Entering concert dates is one of the most annoying parts of playing live. It’s both time-consuming and annoying to keep up with. Thankfully, it gets easier and easier each year to do this menial task. Entering dates into the services we have outlined below increases the chance of getting both fans and potential fans to your shows. Some of them can put them in the places where your fans go to hear and discover your music, where as others alert your fans who have liked you on Facebook that you will be in their town. Entering your dates into these services also increases your chance of being added to local concert calendars in local papers and radio stations. Making sure your dates are always up to date in these four services will increase the likelihood of getting fans out to shows and we will explain why.
SongKick - With SongKick fans can enter the acts they want to see into a well designed service and be altered whenever they are playing near them. If that weren’t enough the service offers a way to easily keep your dates up-to-date on your SoundCloud, Artists.MTV and Bandcamp pages. If fans navigate to your music on HypeMachine and YouTube and you are playing near them, the dates will display under your video. If that weren’t enough if you employ the use of widgets you can display your dates on your WordPress, Tumblr and Facebook page. They also employ Spotify App, that will alert fans when the acts they listen to on Spotify are playing near them.
BandsInTown - BandsInTown service alerts those fans who have liked your Facebook page when you’re playing nearby,by flashing an alert on that little globe on Facebook—making the alert hard to ignore. They also have a great looking Facebook concert dates App that lets you show fans when you are playing. Their Spotify App will not only tell fans who’ve listened to you on Spotify, but it will also alert fans who listen to similar acts you, when you are coming by and create a playlist of acts that they may enjoy, which you will be included in.
BandPage - BandPage make some of the best looking widgets for your website in the business, that can easily display your concert dates. They also make a good looking Facebook page to list your music and concert dates. If your music is on Pandora, you can use BandPage to get your concert dates listed while your music is played.
ReverbNation - ReverbNation not only has a great Facebook App to display concert dates but they also display concert dates on their social network interface, which many local concert calendars use for their listings. You can also employ widgets which you can add to your website to shows fans your dates.
Jesse Cannon is the editor of Musformation and author of Get More Fans: The DIY Guide To The New Music Busines, which you can get a free excerpt of by going here.