How To Stream, Promote And Sell Your Music On Facebook (A BandPage Guide)

This article shows you how to set up a BandPage section for your Facebook fan page, as well as how to set up a Facebook fan page if you haven’t got one already. You may want to check out an accompanying guide on How To Attract 3,000 Fans In 30 Days, a ebook written by Nick O’Neill, a man with over 71,000 Facebook fans (So he knows what he’s talking about lol). Update: This guide is no longer available. You can instead learn more about Facebook marketing as well as many other music marketing techniquies in the Academy. All that information is below, so please see the relevant headers if you want to skip any bits. But first, here’s a little background:

As many of you will know, MySpace has been steadily declining for some time now. While it used to be an effective tool to promote your music, these days it’s full of musicians promoting their music to each other. The irony of this is that the majority of musicians are only there to promote their music to you, and aren’t really interested in hearing what you have to offer.

So while MySpace continues to die out, where should music communities go to? Facebook has been one of the many places musicians have experimented with to building up their fan base, but it has never been a complete music solution… Until now!

How To Create A Band Page On Facebook

Enter BandPage, an application which allows you to add music and other features to your Facebook fan page. If you’ve ever wondered how to create a band page on Facebook, then this my friend is what you’ve been looking for! It integrates with SoundCloud to provide audio on your Facebook page, and allows you add a banner and show dates to your page (Sound like the best bits of MySpace anyone?). It also allows you to let people download your music if you so choose, and provide a link to where people can buy your songs…

BandPage is run by RootMusic, a company that provides music related tools for Facebook. If you haven’t already got a BandPage page, now is the time to get one and start promoting your music on Facebook, the world’s biggest social networking site. And to make it even easier for you, we’ve written a step by step guide to get you started.

How To Set Up A Facebook Fan Page

Before you start fiddling with BandPage, you’ll need a Facebook fan page. If you haven’t already got one, here’s how you set up a Facebook fan page (If you’ve got one already, you can skip ahead to the section “How To Set Up RootMusic’s BandPage For Facebook” below). To create a Facebook fan page, make sure you’re logged onto your facebook account and enter the web address “www.facebook.com/pages/create.php” (If you haven’t already got a facebook account you can create one by going to facebook.com and registering one). You then select to create a page for “Artist, band or public figure” and choose “Musician” from the drop down menu.

You then enter your page name in the text box provided (e.g your musician or band name, in this example we used “The Best Band In The World”), and confirm that you’re a official representative of this person or band And that’s it, your facebook fan page is now made. I suggest you take time to look around your new facebook fan page, upload your (Music related) pictures, website details and information you want your fans to see.

How To Set Up RootMusic’s BandPage For Facebook

Now that you’ve got your Facebook fan page set up, you’re ready to create a BandPage to go with it. Before you do anything, make sure you are logged into your facebook account then go to the Root Music website (rootmusic.com). Choose the button “I make music”. A pop up box then appears asking if you want to link root music to your Facebook account. Click yes. The window then closes and you’re taken to another page asking if you accept their terms and conditions. Have a read through, then if you accept choose to register with Facebook or enter a new email. In this example we’ll register with our Facebook account as we’re going to be setting this up on our facebook group page anyway. They will then request for you to confirm this (If clicked the facebook option) and you should once again allow the connection to your Facebook page. You will then be taken to a page where you’ll be asked which of your Facebook pages you want to edit. Select the required page and a new window will come up. At this point you can select to watch the given tutorial or carry on without watching it (We’ll run you through the main points to get you up and running anyway, so it’s your choice. We do however give added tips in this guide, so even if you do watch the video make sure you carry on reading this article too).

If you didn’t watch the tutorial (Or if you did and it’s now finished), when you click continue you’ll be taken to the band editing page. This is where you control the look and features on your BandPage page, so have a look around. You’ll be able to add your music, add up coming shows, include a banner / customize the look of your page (This last option can only be used with a BandPage Plus account, an optional paid addition) and more. I recommend you first upload some of your music for people to hear.

As I said before, BandPage uses SoundCloud to host your songs, so you’ll need to to choose the option “Click to connect with SoundCloud”.

A pop up window will appear, allowing you to either log into your existing SoundCloud account or create a new one. Once you’ve done the one that applies to you, click “sign up and allow access”. You’ll then be able to upload songs from your computer, so get uploading! Each track you upload is automatically saved, so upload as many tracks as you want then set your preferences. You can make them downloadable if you want, or make them non downloadable and include a link where people can buy them. You should then also add album artwork and album name. Another thing BandPage lets you do is add your up and coming show details, so if you have any add them now.

Once you’ve added all the info you want, the next step is actually implementing your BandPage section on your existing Facebook fan page. To do this, you’ll need to go to the BandPage facebook page and click the ‘Add to my page’ link that is positioned below their main picture. Click the Facebook fan page you want to add BandPage to and that’s it, it will be connected. You can now close the window. Now go back to your fan page and choose to edit the page (The link for this is located under the main picture on your band’s home page). Under the “application” section, choose to add a RootMusic tab to your facebook page. Now under “Wall settings” make the “default landing tab for everyone else” BandPage.

This will mean that whenever a new person visits your Facebook fan page, the first page they’ll see will be your BandPage page. Now edit the other options as you see fit and that’s it, you’re done. You’ve now made a section on your Facebook fan page where people can listen to your music, see your up coming show dates, purchase your music and much more. Congratulations.

To see how your new page looks, go back to your fan page by clicking on your page’s picture and selecting the newly appearing ‘BandPage’ tab.

You can edit and customize the page until you’re happy with the results for free, but if you want to add a banner and other custom design features (Uploading custom background, changing the colours etc) you’ll have to upgrade to the BandPage plus option. As we write this that option is $1.99 per month, so it’s up to you if you want that or not. What I will say however is that the first impression you give people can often mean the difference between them looking around and them swiftly moving on, so defiantly consider this option.

How To Get Your First 3000 Facebook Fans

Now that you’ve got your page set up and are ready to sell your music on Facebook, the next stage is to get fans. After all, having the ability to sell and promote your music on Facebook won’t mean anything if you haven’t got any Facebook fans. How To Attract 3,000 Fans In 30 Days is the best guide I’ve come across for teaching you how to do this, the guy who wrote it has over 71,000 fans himself (At the time of writing this, probably more now) so you know he knows what he’s talking about. Update, this guide isn’t on the market any more, which is a real shame. You can check some of the best FB marketing strategies in our Academy however, so check that out.

I hope you found this guide helpful, let us know your opinion about BandPage in the comments below. Does this spell the end for MySpace?

* Snoop Dogg’s BandPage page on Facebook

If you want more Facebook fans, do make sure you check out our topic on how to get Facebook fans. Now you know how to create a band page on Facebook, show us your band page pages in the comments.