Facebook 101: How to Make a Band Page on Facebook, Pt 2

February 2, 2010{ 122 Comments }

[Updated February 10, 2013.]

So what do I do with this Facebook band page anyhow?

In part one of our tutorial (click here to read Pt 1), we covered how to set up an artist or band page on Facebook. After going through the setup process, many artists are still asking, “What’s the point of an artist page on Facebook?”

In part two, we wanted to highlight some of the features that make a page beneficial to your music promotion efforts.

Why a Facebook page is better than a profile for music promotion

Anyone can see your content – With an artist profile page, all Facebook users can go to your page and see your content. They do not have to be a fan or have your approval. This makes it easier for your content to be shared with other Facebook users.

Fans, not Friends – An artist page gives anyone on Facebook the ability to become a fan — by “liking” your page. This means they can choose to see your content in their newsfeed without having to get your approval. This is ideal for music fans.

Multiple Admins – This feature is a must for bands, and helpful for the solo artist as well. It allows everyone designated with “admin status” to post from the page (and create events) as the band or artist. Admins also have the ability to make changes to the page details.

Facebook ads – Of course anyone on Facebook can run a Facebook ad, but one of the most effective ad campaigns for an artist is a campaign designed to increase the fan numbers on your artist page. This type of campaign can only be accomplished with a Facebook artist page. How is it different? With a normal ad, you might link to your official website where users can click through to find out more about your music and then move on to other web browsing. With an ad geared towards increasing your Facebook fans, when a user clicks through they are becoming fans of your page and your content will now show up in their Facebook stream increasing the chance for future interaction with you and your music.

Page Insights – Also known as analytics, this section of the profile page gives you all the info you need to improve your Facebook marketing efforts by showing you info like impressions-per-post and a full demographic breakdown of your fans and page visitors.

Set Your Own URL – You can also set the URL for your Facebook page. This makes it easier to remember — something like http://facebook.com/YOUR-BAND-NAME. Just go to http://facebook.com/username to create the URL for your page.

—————-

A Facebook page always displays more info for anyone with admin status. It’s easy to get confused, but your Fans will not see the stats and admin links that show up on your page when you are viewing it as an admin.

That’s just the beginning; there are even more advanced features for those of you who really want to invest some time and tweak your Facebook page. And be sure to check out our Top 3 Articles on Facebook Timeline for Musicians.

Sell your music on Facebook using CD Baby’s MusicStore for Facebook application

Once you’ve set up your artist/band Page on Facebook, you can be selling your music in minutes. Click HERE to begin using MusicStore for Facebook, the easiest way to sell CDs, MP3s, and vinyl directly to your fans on Facebook. The customizable app is free to use and easy to set up, so you’ll have an attractive looking store from which to sell and share your tunes on the world’s most popular social network.

Chris Robley's Author Bio

http://www.TimmyRiordan.com Timmy Riordan

Thanks for putting this together guys. I just went live with my facebook music page yesterday to support my “February Song Bomb 2010″ (1 songwriter–me–writes 32 songs. 32 songwriters write 1 song each. They all get posted on my site in February)
This post definitely cleared up some of my confusion as to why it’s useful to have a fan page vs. just a normal facebook account. And being to set my own URL is good too.
Here’s the reason I really want to two seperate though, to avoid spamming my friends who aren’t interested in my music with music updates all the time. If someone signs up for my fan page on Facebook I’m assuming they are interested in hearing about my shows, posted videos on youtube etc.. pretty often. They’ve opted in as Seth Godin would say. Any thoughts on how to keep fan page content interesting instead of a bunch of “I just announced a bunch of new shows…” type posts?
http://www.facebook.com/mattrodela Matt Rodela

The one big DISadvantage I’ve experienced with Fan Pages is that they are very one-sided by nature. I, as a musician with a page, cannot go to my fan’s page and comment on any of their content. For example: I can’t write on their wall to thank them for coming to a show or comment on a picture they posted of my live performance,like I can with MySpace. I can understand that this functionality is blocked by Facebook to stop spam-like behavior from Page owners, but it still limits the amount of interaction you can have with your fans.

The sad truth about Facebook for musicians is that it is not, by nature, built to be musician friendly. We are finding ways to rig it to our advantage, but these fan pages were designed primarily for products and businesses, not artists.

Hopefully they’ll come around and include some truly artist-friendly functionality in Facebook in the future!
http://askkohnny.com Kohnny

You’ve made some great points here about why Facebook fanpages are so useful.

One of my favorite reasons to use them is that every time somebody becomes your fan, the even is prodcast to all of their friends on their News Feed. That means once you start getting fans, it has a viral effect b/c your fans’ friends will be interested in checking out the page too and will have a good chance of signing up as well.

Plus, when you update content to your page, it will also be prodcast to al your fans’ news feeds.

Pretty powerful tool for musicians!
http://www.lthrboots.com Lthrboots

Yes, as Matt mentioned, Facebook is notoriously non-band-friendly with their setup for band pages. Facebook is clunky, setting up a band page is a major task, and the most important item….practically none of the people who go to my shows visit Facebook much or even have a profile there.

As Matt mentioned, Facebook is primarily for family and business connections. As a band, I have tried to use it for my band promotion, and after more than 4 months, it has become a useless endeavor.

I am not saying it’s bad for all bands, but for my genre (Industrial/Electro), my fans pretty much hate Facebook for its clunky-ness and lack of appeal. About 99% of my fans use Myspace, so Facebook is a waste of time for my band.
http://myspace.com/velayasha Vel

I would like to see a poll on how many musicians detest the rise of Facebook. It wouldn’t be so bad if more people used both Myspace and Facebook, but it’s like walking and chewing gum at the same time. That’s just too hard for some people.

It used to be if I posted a new song on Myspace, at least 100 something people would hear it the first day. I posted a new tune a week ago. Hardly anyone saw the bulletin. It seems that we DYI artists will have to adjust to the shifting terrain. I’m not whining. I’m just sayin’…
yogi

Maybe its just me, but why is Facebook so popular??? I find it looks pretty boring, hard to setup a band page, not very intuitive and why can’t band pages be to the point; aka show your music front and center with cool graphics and players. I am not interested in knowing what someone ate for breakfast. Myspace for bands is 1000% better than Facebook.
http://www.texasremedy.com Scott

Is it possible to leave a comment on someone’s page as YOUR BAND? I have a personal Facebook page and a band page. Whenever I leave a comment on someone’s page, it is always from me. How do you make it from the band? Peace guys!
admin

Scott,

The only place Facebook will let you comment as your band is when you comment on your own band’s page. Everywhere else, your comments will show up as you. I know it’s not ideal at times, but one of the main benefits of Facebook (And why they do it that way) is that every Facebook account is technically a real person as opposed to just a bunch of spam accounts.
http://www.zen-men.de Chris Remspecher

Hey all,

you can also easily integrate your http://www.ilike.com page into your facebook fan page (if you have set up one already). Just search for the ilike app in facebook.

It looks like the music tab here:
http://www.facebook.com/ZEN7MEN

HTH,
.Chris
http://www.myspace.com/brothersgrimmer Matthew Cleary (Guru Grimmer)

A way around commenting is to make up a person that is your BAND. That way you can comment as your band and make that your admin, the bother with this however is that you may find your friends are your fans and it all gets a little hillgledy piggledy, but however, this is an option if you want to be interacting as a BAND. Best o’ luck to you all. Look out for Brothers Grimmer, come and meet me on the net and we can do some networking. Take care guys.
SeeJay

We have a “Fans of” page but that’s really it. We also have a “My Band” tab that syncs with reverb nation … well sort of syncs … it’s not completely in sync right now.

However, I’m really confused on what to do. I don’t want to spam all of our friends asking them to join another group when we already have our “Fans of” page set up.

What do we do so that we’re not spamming people again to be a fan of the “new” band page? I’m really confused.
http://www.billvencil.com BillV

Hey – I hear what you are saying about creating a standard FB profile that represents the BAND and not the person. Just keep in mind that you are limited to 5000 Facebook friends on a standard profile, whereas a band page does not have that limitation.
AD

It’s nothing personal, but this is exactly the problem with bands and promotion. Facebook was the escape for the mindless unrelentless promotion of MySpace, because on Facebook you could actually meet people instead of just bands with an agenda. Myspace became notrious for boneheads adding 1000 people a day as friends and using Myspace blaster programs to hype up their material and site, and unfortunely has ruined Myspace as a solid friend tool and promotion tool, because everyone has left there for other sites.
Tip- Keep your music life, and your personal life seperate by creating seperate profiles and people will respect you for that, and not just some sell-out trying to promote your music, or comedy act or whatever. Believe me your friends will get tired of you sellin ghtme out over and over.

Peace,
AD
http://starrysaints.com Mary

A big downer for the Facebook Artist/Band page is that you can’t invite FANS to your shows… can only send an “update”. You used to be able to invite fans but for some reason they changed it and it’s not a good thing for band pages.
http://www.gordonwebsterswings.com michelle

timmy,

i definitely announce gig dates on my fan page. but i also make posts about being on the road, about recording and mastering the latest album, and other music/band-relevant things. so, my fans are seeing a little bit of the back-end of me as a musician, more than just the fan-hungry “come to my shows” stuff.

it’s one of the perks for the fans – they can feel more connected to me!
http://www.wiebkehoogklimmer.de Wiebke Hoogklimmer

This http://facebook.com/username worked with my profile, but not with my fan-site….. ((
http://www.facebook.com/greasygrapes Antonio

You can sync your reverbnation.com profile with your band’s facebook page. Pretty cool too.
Check out mine here

http://www.facebook.com/greasygrapes
http://www.kmorministries.com K-Mor

Thanks for the information. I was able to set my artist page url with this information and I can add that to my website. My facebook artist page is http://www.facebook.com/kmorministries. Stop by anytime.
http://www.kmorministries.com K-Mor

I just tried to access the url and found it doesn’t work??? Darned glitches.
admin

Mary – You can send show invitations to your friends. You have to do it through a Facebook event. Check out this article on how to do that – http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/2010/02/don’t-frustrate-your-fans-–-how-to-properly-create-a-facebook-event-for-your-shows/

What you’re thinking about is email, and that Facebook does not let you do. Those show as updates.
http://www.kmorministries.com K-Mor

No glitch, I misspelled my page name and Facebook won’t allow any changes once you select a url page name. It’s under http://www.facebook.com/kmorministies. I forgot the r. grrrrrrr.
http://www.myspace.com/gwoodbonobos Gary Wood

When I set up a FB band page, they wanted to see my driver’s license. They still doing that? Geez, come back to Myspace, FB is a load of foo foo.
kwcbg

Yes, setting up a facebook profile is very confusing! I recently set up a band/artist page for my artist and with all the confusion I accidentally gave her personal profile the username intended for the band/artist page. Does anyone know how to fix this?
http://www.meghanbeaudry.com Meghan Beaudry

Something that sort of bugs me about the Facebook page is that when you create an event through the page it only allows you to invite you friends from your personal profile. That’s a problem for me because the majority of my fans are not listed as friends on my personal profile. That seems a little useless. Is there something I’m missing or is it really that ridiculous?
http://www.GregVail.com Greg Vail

Love to see a part 2 to this article where you could cover a few of the app’s every band page should take advantage of on Face Book. Did you know you can add the Face Book Music Player and load all your songs into it and that the player gives you control over the BUY LINK? It takes a little while to get it authorized but being able to control the BUY LINK to any purchase source you want is really powerful and smart!
Reverbnation and iLike have app’s that work well with Face Book also (as do a large number of new app’s I’m sure). These were the first 2 functional and I think still the best ways to add a page to your band page and integrate content for your band page on Face Book!
One other little app allows you to list releases with cover art. A little but good thing to add also.
Apply for the short URL as soon as you have over 100 fans and save the link to check every week to see if you can set that up yet. I have pages under 100 fans that I was able to set up with the short URL’s!
General advice – don’t over do the messages to members. I tend to try to draw them in with question/survey type comments. I space them out about 1 a week for those that don’t get to FB everyday like I do. I personally do not like looking at a dozen mindless messages from a page in a week. Often I delete them.
Final note – the analytics are really good and have lots of information – media consumption is a good one! People adding and deleting the page is another good one. And country or city locations of fans can add to a sales pitch for a tour date! Take some time and see the information available there!
http://facebook.com/ghosttownjenny ghost town jenny

how do you create the little “F” icon to display on other pages (on myspace, etc) ??…you know, the little blue facebook symbol that allows people to link directly to the page by clicking on it?

thanks
http://www.facebook.com/Chris.Walker.Innerwealth Chris Walker

Thanks for the great article on setting up a fan page. My question is about how to link the fan page to my main account. Currently, if I create an event on my fan page I have to duplicate it on my main FB account manually. Is there a way to synch the two? That’d be nice…
http://www.loungepiranha.com Abhi

I play with a band called Lounge Piranha based in Bangalore India. It’s true that Facebook is largely musician-unfriendly but that’s cos it’s a social networking site where most people are around to have fun and communicate with each other in interesting ways (quizzes about your own friends?!).. So if you’re a band, keep a Myspace page to put out your content for your serious listeners but definitely keep a Facebook profile where you can have fun with your fans, alert them about shows, put on updates when you’re touring, post photographs after a gig, insert random thoughts whenever you feel like, if you’ve got band artwork it’s a good place to put up things like that and get comments and generally keep people engaged.. Facebook is HUGE, forget what it can’t do and focus on what it CAN do..
http://campcombo.ca Spek

Yea I have a personal profile page and band Fan Page. I wanna invite mainly my fans from the band fan page to gigs, but only get the personal profile list of friends. FB is frustratingly un-artist/musician friendly. I just want people who opted in to get band related annoucements, and some “fans” are not friends. I’d rather invite people to become fans of my band than “friends”. I wish I only had a “band fan page” as I use FB mainly as a marketing tool.

Really, the most control one can have is with your own website, and not rely on FB. I did set up the “Fan Page” but try to coax people to visit my bands offical website instead, where I post streaming MP3s and the most up-to-date info. There are plenty of forms and web tools available to allow you to get real fans that way by collecting email addresses, perhaps in exchange for downloadable MP3s and other perks. Don’t rely on FB!
http://www.kerchoonz.com tacticmac

Artists should check out a new network called Kerchoonz it interacts with facebook and twitter and they have widgets that you can put your CD baby details into.
http://MossAgate Bob Lyon

I am having a real problem with Facebook. My wife and I each have personal accounts, as well as my Band site. Facebook, without my consent, linked all of them. Suddenly, my “MyBand” app(ReverbNation link) disappeared from my personal site, and showed up on my wife’s, the music player from my band site moved to my personal site, and I can no longer access my band administrative page. All three sites are set up from different e-mail accounts, but if I try to log into my band page, one of our personal sites becomes the account, and I can’t seem to be able to do ANYTHING about it! So, my band page has no music player, and won’t let me add one, My wife’s page has my band app, and when people try to become “fans” on my band page, they become “friends” on my wife’s page, as well as do any friends I try to invite to MY personal page. Facebook has some real problems, and personally, I have put up with about all I can stand of it!
http://www.minutethirtyproductions.com Jungleland2

The Facebook Fan page works best when you add the reverb nation content. Then you can have songs, video, pics etc.

Myspace abandonment is so widespread, that I have not seen a comment since 2008 on my page or my friend’s pages.

I know there are still some people there, but NONE of the bands I work with still even update their pages with shows anymore
http://www.GregVail.com Greg Vail

Reverb Nation works great – I use it in addition to the FB Music Player on all pages I have on Face Book. I have 9 pages, 4 of which are very active.

MySpace – killed by coasting and missing the boat with Face Book and YouTube. Could come back but even company heads are quiting as of late.

Bob – Stuff doesn’t just turn on – on it’s own. Go thru acount settings and disconect everything, then add 1 thing at a time – almost always user error.

Spek – FB is just a tool – find the best way to use it for what you want and don’t fret the rest. Thru my main page and fan/product pages I have access to 7,000 people more than I did 2 years ago – not bad overall….

Face Book has no real customer service because we don’t pay anything for it so they don’t have to. They do have good forums and you can search and post questions there. Problems are almost always answered by the community. I try and look when I have time too….
http://www.highceilingmusic.com Traizo

Facebook has been working out great for my band as a promotional tool.It’s really helped us get the word out to people who are actually interested in the music.

The question I have is regarding events. On my personal profile, i can RSVP to an event and it appears on my personal profile and I can invite other to it. But on my band page there seems to be no way to link to other events. For example, a promoter is putting together a show that includes us and I would like the event he created to appear on my band page so when people come to the page and check it out, it looks like a big event because of all the people the promoter has invited. But instead I have to create a totally different event. Which one do I invite my friends to? It seems like it would be more beneficial to, just like on my personal page, be able to add someone elses event to my band page. Same thing when playing a show with another band. Instead of one event page that both bands can display, there have to be two seperate ones, which in the end hurts promotion.

Anyone know how to get around this problem? -Thanks
http://www.debbiecurtis.co.uk Debbie Curtis Radio Big Band

We’ve just done our page this weekend, it took some time and patience, exploration of options is a must, and don’t hit ‘Publish’until you are sure you are ready, give yourself some time to get it right first.

Debbie also built up a lot of relevant friends on her personal profile before we put up the band page and then we used the ‘Suggest to Friends’ feature to get the fan base up and running. Make sure you put your music up too, it shows up in the ‘Box’s, tab, which is a bit annoying, would rather it was on the main page.

Now going to look at using click though ads, not sure how good that will be, if anyone has tried, we’d love to know how you’ve found this feature.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Peter-Greco/130258040120 PG

Wondering if anyone at CDBaby is creating a Facebook band page app that would allow purchase of MP3s right from a Facebook page. Would seem a win-win…
http://dicktwang.com dick twang band

I have been trying for months to get our songs on facebook…wtf? why is it so difficult? they want us to set up a band (artist or business)page and make it impossible to get our music on the site. this is B.S. cause we have a lot of fans on facebook and we can’t even share our new music !!! if anybody can help us with this we will send you free cd’s of our hilarious comedy and friend you and anything else we can legally do
http://www.danbeckerandthetourists.com Dan Becker

Thanks for the article. I found the comments most helpful. Especially linking FB with Live Nation. I think, even though Myspace is better for bands, most of my fans are more likely to find us on Face Book.
http://www.Lthrboots.com Lthrboots

Another bad thing, as if all the others weren’t bad enough, is that when you view your page, it insists on putting your real name at the top, and NOT the band’s name. This totally confuses my fans when they see my profile.

Facebook is good for viral connections, but as a band profile site, I find it at the very bottom of my list. If Facebook want’s to attract more bands, they need to get off their office chairs and go check out MySpace and how easy it is to set up a band over there. It took me 5 frustrating attempts to get my Facebook profile set up, and setting up the band profile part of it took 5 months and it still looks horrible.

I’m sorry, but Facebook is totally non-user-friendly to bands in my book.
http://www.debbiecurtis.co.uk Debbie Curtis Radio Big Band

In response to Dick Twang’s post of March 7 at 10.10, you can mail us office@debbiecurtis.co.uk, don’t know why you are having a problem, we found it very quick and simple, happy to help if we can, send us your facebook profile address too. Nigel – Management Office
http://www.randonmyles.com RandonMyles

I’ve had great success with using ReverbNation in conjunction with FB – I have it on both my Band Page and my Personal Profile.

I also use the RSS feed available from FB Notes to feed my News to many other sites and services – this is really handy as the Notes allow for imagery, links and a bit of html formatting – nice!

iLike for FB is cool in that you can “Like” one of your songs and post a link that plays directly in the News feed.

And lastly, if you post a link directly to an mp3 file (like from your own site), FB will also make it playable right in the News feed.

http://www.facebook.com/randonmyles
http://www.myspace.com/kelvinmacgregor Kelvin MacGregor

I tried to get a user name for my Facebook name with the link you provide but the only option you get is to set up a personal Facebook profile – something I don’t want as it doesn’t work for bands. You can’t contact or even see some pages with a Facebook music page (like Bebo) and if you start contacting people with a personal page it gets all the traffic and the music page none. This is why MySpace is the only site that really works for bands.
Tom Oran

I am still confused. I have created an artist page however how do you link my personal page to my artist page? Or are they already linked?

Thanks,
Tom
Jim Burns

Every couple of years a new big thing comes along… first myspace and then facebook… I feel I got to them a bit late because my friends are not all super-technologically with-it… any tips on what’s the next important thing to get onto for a band/musician?
http://www.waywardmusician.com/ Mike Venti

@ghost town jenny – you can find different icons for all the major social networking sites here http://www.iconfinder.net/

It’s a great idea to cross-link from all your different social networking profiles so that people can find and move between them easily. Make sure you place these on your main website as well!

e.g. connect Myspace to Facebook to Twitter to your Website (and vice versa)

Provide people with the easiest path possible to your main profiles and sites that you use.
music man

this is the most confusing thing ever ok i made a artist page but your required to make a regular proflie which i did now i have a artist page songs vids etc. but when i set my url it links to my profile page then stops working instantly on my music page when i add friends it does the same & i can’t seem to figure out why also i have to search up my name to see my artist page its almost like its not mine but i can control everything on it(i just need to know how to link everything to my artist page i don’t want nothing to do with the regular profile but i guess its required plz some help????(i mean look at facebook.com/cysserothevirus why isn’t mine set like that this is so difficult compared to simple ol myspace
http://www.panacheorchestra.com/ Brenda K of The Panache Orchestra

Thanks for the helpful tutorial! I hope you will follow it up with another with more advanced FB technique that deals with integration of 3rd party apps. I absolutely share the frustration of so many other posters with FB and its usability issues for musicians and bands, as I have found FB to be maddeningly time consuming and confusing to figure out. Nevertheless, since I finally managed to make an artist page and have started using it, the results are highly promising, and I have only had it for a few weeks now.

My main source of ongoing irritation with it is the heavy reliance on 3rd and 4th party apps (and their respective learning curves!) to make it work. How do you detangle the ReverbNation “My Band” stuff from your personal profile and shift it over to your artist page? How do you get RN to reference your artist page instead of insisting on pointing to your personal profile? How do you place a readily identifiable icon on your profile that leads to your artist page? Why is it impossible to get the ReverbNation mailing list sign-up widget to appear in a conspicuous place on your artist page? And so on and so forth….

Brenda K
http://www.panacheorchestra.com/
http://fiddlerchick.wordpress.com/
tash

I’m an artist/musician and I have my music on MySpace. I’ve stopped checking my MySpace account because there are too many bands and artist whoring themselves out.
I once had a decent relational fan base of about 1,500 people which I established over 3 years (of getting to know each one)…but slowly my fan base started moving to Facebook. The other 600 “friends” that seemed to stick with me were other bands which constantly screamed…” look at me! give me your attention!…I can’t function unless you approve of me and give me your money!”… No wonder artists are disrespected (music stolen and what not). You act like a whore you’ll be treated like one in most cases.
MySpace became highly annoying, when that deafening desperation took over a once great friendly networking site. Thankfully i still have most my loyal “friends” do to the quality time i invested in them.
… seriously put yourself in their shoes…would you not annoyed when you were notified that you had a few friend requests only to find bands spamming themselves? Or the little rush of excitement you get when you were notified that you had an e-mail?… only to find out it was spam for the 3rd week in a row? That caused a lot of people to feel used and thats one of the worst feelings ever. I don’t blame them for leaving.
http://www.dadaveda.com Dada Veda

Myspace seems to be dead. Facebook was not set up for bands but I feel that it allows for more interaction with real fans (and not just other bands trying to promote themselves). I keep getting a few new fans every day with no effort on my part to sign people up, so I think it is promising.
http://www.charliefarren.com Charlie Farren

I’ve had a personal FB page for a couple of years now – I’ll reach 5000 friends by the end of today, so I set up a music page . . . is there a way to link to all the photos, videos, songs, etc. that I’ve accumulated on my personal page? It doesn’t seem as though I’d have to upload all of them again since they’re already on FB servers under my name.

I’m guessing there is an easy answer to this. Can anyone offer suggestions?
Thanks
http://www.myspace.com/jwail jwail

Everytime we try and set up a “band” page it lists us as a “musician” and not a “band”. Any advise is greatly appreciated, thanks!
http://campcombo.ca Fred Spek

Its an OK marketing tool, at best. Aren’t they (FB) just getting a bit too powerful? Google too… yea I know I have a gmail account, but becoming afraid..

Have your own website!
http://jamiemarshall.com Jamie Marshall

@ Fred – it’s essential to have your own website .. in addition to my website i
jamiemarshall.com I have a FB artist page .. myspace .. a ReverbNation profile .. a youtube account a Twitter account .. get your name out there as much as possible.Establish as many potential points of contact between you and your audience as you can.

The beauty of a FB artist page is that you can encourage dialogue between your fans and yourself and even amongst themselves .. you can create and post events aimed directly at you fans .. and give them something on this page they can’t get anywhere else.

JM
dancindandanson

Maybe I’m just daft, but I’m having some trouble with my band’s page. I’m trying to do something which should be very simple – add the ‘video’ tab. However, as soon as I go back to the profile page it disappears. Every time. Very annoying. Also, I can’t seem to find how to add our email address. It’s driving me mad.
http://www.lindawood.com.au Linda Wood

Is a band page better than directly friending someone? Really?

I get sick of all the “such and such became a fan (or ‘liked’) such and such and thinks you should too” notification. I really don’t give a rat’s arse! Come over and play me their music. Give me a reason to like them other than someone clicking a button. It’s too easy and therefore seems of little real value as a recommendation for me to spend yet more of my valuable time in front of a computer screen. I love finding new music, but not like that.

I’d rather find it listening to podcasts or streamed radio (e.g. last.fm)

Am I alone?
http://www.dianepatterson.org Diane Patterson

I’ve been reluctant to start a fan page just because it’s one more thing to manage, but I definitely see the many uses and reasons. I think you’ve convinced me.

dancindan, did you have a chance to click “publish” before leaving your newly-made video tab? Just an idea . . .
http://www.weeboypretty.com Jo

Having the profile -v- page debate. Your thoughts would be gratefully appreciated.

If we start a band profile, there is a limit of 5000 friends, but with a page, there is no limit on fans.

There are ways and means of having music on both profiles and pages.

Can fans upload their own music and or photos to pages and profiles? Anyone?

If you have a profile, you can comment on other people’s pages, with your icon and name appearing on their pages. SO for example, I can go to another band’s page and say ‘hey, dig your groove’, and they will see I visited and said hello. However, I believe that if I have a band page, I can’t do that. There is no way for me to have a presence outside of the page (other than having fans). DO I have that right?

Very interested to hear your comments….
http://www.lorikats.com Lori Kats

I have tried over and over to upload my original songs to my artist profile page. Can’t seem to figure out how to do this. I can’t find it in the FAQs, help section, these articles, etc. Can anyone tell me the secret?

I don’t know…the difference between an artist profile and just having a regular FB page seems a bit confusing. How do you tell which account is which? Thanks!
http://www.thefarmersmsuic.com farmtard

$50.00 bucks cash to the first Facebook guru that can help me clean up my Facebook mess and streamline our band page properly be for i slit my wrist…

anyone?

Buler

‘Anyone
http://www.thefarmersmusic.com
http://www.sospronostics.com pronostics

Thanks for these (part1 and part2) posts.
You can also use the application called “myhtml” to personalize a facebook page.
David Olmst

These are great tips for setting up fan pages for bands. Basic and easy to understand! Thank you.

David from Landforms of the World
http://www.ephemeralmists.com/ Ephemeral mIsts

great article
http://www.myspace.com/spunkymunkeymusic Spunky Munkey

I think most of these comments say it well, for a musician Facebook is still a bit of a mystery
http://www.facebook-themes.net Facebook Themes

Pages are a great way to connect with a large group of people. Some of these tips are great for the new people out there exploring how to connect with their fans through social media.
anthony

jsut wondering..I have a facebook page, a myspace page, a soundcloud account and a twitter account, a flickr account, etc…is it really necessary to have an individual website these days if you are DJ(like myself)?

thanks
Anthony
- Chris R. at CD Baby
  
  Hey Anthony,
  
  Check out this link on why it is still beneficial to have your own website: http://blog.hostbaby.com/2010/09/16-reasons-why-bands-and-musicians-should-have-their-own-websites/
http://www.bonus-bwin.fr Bonus bwin

I have tried over and over to upload my original songs to my artist profile page. Can’t seem to figure out how to do this. I can’t find it in the FAQs, help section, these articles, etc. Can anyone tell me the secret?

I don’t know…the difference between an artist profile and just having a regular FB page seems a bit confusing. How do you tell which account is which? Thanks!

Loz From Bonus Bwin
- Chris R. at CD Baby
  
  Hey Loz,
  
  Yeah. Getting started is one of the most confusing parts of the process. Tough to tell where to navigate in Facebook’s site to set up a band page. But follow the instructions listed here and you should be on your way– http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/2010/01/facebook-101-setting-up-an-artistband-page-pt-1/
  
  Keep in mind that you must have your own personal profile first, before you can set up a band/artist page.
http://viewerslikyou.net Eric

So Loz asked a question that I’m sure a lot of people are having issues with(I also can’t figure out how to upload my own songs to FB), and Chris R. provided a link to page 1 of the same article that Loz was commenting on.
Not helpful.
- Chris R. at CD Baby
  
  There is a way to upload your music directly to Facebook, though it is kind of difficult to find. However, most musicians seem to be favoring outside company’s music players like RootMusic and iLike which integrate into your Facebook profile. Check those two options out to start with. I use RootMusic for my band’s Facebook page and have not been disappointed.
Pingback: Part 2: The Essential Building Blocks
http://www.personalizeddrumsticks.com Melissa @engraved drumsticks

Facebook has become an essential tool for everything these days! Music profiles have just gotten better!
http://www.http://personalizeddrumsticks.net Melissa @engraved drumsticks

impressive way to share music!
http://www.webpeoplemedia.com Leha

A couple of tips for musicians setting up FB pages:

Use your tools from ReverbNation–they are great for Facebook.

To post on your Page as yourself, it’s become common practice to begin your post with an identifier in brackets. For example: [Leha] Go Giants!

To share info with your friends’ friends, don’t post on your friends’ walls; rather, post a Note on your own Page profile and tag a few of your friends.

For more tips, Like my page, Web People Media. I’m happy to answer questions.

Leha
http://www.elizabethgeyer.com elizabeth geyer

how do I upload my MUSIC to the facebook music page? I can’t figure this one out! It is pretty pointless without the actual music.. thanks anyone who can help!
http://www.madcapmusic.com Madcap

**Sorry, the previous text got a bit scrambled. This is the correct one:**

Okay people. Many of you are getting confused and frustrated about not being able to upload your music to your band/artist page. I’m going to simplify the whole struggle for you
You don’t need to upload muic directly to Facebook. As Chris R. Said, it is possible, but difficult and unnecessary.

Simply do the following (assuming you already have a personal profile to act as an administrator through, and also have created a band page.)

1) Go to/create an account on:

The Reverb Nation Website

2)Reverb Nation will ask you to link to your facebook page. What this means is that when you put in the html address of you facebook BAND page, they will create a music section under a tab called ‘my band’ which will have all your music on (once you upload to reverb nation – now referred to as ‘Reverb’.)

3) You need to go to your facebook band page and in the aplication settings’ on the page, go to ‘add tab’ or something. Then find the application which confugures with Reverb nation (it says on the reverb website) and install the app to the Band page. It will show up as a tab ‘my band’ next to the ‘wall’ and ‘photos’ tabs.
Okay, what you’ve done so far is told facebook ‘I want a music tab to show off my bands songs.’ Then you’ve got reverb nation to follow the band web address you proivided them and said ‘hey! Reverb! I’m about to upload my music to your site and I want you to put it in the facebook tab called ‘my band’ please! Thanks!

4) Finally, upload everything you need to on reverb. That can be your songs, music videos (known as ‘widgets’, enter your bio and all of your adresses etc.) All of this information will then go to that facebook tab and you will have an awesome looking song section. You couyld even get a billboard!
If you want visual clarity, go to my facebook band page and click the ‘my band’ tab next to the ‘wall’ and ‘photos’ tab. Search for ‘Madcap’ on facebook and click on the blue profile picture.

Also, my reverb nation page shows you exactly how yours will look.

check out my magnificent Reverb page here!

Finally, if you want to FIND facebook in the first place..

Follow Moi!

If you want to go straight to the reverb nation website then

the let’s get this ball rolling!

If you found this helpfull,

please visit my personal music website here

Peace

Madcap
http://www.bandhack.com josh

connect your band page to http://www.bandhack.com/connect/ to stream your band info and events.

bandhack.com
IoanaAlexandra

I just made my official fb page and the thing that disturbs me is the fact that besides the official page i have a normal profile which i dont want..if i cancel that profile the official page gets canceled aswell..how can i remove the profile without deleting the official one? I will be very thankfull if someone can help me.
- Chris R. at CD Baby
  
  As far as I know, you need a personal profile in order to manage a page. But if you don’t want to use facebook for anything personal, you could always de-friend everyone, set your privacy settings to block everything to everyone in all directions, and then just log in when you need to moderate your band page.
Max S.

I have a band site set up at facebook, but I have another name that some people know us as. Is there any way to have searches of that name revert to my new and only facebook page?
http://www.thedefectors.com.au The Defectors

We’ve viewed several fairly innovative, engaging social media marketing campaigns on facebook. Techcrunch conduct a steady up-date featuring some of the top fb promotional pages people discover.
http://www.nickfrontieroproductions.com NFP

Hey Guys,

I have a couple of band pages that I’ve created and administrate, uploading the music is pretty simple if you use ilike. They’ve got a video tutorial that walks you through the process from start to finish. The particular page I am inquiring about I use for business, which is a local media business I own for advertising (i.e. television commercials, radio commercials, etc). I have a wordpress page, youtube, twitter, etc. My problem is that when I sync these social media pages I have to sync my personal FB page to these other social media applications. Does anyone out there know how you can sync your actual artist page to these other apps rather than your personal FB page??

Thanks!
- http://fb.com/leftoversforandy Krister
  
  The way we did it:
  
  Link facebook artist page to twitter with the twitter app:
  http://www.facebook.com/twitter/
  
  Then sync myspace to twitter:
  http://www.myspace.com/sync
  
  Everything posted on facebook will be sent to twitter which will sync with myspace. However if I post something on myspace or twitter, it won’t be posted on facebook. I like it that way. If everything I posted on twitter was posted on facebook, my wall would be flooded!
Handy

So how do you handle it when you already have a huge collection of fans on your personal profile? So you create a fan page and…. what? Invite all the fans on your personal page to join your fan page, and then delete them from the personal page? Is there a recommended way to do this without insulting people?
JP

Well, these are some useful facts except there is no details about the “use Facebook as Facebook” SWITCH feature (to switch between your personal profile, and your band “page”). I still don’t understand how to promote the site to more family, friends and such. As of this writing, I only have 4 likes (or fans). Since my band is a cover band, uploading copy-writed material is almost to impossible on FB. We have no original songs (yet). So a music player probably won’t work. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Tara

Now that Facebook has once again updated their formats, the layout for fan pages has changed in such a way that most of the instructions (such as those from iLike) no longer apply. For starters, there ARE NO TABS for adding new apps.

Anybody have any idea how to embed their iLike songs (or any others) in the new pages?
- http://fb.com/leftoversforandy Krister
  
  Go to your artist page -> edit page -> applications. If you’ve already added the iLike app it should be listed here. If not click ‘Find more applications’ on the bottom of the page. Type ‘iLike’ in the search box and hit enter.
  - Chris R. at CD Baby
    
    Krister, thanks much for the helpful info.
jeff

so, many have stated however difficult to find that, It IS possible to post music directly through Facebook, but nobody tells you actually how to do it, at least give us the info of how to do this and let us be the judge…
http://none sentson red

Every time I try and set up a facebook for my band. It tells me to input my personal name and that name shows up on the facebook instead of the band name. How do I change it so only the band name shows up on the facebook?
http://www.fruitorials.com/ FL studio Lessons

I don’t like a lot of dubstep but I like Bassnectar. They kind of sound like hip hop mixed with dubstep I guess. The other dubstep artists I hear just sound like theres just too much stuff going on. Doesnt sound nice to me..
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Marius-Kiss/196106983763035 marius kiss

i have a personal page and i just created artist/band page for my music but why is that I can’t have my name on my band
page its giving me my name and long ass shit with numbers in i just wanna have my name no numbers in it like this http://www.facebook.com/pages/Marius-Kiss/196106983763035
- http://fb.com/leftoversforandy Krister
  
  @marius kiss
  
  I believe you have to have a certain amounts of ‘likes’ before you can get a username. Like the article says: “Once you reach a certain number of Fans (Some say it’s 100, but we’ve seen it work with fewer), you can set a username for your page.”
  
  The number is your page ID. Until you’ve set your username, you’ll need it in your URL. I was able to set a username for my bands page after it got 20 likes, and now there’s no numbers in my URL:
  http://www.facebook.com/leftoversforandy
  
  Get 20 people to like your page, and then go to http://facebook.com/username
http://members.cdbaby.com CD Baby Admin

Thanks Jason! Good point.
http://members.cdbaby.com CD Baby Admin

I just used it the other day and it worked correctly to assign a URL to my band page. I believe that once you click it, there is a step that asks you which of the pages linked to your profile through an admin relationship you would like to set the username for.
http://members.cdbaby.com CD Baby Admin

I just used it the other day and it worked correctly to assign a URL to my band page. I believe that once you click it, there is a step that asks you which of the pages linked to your profile through an admin relationship you would like to set the username for.
http://members.cdbaby.com CD Baby Admin

’tis wonderful indeed.
David Cevoli

As I understand it, another benefit is that a Personal page is limited to 5000 friends, while a Profile is unlimited in temrs of how many fans or “likes” you can have. Obviously 5000 is a lot, but most bands would like to have more than that, I imagine!
http://members.cdbaby.com CD Baby Admin

Not sure about your first question. Sounds like something you should ask Facebook. But as for the second one, you can’t. Everything you do as an admin shows up as the Page. So, your solution of writing your individual name is about the best solution now.
http://tinyurl.com/3wajj73 salvy

A Facebook profile page always displays more info for anyone with admin status. It’s easy to get confused, but your Fans will not see the stats and admin links that show up on your page when you are viewing it as an admin.
http://members.cdbaby.com CD Baby Admin

What is the URL for your Facebook Page? What tab are you trying to set as the default?
http://members.cdbaby.com CD Baby Admin

Well, Facebook has been doing some major tinkering over the past few weeks, so… before we assume something has gone terribly wrong, I’d say be patient and wait a couple days. See if it resolves itself.
- Hyun Lee
  
  As today, it’s already 11days some our staff can’t access the page, one staff even can see it sometimes, and sometime can’t.
  And yeah, I can be patient for a long day anyway, don’t know with other staff.
  
  Just want to sharing something then.
  I have one other musician band, it was stolen by one new admin about 5 month ago (she was remove all admin) and set the page visible only for admin (I know it didn’t deleted because I can see some photo link but can’t access my page).
  And about few days ago, she get it back visible to public.
  
  So, if you guys hiring new admins, I’d say choose the ‘trust’ one indeed.
http://members.cdbaby.com CD Baby Admin

Oh yeah! Use CD Baby’s MusicStore for Facebook… http://members.cdbaby.com/sell-music-on-facebook.aspx
CALZA

I wanna create another page of Facebook. Mine is full. How do I do?
- http://members.cdbaby.com CD Baby Admin
  
  I’m not sure I understand the question. How is it full?
Joe

I would love it if someone could tell me how to set your Bandpage as the first thing people see when they click on a link to your page or type in the URL. At first I thought this was the ‘Default landing tab’, but that doesn’t seem to work. Basically, when someone goes to my profile I’d like my Bandpage to be there, not my wall – Could anyone shed some light?
- http://members.cdbaby.com CD Baby Admin
  
  Setting the MusicStore as your default landing tab will do just that, BUT only if the person is not already a fan (by having “liked” your Page). Otherwise, they’re going to see your wall. For instructions, check out: http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/2011/10/how-to-set-the-default-landing-tab-for-your-facebook-page/
http://members.cdbaby.com CD Baby Admin

I’m not sure I understand. Can you be more specific?
KANESHAC

THIS IS THE SHIT
Unknown

The User Name, Works After 20Fans
Pingback: Complete Guide To Facebook Promotion | GSU
http://members.cdbaby.com CD Baby Admin

I’m not sure, actually. Anyone on here know offhand? I’ll look it up. I’ve been avoiding Time-Line on my personal profile like the plague.
http://members.cdbaby.com CD Baby Admin

First, did you ever set a custom URL for your band page? That CANNOT be changed once set. But if not, you can change your page name by clicking “Edit Page” and then hit the “basic information” tab.
http://members.cdbaby.com/ CD Baby

Weird. That used to happen automatically, right? I wonder if they changed something in their default settings. Might be worth checking out your privacy settings again just in case they switched something.
Dalton

I have my own facebook page but every time i try and sync it with reverb it says “No Musician/Band Pages Available on Your Facebook Account” But i have a page with 120 likes this makes no sense.
http://members.cdbaby.com/ CD Baby

If you created a Page correctly that is linked to your personal profile, go to the Home page of your personal profile. Look on the left hand sidebar. There should be a list of Pages you manage there.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000191995335 Michael Moran

I have been trying to make a facebook page for my band Gypsy Hyway, and every time that I try its says that it won’t let me use that. Could somebody PLEASE tell me how to get approved??
- http://members.cdbaby.com/ CD Baby
  
  Do you have a personal facebook profile? From there, you should be allowed to create a Facebook Page for your band. Where are you getting denied along the way?
http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/ Christopher Robley

Same way. Just start the process again from your profile and you can set up a 2nd band page.
Lorenaiw124

Facebook is one of the best social media I recently use. But, I never try this band page before. Might as well give a shot to see what it can do for me.
Tracey

did you end up getting a page set up with your band’s name?? I am trying to set up a page for my business with the word “Gypsy” in it and am getting the automated system message…. very annoying!

Music Promotion for Independent Musicians

Facebook 101: How to Make a Band Page on Facebook, Pt 2

So what do I do with this Facebook band page anyhow?

Why a Facebook page is better than a profile for music promotion