Web Tools and Social Media for Musicians
Web Tools and Social Media for Musicians
Web Tools and Social Media for Musicians
When we are starting out our music careers, and if we want fans for life, we need to look for ways to start ongoing conversations. In this article we are going to look at the strength of some artist specific online tools to start and keep conversations going with our fans.
Social Media is all about engagement. The music business is changing and successful artists have to build a "tribe" (Seth Godin), and this is done through engagement and personal interaction. More and more artists are taking over the business part of the profession and handling their own marketing and communications. In this article I am going to just talk about online tools for musical artists and how they can be used for social media communication. In a future article I will provide the process to use social media to engage your fans.
Please Note:
Costs vary for all of these tools. I've listed the lowest entry level fee, AFTER the free trial, if there is one.
All of this is subject to change i.e. links, prices, and access could be changing even as you read this. I also may have missed some features sites are always changing i.e. you may have noticed that Facebook seems to change every week, either adding new features, or deactivating them.
The Alexa score listed below is the overall web ranking for the tool which shows you which of these tools are accessed the most on the web i.e. myspace has a higher traffic than any of the other tools listed below.
Engagement Score: A tool with an engagement score of 12/12 has it all! I made a list of 12 tools that help with communicating with fans. Things like Twitter posting tools, Facebook "iLike" buttons, e-mail list sign-up widgets, and more. A tool with a low score doesn't mean it's a bad tool; it just doesn't have as many features to help you start ongoing conversations with your fans.
_ iLike
Comments: I really like iLike! If I was stranded on a desert island and had to choose one program to promote my band, iLike would be the one. As you can see by its engagement score below, it has it all. iLike has all of the social media engagement tools you could possibly need, i.e. Twitter feed, Facebook feed, mailing list sign-up forms, and fan comments. You can even sell your music through its iPhone App! It's also free, which I find freaking amazing.
Sample: Tina Dico - http://www.ilike.com/artist/Tina+Dico
To get it: Go to http://www.ilike.com
Features: List Songs, Videos, Photos, Twitter Feed, Post To Twitter, Facebook App, Post To Facebook, Concert listing, Fan Comments, iPhone App, Mobile Tools, Stats, MP3 Sales, Mail List, Widgets?
Cost: Free
Engagement score: 12/12
Alexa Comparison Score: 2nd Place
_ sayvee
Comments: sayvee is the new kid on the block. We actually beta tested this one. Like so many of the other tools listed in this article, sayvee is more than just social media site. sayvee is a comprehensive program for creating a website, selling your merchandise, and communicating with fans. Plus, they might just have the best promotional videos on the web.
Sample: Ange Alero - http://angealero.sayvee.com
To get it: Go to sayvee
Features: List Songs, Concert listing, Video, Photos, Post to Twitter, Post to Facebook, Stats, MP3 Sales, CD Sales, Blog, Website, Email, Stats.
Cost: $14.99/m
Engagement score: 7/12
Alexa Comparison Score: 7th Place
_ ReverbNation
Comments: Reverbnation isn't a household name like myspace, but they have all the bells and whistles that myspace has, and more. It's free, it's easy to use, and scalable; meaning there are premium services that you can pay for and add as you can afford them and reach even more fans. ReverNation also has widgets (love them widgets!). 14 different widgets to help you embed video, music, join e-mail lists, promote shows. Here's the ReverbNation widget list - http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://www.reverbnation.com/page_object/page_object_widgets/artist_840854&h=97be4
Probably the best thing as far as ReverNation is concerned is its Facebook feature. It's called "Band Profile" embedded into Facebook. It also helps you to keep your personal Facebook page - personal - and move your fans to your band profile and engage with them there.
Sample: Cruel Young Heart - http://www.reverbnation.com/cruelyoungheart Also see http://www.facebook.com/cruelyoungheart?v=app_2405167945 for a sample Band Profile.
To get it: Go to http://www.reverbnation.com/cruelyoungheart#!/main/overview_artist
Features: List Songs, Videos, Photos, Concert listing, Twitter Feed, Post to Twitter, Facebook App, Post to Facebook, Stats MP3 Sales, Blog, Website, Mail List and Widgets.
Cost: Free - charge for some premium services.
Engagement score: 9/12
Alexa Comparison Score: 3rd Place
_ myspace
Comments: If you are a musician, you are probably familiar with myspace. For musicians, having a myspace page is almost a given, and you have to take that into consideration from a marketing point of view. This is important because it's a well known social media destination in and of itself, even though it is slipping a little in this department. I'm not sure what the future of myspace is. It seems to be becoming an afterthought to Facebook and has some powerful competitors who have even more features, to offer from a social media engagement standpoint. On the otherhand, myspace still has branding power i.e. you are likely to be asked, "What is your myspace page?"
Breaking News - myspace is being redesigned - stay tuned!
Sample: Jess Janz http://www.myspace.com/jessjanz
To get it: Go to http://www.myspace.com
Features: List Songs, Videos, Photos, Concert listing, Fan Comments, Twitter Feed, Post to Twitter?, Stats MP3 Sales, Blog(ish), Website(ish), and Widgets.
Cost: Free
Engagement score: 6/12
Alexa ComparisonScore: 1st Place (32nd overall on the entire web)
_ Fanbridge
Comments: Fanbridge is designed to help you communicate to your fans, through e-mail, SMS messaging, myspace, Twitter, Facebook and more. Very simple interface with an option to join your mailing list, or see concert information.
Sample: Imogen Heap (prolific Tweeter) http://imogenheap.fanbridge.com
To get it: Go to http://www.fanbridge.com
Features: List Songs, Videos, Photos, Concert listing, Fan Comments, Post to Twitter, Post to Facebook, Mobile Tools, Stats, MP3 Sales, mail List. Cost: $9/m Engagement score: 6/12 Alexa Comparison Score: 5th Place
_ Bandcamp
Comments: I like the ability Bandcamp provides to name the price of your music downloads. Selling music for $0.99 on i-Tunes has never made a lot of sense to me, especially if you have to share a cut with them and some other middle man. They provide a pretty simple interface there's nothing wrong with that!
Sample: Sufjan Stevens (Will be at the Orpheum Theatre on October 28, 2010) http://sufjanstevens.bandcamp.com/album/the-age-of-adz
To get it: Go to http://www.bandcamp.com
Features: List Songs, Concert listing, Post to Twitter, Stats, MP3 Sales, CD Sales, Website(ish), Email, Stats, Widgets
Cost: Free
Engagement score: 4/12
Alexa Comparison Score: 4th Place
_ BANDZOOGLE
Comments: Pretty slick looking tool that comes loaded with pretty well everything you need to communicate with your fans. If look and feel is important to you, you might want to consider BANDZOOGLE because it's the winner over the other tools listed here. There is a monthly cost, however. Great tracking tools to see where your fans are and determine how engaged they are.
Sample: Taylor Rankin - http://taylorrankin.com/home.cfm
To get it: Go to http://www.banzoogle.com
Features: List Songs, Concert listing, Video, Photos, Podcast, Post to Twitter, Post to Facebook, Stats, MP3 Sales, CD Sales, Mobile Sales, Blog, Website, Email, Stats. Cost: $9.95
Engagement score: 7/12
Alexa Comparison Score: 6th Place
_Ping
Comments: Ping from Apple calls itself a Social Network because you can follow different artists and check out what your friends are listening too. I'm not too sure about it yet. To become featured on Ping you have to be "ingested" by Apple, you can't just sign up (see http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/092010pingonebyone). They create your profile and then contact you. On the plus side; all the artist's pages are authentic. On the minus side; small Indie artists may have to wait forever.
OTHER TOOLS
Here are several generic tools for the "do it yourselfer." I haven't gone into much detail with these because they are not artist specific, but still very useful even essential for social media engagement purposes:
_ Widget Box I like Widget Box, although I find it hard to use at times. If you want to produce some customized social media widgets to place on your blog or website, Widget Box has the tools to help you do that. At Widget Box you can create custom widgets, for things like MP3 downloads, concert schedules, Twitter updates, and more. You simply create the widget, copy the code, and place them in your website, or blog. Sample: http://thebigbuzzfactory.blogspot.com/p/fuel-sites_16.html
Get the fuelradio-music widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox! Not seeing a widget?
_ Meet-up A tool like Meet-up is so important, but maybe more so in other types of business because there are already a lot of concert tools out there that kind of have a similar function. All of the above, and everything in this article comes down to this meeting your fans face to face. Meet-up is almost like posting an event on Facebook, only it could actually be better because people are checking out meet-up because they are really interested in participating in something like a concert, or a local song writing group. Whereas, with Facebook people are going there for tons of different reasons and events sometimes get buried under lots of other "stuff."
_ Twiturm allows you to upload an MP3 and post in various social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. http://www.twiturm.com
_ Tubemogul Allows you to upload and share your video on various sites like YouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook. You have to have accounts on the social media sites to post there, but Tubemogul helps with that by linking to the various sites during the sign-up process. http://www.tubemogul.com
_ ping.fm Like Tubemogul, only for text. Allows you to upload and share articles on numerous different sites including Twitter, Facebook and a variety of blog sites. Again, you have to have accounts. http://www.ping.fm I love ping.fm and Tubemogul because once you have accounts you just paste your article, or video code into the message box, click a button, and presto it's posted all over the web to your social media accounts.
Next article we'll go into Twitter, Facebook, and Blogging as part of your killer social media strategy for artists. Stay tuned.
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