown has musician-friendly integrations including Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, SoundCloud, and more! Supertape has similar integrations, though not as many. 

Paid subscriptions

Want to implement paid subscriptions with no service fees? You got it. You can incentivise subscribers by offering exclusive content (behind-the-scenes photos, unreleased demos, exclusive merch drops, discounts) and keep every penny. Want to keep your subscribers engaged? Use our comment feature to keep the conversation around your music going and build an active community. Audience feedback allows you to know what your fans want to see and hear, which is why we added surveys. 

Teams

Similar to Supertape, at Buttondown, we believe that the best campaigns, like albums, come from a collaborative effort, which is why we offer teams! Teams is the easiest way for you to invite bandmates, managers, and other collaborators to proofread your emails, manage your subscribers, and set up administrative details like webhooks and custom domains. Unlike the majority of ESPs, Buttondown makes it easy to own your brand by offering whitelabeling. We don't need to advertise ourselves in your newsletter. It's your newsletter, not our business. 

Top-notch privacy 

Privacy is a top priority to us, which is why we will keep your and your subscribers' information to ourselves!

How our pricing stacks up to Supertape

We prefer to keep everything transparent and straightforward, especially our prices. Check out how we compare to Supertape.

At Buttondown, we aim to make building your newsletter easy, enjoyable, and affordable. Our biggest concern is your long-term satisfaction and success. You won’t find any other ESP more dedicated to your needs than Buttondown.