The Big List of Digital Tools For Managing Your Band… April 2016

The Big List of Digital Tools For Bands

Being in a band is hard. If you’re not practising, writing or recording you’re touring, partying or more than likely, working another job to fund the rest.

The reality of being in a band in 2016 is that what’s listed above is the bare minimum a band needs to be doing to stay active. On top, there is the management of your master and publishing rights, your PR and marketing, management of your social profiles and website. Booking shows, ordering merch, contacting radio stations. Generating interest from blogs, press, and labels and dare I say it, accounting. Now, unless you are at the point where you have a manager you are more than likely handling it all yourselves, and that’s a lot to ask.

Thankfully, the internet is a treasure trove for digital tools and services that can help make things a little easier. We’ve bundled up the best ones into one massive list to help you plan, manage and execute on world music domination.

Good luck!

 

Branding

Withoomph – Beautiful logos designed instantly

Hipster Logo Generator – Its Hip, It’s Current, It’s Stylish, It’s Hipster

Squarespace Free Logo – You can download free low-res version for free

Short Domain Search – Find short, available single-word domain names

Lean Domain Search – Find a domain name for your website in seconds

Domainr – Fast, free, domain name search, short URLs

 

Website

 

Wix – Free to use website builder.

Onesheet – Musicians and entertainers, create beautiful and maintenance-free websites.

Bandzoogle – Build a stunning band website and store in minutes.

Squarespace – The simplest way to create a beautiful website.

 

Images

 

Canva – Amazingly simple graphic design.

Social Image Resizer Tool – Create optimised images for social media.

Pablo – Create beautiful images that fit all social networks.

Tad – Easy music cover art design

 

Publishing

 

Sentric Music *well what did you expect?* – Thinking about music publishing differently.

 

Performing

 

BandsInTown – Announce, manage and share your tours.

Gigatools – List your upcoming tours and promote them out to your fans.

Songkick – Flexible, hassle-free tour date listing for artists.

Setlist.fm – A free wiki-like service to collect and share setlists.

Google Maps – Plan your routes to perfection.

 

Listening

 

Bandcamp – Control, distribute and sell your music directly to your fans.

Soundcloud – Share your songs, connect with your fans.

 

You might also like – ‘My Perfect Demo Submission’

 

Get Social

 

Twitter – Connect with your fans in 140 characters or less.

Facebook – Build an audience on the world’s biggest social network.

YouTube – Share your videos with friends, fans, and the world.

Instagram – Capture and share your band’s most important moments.

Vimeo – Share your videos privately or with the world, on any device.

Reverb Nation – Build and grow your fan base using their innovative tools.

 

You might also like – ‘The Ten Things People In The Music Industry Want From Your Facebook Page’ 

 

Manage Your Audience

 

Buffer – Schedule and manage your content across your social networks.

Latergram – Easily plans & schedule your Instagram posts.

WriteRack – The easiest way post a series of tweets.

Click to Tweet – Create beautiful Click To Tweet boxes in your blog posts.

Bitly – Create, share, and track shortened links.

TweetDeck – Real-time tracking, organising and engagement on Twitter.

Hootsuite – Schedule and manage all of your social platforms.

SumAll – Social media management reports.

Sprout Social –  Schedule, publish and analyse your social media posts.

Edgar – The social media queue that fills itself.

 

Analyse Everything

Google Analytics – Turn insights into action on your website.

Google Alerts – Get alerted when you’re mentioned anywhere online.

Soundcharts – Charts, airplay & social intelligence for your music.

Cyfe – Analyse all of your social media channels from one dashboard.

Appaction – Social media management for your Instagram.

Iconosquare – Key metrics about your Instagram account.

Twitter Analytics – Helpful analytics based on your tweets and followers.

Facebook Insights – Helpful insights into your Facebook posts and audience.

Social Count – Track how your content is shared across social media.

Mention – People are talking about you. Find them.

 

You might also like – ‘Artists! Stats are your friend!’ 

 

Mailing List Management

 

Mailchimp – Manage and maximise your mailing list with targeted campaigns.

Campaign Monitor – Elegantly simple email marketing.

Email Brain – Email, social and mobile marketing made easy.

Benchmark – Powerful and simple email marketing.

Email1K – Free 30 day course to double your email list.

 

Keeping It Professional

 

Hemingway – Hemingway App makes your writing bold and clear.

Grammarly – Finds & corrects mistakes in your writing.

Contact Monkey – Track when, where and how your emails are opened.

Sidekick – Supercharge your email with scheduling and read tracking.

Streak – CRM for your inbox.

Charlie – Make a killer impression on whoever you’re meeting.

FoxType – A.I. to help your write smarter.

 

You might also like – Top 10 Tips On Email Etiquette For Bands

 

PR & Marketing Tools

 

Hello Bar – Convert more visitors into customers.

Mention – Find out who’s talking about your band.

Twitter Advertising – Advertise to the Twitter community.

Facebook/Instagram Advertising – Advertise to the Facebook and Instagram community.

Peer Reach – Identify influencers based on expertise.

FollowerWonk – Search and Find new influencers on Twitter.

CoPromote – Cross promotion for creators.

Direct-To-Fan

 

PledgeMusic – Fund, pre-sell and market your music to your fanbase.

Kickstarter – Find the resources and support to make your ideas a reality.

 

Store 

 

Big Cartel– Create an online store, sell your merch.

Shopify – Sell your products online.

Music Glue – Direct to fan e-commerce.

Awesome Merchandise – Custom merch & print for pretty much anything.

 

Accounting

 

Wave – Free and easy accounting for small businesses.

Quickbooks – Easy accounting, no experience required.

Xero – Easy online accounting.

Shoeboxed – Make tax season easier.

Mint – Managing money and budgets better.

FreeAgent – Online account for small businesses.

 

The Best of the Rest

 

Landr – Instant online mastering software.

LastPass – Passwords made easy.

Dropbox – Store and share your media anywhere.

Evernote – The workspace for your life’s work.

Wetransfer – Send big files securely.

Trello – Plan, collaborate and share anything and everything.

Google Drive – Work anywhere, with anyone and with access to everything.

Todoist – Accomplish more every day.

TeuxDeux – A simple, designy to-do app.

Basecamp – Straightforward project management.

Square – Simple, powerful and free point of sale software.

Paypal – Tap into your money.  Get paid anywhere.