I strongly suggest that anyone in a band follow Bob Lefsetz, here is a link to his blog and to his Twitter.
Who is Bob Lefsetz?
Bob Lefsetz is the author of “The Lefsetz Letter.” Famous for being beholden to no one and speaking the truth, Lefsetz addresses the issues that are at the core of the music business: downloading, copy protection, pricing and the music itself.
His intense brilliance captivates readers from Steven Tyler to Rick Nielsen to Bryan Adams to Quincy Jones to EVERYBODY who’s in the music business.
Never boring, always entertaining, Bob’s insights are fueled by his stint as an entertainment business attorney, majordomo of Sanctuary Music’s American division and consultancies to major labels.
“The Lefsetz Letter” has been publishing for over 25 years. First as hard copy, most recently as an email newsletter and now, for the first time, in blog form.
In a recent post titled What I Want for Christmas Bob lists 34 things he would like. I want to make note of one of them in this post.
16. The Death Of ReverbNation
And Constant Contact and all the other sites that spam consumers under the aegis of helping performers. These are just sham organizations, ripping off wannabes and cluttering our inboxes. Maybe there should be a fine for unwanted musical e-mail.
Bob does not say much, but it really hit home with me. As I am working with artists I am starting to hear a common thread among many of them…
We have so many profiles and pages on the internet we don’t know what to do with any of them.
I am not saying they are shams, but I am saying that the customers (bands) these many sites serve appear to be overwhelmed. When this happens you risk loosing your customers. They have so much to do they end up doing nothing. In addition many are commenting how they are getting nickel and dime’d to death… $10 a month for this site, $15 a month for that site.
Just another reason why a band should be focusing their efforts on their website. Invest your money in your website, and be wise about what other sites you spend money on.
Is anyone else feeling overwhelmed with all the sites a band is “supposed” to have a profile on?
via Lefsetz Letter.
Just pick a few and go with it. Unless you have a posse to create and update them all.
The truth is (speaking for myself but from talks others feel the same) if you’re DIY or BYOB as you say, with so much to handle, strictly time schedule it is hard, sometimes impossible. Some years ago just before facebook, twitter, I was advised to be everywhere on networks etc, had like 15 profiles that may had some fans or industry people but without having tools to handle all in one (for example tweetdeck, hootsuite u know) it was insane, not to mention after facebook, twitter one or two closed so it was a waste of time. Now I think just be on majors or ones you have most people connected & there is a flow. Also as for some website that charge you every month even you’re not really use the specific service, have an eye on because you can get charged for like 100$ for a service that in the end didn’t worth that money so have a plan & eye on.
My advice is start with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Master them, get comfortable with them. Then you can think about tackling another network.
I feel the way that Bob does about sites like Bandzoogle and ArtistData that exploit people that don’t understand free services/hosting and social networking and tell them to use theirs that is built on those free services but if they want it to work properly they need a premium account. The old evil ways of music management may have evolved in someways after all.
I have no issue with Bandzoogle, it is just another alternative for building your official website. If you have no html or design skills it fills a great need.
Blogger and wordpress.com are free options that have bridged the gap for those with no html/css knowledge pretty well. And they all have the option to apply a site name through a DNS.
WordPress.com is not entirely free, example using your domain will cost you. And to get the most out of a WordPress site some knowledge would be good to have. There is no entirely free option, and you shouldn’t be afraid to spend some money for your website. It reflects on your seriousness and commitment to your career. Not something to cut corners and go cheap.
I just realized after posting that I forgot that wordpress.com did change to an upgrade-able model for features which is entirely against what my original point was. Oops 🙂
But blogger not only gives you 2gigs file hosting and picasa integration but if you set up using a free google apps account you can manage the whole domain, email, docs, g+, blogger, google groups not to mention add your whole band to these as well for free as yourdomainname.com.
Only cost is the domain name which you can get as cheap as $10 a year.
And the backend for designing a site in blogger is pretty user friendly these days.
I have used the Google Apps in the past to build sites. They are ok, not something I would point anyone towards. Even when I did sites on Google Apps you still needed to know coding if you wanted something nice. At least Bandzoogle provides many things a band would specifically want. I am sure Google doesn’t have email lists, shopping carts, digital sales, etc. You have to shop around, but you have to be prepared to spend some money if you are serious about your career.
hey feeling overwhelmed ..need a website but dont know which is best..
bandcamp
bandzoogle
onesheet
fanbridge
bandpage
ahhh!!!!
help!!!
Exactly!!