How Bands Drum Up Email Subscribers

Bands can attract fans, promote their gigs and sell their merchandise with email marketing.

But bands are made up of musicians, not marketers. And independent musicians, the ones who need to market themselves, already write, play, produce and distribute their music. So when do they have time to find email subscribers?

Actually, many independent bands are already using a tool with phenomenal potential to kick-off an email campaign. It’s called Bandcamp, and with it, bands can amass subscribers without any extra effort at all.

If you’re curious, AWeber isn’t affilated with Bandcamp, but some of our employees use their service for their own music projects and love it. Keep reading to find out why you’ll love it, too.

What is Bandcamp?

Bandcamp Logo

Bandcamp is a publishing platform that helps bands create their own web sites, hosts their music and makes sure they’re findable in online searches.

Over 36,000 bands use it to distribute their music. They upload their songs and albums, then set the price to download each file. It’s working – some are even making it to the Billboard charts.

It’s an easy way to get music to fans – and yes, to find subscribers. Since Music City Networks found that the average fan email address brings in $111 yearly, that’s no small deal.

So How Does It Help Me Find Subscribers?

When you set the price for your songs, you can choose to charge nothing for them. If you do, you’ll have the option to select a checkbox that requires fans to input their email address before downloading. (You can also require this if you allow fans to set their own price, and they choose to pay $0.00.)

Follow Bandcamp’s instructions here.

In essence, you’re making a trade – they get your music; you get permission to email them. You’re also promising, according to Bandcamp’s policy, that you’ll keep their information sacred and spam-free.

Of course, if someone who downloads your music doesn’t want your emails for any reason, they need to be able to unsubscribe, so make sure that option is always available (it’s automatically included if you’re using AWeber).

How Do I Start Sending These People Emails?

When people enter their email addresses and download, their information goes into a CSV (comma separated values) file stored in your Bandcamp account.

Moving the addresses from this file to your list of subscribers is easy. You start by downloading the file (make sure to choose “export new addresses only”). Save the shortened file, then upload it straight into the import page at your ESP.

Export email addresses

You’ll want to repeat this process often, since your new subscribers won’t get your emails until you import them to your list.

(There’s no need to worry about adding someone twice – Bandcamp will only add someone to your CSV once no matter how many times they download, and when you export it, you’ll have the option to “export new addresses only.”)

Once this is done, you’ll need to send some messages. For ideas on what to write, check out this advice from Trent Reznor.

Want to Learn More?

For more information on email marketing for musicians, view our complete Email Marketing for Musicians Guide.

Beyond Bandcamp

Now you can watch your list grow without ever lifting a finger cymbal. Of course, there are many other ways to find subscribers, and you can explore them as you find the time.

If you’re a musician, do you have a Bandcamp site? Do you use it to find subscribers for your email marketing?

How else do you get fans to sign up for your emails?

If you’re not a musician, have you ever been impressed by a band’s marketing tactics? What struck a chord for you?

Join the conversation in the comment section below!

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16 Comments

  1. Bob Johnson

    Nice advice and thanks for this. Prompted some ideas on using the techniques for say a "free ebook" etc.

    Good info.

    8/26/2010 10:07 am
  2. Butch Phelps

    If you are not a band, can you use the software as well?

    8/26/2010 10:10 am
  3. Dallas Doyle

    If a wanna-be songwriter wants to send out emails to prominent
    musicians,record producers,record companies, etc. Can they also do that through A-Weber?

    8/26/2010 10:21 am
  4. Mike

    We use facebook ads to advertise a free song and use a landing page with a player so that visitors can hear the song and a web form. The landing page is the key to get people to sign up.

    8/26/2010 11:25 am
  5. Amanda Gagnon

    Bob ~ You’re welcome!

    Butch ~ Bandcamp’s main functionality is sharing music files, so it wouldn’t really make a lot of sense to do that.

    Dallas ~ You could send individual, personalized emails to one of those people at a time, but to send to them all together, you’d need to have them sign up for your emails – which you could definitely do through AWeber.

    8/26/2010 3:56 pm
  6. Mike

    The only problem I see with this is when they sign up for your free download at Bandcamp they instantly get the song. Then after you import them into AWeber what is their incentive to confirm? They already have what they want as opposed to having them confirm to get the free song.

    8/26/2010 4:00 pm
  7. Amanda Gagnon

    Mike ~ There’s a slight trade-off there. The thing to remember, though, is if they don’t want to confirm and get your emails, they probably wouldn’t be an engaged subscriber anyway.

    8/27/2010 8:34 am
  8. Mike

    That is true, that’s one thing I am concerned about. I did sign up at band camp. They have a ton of great tools.

    8/27/2010 8:51 am
  9. Louis

    I haven’t used Bandcamp, usually I recommend Aweber for my musician clients and just use an opt-in box. I advise them to give away free songs in exchange for signing, one new one a month (Though they can change this up as they see fit / dependent on their back catalogue). The slow sending process means they have a reason to stay on the mailing list (Getting new songs). I also advice to send useful information in between, say maybe between every song send (So two emails a month via the autoresponder). They can also send important breaking news as an when they see fit.

    8/30/2010 8:32 am
  10. Carol

    Amanda – does this mean that they can be added without requiring an optin at Aweber? Aren’t they already agreeing to be added to a mailing list, as in the Wynton Marsalis example above?

    8/30/2010 9:23 am
  11. Mike

    So they send a free song per month? How do they motivate people to actually BUY the music?

    8/30/2010 5:58 pm
  12. Amanda Gagnon

    Carol ~ As always, there’s the initial opt-in and then the confirmation later to make sure the opt-in wasn’t accidental, malicious or re-thought.

    Here, the confirmation messages are sent out when these new subscribers are imported into an AWeber list.

    Mike ~ If they’re giving away a song a month, as in Louis’ example, hopefully they have some left over to sell! Tickets and merchandise can bring in revenue, as well.

    8/31/2010 8:09 am
  13. Zachary Reese

    Mike – I think it’s important to recognize the worth of music to your audience. The internet has made is so that many listeners expect free music. If you’re not giving it away yourself, there’s a high probability that they’ll seek out other, less legal, means of acquiring it. This is why I’m a big fan of the email newsletter route: a fan can agree to receive information along side the free music and you can engage them in their inbox, with the opportunity to sell them ancillary products they might be interested in.

    I’ve been self-releasing my own music for about 14 years now, and it took a while for me to come to terms with not being able to make a profit off the music itself (as digital downloads became the format of choice for many). Instead, any money I make comes from t-shirts, shows and memorable physical releases. If you can engage a listener with free music and turn them into a fan, they will support you though merchandise.

    8/31/2010 12:15 pm
  14. Mike

    Zachary,

    I am glad that strategy is working for you, however, I disagree.

    You should never build your marketing strategy around people that don’t value your product.

    There are people who don’t value your music enough to buy it and there are people who do. The latter is who you build your brand and marketing plan upon.

    I’d rather have a list of 50 people who buy my music than 300 who only want my free stuff. People who won’t buy your music are less likely to pay for anything else. If they will search for ways to pirate your music just to save ten dollars it will take much more time and energy to engage and convince them to buy other things. They may eventually buy merchandise but at a much slower rate than the people who value your music enough to buy it. Free music as a bait is a great strategy but free music forever free will only attract freeloader subscribers.

    I learned this as a contractor. I had tons of customers that wanted the lowest possible price every time. I thought this was just how things were done so I put up with them and dealt with the lower profits just to keep them buying. Eventually I dropped those customers and now I only focus on the ones who see the value in paying a price that may be higher than the lowest bidder. I now make a bigger profit with less customers and when I mail out an email with a special or new product most of my list members buy immediately since my list is full of people that value what I have to offer.

    Blessings.

    9/1/2010 1:36 pm
  15. Nick

    Honestly Louise… I feel really bad for your musician clients. Because how on earth should they send meaningful info? Rather tell them to update people about their lives. And about their latest merchandise.

    You can write something every day. And it doesn’t even have to be about anything. You just have to do it in the right way.

    I currently have 2 musicians as clients. And they both have a cult following, opening up every one of their emails and communications… just because they talk about themselves… every single day. In the right way.

    The power of writing is that there’s something exciting happening every single day. Even if nothing exciting is really happening.

    Then there are a bunch of other tools that can really engage people and suck them into your world. Use everything correctly… actually have decent music… and you can’t go wrong.

    9/3/2010 8:21 am
  16. Zizo

    I advise them to give away free songs in exchange for signing, one new one a month (Though they can change this up as they see fit / dependent on their back catalogue). The slow sending process means they have a reason to stay on the mailing list (Getting new songs). I also advice to send useful information in between, say maybe between every song send (So two emails a month via the autoresponder). They can also send important breaking news as an when they see fit.

    9/4/2010 5:33 pm

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