10. Google I need to write an entire blog post about how many great services Google has for bands. Do you know they own YouTube? They also provide a shopping cart service just like Paypal. You really need to sell your music on Google Play. What about their FREE office software? It's online so band members can collaborate on song lyrics or any number of things.
9. Paypal Not only can you run an entire webstore with it's own secure shopping cart through Paypal, but many other services you will want to use will ask to integrate with your Paypal account. You DO NOT need to know a bunch of code or even a merchant account with the credit card companies. Using a service like Paypal will keep hackers from wanting to target your site since the financial information of your fans is not stored by you. It is stored within your Paypal account by them, so it is much safer.
8. CafePress Selling online merch can be a pain in the ass! Why not pay a service to print it, ship it, and just send you a check? They take a percentage so there is zero set up costs.
7. Hypebot If you do not read this website religiously you will fail. Read everything posted here. Trust me on this. Give it 3 months of reading everything and tell me I am wrong. I dare ya!
6. CdBaby The previous king for selling your music online. I still prefer them. Way less buggy. Way less spammy. They tend to piss fans off less.
5.ReverbNation Although I must admit I have not been able to listen to music on the site in about a month, they seem to be the current top dog. Full of bugs recently, but until a new king takes over for them they are it. They can get your music onto iTunes, Amazon, etc.
4. Hootsuite I used to tell people to use Ping.fm, but that site seems to be totally worthless and not working anymore. So we have to settle for Hootsuite. Not near as powerful, but it still will allow you to update several social networking accounts at once from either your Hootsuite dashboard or a phone app with your Android or iPhone.
3. dlvr.it If your website is worth a crap, it will have an RSS feed. Put this website into that RSS feed and you will never have to post info from your website to Facebook or Twitter. This grabs the link and posts it for you. Sends people directly to your website through your official Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace pages. Once you set it up you are pretty much done.
2. Square Up You are at a gig trying to sell your latest demo cd, some shirts, and those goofy hats your drummer insisted on printing, but everyone only has plastic. So you're screwed right? Nope. With Square Up you get a little device you plug into your smartphone and you are taking credit cards like some kind of big corporate mega-giant!
1. WordPress.com or Squarespace You have stuff to do. You can't be updating website software all the time, right? Well this website uses Squarespace, but many swear by WordPress. Both are very good. Each has it's benefits and each has it's weak points. If you use Squarespace I can help you with it since their customer service is the worst. Amazing product, but horrid customer service. They just lowered their prices too!
Please share and re-post this article if it helped you in any way. Thanks.
View Printer Friendly Version
Top 10 Best Tools For The Social Musician
10. Google
I need to write an entire blog post about how many great services Google has for bands. Do you know they own YouTube? They also provide a shopping cart service just like Paypal. You really need to sell your music on Google Play. What about their FREE office software? It's online so band members can collaborate on song lyrics or any number of things.
9. Paypal
Not only can you run an entire webstore with it's own secure shopping cart through Paypal, but many other services you will want to use will ask to integrate with your Paypal account. You DO NOT need to know a bunch of code or even a merchant account with the credit card companies. Using a service like Paypal will keep hackers from wanting to target your site since the financial information of your fans is not stored by you. It is stored within your Paypal account by them, so it is much safer.
8. CafePress
Selling online merch can be a pain in the ass! Why not pay a service to print it, ship it, and just send you a check? They take a percentage so there is zero set up costs.
7. Hypebot
If you do not read this website religiously you will fail. Read everything posted here. Trust me on this. Give it 3 months of reading everything and tell me I am wrong. I dare ya!
6. CdBaby
The previous king for selling your music online. I still prefer them. Way less buggy. Way less spammy. They tend to piss fans off less.
5. ReverbNation
Although I must admit I have not been able to listen to music on the site in about a month, they seem to be the current top dog. Full of bugs recently, but until a new king takes over for them they are it. They can get your music onto iTunes, Amazon, etc.
4. Hootsuite
I used to tell people to use Ping.fm, but that site seems to be totally worthless and not working anymore. So we have to settle for Hootsuite. Not near as powerful, but it still will allow you to update several social networking accounts at once from either your Hootsuite dashboard or a phone app with your Android or iPhone.
3. dlvr.it
If your website is worth a crap, it will have an RSS feed. Put this website into that RSS feed and you will never have to post info from your website to Facebook or Twitter. This grabs the link and posts it for you. Sends people directly to your website through your official Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace pages. Once you set it up you are pretty much done.
2. Square Up
You are at a gig trying to sell your latest demo cd, some shirts, and those goofy hats your drummer insisted on printing, but everyone only has plastic. So you're screwed right? Nope. With Square Up you get a little device you plug into your smartphone and you are taking credit cards like some kind of big corporate mega-giant!
1. WordPress.com or Squarespace
You have stuff to do. You can't be updating website software all the time, right? Well this website uses Squarespace, but many swear by WordPress. Both are very good. Each has it's benefits and each has it's weak points. If you use Squarespace I can help you with it since their customer service is the worst. Amazing product, but horrid customer service. They just lowered their prices too!
Please share and re-post this article if it helped you in any way. Thanks.