June 13, 2011 One Easy Way to Sell and Share Music on Facebook
This past week — completely by accident — I discovered a surprising way to use Facebook to share and sell music. I’m sure some of the more astute Music Think Tank readers already know about this, but I bet most of the musicians who browse these pages have no clue.
So as an author, teacher and fellow musician, I feel a duty to pass on this valuable tip.
What’s this all about? Well, if you’ve used Facebook at all, you know that the site allows users to easily upload and share photos and videos. That’s great. But there’s no built-in mechanism to easily share audio files — meaning your music!
If you’ve been paying attention at all to online developments over the past year or so, you know that there are many music widgets and apps you can add to a tab on your Facebook fan page. ReverbNation, CD Baby, Nimbit, RootMusic, and Moontoast and just some of the apps you can use to play and sell music.
But, you have to take time to install them. And the music-playing and selling features are mostly limited to a single tab of your fan page and don’t show up on your “wall.”
That’s why I was so thrilled to find this little-known Facebook music promotion option. And … I created this video tutorial that walks you step by step through what it is, how I did it, and how you can too.
Bob Baker is the author of “Guerrilla Music Marketing Online,” Berkleemusic’s “Music Marketing 101” course, and many other books and promotion resources for DIY artists, managers and music biz pros. You’ll find Bob’s free ezine, blog, podcast, video clips and articles at www.TheBuzzFactor.com and www.MusicPromotionBlog.com.
Facebook tagged Facebook, sell, social media
Reader Comments (17)
That function stopped working on facebook a while ago. I can't see soundcloud embeds or bandcamp any more.
Jonas, You might check your browser or other settings, because they work just fine for me and other people who visit my FB fan page.
I've also found that Soundcloud links work the same way -- without the "Buy" option. And ReverbNation links seem to work in a similar way.
So the player function is very much alive from my end.
Ah, IDK why this deserves it's own post. You can do that with BandPage...Also, you don't have to copy and paste to share songs, there's a share button right there.
Music Dealers (musicdealers.com) is going to launch a new way for Indies to get discovered in a Facebook game in the next couple months. I am on their platform now and I just got a notice from them asking if I want to be part of it, which I do. Seems pretty cool and innovative to me.
The strange thing is that Reverbnation works good, but not the rest of it. Wonder if it's something just here in Sweden?
BANDCAMP NEEDS TO MAKE A FACEBOOK APP!!!!!
Or if not then Integrate the bandcamp platform with rootsmusic kind of topspin did with them.
Its crazy, you can actually do it but you gotta pay a developer to make it work right now, but it can be done. It would make everyones life easier if Bandcamp just came up with a store like, reverbnation, rootsmusic, or topspin.
Hey Bob,
You can do this with any artist URL on ReverbNation and it will embed a player with songs, bio, videos, concert schedule, store, fan collector (emails), sharing prompt, etc.
We have been told that in some rare instances it doesn't work, but we've never been told why, exactly. Might be the geo of the facebook user or something.
Anyway, its a simple and free way to promote your music, videos, merch, etc. on facebook
FYI,
Jed
Co-Founder, COO, ReverbNation
Alisha,
I believe Bob's point is that the BandPage app appears only on a separate tab on your Fan Page, while the Bandcamp link has the ability to appear on your Wall, therefore providing higher visibility to your fans or visitors. Posts on Walls appear in the fans' News Feed, while apps on tabs stay there until someone comes along.
I just recently launched a new album using Bandcamp, and have had a BandPage tab also for some time. Turns out people prefer sharing in their network through the Bandcamp embed. Whatever works, right?
Cheers,
Endy
Simply sweet and smooth sounds
Hi Bob,
If you like Bandcamp's solution, then have a look at the sharing options of restorm.com. Musicians and labels can sell songs directly to their fans like on Bandcamp. If you post the artists restorm url on Facebook, an entire band profile with songs, videos, photos, events and more will appear in the Newsfeed. Users can directly buy the songs out of Facebook. The same thing is possible for a single song or an entire album. Try it yourself: http://ef.restorm.com/
Of course restorm.com offers also a free Facebook App with direct selling options to the fan.
See a nice one here: http://www.facebook.com/efmusic
This video shows, how it works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMSnwR6QeII
Regards,
Jonas
Media&Communication, restorm.com
You can also edit the Artist Name and Song Title if they pull in as unknown. Simply double click those areas if you're pasting an MP3.
- Chase
Thats actually not bad, restorm.com looks pretty snappy.
Hey, everyone, I just wanted to chime in on this conversation with regards to selling your music on Facebook.
We at ONErpm.com have just recently launched our Facebook app that allows direct purchase and/or free download without ever leaving an artist's page. We aren't trying to fit in with the BandPages or BandProfiles that simply displays an artist's content, yet found a niche that was being overlooked.
Our app is loaded with promotional tools such as "fan-gating" (must like the page to listen), free downloads in exchange for an email address (uses the fan's registered Facebook email), various sharing options, and more features to be unveiled in the coming weeks.
In addition, artists and labels can host their entire catalog on their Facebook page and customers will be able to shop from one artist page to the next without ever losing any of the items in their cart. We aren't aware of anyone else able to accomplish this yet, as we are utilizing our already established e-commerce technology.
Check out an example here: http://www.facebook.com/BlitzAmbassador?sk=app_212095832143742
If you have any questions, feel free to email me at jarrod@onerpm.com. Thanks!
whatever happened to just posting the itunes shop link on your wall ? it doesn't get faster and more to the point than that, right ?
I wanted to thank you first for the tip...it was easy to implement. However, it did not work on the IPad since it uses the Flash audio player and as we already know, Flash and Ipad don't talk to each other.
CD Baby just launched a Facebook app that makes it super easy to sell music on Facebook. It's just a few clicks and your store is up and running. You can add a banner photo, video, album reviews and more.
It's free to all CD Baby members. You can read about CD Baby's MusicStore on Facebook here.
Chris
CD Baby
Nice blog!! I also write my own songs and I already made my own blog so that people can listen to my songs and be inspired.. :D
Hi Friends,
I discovered this wonderful 'Fanboard' tab lately, It consolidate social content around the web and looks like a mini site: https://www.facebook.com/MonaLisaTwins?sk=app_257120994323592