J Sider gets it. The 29 year old CEO of BandPage has seen the industry top to bottom. From booking bands in his hometown of Harrisonburg, Virgina to managing the 4,000 cap Saltair theater in Salt Lake City, he’s seen the business of music first hand. He saw how it began to fold and is now helping to revive it.
Anyone who says the music industry is dying is defeatist and lacks creativity. We’re in the most exciting time the music industry has ever known.
No longer is the industry about who can sell the most music. Or ticket sales.
Yes, download sales are down. Music purchasing is at an all time low. Ticket prices are at an all time high. The old guard is freaking out, while the new players figure out a better way.
Patreon just solved YouTube… And Music
Forget having to rely on a broken system.
J Sider saw how people were jumping ship from Myspace to Facebook. Naturally, musicians needed to find them. He created the best music app on Facebook. BandPage was wildly adapted and became the industry standard for music on Facebook back in 2010.
When Facebook completely changed the layout of the Musician Page and moved to the Timeline format in 2012, BandPage’s entire business model was rocked. No longer was the BandPage app featured on the main screen of Musician Pages. Sider had to pivot.
And luckily he did.
Sider, along with his team of 40 at BandPage, are creating the best monetization and connectivity platform the industry has ever known.
Experiences
BandPage has taken the merch store and shot it up with steroids. It’s no longer just about selling t-shirts and tote bags, it’s about selling experiences fans crave. Kickstarter and PledgeMusic proved that fans will pay lots of money to get unique, exclusive opportunities. BandPage takes this idea and gives artists a way to incorporate it on an ongoing basis.
George Clinton is selling a meet and greet for $150 a pop at each stop on his tour. Ozzy Osbourne sold a 4 pack of premium tickets and meet and greets for $4,000. You could watch Third Eye Blind’s soundcheck, get a ticket to the show, have a meet and greet, a t-shirt and signed set list for $200 on their last tour.
You can buy an autographed guitar from Stars for $450 or challenge Jana Kramer in a game of ping pong, hang out at the venue and get a bunch of other swag for $60.
John Legend’s touring guitarist, Ryan Lerman, is offering one-on-one backstage guitar lessons before the show for $75.
Worth noting, Lerman is offering these on his upcoming solo tour – not John Legend’s. At least not yet.
Sider mentioned that the band Wild Child, who drew about 100-500 people a night on their last tour, doubled their net touring revenue by offering Experiences. Their manager also told Sider that another band he manages sold experiences on tour and it was the only way they could afford to stay on the road.
*Update 6/6/14 – It’s proven that the demand for these experiences is there. A study done by Nielsen in March of 2013 found that music fans could spend up to $2.6 BILLION more if they ” had the opportunity to snag behind-the-scenes access to the artists along with exclusive content.” This study also found that 40% of music consumers who are fans account for 75% of all music spending.
“40 percent of U.S. consumers…are responsible for 75 percent of music spending. These fans, who spend between $20 billion and $26 billion on music each year, could spend an additional $450 million to $2.6 billion annually if they had the opportunity to snag behind-the-scenes access to the artists along with exclusive content.” – Nielsen study, March 2013
The BandPage Store on bandpage.com is technically in beta. It’s a bit difficult to navigate and there is currently no search to see if your favorite band is offering anything on their latest tour. There’s no browse alphabetically. Or by city. But I presume all of this will be worked out in the near future.
Primarily, BandPage is being used by bands to embed widgets (such as tour dates, bio, songs, photos and the store) on their website, and to be the centralized hub to update this information.
BandPage currently takes a commission of 15% for any item sold in the BandPage store and processing fees are included (so 85% goes directly to the artist). This is about the same rate as Bandcamp’s merch store which takes 10% + processing fees of about 4-6%. Topspin and Big Cartel don’t charge a commission for their merch stores (only processing fees), but rather charge a monthly subscription fee of $10 – $100 depending on the size of the store and included features.
Connectivity
“Every place where your fans are we want to help you reach them” – J Sider, CEO, BandPage
It has been incredibly difficult for artists to get their information included on many platforms and it’s been difficult for platforms to obtain complete and accurate information about the artists.
Over the last two years, BandPage has been striking deals with every possible outlet that could benefit artists and get them connected. BandPage looks to be the hub from which artists can import information (once) and get it sent out (everywhere).
Want your bio, profile photo and tour dates (and ticket links) listed on iHeartRadio, Rdio, SoundCloud or Xbox Music when your song is playing? Want your VIP meet and greet, T-shirt or tour dates listed on the sidebar of lyric sites such as SongMeanings.com when a fan is reading your lyrics? Get your info updated on BandPage. Currently BandPage is connected to 10 outlets that artists can choose to send their info out with the click of a button. Many more outlets are being announced very soon.
The most important thing artists can do right now is update their BandPage profile.
Everything is updated immediately across all platforms from the artist BandPage hub. No need to send your new promo photo or bio to 10 different outlets. Just upload it once to BandPage.
BandPage has also teamed up with Google to get your tour dates listed on the side bar of the search results. You must integrate the BandPage concert widget to your website (and get your information up to date on MusicBrainz.com – the wikipedia of music).
“Our value proposition is: To help musicians generate more revenue and grow their fan base by providing the ability to reach hundreds of millions of fans with a musicians content, merch and tour dates on major platforms they could not reach before.” – J Sider, CEO, BandPage
BandPage Connect
Similar to how sites and apps use Facebook Connect for login and to grab whatever information necessary for the app, any festival, contest or other platform can use BandPage Connect to grab artist information.
This past year Sunset Strip Music Festival and Midem used BandPage Connect to get all the artist information they needed.
Any festival, contest or other platform can ask their bands to use BandPage Connect to collect photos, songs, videos and bio with the click of a button.
Platforms interested in BandPage Connect can grab the button code here.
Moving Forward
We are entering into the golden era of the music industry. There is more money to be made than ever. Instead of only selling your fans an album once every 3 years or a concert ticket once a year, artists can sell unique experiences along with creative merchandise year round. Instead of jacking up ticket prices and boxing out a huge portion of your fans, artists can cut ticket prices and offer higher priced experiences for their die hard fans.
There is lots of (smart) money to be made on the road. And it will be easier than ever for fans to be converted into customers while they are engaged with artists’ content online.
Sider seemed very open to how BandPage can evolve. Personally, I’d love to see BandPage help independent artists get lyrics submitted to LyricFind to get them syndicated across lyric websites and displayed on platforms like Pandora. I’d also like to see BandPage work with Pandora to get merch, tour dates and bio info listed on the artist’s profile and during playback. The elephant in the room is YouTube. BandPage has a deal with Vevo and we only can hope that YouTube will team up with BandPage as well and integrate merch, concert tickets and experiences similarly.
The beauty of BandPage is that the content is curated by the artist. And it’s incredibly user friendly, effortless and free.
Welcome to the music industry’s renaissance.
Check out more at BandPage.com
Benevolence is not a business model.
Those who have something to sell the superfan will do so. New bands will do whatever they need to, but both will suffer the same burnout with those fans at some point.
There is probably money to be made here, but not career sustaining money. I’m happy to be proven wrong, but I don’t see it. I see burning up your credibility with even your superfans for money. I see fans demands getting stranger on the acts and the risk to the act. Prince is not a customer service specialist. Getting him to engage at all would be probably more bad news than good. What if your hero is a jerk?
I don’t think there is a requirement for bands to provide “experiences” for fans or customer service. Besides the “experiences” feature, Bandpage is at the moment a simple content management system. Syndicating content is nothing new and allows bands to make more money by reaching more people. It’s more about information management than about customer service. If the band’s show dates are not updated on facebook but are on myspace, then fans on facebook will be out of the loop or might miss a show. Updating a bio seems easy enough, but I’ve found for musicians, authors, anyone really, forgetting to make an update to a social network is easy to do. Sometimes, a band manger thinks one person in the band or label is updating a social network when they aren’t. BP also helps with version control. Having info be the same across networks strengthens the bands credibility. Bands can have one bio instead of having to rewrite a bio or email everyone to get a copy of the bio. As with any start-up, Bandpage is not perfect but platforms like these are not going anywhere and will make money for themselves and for their clients.
“Instead of only selling your fans an album once every 3 years or a concert ticket once a year, artists can sell unique experiences”….such as individual music lessons, or paying to meet and greet the artist…
…or having the artist wash your car and also cut your lawn for $2500. You can arm wrestle the artist for $300. Some artists are now offer The Massage Experience (call for prices). An artist in New Hampshire will bake you a pie for $300. Another in L.A. is selling original doodles from a legal pad at $500 a page.
We live in exciting times for musicians. 🙂 Indeed, things have never been better.
(Sorry, Ari. I just had to have some fun. The “experiences” just don’t sound all that enjoyable for a me as a way to make a living as a musical artist and songwriter. I like the idea of royalties that matter and that can earn me a living, but that ship seems to have sailed.)
I do not think that this will catch on. No one cares enough about music or the artist to give a crap about a $150 meet and greet. Good luck with that.
Well Third Eye Blind and Ozzy’s Experiences all sold out. Did you miss the part about the band doubling their touring revenue with these? I’d say it’s already working. Only going to get bigger.
People said the same thing about Kickstarter when that first came out too.
Only to get bigger for already established acts. This is the Radiohead thing all over again! “Gamechanger!” Yeah, only for Radiohead. Or your terrible examples who also had the backing for years of the biggest major labels in the world.
Your Pollyanna crap is far more damaging then telling musicians the truth.
Ari,
You’re an ‘average’ musician. Why don’t you try selling experiences for a few months and report back how it worked for you? Give us actual numbers (your time spent and the money you earned). Did it work? Is it sustaunable? Is it too much of a distraction from the music?
That sort of 1st hand experience would be helpful.
I already did one. The first experience I sold was to BandPage. It was called “embarassingly transparent advertorial in DigitalMusicNews”.
Ari please, “Why BandPage Is Going To Be The Most Powerful Player In Music” is about the most pandering overreaching headline possible. It is one thing to state your opinions and marvel at how BandPage is ‘pivoting’ in the face of their business model being demolished, it is another thing entirely to call them the most powerful player in a multi-billion dollar industry. More powerful than mega-stars? More powerful than billionaire moguls? More powerful than YouTube, iTunes, Spotify, the Major labels?? Get your head out of J’s ass and get real. This is bush league crap. I’m surprised Paul let you… oh wait no I’m not!
It’s pretty impressive that J was able to totally switch the course of the product that BandPage offered and continued to — or even became more — successful. Over $28 million is funding is also pretty impressive.
I think more so than the ‘experiences’ feature, creating a relatively universal database, especially for smaller bands, is a really good move (particularly since we are only going to see more and more online services that are going to be powered by this data).
Agree that all artists should be on this platform, it can only help. A few questions jump out though on your piece.
First, I wonder how much money Experiences is actually making. I’ve met with J., as you have, specifically on Experiences. But I’ve never seen anything concrete to suggest that this ‘merch on steroids’ is actually a strong revenue generator (or even, what the revenues are). I do know that these activities are incredibly time-consuming and extremely difficult to scale (though not impossible).
Secondly, I’m getting the sense that the real money is coming from whales. Amanda Palmer changed everything, sort of: if you look closely at her contributions, a very large percentage came from a very few people. I think Experiences sounds great as an idea, but it will be interesting to see how that maps against actual buyers and data.
And what is wrong with a few whales supporting the musicians they believe in? That’s how it was back in the day before recorded music: rich patrons funding musicians. There’s nothing wrong with allowing rich fans to contribute what makes sense to them.
It’s why Bandcamp is so successful. The CEO, Ethan Diamond, mentioned that fans pay 50% more than than the minimum price on bandcamp. It enabled one of my big fans to pay me $20 for a single and another big fan $200 for an album.
Labels have always been “the whales” and now musicians don’t need to rely solely on corporations wanting ownership.
Startups also rely on a few “whales” and that’s the reason many of them get off the ground. What’s wrong with that?
I remember Todd Rundgren trying something similar in 90’s. Worked out exactly as I would imagine Bandpage will, 28 million later. Moderate success on the backs of a few whales, but ultimately unsustainable.
There aren’t enough Kings anymore for patronage to work.
Meanwhile, in the real world:
iTunes is where you make money — YouTube is where you meet your fans.
Anonymous, that is too black & white a statement. For example for many of us, we’re now making more from Pandora via Soundexchange on a monthly basis than even iTunes, and through services like Audiam, one can make a significant amount finding and monetizing every video by any youtube user who’s using our music.
This platform is completly scaleable and works for artists of all sizes. Its a no brainer that Beyoncé could make a ton of extra dough by offering meet and greet experiences. However, the same goes for smaller acts. I manage Wild Child, one of the acts mentioned in the article. We were curious as to how our comparitvley small fan base would react meet and greets and Skype meetings. The response was overwhelming and the artist to fan bond that was created will be long lasting. The unfortunate economic truth about being a baby band and touring is that there is barley enough money to survive, even with half of the shows sold out. The experiences create an opportunity for fans to patronize the bands they love and help them reach the next level while making real connections with them.
And there you have it!
I find it sad when “dating service offerings”, and patronage are viewed as a route to music success. This is as not very attractive to anyone considering a career in music or the music business. It’s harkens back to kings and nobles supporting composers and musicians. popular music should be the product, but this solution seems to be a mini live nation. It’s the public, who chooses where they spend their money. I maintain popular music has lost it’s place in our culture. Focusing on getting today’s musician more $ might be a miscalculation, and the focus should be on right content reaching the right audience. Sounds like what radio did. and so far i haven’t seen a replacement, just a bunch of investor driven data mining sites.
I don’t really see much harm in the whole Skype talks and thanks for chiming in with your experiences! Knowing how hard it is on the road though, how much more quickly would the band have burned out if they were stopping at every spot on tour days ahead of time just to facilitate an ‘experience’ with a fan? A lot of times bands literally show up for sound check, go on stage, break down and head to the next town to make another show. There’s really no time for the experiences listed. It just seems like it’s counter-intuitive to music purity (I know I know) because artists will now be faced with a whole other dynamic in which they need to excel. The music will suffer from poor writing, lack of practice and inevitably be the demise as a whole because of the lack of one of the most important factors: time. It’s something to explore though I’d be interested to hear other experiences of yours with it!
A band i know has tried this business model to fund their album and it worked, in spades.. more money than they needed but.. the amount of time it took to have all those Skype chats and Skype guitar and drum lessons ate into their recording time and nearly burned them out. Now they have to tour to promote that album and make the money back for the price of the album, and still have to do meet and greets, and fan experiences.. and its going to burn them out even more to put almost as much energy into the experiences as they do for the shows. The fans at the end of the tour are going to get less of a show than those at the start of the tour.. and the band works their asses off just to break even. I dont honestly see how this is going to help them earn a living, earn extra. It cuts out the middle man yes – but the middle man is getting antsy and pulling shit to keep their hand in the profits – look what’s happening to youtube right now. I honestly dont think the industry is in exciting times.. i think its in a downward spiral.
Ari, did they pay your rent this month or something? Paul is a professional that knows better than to write pieces like this, which makes me wonder how this amateurish fawning got posted.
But, then again, more than half of your articles are like this Ari. Its fine for your blog but It’s hurting the DMN brand.
He knows better than to write it, but he doesn’t know better than to publish it…
This is a press release, and an overly long, badly written one, at that. I’m disappointed that DMN would run something like this.
I guess Bandpage signed up for a good amount of advertising here. I can’t remember ever seeing such a fluff piece on this site.
“Welcome to the music industry’s renaissance.” Indeed
Just to clear the air, this is my opinion. Haven’t seen a press release. BandPage doesn’t sponsor DMN. Paul didn’t tell me to write this. I wrote it because I was very impressed by their service and saw how it could help musicians make a better living. I’ve trashed companies on DMN as well. I call it like I see it.
A little confused at all the bitterness and attacks but Se la vie!
Is this a paid advertisement? Not really sure how it can be justified as editorial. Please comment.
All these seemingly great ideas only work if an artist has established an identity and will become problematic for artists eventually as no successful artist has the physical time to spend extended time with fans no matter how much they pay. It is do a gig, move down the road. Limited success is my prediction.
Why is it exciting and a good thing that musicians now have to sell something besides music and performance to make enough money to earn a living?
Essentially you now need a side job. The music is not enough.
This is progress?
I think it’s just a way to spin todays sad reality that there are just not enough paying and attentive fans out there for the astonishingly huge number of people in the world who want to make money playing music.
Wouldn’t you agree that music today follows the Power Law, and 90% of all the money in the music business goes to the Lady Gagas and Eagles and other acts promoted by the Star Making Machinery? The other 50 million artists have to “pay to play” and give away their music for free.
paid placement
Provocative piece and headline. Like all lauded game changers for artists (not industry or consumers), Bandpage is a tool. The tool can be very useful in many circumstances–as was mentioned by Paul in his comment–but the tool is not a musician or artist’s savior. Premium products, services and experiences are a good idea for all artists who have some sort of fan base because, yes, there are always fans willing to pay more for access or something special. That goes for fans of anything–comic books, professional sports, politics, etc.
I know the headline was written to gain attention (a tool of journalism!), but the power in the music industry on a large scale will always lie with those who can grant access, make deals and build infrastructures that will get a select number of artists big enough to make a full time, comfortable living solely from music. For “star” or “name” artists, that power will still lie with the curators–labels, brands, agents, managers, sponsors, promoters, radio stations (or whomever chooses playlists for mass audience consumption in the future), etc. Artists can and do certainly get to a level of success on their own; but to truly scale, they need help from professionals.
Bandpage is definitely conduit to artists making money and reaching fans, but it is not a musician’s savior or panacea for those facing increased competition and falling revenues. Like everything in art, many will try but few will succeed. If Bandpage can help you succeed, definitely use it, but don’t think it will catapult you to stardom or save your career.
I agree pretty wholeheartedly with most everyone’s sentiments here on the comments portion. This does nothing for the band except – possibly – earn them a few extra bucks to basically be a paid monkey to dance and smile when the rich fan so chooses fit. This cuts into sleeping, eating or writing time that every artist needs to develop as a person and a musician. And most importantly PRACTICING time that nobody has failed to embrace lately in the industry. Not only will this ostracize your less wealthy fans, it will assure that the progress of the artist is stifled and virtually make it impossible for anyone to tour more than a few years because of the inevitable burnout. Like someone else said in the thread too, “what if your hero is an asshole” – or something to that effect. I have it on good authority that many people’s heroes are indeed assholes and shouldn’t be in any kind of service to the fans or else they’ll face a huge pullback. Oasis anyone? The fact of the matter is, bands are musicians who perform – leave it at that. They’re not teachers, or hosts or fucking pals that wish to kick it to the highest bidder. It’s a good concept on paper, but let’s face it, ‘experience’ avenues won’t work. I take that back, they probably will work – like the horrendous VIP experiences sold at festivals – but they’re shit and do a huge disservice to music as a whole. Anybody who wishes their existence is no music fan, just a fan of money. The two (money and music) should go back to being enemies.
Disagree
I’m a user and fan of Bandpage and spoke with J about the Experiences platform before launch. I know first hand that selling experiences around an artist tour can generate significant additional revenue. At a minimum I’ve seen 25% additional revenue to a tours bottom line. For example several artists of mine doing full US headline tours in 1000 cap clubs can make an additional $25,000 to $50,000.
To achieve these additional revenue streams I’ve partnered with countless companies like Sound Rink, Artist Arena, Ground(ctrl), Musictoday, MerchDirect, Limited Run….. All of these companies provide fan experiences and display them directly on an artists website and social networks rather than on their own companies homepage like Bandpage.com. I assume Bandpage will eventually pivot to have their offerings in a similar fashion to all the other players in the market.
With that said this MUST be an ADVERTORIAL, there is no other reason that one player slightly behind the pack can be written about as the saviour for artists.
This is by no means an attack on Bandpage but they aren’t the only company making such offers and far from the market leader. Now if they can start syndicating these offers on all their data sharing partners sites that will give them an advantage but each of the companies I listed above have other unique competitive advantages as well.
nailed it.
Question for the BandPage CEO. Maybe he can chime in.
Are you going to integrate with LyricFind which even powers our lyrics showing up on the new Amazon Fire TV ( Music X-Ray feature which is actually powered by LyricFind) , and or the ability for artists to upload their own bios when AllMusic/Rovi won’t process them, so that places like Pandora can populate the bio that we submit?
Best Regards,
Steven Cravis
StevenCravis.com
With the constantly changing platforms and their shifting audiences, I am always looking for a streamlined way of keeping my artists information in the right place at the right time. BandPage seems to be heading in the direction of becoming a one stop shop for pushing out relevant information to each of the platforms in order to capitalize on developing revenue streams and create one to one relationships with fans. I’m excited to be able to accomplish this in one place!
Did all you cry babies cry when your mommies changed your cloth diapers to dispensable diapers too? I also wonder how many of one still have a flip phone? Sounds like many of you want someone to hold your hand when you pout about the music industry. A better option might be making technology work for. It’s time you stop playing in the tree’s and realize there is a big forest (of opportunity ) for you to discover. Why don’t you take some time out of your pity party and learn about SEO, web design, social marketing,app creation, and other modern skills. The more hats you wear the less you’ll have to rely everyone else to do it for you. Remember this too; it’s your fault not anyone else’s.
Why don’t you take some time out of your pity party and learn grammar. It would help your credibility immensely!
The platform has benefited me in the past and I believe will in the future. With all the digital platforms available for musicians BandPage listens to what an artist needs to set themselves up for success. In today’s music industry you need to be agile with your decisions and be able to react to the next change. It’s already been proven by BandPage and I don’t believe they’ll stop disrupting the flow. I wish them all the success.
The real value that BandPage delivers is the ability to connect artists with their fans on the platforms they use to easily sell anything, not just experiences, and provide accurate information. It has been an issue for a long time and I’m glad it is being solved. Until now, Fan uses Platform X. Fan visits his favorite artist’s profile on Platform X, but it does not have current info, images, tour dates, merch offers and will not push the fan to the artist website where accurate information resides. It’s also a massive pain for managers to keep track of all platforms, their requirements, keep them updated, etc. BandPage fixing this.
one my favorite Experiences was when Little Dragon played two nights at Mezzanine in San Francisco. On one of the nights, after their performance, several band members just strolled outside to the smoking section to hang out, talk with some of the people there. I ended up talking with the drummer for a few minutes, who seemed really nice. Some of the other people ended up having a little chat with the bearded keyboard player.
I don’t think that experience would have the same meaning if people had to pay for it. I think if you’re an up-and-coming band you should do what Metallica and Iron Maiden used to do: hang out for a bit after the show and talk to your fans. That organic goodwill will take you further than the money you might make from meet-n-greet$
I totally agree with you. “Experiences” – interaction with fans and audience members – should be a natural organic thing that happens in the right environment and when the musicians genuinely feel like interacting. To get people pay for it and to treat it as an “income stream” is a vile aberration that defiles the noble art of music and the dignity of both the musicians and the fans. Anyone who thinks that paid “experiences” is the way forward definitely does not “get it”.
I’m always confused when I read comments that suggest bands are just performers. Bands and musicians carry a priceless gift with them and when developed properly, it can inspire people all over the World like nothing else. There was a time when recording an album and touring was enough, and for some that still works but – that’s VERY hard to pull off these days. So a company comes along that helps build a pipeline (A huge accomplishment and very underrated) that distributes important band content everywhere with an ease that’s never existed before and likewise develops new potential revenue streams to help bands cover the exorbitant costs for touring and – people come out of the woodwork to shoot them down? I manage a mid-level band. We have used experiences. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t. Fact of the matter is – making these experiences work is up to artist and it’s team. Bandpage is offering a service that allows you to develop the experiences that best fit your band. This is a great asset for any team who can take the time to find the strengths of their band and desires from their fanbase and create something out of that. Everyone on this forum will agree the music industry is in a tough place especially for developing bands trying to make a full-time living but the people who embrace the new technologies trying to help will lead the charge. Bandpage may not be the answer but between it’s ability to distribute band content and offer new revenue streams for artists, I’ve yet to see anyone else doing anything better. On top of all this – With the Big Data potential this has to empower musicians with analytics for touring etc…this is actually an incredibly exciting time for the industry. I’ve worked in the music business for 15 years and because of companies like these I’m finally starting to see the potential for musicians to control their own destiny more then ever before. Yes it’s noisy as ever and hard to break through but the good music in a proper pipeline will. The Rolling Stones insist on meet & greets with radio programmers for every tour they’ve ever done, David Bowie had Bowie Bonds, Wu Tang is releasing a record into museums, BRMC shipped a record with coal from a fire they wrote the songs at and thousands of other bands have come up with random ways to distribute, promote or compliment their music. Musicians are not just performers, they’re skilled artists chasing their dreams and fighting tooth and nail to survive. It’s time we start treating them that way and supporting the companies who already do.
I’m a fan. BandPage has made great progress the last few years in helping musicians navigate a hugely disruptive time in the music business. That’s the key ingredient in their adoption by the artist community…creating an opportunity for musicians to engage fans across platforms that previously were largely unavailable. This increased reach translates into more fans and more money for the artists. That’s why BandPage is leading the pack.
“In fact, a recent Nielsen study found that 40 percent of U.S. consumers—those classified as fans—are responsible for 75 percent of music spending. These fans, who spend between $20 billion and $26 billion on music each year, could spend an additional $450 million to $2.6 billion annually if they had the opportunity to snag behind-the-scenes access to the artists along with exclusive content.” http://www.nielsen.com/
Facebook and other social media have shown that there are some fans you just aren’t going to spend much time talking with. Even (especially) if they are wealthy and will pay.
50 cent just sold out $5000 sleepovers at his house. He wouldn’t say how many people he’s having, but I’m assuming he made a ton. BTW Ari – do you watch Silicon Valley? Nice use of “pivot.”
Ha! Yes, that’s probably where I got it.
So, are you very interested, somewhat interested or very interested? Which one? Which one? Which one?
Nobody gives a shit about any of this. Not only is BitchPage irrelevant, it is unrelated to music, and both ineffective and obsolete on its face. Yea you can say Third Eye Blind made a few grand from shining your shoes; how does this translate to indie artist success or even music at all?
J is a nice guy.
And BandPage is a nice platform.
But so are Eddie and Nick at Grnd(ctrl), and loads more.
E-TRAIN has had success with BandPage and others but more with eTRAINmusic.com / WeAreGODM.bigcartel.com / VillageGreenStyleHouse.com / just mainly our own activations so far versus platforms.
This marketplace is still in desperate need of solutions.
It is an exciting time indeed.
To pivot is key.
We will see who comes with what and when…
We live in a new world where there are 2 important groups of people in music – Artists and Fans. Anyone or anything that facilitates the interaction of Artists and Fans, as BandPage are doing, are to be lauded. I really don’t understand the comments above that don’t realise how the world has changed. Opportunities now exist that musicians can use if they want to but don’t have to. BandPage and their like provide musicians with help in maximising the relationships they have with their fan. There is a great art in making that work and the musicians have to decide what they are comfortable with providing and the fan has to decide how to react with that provision. The right balance will do wonders for both
Jon Webster. MMF
So, it’s not enough that I have to manage my Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, Pinterest, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, my own website, and whatever distribution sites I have to deal with, but now I also have to, or want to, add Bandpage?
I don’t think artists, bands, or musicians need another profile to manage. Sounds like just another startup trying to build a business on the back of musicians, bands, and songwriters.
And it doesn’t want to focus on my music but pimp me out as a prostitute who is paid for services and experiences? Laughable…
“And it doesn’t want to focus on my music but pimp me out as a prostitute who is paid for services and experiences..”
I could not put it better than this!
So called “experiences” are just revolting whoring. Let’s make music!!
And to top it all the messianic gleaming eyes facial expression of the Bandpage bloke in the photo at the top of this page just makes me want to kick him.
“We are entering into the golden era of the music industry.”
A telling choice of words; note that it is not predicted as a golden age for music, or for musicians, but for the music “industry”.
Musicians are now in the business of selling “experiences”?
Music is the experience. That’s what musicians should focus on. Anything else will detract from that priority. If the artist is spending all his/her time selling “experiences”, that leaves little time for art.
As a fan, also, I am not interested in these non-musical “experiences”; I want to hear brilliant, passionate, beautiful music. The rest is degradation.
Completely agree with Versus statement, although experiences may make some artists money not all artits can do well with this or sustain it, it is another distraction from creating art. Today’s musician has to DIY everything record at home, pay for mixing and mastering, do the artwork themselves and then pay to release the album unless they have a label of some sort. Promote the record email blogs, writers, book their own shows. Then maybe get to some usual musician work like rehearsing with their band and writing songs meanwhile most likely having a day job to support this. When is their time to have an experience and still make great music. Does a writer have to do all this? They may have a book tour and do some readings but they don’t have to sell personal experiences people still buy books whether its paper or on their kindle. Another point is not every artist can adapt to this model it doesn’t suit their personality some of my favorite musicians certainly wouldn’t and i wouldn’t want them to have to. Can you imagine PJ Harvey selling a guitar lesson? Mazzy Star is so shy they barely do interviews so they should be left behind because the new model doesn’t work for them? Why when they create some of the best music around should that matter?
I appreciate the positive attitude about things musicians can do to generate income and how not to be left behind but lets be real the music industry has changed and while it should have been a change in the musicians favor there are instead a new set of middle men who want to take from the artist’s. While it is a great time for anyone to upload their music online and get it out there alot of work and change still needs to be done to make it fair for the artists. This is what should be argued and fought for. To create great art and music the artist needs the time and space to do so, that is what sustainability provides a way to have that time and space.
For those commenting about the sustainability of this for smaller acts, it is a great point. However over here at Sound Rink we have worked with artists playing in front of 150 people a night and have had these make an artist an extra $5k for a tour. That isn’t the most money in the world but when you’re apt to lose money on the road with gas and van prices that $5k puts you in the green.
hi