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Music Business

BandsInTown Review – BandsInTown For Artists

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Music Gateway Team

20.9.2021

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BandsInTown is something that frequently appears on music fans’ and artists’ radar, but what exactly is it?

bandsintown logo

Music lovers are spoiled for choice when it comes to purchasing tickets to live shows – with so many choices, it is hard to know which sites are worth the time! BandsInTown is here to help streamline this task for you.

BandsInTown is useful for fans and musicians alike and provides benefits to both sides. Wanna find out more? Then keep reading!

What Is BandsInTown?

musician in studio

BandsInTown was created in 2007. Since then, it has grown exponentially and is used across the globe.

The app itself is for concert discovery – put in a location, a genre, or an artist, and it will provide a list of upcoming tour dates and festivals for the specified search terms. All information such as artist name, date of the show, and how many tickets are available is displayed neatly along with the artist picture.

So how do you purchase tickets on BandsInTown? After selecting the event, fans can buy tickets via a handy link. The ticket link is usually the one listed on the artists’ official tour page. Fans can also set reminders, as well as see the location of the show on a map (which even shows hotels nearby!).

BandsInTown was set up by Todd Cronin and Phil Sergi, officially launching in 2007. Included in Business Insider’s list of Worlds Greatest Apps in 2014, the app has had super success with its new concept.

How Does BandsInTown Work?

With so many ticket-selling websites and marketing pages, why should you use BandsInTown?

To begin with, not many other sites allow notifications and reminders of upcoming shows you are interested in, so that’s handy! The site shows nearby events, popular events, and even ones that are selling out fast – so you will not miss out if you spy something you like! There are even personalized options appearing just for you, too.

But that’s not all – at the bottom of the page is a section of all gigs listed across the site for your specified area. Feel like going to soak up some live music last minute? BandsInTown has you covered.

BandsInTown not only caters to fans; artists, promoters, and advertisers also benefit from this fantastic site. Featuring different areas to its website, BandsInTown provides the ability to create self-made email and push marketing – which is used by over 15k marketers in the industry!

BandsInTown Tips For Artists

The site is regarded as one of, if not the largest independent tour promotion platform on the web – officially used by a combination of more than 500 thousand artists, managers, and agents. The sheer number of users that BandsInTown has guaranteed the success of any show that is listed on the site! Here are some helpful hints for artists:

1. List Your Tour on BandsInTown

BandsInTown has over 60 million regular users – a huge untapped audience for any band not already using the site. Add your tour to BandsInTown to reach them! Dates can be manually added, or they have a handy plugin that can copy dates from the band’s Facebook pages, too!

2. Find Your Followers

Chances are, as a band in the modern age, you already have social media and some followers. Why not translate them to BandsInTown? Social platforms are growing day by day (including this one), so translating your existing followers to ‘trackers’ on BandsInTown gives artists that extra visibility.

3. Align Your Tour Across The Web

You’ve already got your tour on your own website, but BandsInTown can help push it to the top of Google – and YouTube – with the BandsInTown Tour Dates Widget. Simply add it to your existing website and it will do the work for you!

4. Check out our artist management page where you can work with our team of industry-leading managers to get your career moving in the fast lane.

BandsInTown Pricing

money

Now here is the best news: the BandsInTown app is free to use. They believe ‘every artist should be able to publish their events’ and so do not require payment to set up an account and to verify an artist or venue. BandsInTown does have premium paid-for features beyond their (already very helpful) free help – BandsInTown Promoter is an application that allows the creation of targeted, customized email campaigns, among other marketing materials. Modestly priced at $150, these promotions can reach literally millions of potential fans!

BandsInTown Competitors

Songkick

Songkick logo

Songkick is quite like BandsInTown. It gives local and national options for upcoming shows and tours, allowing you to track both areas and bands, too. Songkick also builds personalized recommendations by scanning Spotify and other relevant apps to make sure you see exactly what you like. However, if you are not a user of Spotify, the search can be a little tedious as Songkick asks for twenty musicians to build your taste profile, though their list is a little lacking.

ReverbNation

ReverbNation Logo

Founded a year before BandsInTown, ReverbNation aims to provide a site for musicians, venues, and promoters to collaborate with each other. Focusing more on the independent side of the music industry, ReverbNation does not facilitate the sale of tickets, it works more on the relationship between industry insiders. It does, however, have a ‘gig finder’ service for artists which connects them to venues fitting to their genre and size. This is one area that BandsInTown does not have covered.

Eventbrite

eventbrite logo

Long-running industry leader Eventbrite focuses on more than just music – defining it as different compared to the likes of BandsInTown and Songkick. Eventbrite looks mainly at local shows and events, spanning across many genres. It allows ticket purchasing straight through the app and is simple to use for both event-goers and creators.

Is BandsInTown Worth It?

Overall, BandsInTown is a very worthwhile app: we recommend it highly to any music fan, artist, or promoter!

Huge names like Katy Perry and Maroon 5 use it – so you know it must be good. BandsInTown facilitates direct contact and marketing to fans, and events made on the site are turned automatically into functioning Facebook event pages.

Have you or your band ever used BandsInTown before? Let us know!

Are You A Musician Or Artist?

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