In praise of @ReverbNation (and how I've been using the site)

Though my oft-neglected fan profile may tell you otherwise, I have a lot of love for ReverbNation, a nifty little website which aims -and is thus far succeeding- to be a one-stop shop for artists, venues, promoters and labels alike.

I first came across the site some time in 2007 back when I was still involved with Social Icons, and then promptly forgot about for a couple of years whilst I mucked around doing things far less enjoyable than getting stuck in to the world of promoting music.

When I finally returned to that world I found a lot had changed, especially online.

Myspace, once the preeminent social network for musicians, had fallen by the way side in a move that media historians will no doubt one day write about as the first blow in the ultimate downfall of the Murdoch Empire, followed by the News International phone hacking scandal and probably some dodgy sexcapades going on between Rupert and that ginger woman.

In its place came a slew of other music-marketing type sites, from SoundCloud, We7 (which is somehow supposed to be cool because Peter Gabriel is -or was, I'm not sure- behind it) and a bunch of others, but ReverbNation clearly stood head and shoulders above the rest.

It's the amount of features that really impresses me, the site offers pretty much everything you could ask for if you're in any way involved in marketing music, from the unsigned band just starting out to, oh I don't know, say an annual rock festival with over 8,000 attendees each year perhaps.

Whether you're using every single feature and tool available to you, or just choosing select ones as part of a wider campaign, ReverbNation is pretty much an essential part of online any online music campaign.

Jazz Festival

When I got involved in helping the Wigan International Jazz Festival this year, I didn't really expect to find many jazz fans on the site. Not that I'm saying they're not there, I just didn't expect to find them. We were doing lots of other interesting things to market the festival, so attracting new fans on ReverbNation wasn't necessarily a priority, but establishing a presence on there was still important, especially so I could use  their excellent Facebook App.

I love this app, especially if you set it as your default landing tab. For venues, which is how I defined the festival on ReverbNation, it gives people visiting your Facebook page for the first time every piece of info they could need; venue location and contact info, maps, and even a list of upcoming shows which updates automatically as one show ends and another takes its place.

Jazz Festival Facebook Venue Profile

The odd, well-placed reminder to Facebook fans to check out the tab keeps them well-informed of upcoming shows without the need to post a status update with every new show (which could get pretty time-consuming with several shows per day as there is with the Jazz Festival).

Besides, I've got show updates well-covered on Twitter.

Haigh Fest
I used a similar tactic with my pride and joy, the annual Haigh Fest. With 4,500+ fans on Facebook, a large number of whom are very active on there, adding new fans through ReverbNation didn't seem like a huge priority, but I still felt like any music project worth its salt should at least have a presence on the site and thus, so does Haigh Fest.

Again, I was really keen to use the Venue Profile Facebook App, even though my attempts to set it as a default landing tab came to naught. Whilst I'm at it, I should really thank the kind lady from ReverbNation who contacted me out of the blue to ask if I'd be up for setting the app as my default tab, then sharing my frustration and bewilderment through several e-mails over whatever the problem might have been. Sadly, I forget her name now, but thanks anyway!

Haigh Fest ReverbNation profile

Sadly, it was only after we'd already picked this year's line-up and were rattling on with the publicity that I learned the website were putting together some kind of beta-launch for a Festivals profile, which would allow bands to enter submissions for the festival online.

We're too late this year, but this is certainly something I'll be keeping in mind and bring up when all the work starts again for Haigh Fest 2012.

Colour Me Blind

It's the band profile which are the site's main attraction. If it isn't already, ReverbNation should certainly become every band's first port of call when it comes to think about attracting and engaging with audiences.

I've only just recently started working with Colour Me Blind on any kind of serious level, but as soon as I did, setting them up with a Colour Me Blind ReverbNation account was the very first thing I did.

Of course, I wanted to use the Band Profile Facebook App. I can't tell you how much I like these apps, I've seen some really cool things done with them that I certainly plan on looking into over the next few days.

Beyond that though, it's the whole range of tools that the site offers which makes it an invaluable tool for artists.

Of course, ReverbNation offers all the things you'd expect from a site like this; namely the opportunity to upload photos, music and a bio, but it does so much more besides.

Gigs
The way you add a list of upcoming shows for example is much more in-depth than I've seen on other sites, allowing you the opportunity to sync up with venue profiles and other artists playing at the same venue on the same night.

Putting in the required date for CMB's upcoming show at The Zanzibar in Liverpool for example, allowed us to link that show to the club's unofficial profile, whilst any bands also playing that show could add themselves to the line up.

If a venue doesn't have a profile, you can always ask ReverbNation to set one up (as it did with this Saturday's Caveman Bash in Preston), or class it as a 'Non-Traditional Venue' which tells the site not to try and match this against its venue database.

I like this very much.

I also like the ability to add attendance figures once a show is over, and to use a 'Gig finder' tool to search for venues nearby who might just be willing to give you a show.

Press Kits
Once you've found one, you can use the site's own EPKs (Electronic Press Kits), which you can generate yourself for free using all the content you've posted to your profile to send to venues. ReverbNation charges you a small fee for the ability to send out these EPKs, but at only $5.95 (about £3.70) per month, they're well worth it.

The press kits look sleek and professional, going beyond the usual bio/pic/press quote, to offer tidy looking graphs displaying info about fan demographics, show attendance and more. Once the EPK has gone out, a nifty tracker tool will let you keep track on what you've sent, where, and how successful they were.

We've just set the band up with their own press kit and already looking at seeing results.

Other paid features
For about $35 per year (roughly £20), ReverbNation offers a digital distribution service, sending your tunes out to notable places like Itunes and Spotify. I haven't used this yet, and I'm even sure that there are cheaper ways to do this, but it's a nice tool for bands to have at their disposal.

There's other paid stuff too, like creating a mobile app for your band and an upgraded ammount of storage space for tunes. Again, I'm yet to check these out, but I can see why they're useful.

For the band on a budget though, there's still plenty of free stuff to offer, like stats (like those we talked about under EPKs), a store to peddle merch and more.

No site is perfect though, and the 'blog' tool which comes with the site is so rubbish its hardly worth bothering with.

That small quibble aside though, I really can't rate ReverbNation high enough to any band, promoter or venue, and if you're so inclined, I'd recommend following their Twitter stream which is updated with links to useful articles providing both practical and inspirational advice.

There's still a lot I don't know about this site yet, it's so full of stuff that I'm stoically my way through it, but I do know that ReverbNation will pretty much always be a crucial part of any kind of music marketing I do in the future.