Great list Bobby! (and great to see you at the TAXI Road Rally in November). Just wanted to point out that Bandzoogle includes a built-in mailing list tool that has detailed analytics, built-in fan incentives, and automatic location targeting: https://bandzoogle.com/features/mailinglist So for our musician members, along with being able to build a website and sell their music, they can also use the built-in mailing list feature for email marketing. Cheers, Dave -- Dave Cool (Yes, that's my real name) Director, Artist & Industry Outreach https://bandzoogle.com

In this post we make the case for why Bandzoogle is the best alternative to BandPage: https://bandzoogle.com/blog/bandzoogle-is-the-best-alternative-to-bandpage-here-s-why Cheers, Dave -- Dave Cool (Yes, that's my real name) Director, Artist & Industry Outreach https://bandzoogle.com

Thanks for including Bandzoogle in the All-in-one Website & Website Builders category, much appreciated! For eCommerce Solution Alternatives, Bandzoogle also offers robust tools for musicians to sell music, merch, and tickets commission-free, including SoundScan reporting for music sales: https://bandzoogle.com/features/store In fact, Bandzoogle members just crossed $25M in commission-free music & merch sales through our Music & Store features. Cheers, Dave -- Dave Cool (Yes, that's my real name) Director, Artist & Industry Outreach https://bandzoogle.com

I agree with your point, the point I was making was strictly about digital distribution and how all artists now have access to stores like iTunes/Amazon, etc. Where as 15 years ago, it just wasn't possible to reach a potential global customer base for a small fee. Now the challenge becomes driving people to buy your music, which is where the fan interaction comes into play. But yes, having a distributor that helps with marketing & promotion is obviously a different beast altogether, and no doubt can be helpful for those artists that have relationships to those distributors. Cheers, DC

@Roach @Nelson: I totally understand your point of view, and I'm sure many artists would agree with you. I'm just not sure it's viable for emerging artists to ignore their fans. There are plenty of example of successful artists who you can't find online/don't interact with their fans, but more often than not they have teams behind them doing the heavy lifting (label, management, publicist, etc.). So for artists who don't have a team (or a history on a label), I'm not sure they can realistically forge a sustainable career without interacting with their fans and creating solid relationships to them, at least at the outset. Of course, I could be dead wrong and I'm just 1 guy, so there you have it. Thanks for reading and for commenting. Cheers, DC -- Dave Cool (Yes, that's my real name) Director of Artist Relations Bandzoogle.com Twitter: @dave_cool @Bandzoogle

No respect I tell ya! For the record, Bandzoogle has been around since 2004 and continues to go strong :) -DC -- Dave Cool (Yes, that's my real name) Director of Artist Relations http://Bandzoogle.com Twitter: @dave_cool @Bandzoogle

Hi Jack, That assumes that artists must retain an air of mystery, and I'm not sure that's the case. If it makes sense for an artist's brand to remain mysterious, then that approach might work, but it would be hard to pull off without a management team/agent/publicists working to do some of the heavy lifting on promotion. Artists like Sufjan Stevens and God Speed You Black Emperor have very little presence online, and retain that air of mystery for sure. But again, they have teams to help with promotion and getting the word out about shows, new music, etc. On the flip side, you have artists like Amanda Palmer who share pretty much everything, and practically live on Twitter interacting with their fans. Other artists like Matthew Ebel , Zoe Keating are very active on Twitter as well, and are very open with their fans. I guess it comes down to what approach makes sense for the artist's brand, and what their needs are in terms of promotion; whether the artist has a team in place or budget to hire people, etc. I once interviewed Nancy Baym, Associate Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Kansas, and online fandom expert about this very issue. She talks about the concept of "Fans or Friends" and the challenge of artists retaining some mystery in the age of social media: "Fans or Friends? How Social Media is Changing the Artist-Fan Relationship" => http://bit.ly/UJFhPl Cheers, Dave -- Dave Cool (Yes, that's my real name) Director of Artist Relations Bandzoogle.com Twitter: @dave_cool @Bandzoogle