I’ll admit it, I’m a Facebook junkie. Hopelessly addicted. If I don’t get my daily (hourly) fix I start to have withdrawal. It’s pathetic. I fully admit it. But alas, this is the world we live in.
I was invited to a friend’s record release show Event today on Facebook. I had seen her post about her band before, but I’d never actually checked them out. I clicked through to the event. I clicked “Interested” first because I already had another event on my calendar for the night, but maybe after hearing a few songs and watching a couple videos I could may be convinced to change my plans.
But this is where things got difficult.
On the Event was all the information for the show but exactly zero songs or videos posted in the comments. And zero links to anywhere I could actually listen or watch the group. Luckily, the Musician Page created the event (not the individual), so I clicked through to the Page. Surely there would be some official music and videos on their Official Musician Page. So wrong. And the website link in the About section took me to a broken page! They are clearly asking to be ignored.
+12 Ways To Get More Likes (And Engagement) For Your Musician Page
I know, this may sound like some unique case of artist incompetence, but, unfortunately, it seems to be the norm. Unlike Myspace circa 2008, Facebook Musician Pages don’t have standards. There is no music player there by default. There is video now, but oddly most musicians are stuck in 2013 and continue to use YouTube as their sole video hosting platform. Facebook gets over 8 billion video views a day (videos uploaded TO Facebook – not posted from YouTube). People want to see videos on Facebook.
Musicians, listen up. Facebook is still f’ing important. Yes, teens have fled. But the rest of the population is still as addicted as I am. So, for everything that is holy, take it seriously. Next to your official website, your Page is THE destination most people go these days to become acquainted with your project. Oftentimes it’s the first destination.
Yes YouTube is still important. Yes people do a quick search on YouTube when they’re starting from the physical world. When a friend says “check out this band,” people go to YouTube (or Spotify – or SoundCloud if you’re super hip). But when people see a post within Facebook, allow them to get acquainted with you IN Facebook. Don’t make them jump all over the web. People want to stay within the platform they are most comfortable. Facebook gives the most accurate snapshot of an artist’s status.
6 Things Every Musician Page Needs To Have
1) Music
Seems like a no brainer that music should exist on a Musician Page, but so many musicians don’t have music, of any kind, anywhere on their page. Unacceptable. When BandPage, Bandcamp and ReverbNation all have music playing apps you can quickly and easily install to your Musician Page, there’s no reason not to have one.
+What The Number Of Facebook Likes Says About Musicians
2) Featured Video
This is the video (uploaded TO Facebook) that lives on the left hand side of the Page just below About on the Desktop and it’s the first video listed below the pinned post on mobile. It should be some kind of music video. If you don’t have a high production music video, then feature your highest quality live video. It needs to be high quality. It needs to be your music. It shouldn’t just be the most recent 15 second video of you putzing around in Canters fed directly from Instagram. Sure, that can be a fun video to post to give a glimpse into your world, but it shouldn’t be the featured video on your Page.
3) Pinned Post
Like Twitter, Facebook allows you to feature one post at the top of your Timeline. So, do it. Pick the most interesting (newish) accomplishment, accolade, song, video, photo and pin it. It’s one of the first things new fans will see when visiting your Page so make it welcoming and interesting.
4) Tour dates
Make sure you have a tour dates tab. BandsInTown and SongKick are the industry standard shows tabs, so pick one and add it to your Page. This is different from the Events tab. Whether you create an Event for each show you play is up to you (and can be an impossible hassle for a 60 date tour), but a BandsInTown or SongKick shows tab is a must (and is synched to all other concert listing sites and apps).
5) Promo Photos
People will judge you based on your look long before your sound. So make sure you take great care in what your image says about your project. Get some high quality promo photos on your Facebook Page.
6) Business Contact Info
Make sure all of the info is filled out in your About section, especially contact info. Don’t make a potential talent buyer, blogger or DJ jump all over the web to find an email address. And don’t make them message you through Facebook. Make sure at least one business contact email is listed. More people on the team? Include everyone: Management, Booking Agent, Publicist, Band, etc.
These 6 things are necessities that every band needs to have. In addition, you can customize your tabs to what makes the most sense for your project.
Don’t make it difficult for people to like your band.
I ended up going to the show and it was incredible. I went in totally blind, though, without ever hearing a single song. It was a pleasant surprise. But most aren’t as generous with their concert going dollars to just take a chance on a band like this. So give your Page a Face(book)lift.
(Oh and, for the record, the screenshot of the Page above was not the offending party that inspired this article – they’re just a band I like. Check em out.)
Couldn’t disagree more… Facebook is just a platform for showoffs and wannabes.. Loads of people in all demographics are deactivating their accounts and waving goodbye to FB. Also, who wants to be followed about by ex work colleagues, ex partners and crazy neighbours…
Agree 100%. A personal website is better than a FB page anyway. If it’s between one or the other, go for the personal website. FB has become goofball central as far as I’m concerned. A place for egos to go unchecked.
Attn all musicians on Facebook: Are your underwhelming, derivative, and uninspiring songs doing more hurt than help?
Yes. Yes they are.
FB is the bane of existence. It is bad for music business, overall, and bad for musicians individually.
Facebook? I’d say it depends on your audience demographic. Sometimes the energy is better spent on Instagram or Vine, to be honest. If you’re crowd is 15-18 years old, you’re LESS credible if you have a FB.
Facebook is steadily going the Myspace way for musicians. Now you have to pay if you want your feeds to be seen in your followers timeline. It’s bye bye time.
Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, maybe Snapchat for the youngest, that’s where the action is now. And your website of course. You should do everything to send people regularly to your website.
Don’t completely discount MySpace either, particularly if one started a MySpace music page back in its heyday…2005-2009…my MySpace music page from 2006 STILL gets a ton of action even in 2017! MySpace struck a chord with musicians, and I think a lot of us still prefer the MySpace dynamic over what Facebook offers.
Facebook only gets 8 million video views a day?
Those are awful figures, are you sure that’s accurate?
This, from Nov 2015: “Facebook Hits 8 Billion Daily Video Views, Doubling From 4 Billion In April”
http://techcrunch.com/2015/11/04/facebook-video-views/
…and each view is not only worthless, a lot of the files are also stolen from YouTube.
“Hopelessly addicted. If I don’t get my daily (hourly) fix I start to have withdrawal. It’s pathetic. I fully admit it. But alas, this is the world we live in.”
No. That is you, not “the world”. Man up.
If you guys (negative commenters above) have it all figured out, why are you reading his advice blog?
I don’t know about yall, but after reading this post, I got the impression that Ari is saying Facebook is important. He never said forget about Youtube, Vine, Instagram… It’s just probably a necessary evil if you’re serious about what you do – like he is. I get 95% of my gigs and interactions on Facebook. I get tons of listeners from all over the globe on YouTube. I get new followers from different genres of music from Instagram posts.
If you’re going to do this music thing right – do ALL the platforms right.
I sped a LOT of time on Facebook. It’s not about ‘manning up,’ @[email protected] – A lot of us find acts to play with on FB, we connect with other musicians on FB, we look for inspiration on FB – HECK – I’m a professional graphic designer as well as a musician, and I get basically ALL of my client work over Facebook because I’m “Hopelessly addicted.” I own my own business and don’t have to answer to a boss because I’m “Hopelessly addicted” to Facebook and know how to use it to get what I want.
Narcissism and voyeurism have absolutely nothing to do with actual musical talent. Facebook has nothing to do with musical success. Zippo. Nada.
Narcissism? Voyeurism? Ok. You missed the point completely if that’s what you’ve gathered. I don’t know how you can say Facebook has nothing to do with musical success. Blanket statements like that aren’t accurate. Facebook brings me musical success. It brings a lot of people musical success. I’m sorry it hasn’t been working for you, thought. Best of luck.
*though* (sorry, was in a hurry)
“Facebook has nothing to do with musical success”
Nonsense.
YouTube and Twitter are obviously more important, but Facebook is very useful, too.
Just don’t use the video service, of course, that would totally cannibalize your YouTube.
On point!
I’d say figure out what social media channels work best for you and then optimize those, but FB is pretty much a “must have” these days for all musicians and consumer driven businesses.
Facebook is horrible for music.
It’s also for old people.
Musicians, listen up. Facebook is still f’ing important. Yes, teens have fled.
How old are we talking? Yeah, teens seem to be off of it, but I’m 25 and all of my 24, 25, 26 and 27 year old friends are as “hopelessly addicted” as the author. If we’re old, then damn.
I’m another Anonymous, but… really?
Everybody’s using Twitter and Snapchat, people never seem to update their Facebook anymore, at least not artists.
Lets not forget that Facebook throttles posts, meaning most posts aren’t seen by fans. Last figure I saw was 12% or less of overall fans see posts.
“Lets not forget that Facebook throttles posts, meaning most posts aren’t seen by fans. Last figure I saw was 12% or less of overall fans see posts.”
Exactly. THIS is why FB is becoming useless for musicians. Your time and energy is not infinite, so you’d better invest it in a plateform with a better ROI.
“There is video now, but oddly most musicians are stuck in 2013 and continue to use YouTube as their sole video hosting platform”
Haha, I wonder why…
(Not.)
I see the trolls are out as usual. You negative nancy’s are sooooo tiresome…and pre-dick-able.
Ari – thanks for the tip on the featured video, very helpful. I get great response, grow my fan base and sales with FB so it’s nice to find new things to try.
Thank you Ari.
But it is no longer possible to install Bandcamp to facebook :
https://bandcamp.com/facebook_app
And I am curious to know what audio format you choose for the videos you upload to facebook… indeed, I have tried many different formats (from the AAC-44100Hz as required by FB itself, to many others…) and each time it sounded awfully compressed… For a “musician” page I really think it sucks ! I can’t upload my music videos with such a terrible sound…
Could you please tell me how you do it ?
Thanks, and have a good day 🙂
Honestly, I’m older and I despise facebook. I can see needing it for some work and business, but music, f it. And I’m glad to see that people feel that way about it. That makes me feel better about that garbage can of a global monopoly.