Bandzoogle news

New mailing list features added

Chris@bandzoogle.com — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 19:32:40 GMT

Two often requested features have been added to the mailing list feature.

First off, you can now customize the mailing list form to include name and address fields. This is handy if you want to create groups based on location. You will find this setting in the "member options" tab of the mailing list.

Second, we revamped the importing and exporting process. You can now import addresses from a file, and it will retain all the important fields, like name, address, country, etc. You can also export your list to a file in the same way, retaining all the data in your list.

New Zooglers join our team!

Chris@bandzoogle.com — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 03:40:09 GMT

I'm happy to announce the addition of two new Zooglers, Tom and Nick.

Tom joins Eli and Colin in the programming department. Look for a lot of nifty new control panel features coming soon from Tom.

Nick is our new design guru. You've already seen his work with the redesign of Bandzoogle.com. Going forward, Nick will help us create new site styles, and improve our templating system to make even more pro looking websites.

Welcome aboard guys!

Bandzoogle named "top 10 indie music marketing tools"

Chris@bandzoogle.com — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 05:35:44 GMT

Check out the list here. We're in some good company! And, if you aren't already a subscriber to Hypebot, make sure you add it to your blog reader... great way to stay up to date on developments in the music business.

Featured member: Arrested Development

Chris@bandzoogle.com — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:36:58 GMT

Arrested Development

http://www.arresteddevelopmentmusic.com/

Arrested Development

Arrested Development's groundbreaking sound combines hip hop, funk and soul with socially conscious and positive messages. Their debut album "3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days in the Life of..." sold 4 million albums, won 2 grammies (best album, best new artist). The band went on hiatus in 1994, and have regrouped and have found renewed success without major label backing. Frontman Speech took some time to answer our questions in between tour dates.

You have a unique perspective, being signed to a major label, then changing gears and having success as an indie. Was it hard to make this transition?

SPEECH: It was hard. Major labels do almost everything for you. That sounds better than it actually feels. Because when they're doing a great job, you have no clue WHY things are doing so well and HOW to repeat that success. AND when they're doing a horrible job, you have a hard time knowing and explaining WHAT they could be doing better. Being indie, I had to start over. From developing contacts, relationships, etc. You really have to believe in what you're doing, to start anything over again! However, there is more direct control, BUT also more work and money necessary. If you don't like the work part and you don't have the money part, you will do better with a major label, regardless of the downsides.

Many musicians have the mindset that getting signed to a major is the ultimate goal. If you were starting over, would you have gone the same route?

SPEECH: It's hard to say, because we were extremely blessed! Our first album did very well (about 5 million copies sold), we had a lot of opportunities (Grammy's (2), MTV awards (2), NAACP award etc.) That gave us a lot of momentum and confidence. I have seen many artists start off with a vision and drive but the strains of this business and the perseverance needed to POSSIBLY succeed in it, ultimately defeated them. And they were really great artists. There are many of those sad tales and MAYBE Arrested development would've fallen prey to that same fate had we started as an indie group. Only God knows for sure.

How was Arrested Development "discovered?"

SPEECH: Headliner's girlfriend Crystal (the original "C" of famous R&B group, TLC) handed our Single to Michael Mauldin (Jermaine Dupri's father), and he saw potential in one of our songs. That was our first discovery.

How does your solo work differ from that of Arrested Development?

SPEECH: My solo work has always been my experimental side. The side of me that I never want to place a genre on. So I can write Folk, Hip-Hop, soul, World music and whatever else I desire in the moment. that freedom is less available with Arrested D. although we go a lot of musical places as well. Honestly, I do have a nice career.

You have had success in Japan, and recently toured there. Is that scene much different than in North America?

SPEECH: Japan is a great place to play music. The people, in general, are very open to good talent. I owe a lot to that country. In 1996, I couldn't GIVE away my solo material in the U.S. I was glancing over a Billboard magazine to see where my first solo single was on the charts. It was at 87 and going down. Just for the heck of it, I glanced down at the bottom of the Japan Top 100 charts and I didn't see my single at all. In total depression, and slight envy I wanted to see who was in the top 10 and there was my song at #1!!!! And for 7 weeks in a row at that! I immediately shook my managers shoulder, telling him we NEED to get over there NOW! :-)

The rest is history, we saw an opportunity and we jumped on it, I have since then released 5 solo albums all of which have spawned Top 5 hits!

Can you give us some insight into your writing process?

SPEECH: If I do, I'll have to kill you. ;-)

It depends on the project. I do a lot of recording, more than people in any territory would know. As a full time musician, with Staff, Office, family and kids you "Get in where you can fit in" so you can pay bills.

I tend to look at the entire world market and determine HOW I can be of service there. I write songs with artist in Japan, Australia, Africa, India, Europe, and of course the U.S.

My writing therefore, changes depending on how elaborate the project is. Many times it's done strictly through emails of acapella's , or tracks in Mp3 form, i usually use Pro-tools, and engineer it myself. And bartering has become my new best friend. If the project is huge, then we may fly here or there and rent a large studio, the top engineers etc. Then I sit on a plush sofa, sip on Lemon water and write casually.

What are your next projects on the horizon?

SPEECH: I just started my record company Vagabond Records & Tapes, we are a boutique label, that specializes in cool music, 45's, and even cassettes. (we do Cd's and digital mp3's as well) We have a release coming this Fall. Speech does Hip-Hop: "The Grown folks Table", we also HAVE the new Arrested Development album, "Since The Last Time" out now, and available at our on line store!

Arrested Development will be playing at Empire State Plaza in Albany, New York on July 16th and at The Highline Ballroom in New York, New York on July 17th. If you are in the neighborhood make sure to check them out and give their new release, Since The Last Time a spin!

Your Band Website Site Traffic Report Explained

Stacey@bandzoogle.com — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:43:53 GMT

I just wanted to post a quick note to let you all know that I recently added a help article that explains your Site Traffic report in full. You can find it in the Help tab of your control panel, under Promotions, in Site Traffic.

New design for Bandzoogle.com

Chris@bandzoogle.com — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:16:23 GMT

You have probably noticed by now, Bandzoogle.com is sporting a fresh new look! Our previous design has been around for 4 years, so we figured it was time for a facelift. Let us know what you think...

Adding a Google Map to your Band Website

Stacey@bandzoogle.com — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 20:57:53 GMT

Adding a Google map to your website is pretty easy. This can help fans (or your singer) find you at your next gig. Go to http://maps.google.com and in the blank field, type the address you'd like to map. Include your city and country and click the Search Maps button. Then, click the "Link to this page" link when your map appears. Under the second field "Paste HTML to embed to a website" click inside code box and copy the embed code. Then, in your Bandzoogle control panel in your EDIT PAGES tab, click Add Feature on the appropriate page, and select your HTML feature. You can paste the embed code into your HTML feature, and Save.

$33,000 of band merchandise sold in April!

Chris@bandzoogle.com — Fri, 16 May 2008 20:54:57 GMT

Congrats to all the bands who are successfully using Bandzoogle's store feature. April was our member's biggest month on record, with $33,000 of total store sales!

Here are some tips to help you improve your website's sales.

Have your store page clearly labelled. Having a separate page called "Store" is better than adding the store to a page with other content.
To have sales, you first need to have visitors to your site. Bands with the most sales were not the most popular in terms of total visitors, but they had a consistent flow coming in on a daily basis. Gigging often, printing your site address on posters, and linking to your site from your MySpace page are just some tips to increase your site visitors. There are more promo tips in the HELP section.
A quality product is important. Whether you are selling band T-shirts or MP3s, it is important that whatever you put your name is is the best possible quality. For clothing it means using good stock shirts, and having a design that people will want to wear (check out threadless.com to see some great designs). For MP3s, it means having a clean recording of your music that is mastered by a professional.
Make fans feel like they are part of something special. Their purchase lets you keep writing and creating -- let them know this! A short thank you message above your store, or just in a nice note after purchasing goes a long way.

I'll post more tips on using the store effectively in the coming weeks, including interviews with some of the top selling Bandzoogle artists.

Featured member: Enter the Haggis

Chris@bandzoogle.com — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 01:49:49 GMT

Enter the Haggis

http://www.enterthehaggis.com/

How would you describe your sound?
Our sound is a mash-up of a lot of different things: we're a rock band core (guitar, bass, drums and keys) but we also have bagpipes, fiddle, tin-whistle and the occasional harmonica solo. The five members of our band come from VERY different musical backgrounds, and we always try to make everyone's voice heard when we're writing songs so we wind up with a pretty eccentric mix - everything from hard-rock and dance-rock to latin, bluegrass/country and funk - all with a strong Celtic element running underneath. So... if I'm asked what genre of music my band plays, I never really know how to answer.

What is your hometown scene (Toronto, ONT?) like?
We're very loosely based in Toronto, ON, since that's where we started - but as of a couple months from now, the last member of the band who actually LIVES in Toronto will be moving. To Mexico. So, with our bass player in Maine and the rest of us scattered around Southern Ontario, I guess our "hometown" is North America. Great music scene. Seriously though, the music scene in Toronto is incredible, most of the time - it's an extremely diverse and multi-cultural city, so basically any kind of music you desire you can find, pretty much any night of the week. That makes it both easier and harder for bands starting out - easier, because there are a ton of stages to play on and they're usually going seven days a week; and harder, because it's hard to know where to start, and it's kinda like playing NYC - you can get lost in the noise when it's a Tuesday and there are fifty shows going on within ten blocks of you.

I noticed you're playing a multi-state tour in May. What tips can you share for planning a successful tour?
Tip #1: Get a good booking agent. Haha.

Honestly though, having an agent who knows the venues is a huge bonus for us - our agency has a great relationship with venues all across the US and Canada, and they're expanding to Europe and Australia now, too. In the new music industry, there are a lot of things bands don't really need as much any more. Radio trackers aren't as necessary when you can get millions of targeted plays online; you don't need a label with dozens of interns licking envelopes for your fanclub newsletter when you can click a few buttons and send an email blast or a MySpace bulletin and accomplish the same thing, faster. The one thing you really can't do as easily for yourself is booking a tour. These days there are more and more bands hitting the road and touring, and having an agent who has good relationships with venues can really make the difference between playing a good venue downtown on a Friday and playing a sports-bar on the outskirts on Monday.

Also, for us it's all about getting in front of as many people as we can, so we try to hit as many festivals and city-sponsored events as possible. There's little benefit in driving all the way to Saint Paul and playing for 6 people, even if the venue's great and they throw you a few hundred bucks - driving all that way and playing for free, but in front of 3000 people means you can come back and play that venue next time and actually draw a crowd.

Final Tip: Give up your illusions of what "touring" means. It's not a party on a bus from city to city - it's cramming six or seven people and all their gear into a van, clipping coupons to save $4 a room at a motel 6, discovering all the possible combinations of toppings on a 6-inch sub. Even if you score a deal with a major these days, they aren't willing to pour the money into your band the way they used to - sure, you can get a tour bus and a guitar-pick tech, but you'll be paying for it - and nothing shortens the career of a band like racking up a hundred grand in debts. You get to be a "rock star" on stage, and that's more than most people EVER get... but off-stage, it's a job and you have to approach it like an intelligent, professional person.

You landed some major media attention in 2007, including playing live on Regis and Kelly. How did that come about?
Being an unusual band, it's sometimes easier for us to get attention than it is for other bands. It's a double-edged sword though - we're certainly outside the mainstream, so some of the more mainstream media outlets available to bands are less open to us. Regis and Kelly came about because it was St. Patrick's Day and we're a "Celtic" band. It was pretty amazing, but incredibly grueling - we played in New Hampshire the night before, drove overnight to NYC, slept for a couple hours in the van outside ABC studios, then went in and had to act like we weren't delirious from sleep deprivation. Then, right after we played, we had to pack up and boot it through a crazy blizzard up to Albany to play a show that night, after which we packed up our gear, got two hours of sleep at a motel - then left at 3 AM to drive to Boston, catch a flight to Orlando and play 2 shows outdoors for a huge downtown St. Patrick's Day party. THEN we got to sleep. I think.
But... it beats working at Starbucks. Although I hear they have great benefits...

I'm kidding of course - none of us would give up what we do for the world. It's incredibly rewarding and you get used to the lifestyle after a few years, if you're lucky enough to have a few years in which to get used to it!

Why did you choose to build a site with Bandzoogle? What is your favorite feature?
We had decided it was time to build a new website, and our webmaster (a good friend of ours) had gotten too busy with his REAL job to do it for us, so I was shopping around online for a webdesign company and I stumbled on Bandzoogle. I'd been learning some basic webdesign for the previous few months, and the idea of building a site myself appealed to me, so I decided to build a "test" website for a compilation cd project we were spearheading (www.rootstomp.com). After building that site, I was really impressed how comprehensive BZ was, and how they really had set their system up to cater specifically to artists.

More than anything though, I was impressed with the staff and customer service at BZ - anytime I had a question I could choose to email them directly, post on the support forum or even log in to the support chat and talk to them directly! I chose to use my limited webdesign knowledge to build a site that went a bit outside of what BZ's templates allowed, so there were quite a few times when my inexperience ran me into a wall, and they were always available and willing to point me in the right direction.

I think it's really cool that BZ's developers are so accessible - I'm not shuffled off to a nameless and faceless customer service rep who doesn't fully understand my problem (or my language, haha). Most impressive to me is the way BZ is really tuned into the needs of their users - I've been using the system for almost 2 years, and in that time I've seen countless examples of a user making a suggestion and BZ implementing their suggestion, or completely overhauling a feature to better suit the needs of their customers. I've never seen that kind of service from ANY company, online or otherwise. I thought, when I signed up, that BZ was a great deal for the sheer number of things they offered a band - the number of major improvements they've made since have made an evangelist out of me.

My favorite feature, by far, is the e-commerce system, whether it's digital or physical sales. BZ allows you to build and maintain a store, pick your own price, track your orders and deal directly with your customers. You can sell high-quality MP3's, either as single songs or as complete albums, for whatever price you choose. Adding or removing items or files is a breeze, and keeping our merchandise store dynamic and flexible is a huge bonus for us. Most incredibly, BZ doesn't charge ANYTHING for this service, outside of your subscription to the service - you can sell a million cds and they never take a cut. I challenge you to find me ANY other site that will do that for you.

Enter the Haggis will be playing at Jammin Java in Vienna, Virginia on May 9th and at Fredrick Celtic Festival - Urbana Fairgrounds in Urbana, Maryland on May 10th. If you are in the neighborhood make sure to check them out !

Useful Editing Tool for your Band Photos

Stacey@bandzoogle.com — Fri, 23 May 2008 13:59:57 GMT

I recently came across a useful photo editing tool that is free to use at www.Picnik.com. You can upload your own pictures, or try it out with their stock photos. The EDIT tab includes basic features like sharpen, red eye reduction, crop, rotate, exposure, and colours. The CREATE tab includes many artistic effects such as posterize, pixelate, doodle, gooify, snow, and many other options. In the CREATE tab you can also add text (with a number of fonts), shapes, and frames or whiten teeth and fix blemishes in the Touch-up feature. Try it free at www.picnik.com

Mailing list grouping update

Chris@bandzoogle.com — Thu, 15 May 2008 22:06:32 GMT

A small update, but an often requested one: members on your mailing list can now be in multiple groups.

7 things all band sites should have

Chris@bandzoogle.com — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 06:48:58 GMT

Your Music
Obvious, yes, but there are several options. First, do you want music to play right when you hit your site? If so, add tracks to the SITE WIDE MUSIC PLAYER. Next, decide if you want to make music downloadable (either paid or for free). Add these using the ALBUM DOWNLOAD feature.

A way to contact you
A MAIL FORM is the best option. If you just put your email address on the page as text, spammers will find it and spam you (the mail form has anti-spam protection). If you choose to put a phone number or address, remember that anything you post will be in the public domain, and can be saved somewhere. Do you really want fans to know where you live?

A list of events
The EVENTS feature makes this easy. For each show, make sure to put the full venue address, showtime (when does the show start, and when is your set?), cost, and age (all ages, 18+, 21+?).

A bio/press kit
Using a TEXT feature explain who you are, your background, and your sound. If you want to get into print media, add a link to a downloadable press kit containing hi-res photos. Check the HELP section for more info on this.

A news page/blog
Keeping updated content is the key to getting repeat visitors. Your front page is the best place for this. Blog posts don't have to be major news. Smaller, weekly posting is better than large articles every few months.

Mailing list signup form
Your mailing list is the best way to keep in touch with fans. Have the signup form on the front page, or better still, at the bottom of every page.

A way for fans to interact
A guestbook or forum lets you build a fan community on your site. They also help create return visits, because fans that post will come back to check who replied.