ArtistData Blog - Articles -

ArtistData Platinum is FREE for the summer!

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:30:00 CDT

As you all know, we announced Monday that ArtistData had been acquired by Sonicbids. As a welcome gift, Sonicbids has made all the features on ArtistData free for the entire summer! Until September 1, you can use the entire site for free, so get in there and install the ArtistData Platinum bundle, which has all our features included! You won't be asked for a credit card or anything. You just get the goods, all for free.

So what happens September 1? At that point, you will have the ability to choose whether or not you want to keep using the premium features. The free features will stay 100% free. The premium features will be offered as part of Sonicbids' premium upgrades, but will be offered at a substantially reduced cost. Seriously, it's going to be a hell of a deal.

So get in there an add some bling to your ArtistData account, courtesy of Sonicbids!

ArtistData is now part of Sonicbids

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 08:00:00 CDT

I'm thrilled to announce this morning that ArtistData has been acquired by Sonicbids! My note about the acquisition can be found here, as well as details regarding a summer of free ArtistData!

Our Current Network

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 10:00:00 CDT

As we approach the milestone of sending over 3.75 million updates on behalf of our users, we wanted to make sure we were giving all our amazing partner sites the credit they deserve. There were a few missing on our network page, and today we updated them. The ones we added are Bandzoogle, LiveMusicMachine, Mobbase, MobileRoadie, Scout66, SeeJoeRock, Songkick (descriptions after the break).

We have a lot more sites working on integrating ArtistData and also have a really special announcement in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!

Mobile Roadie just added to the ArtistData Network!

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 16:30:00 CDT

We've known these guys for a long time, and we're excited to announce that today our integration with Mobile Roadie went live!

Mobile Roadie, "The simple and inexpensive way for anyone to build and manage their own iPhone and Android Apps" has been making great strides in the mobile space. It's a small team with a focused product, which is the best way to do it. I could go on, but the video below sums it up best:

ArtistData users can activate a connection to Mobile Roadie in the Profile Sync app in the Tools menu!

Social Networking Tips Interview on Bandzoogle's Blog

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 16:00:00 CDT

I recently did an interview with Chris from Bandzoogle, one of our content partners, about social networking tips for musicians. You can read the whole interview on Bandzoogle's blog. Some excerpts are below:

Can you share some tips for how musicians can best use social networks (and ArtistData) to engage their fans?

(Readers, I swear that I wasn't paid by Bandzoogle to say this.) I think the most effective use of social media right now in the current landscape is to go to where the fans are (Facebook, Twitter) and engage them there in a way where you can bring them back to your website, where you can make them a real fan by capturing their email address and engaging them on a deeper level. Post news on Twitter that a new track is available for listening on your website, not your MySpace page. Drive people to the property you own, not someone else's network. Post part of a blog on Facebook that links back to your site for the complete version.

As far as how to capture them when they're on your site, the best way is give them something for free in exchange for additionally loyalty (that could mean for them to tell their friends about you, give you their email address, etc...). It's okay to give away a few tracks. You need to give them something to chew on. When they're more interested, you can monetize them through buying more music, merch, and concert tickets.

This doesn't mean you can't spend time nurturing audiences on these social networks. Artists should spend time on there meeting fans, posting gigs, encouraging fans to share information to their friends and followers, etc... The connection is made on these networks because that's where the fans are and they're already talking. But when the time is right, take that next step and get them to connect with you outside the walls of the networks.

Oh, and one other piece of advice. Only do what you want to do. Some musicians don't like the concept of Twitter and have no interest sharing more about themselves. If that's how you are, don't do it! Don't fake it, don't ask someone to tweet for you, etc... It's important that the musicians are real on these channels. If they try to fake it, it'll do more harm than good.

Read the whole interview on Bandzoogle's blog

Welcome Bandzoogle!

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 01:30:00 CST

ArtistData is happy to announce that Bandzoogle has been added to the network! Bandzoogle recently announced some major upgrades to their platform, and allowing artists to update their Bandzoogle websites from ArtistData was one of the new features. Wahoo! We're happy they've embraced our platform and look forward to making it even easier to manage your official site! Welcome Bandzooglers!

To activate this connection, just go to Tools > Profile Sync > Bandzoogle and enter your BZ Site Identifier. Here are instructions on how to find it.

ArtistData Overview Video for Music Organizations

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:00:00 CST

The other day we relaunched ArtistData, along with a set of screencasts to help everyone understand how to use the new site. One area that we didn't cover well enough is music organizations. Today, we put this video together that gives a general overview of music organization accounts. It's embedded below, as well as available on our screencast page.

We have gotten a lot of requests for discounts for music organizations. We're going to design a solution for that and release it later this year. Thanks so much for all the feedback!

LiveMusicMachine and Scout66 join the ArtistData Network!

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:00:00 CST

Today, we're happy to welcome LiveMusicMachine and Scout66 to our network. More info on each site is below.

LiveMusicMachine
LiveMusicMachine's booking widget can easily be placed and shared almost anywhere on the Internet including your MySpace profile, Facebook fan page and YouTube videos. Our widget includes a calendar with three distinct, interchangeable views: gig list, interactive tour map, and artist availability calendar and enables fans to check schedules, buy tickets, get directions and, most importantly, book bands directly. Our agent account dashboard allows you to manage multiple artists’ calendars and offers with a single username.

Scout66
Scout66 premiere site for live concert reviews from the most decisive component in the performing arts – the audience. Never before has the relationship between the audience and performer been so important. This is a back to the future concept, a grassroots movement empowering the audience and the performer, prolifically illustrating that indie music is for all ages and all styles of music.

The New ArtistData

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 05:30:00 CST

Today we released the single largest revision to the ArtistData platform. For the past few months we've been reworking and improving the user interface to develop a framework that will allow us to drastically expand our site's capabilities. We are thrilled to share it with everyone today.

Our old user interface was suitable when we initially launched in 2008, but we quickly outgrew it. Today's release is an interface that has a stronger foundation to support future growth, and we believe it is an easier site to use based on your valuable, ongoing feedback.

So, what's new at ArtistData.com?

Our holiday gift to you: Facebook Event Sync

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 09:00:00 CST

That's right. We've finally done it. Starting today you can use ArtistData to post events directly to Facebook Fan Pages!!!

We wanted to roll this out for the holidays, but remember it's still in beta and you might encounter some bugs. And stay tuned .. in early 2010, we'll be releasing some big changes to ArtistData. We can't wait for you to see what we've been working on.

We wish you a happy, safe holiday season. And as always, thank you for your support.

ArtistData welcomes two additions to the team!

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 08:30:00 CST

The ArtistData Team has Grown!

We're thrilled to announce that ArtistData has recently brought on two amazing additions to the team. Brandon Passley has joined as a senior engineer and Matt Williams has joined as a senior user experience designer. They are both in Chicago and are currently heavily involved in the entrepreneurial technology scene here. They'll help to build a faster, better, prettier, and more usable ArtistData.

From Brandon ...

Twitter: @brandonpassley

I am a software engineer, user interface designer and all around web guru based in Chicago. I drink too much coffee, spend too much time in front of a monitor and have enough technology to control a small country. ArtistData has become the essential tool for artists and I am excited to help make it faster, better and prettier.

From Matt ...

Twitter: @nomoregoodnames

I specialize in front-end design and user experience. In my freelance life, I've worked on a number of projects for various bands/ artists including Ari Hest, William Fitzsimmons, Secondhand Serenade, and Josh Kelley. I'm passionate about taking ArtistData to the next level. I look forward to engaging myself with the users to provide a better experience for all artists.

ArtistData wins a Chicago Innovation Award!

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:00:00 CDT

Before leaving for CMJ last week, I was invited to the Chicago Innovation Awards ceremony. As most of you know, ArtistData was a finalist for the innovation awards, so I was happy to be invited to the ceremony. By the end of the night, ArtistData had been awarded a Chicago Innovations People's Choice Award!

This is a huge accomplishment for one reason: the award is about you guys, our users. It was your amazing feedback and support that won ArtistData this award. It is your constant feedback and ideas that help ArtistData continue to innovate and bring great products to market. It is YOU that inspires us to keep working, keep pushing, and keep making musicians' lives easier and careers more manageable.

This award isn't for ArtistData. It's for the incredible community of music creators and supporters who use ArtistData. So thank you for and congratulations on being a part of this great accomplishment! As I've said many times before, you guys rock. Let's go do a lot more!

Also, sorry for the silence and inactivity lately. There's a lot going on behind the scenes and I'm excited to release some info about it all soon!

I've copied everyone's feedback to the rest of this post, so click through!

Zvents now a part of the ArtistData Network!

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:30:00 CDT

We're excited to announce that we are now syndicating shows to Zvents!

"Zvents is a local search and advertising network with hundreds of web and mobile partners, featuring event listings to promote local business."

One of the coolest thing about Zvents is that they have their own distribution network as well, so when we send them shows, they send them out to a bunch of very cool media partners as well. So by us adding Zvents, it's like us adding the following partners:

Current users should see Zvents added to the site within the next few days!

ARTISTdirect, BlueHaze, and Findevent added!

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 11:00:00 CDT

Today we welcome some more sites to the ArtistData Network!

"ARTISTdirect, Inc. is a digital media entertainment company that is home to an online music network and, through its acquisition of MediaDefender, is a leader in anti-piracy solutions in the Internet piracy protection industry. The ARTISTdirect Network is a network of web-sites offering multi-media content, music news and information, communities organized around shared music interests, music-related specialty commerce and digital music services." (NOTE: Only artists listed with All Music Guide will have content published on ARTISTdirect).

"BlueHaze is your concert community. We love going to concerts. Our friends love going to concerts. But it's not always easy. Sometimes we don't hear about shows until after they've happened. Sometimes it's impossible to get concert tickets. And sometimes, we really want to share our concert photos and reviews with the other fans that were at the show too. So we built BlueHaze to make the live music experience even better by connecting fans and artists to each other around thousands of concert events."

"Findevent is a social networking website where you can post events and invite friends to your events. You can also look for events from around the world - our database of events is updated daily and consists of over 100 000 events."

Interview with ArtistData founder Brenden Mulligan

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 11:30:00 CDT

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Tim Jahn last week and talking about ArtistData. Tim has been doing a series of interviews with Chicago-based companies called Beyond the Pedway and wanted to add ArtistData to the mix. We chatted for about 45 minutes, but so you're not bored, he only included about 6 minutes.

We chat about starting a company, how artists and startups are alike, and some things I've learned along the way. It was fun, and while I absolutely hate watching myself on video, it turned out well. Video is embedded below. Thanks Tim!

And yes, I realize the internet was created for more things than automation. That's editing for you... Haha

ArtistData teams up with FanBridge!

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 10:00:00 CDT

I'm excited to announce that ArtistData has partnered with FanBridge as they launch their Tour Calendar feature to make it possible for artists using ArtistData and FanBridge to automatically sync shows from their ArtistData account to their FanBridge newsletter! From now, when you enter shows into AD, they will appear in FanBridge within 24 hours!

FanBridge co-founder, Spencer Richardson notes, "We are very excited to be launching this highly demanded Tour Calendar feature, and look forward to working with a great company like ArtistData who is equally dedicated to providing tools that not only save artists time but that also empower artists to generate greater value from their music marketing initiatives."

I agree. This is just the beginning of a great relationship with FanBridge as we continue to help companies ease artists lives by giving them a single point of entry and management.

Enjoy!

ArtistData getting a lot of attention recently

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 18:00:00 CDT

It's been a fun couple weeks for ArtistData. First, we were nominated for a Chicago Innovation Award, which is flattering in itself. Then, users started voting and commenting, which was 10000000x more flattering. Go check it out. We are humbled.

Then, late last week, Derek Sivers (founder of CD Baby) posted an article on his blog about the need for central management of data. He suggested something a bit beyond ArtistData in its current state, but mentioned that we were well on our way. Go check out his post as well.

Finally, today our friends at Next Big Sound ("Actionable Analytics for the Music Industry") posted a really great and recommended article called "A Band’s Guide to Surviving Online". They mentioned that we were making bands lives easier. We hope so. I gave my feedback in the comments.

Thanks everyone for the support! It's amazing.

We're a finalist for a Chicago Innovation Award

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:30:00 CDT

I'm proud to say that ArtistData has been selected as a finalist in the Chicago Innovation Awards! We are really excited to be picked and encourage you to go vote! We'd love all the support we can get!

UPDATE: Woah! You guys are amazing. The comments you are leaving are incredible.

Why we're launching the application platform

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 10:00:00 CDT

Last week we announced that ArtistData would be opening up the platform and allowing third party developers to build applications. We will provide a robust artist-focused content management system and a flexible billing solution, all accessible through a complete set of APIs. Industry feedback has been phenomenal.

One big question we've been getting is "Why do it?" After all, ArtistData has been growing like a weed recently from viral marketing alone. One might think because our growth was solid and our name was spreading quickly throughout the industry that we should stay the course and continue focusing on our syndication product. It wouldn't make much sense to change focus when people were finally paying attention, right?

Click the link below to read on ...

Introducing: The ArtistData App Platform

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 12:30:00 CDT

There's been a lot of buzz today about our announcement to release an application platform for bands. We are just as excited as the industry is, and we will be posting a lot of information about it, starting Tuesday when I will post a blog entry right here about some of the questions surrounding it.

Until then, please check out the announcement slide deck about the initiative. Also, enjoy some of the great coverage we've gotten from the following sites:

Also, if you are interested in developing for the platform, please sign up on our developers list and we'll keep you very updated.

Have a great weekend everyone, and thanks for your overwhelming support.

New direct links!

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:30:00 CDT

A few weeks ago we announced the alpha release of our RSS Import feature. Today, it's moved out of alpha into beta, and we encourage you to check it out. To celebrate this transition, we're making an important addition to it.

Starting today, when we import your news and blog entries and send them to your Twitter, Facebook, MySpace Status, official news feed, etc..., the links posted will send users to your original post! Initially we had them linked to ArtistData, but our goal is to not get in the way. You can check out an example from an ArtistData user here.

For those who post entries manually into ArtistData, you will see a new field called "Direct Link" where you can enter where you want fans to go. If you don't enter anything, we'll create a page for them to look at.

This addition will be coming soon for shows as well! It's just us trying to get out of the way and let you control what your fans see with minimal effort.

Import your existing blog entries!

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:00:00 CDT

Our goal has always been to make it so you don't have to enter information twice. Today we're building on that, allowing you to sync the existing blog you maintain with your ArtistData account by automatically importing any new posts to that blog. You simply enter the feed URL into ArtistData and shortly after you post to your existing blog, we will import your entry into ArtistData. Once it's in ArtistData, it's syndicated to our network. You can also post it to MySpace by clicking the new "Post to MySpace" button within each news and blog entry page.

Click on your News and Blog tab to see the Import box listed at the top. The first set of items you import will not be syndicated to our network, but anything that follows will.

NOTE: This is an ALPHA FEATURE RELEASE. Especially at the beginning, we anticipate some formatting problems and bugs. Please be patient through the process. This was a heavily requested feature and we wanted to make it available as soon as we could. And remember, this is for news and blog, NOT SHOWS.

Show Type and Public/Private (Mini-feature)

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:00:00 CDT

We've recently added another small change to the Dashboard that will hopefully keep things much more organized. When entering a show, you can now choose the type of show you are posting. This way, if you are entering studio time (which a lot of artists do), we know not to send that to Jambase or our other live concert partners. You can also define whether the show is a public or private event.

If used properly, this will speed up the time it takes for shows to get to our partner sites. Let us know if you have questions.

PureVolume show sync is back!

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:30:00 CDT

We're sorry it took a bit longer than anticipated, but we wanted to make sure PureVolume was finished with some of their core changes before turning the show syncing ability back on. As of this morning, you can now sync shows directly to your PureVolume calendar again! Wahooooooo!

If you had PV sync on before, it will appear to still be connected and all shows added from now on will sync like normal. If haven't had it on before, or turn it off and then back on, we will send over ALL FUTURE SHOWS. This means there might be some duplicates that appear in PV. We'd recommend clearing out your PV show list first if you want to take this route.

We're happy to have them back as part of the network. Let us know if you have any questions!

New Status tab!

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:00:00 CDT

For the past few months we've made it possible to have ArtistData post to your Twitter and Facebook profile whenever you added a show, news, or blog entry. It also updates your followers/friends the day of your show, reminding them where and when you are playing. Yesterday, we added support for MySpace Status, which initially had a bug but seems to be working well now.

Today, we're introducing a new way to use these connections. Instead of limiting you to only use this update feature for new blogs, shows, and news, we had added a Status Tab to our Dashboard. Now, you can send out updates to these three sites with whatever message you'd like to post! Just click the tab, enter a message, and within a few minutes you'll see it on all three sites! We hope you enjoy it!

Answers to questions we know you're wondering:

When will we be able to update Facebook Fan Pages? We are working on this. We had it working last week and then Facebook changed something so we need to re-engineer it a bit. But we're trying to get it out for you.
iPhone app on the way to update status with? It's in our future, but not anytime soon. We are discussing building a mobile site where you can easily update status. More on that soon.

Enjoy! Expect more features rolled out in the next few days!

Now updates post to your MySpace Status!

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 08:00:00 CDT

UPDATE: Unfortunately, it looks like MySpace is having some issues, and you might see an "Oops" error when setting this up. We are working with them on getting this fixed, and will update you when it is.

UPDATE 2: All is working properly.

As of this morning, you can set up ArtistData to post updates to your MySpace Status, just the way we update your Twitter and Facebook status! This has been a heavily requested feature, and we're excited to offer it. Go to your publish and promote tab to set it up!

This means every time you post a show, news, or blog to ArtistData, we will also update your status on MySpace with the info! And as with the other sites, we'll also post day-of-show reminders to your MySpace friends making sure they know where you're playing each day.

This is the first in a set of feature releases coming over the next two weeks of our donation campaign!

Consider donating to ArtistData

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 08:00:00 CDT

Last week ArtistData celebrated the site's first birthday! We are so honored to have spent the past year developing solutions for artists and music professionals like you to make you more effective and efficient. We've come a long way in one year.

We're also committed to finding ways to keep ArtistData as affordable as possible. While we're working on a pricing model to roll out in the future, we anticipate keeping a lot of the current features free.

To commemorate a full year of success and to kick off another one, we're running a donation campaign over the next two weeks (ending June 19). We're asking our current users to consider donating a small amount to help us continue to develop innovative solutions to make your lives easier. You'll see the donation button at the top of the dashboard, or use the button below. Please considering donating any amount - $5, $25, $100, $500! It will all help, and any artist or organization donating more than $25 will be recognized as an ArtistData Supporter and their donation will be credited to them when we roll out our pricing model!

Thank you in advance for your support! We are so excited to continue to working for you.

Brenden & the ArtistData Team

Today, ArtistData turns 1!

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 22:30:00 CDT

Today, we're happy to say, that ArtistData celebrates its first birthday! To think, this time last year we were just introducing the world to a little baby of a platform, which could barely open its eyes and only could sync shows to MySpace and PureVolume. And now, one year later, ArtistData has learned to do so much more.

In the past 12 months we've added Twitter, Facebook, Jambase, Mojam, and many more. We've added local media, so you can send shows to local publications in the cities you are playing in. We'd added a game changing tour book generator, allowing any independent artist to create a tour book as fancy and professional as the top touring acts. And we've added a lot of other useful tools, such as a venue database, newsletter content generator, web widgets, and useful feeds for your websites and fans.

And we've done it all in a year.

We are really proud of our accomplishments, but more than that, we are honored and humbled by our users. The artists and organizations who have used our service have made the last year an absolute pleasure. They've motivated us to wake up each morning and work our asses off trying to make musicians and their teams more efficient and effective. And we think we've helped, which feels good.

So happy birthday to us(!), but more than that, THANK YOU for your support and patience during our first year of growth. We are honored every day we get to serve you and look forward to doing it for a long time. We have some exciting announcements coming in the near future and promise to continue helping you do more in less time.

Thank you. You rock.

Brenden and the ArtistData team

You have to follow through.

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Thu, 28 May 2009 17:00:00 CDT

As the guy running ArtistData, I hear a lot of new music. About two months ago, I heard a track that stuck out by a band that I won't name. I listened to more on MySpace and was really impressed. They seemed to have a good following, a bunch of upcoming shows, and thoughtful branding (by that I mean it looked like they cared about their CD artwork, site design, etc...).

After listening on and off for a few weeks, I decided to do something I rarely do: I emailed friends at labels and agencies recommending the band. It isn't often that I hear an artist that I'd promote to my network, but this band stuck out. So I tried to help.

Before I emailed my network, I asked them for permission to pass along their music, as well as confirm they wanted to build a team. Their email response: "We're actually looking for an agent number one, possibly a manager. Our main goal right now is just playing more shows ... so an agent would really help."

Read on to see what happened ...

Mobile versions for Twitter / FB Links

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Wed, 20 May 2009 10:00:00 CDT

Today we deployed a redesign for the pages users see when they click on ArtistData Twitter and Facebook status links. The most important part of this for our artists is that now when fans click the links from their mobile phones, they are shown a mobile version of the information. A small change, but this should make it much easier for fans to quickly access the info they need.

Check out this link for a Victoria Vox show to see the new design on your computer and mobile device.

Many more improvements to these pages to come.

An iPhone app for every band? I just don't see it.

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Fri, 15 May 2009 19:00:00 CDT

There was big news from the folks over at iLike this week about a new feature they offer allowing bands to create their own iPhone apps (some of iLike's services compete with ArtistData, but I still think iLike is cool).

Months before iLike added this feature, a company called MobileRoadie released the same thing. They didn't get nearly the same press for it, but they launched a very slick dashboard that enabled bands to make custom iPhone apps. The apps are more customizable than iLike's offering, and while I applaud both companies for creating great solutions for artist iPhone app creation, I just don't see it.

I have been an iPhone user since the device came out, and I value it more than my laptop. There really is an app for almost everything and I'm amazed weekly about how much more useful the device gradually becomes (example: this week I bought Buster, an arrival tracker for Chicago buses. I use it every day and it's the reason I'm dry right now). But there's also tens of thousands of apps which had little ongoing purpose. On my phone, I have ~60 apps but only really use about 10.

So here's my problem with iPhone Apps for bands ...

New Partner: TourVolume

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Tue, 12 May 2009 10:30:00 CDT

ArtistData is excited to announce yet another partner that's been added to our growing network. Today, we opened up a connection to a concert database called TourVolume!

Tour Volume is a concert listing service that supplies tools for concertgoers, bands, clubs, promoters and media channels (newspapers, radio stations, magazines and web portals). These tools will help them discover new music, organize tour dates, promote concerts, share concert listings, buy concert tickets and find concert information worldwide. (via TourVolume.com)

It's been a pleasure getting this up and running and we look forward to working with TourVolume even more! All current users will see that they are activated to this service in the next 24 hours, and you'll see your shows start appearing on their site soon!

New Partner: BandLoop

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Tue, 05 May 2009 16:00:00 CDT

ArtistData is happy to announce another partner to our supported site network. Today, we will start syndicating data to a music service called BandLoop, focused on live music information.

Bandloop is a community of bands and music fans working together to share the latest concert information. Bands can add tour dates and messages, while fans can track updates from their favorite bands and enter concert and venue information on their behalf.

A note from the good folks over at BandLoop: "No band left behind - the Bandloop dream. We are dedicated to 1 thing and 1 thing only: providing the most local live music listings, period. We track craploads of bands no matter how popular or underground. Select your bands, get alerted when they announce dates, flag the shows of interest... or, contribute concert info to the giant pool of data. Our iPhone app lets you map your way to local shows when you're away from your computer. Bandloop is proud to be part of the ArtistData network!"

We've turned BandLoop sync on for all users in their Publish and Promote settings!

New Partner: Adva Mobile

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Tue, 05 May 2009 09:30:00 CDT

A few weeks ago we added a site called All About Jazz, which was the first in a series of sites that would be filtering ArtistData information and only accepting certain genres. It was a big step towards a new relationship with publishers. Today, we're introducing a partner who will take us two steps further. Today we are live and connected with Adva Mobile.

Adva Mobile enables musicians to reach their fans on their phones through a Mobile Fan Club experience, including mobile messaging, automatically created & customizable mobile websites, mobile content downloads and streaming, mobile social sharing, mobile commerce and much more. The service is free to musicians and their fans, although standard operator charges apply.

Read on to learn more about this partnership...

RSS and XML Feeds for News/Blogs online now!

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 12:00:00 CDT

We've had RSS and XML feeds for your shows available for a while now, and tons of artists are using them to populate information on their personal websites and beyond. Today we've added feeds for News and Blog as well. To access, simply navigate to the Publish and Promote tab and scroll down to "Keep official websites up to date". As always, let us know if you find any bugs. Enjoy!

UPDATE: MySpace is having major issue with venue names

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 19:00:00 CDT

UPDATE: We heard from MySpace last night that they are aware of the bug and it will be fixed in their next code push. Kudos to them for being on top of it!

We're writing to update you on a MySpace bug that is effecting a lot of our users. We were hoping MySpace would fix it by now, but since it's been almost a week, we wanted to let you know what's going on and what we're doing about it.

Sometime last week, MySpace users started experiencing a bug where if the "&" symbol was in the venue name, the venue name would disappear on the user's profile. We've tested the occurrence of this but from shows synced by ArtistData, as well as shows directly inputting into MySpace, and we see the same bug. We're confident the problem is not on our end.

Unfortunately, we automatically add your Other Artists into your venue name on MySpace, and use "&" in the list (Example: "VenueName w/ Other Artist 1 & Other Artist 2"). So, if you enter Other Artists into ArtistData you will see this bug effecting you. The only thing we can do to help is change that format, so as of tomorrow morning, we are replacing the "&" with "and" for future syncs. That should reduce the effect this bug has on our users from now on.

We apologize and want you to know that we've alerted MySpace directly about this bug. Hopefully they get it cleared up this week. We are very very sorry about the inconvenience it causes you and will work with you (and MySpace) to do what we can to help.

ArtistData 101: Entering info into ArtistData without publishing it immediately

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 08:00:00 CDT

ArtistData 101 is a series of tips for getting started and using the ArtistData Dashboard.

Sometimes you want to enter information into ArtistData but not have it sent immediately to our network. We make this easy. When adding a show, news, or blog, you will see a "Publish?" field. If you choose Yes, it will be sent out to our network. If you choose "No" it will be saved in the ArtistData Dashboard but not made public yet.

To make something public later, either edit it in the individual news, show, or blog, or simply click the red X () on the view page. You'll see it turn to a check () and your item will be put in queue to be published!

This article appears in the ArtistData Knowledge Base

ArtistData developer site launched!

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:00:00 CDT

Over the past few weeks, we've slowly rolled out some developer documentation to give more sites better access to ArtistData info. The information is available at: http://www.artistdata.com/us/developers/

Please pass it along to any site you think may be interested in becoming an ArtistData partner! You should see our network expand quite a bit in the near future.

Local Media Alert Expansion - Canada Added!

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 01:00:00 CDT

This has been a long requested addition, but today we are taking our Local Media Alerts international! From now on, if you have shows in Canada, you can also alert local media in those cities. Our database is very small right now, but please add to it. If you have any media lists for Canada, please mail them to listings@artistdata.com and we'll get them added to our alert list. Also, we've added about 60 new media to our list for the United States. United Kingdom - you're next! We need media lists from there too, so please send them if you have them.

Also, remember that we need FULL SHOW details to alert local media. That means if you dont have the show's price filled out, we can't tell the media about it. So make sure to fill all that info out.

Head over to your Publish and Promote tab to sign up for automatic alerts! You'll get a weekly email telling you who we alerted.

ArtistData 101: Updating Facebook Band Page with Official News Feed

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 20:30:00 CDT

ArtistData 101 is a series of tips for getting started and using the ArtistData Dashboard.

By automatically importing your Official News Feed into Facebook, you can keep Facebook fans up to date with new news, shows, and blog entries. It's simple to do and we posted instructions on it a few weeks ago, but Facebook made some changes since there and we've now updated the instructions.

Read on for the full instructions.

Now Post News and Blogs Directly to MySpace

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:00:00 CDT

Starting today, when you post news and blogs in your ArtistData account, not only will that information be sent to Twitter and your official news feed, but also have the opportunity to be posted to your MySpace profile! After you add a news or blog entry, you will be asked if you want it posted to your MySpace profile. You can have it posted as a bulletin or a blog.

We hope you like this addition. Now, we're going back to work continually trying to simply your life in other ways.

You talked, we listened: Twitter Alert format changed

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 15:30:00 CDT

When we introduced our Twitter update tool, we would post a tweet to your twitter account that said "New show announced: City" with a link to more details. We got a lot of feedback saying that wasn't enough information. So we changed it. Now we list State as well, and if you only post one show, we include the venue and date! Example: New show announced in New Orleans, LA at Dragons Den on April 16, 2009

Hope that's more what you guys wanted!

We did it again, a new homepage

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:00:00 CDT

The other design was only up for a week, but we got such great feedback that we had to change it. We're simplified our homepage so when people arrive to learn about ArtistData, they see a very straight-forward, focused message. Hope you like it!

New Partner: All About Jazz

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:00:00 CDT

Today we're happy to welcome All About Jazz to our network! It's exciting because it expands our number of supported sites, but it's also exciting because it's our first attempt in working with a smaller, more focused site. Now, all artists who list themselves as Jazz, Funk, World, and Blues genre will be added to AAJ. Other artists will not.

AAJ has been incredible to work with and we suggest you give them a look. Read on to see their announcement!

ArtistData 101: Setting up your Banner Image

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 09:00:00 CDT

NOTE: We are going to start posting How To's to the blog every week or so. This is the first installment. Email support@artistdata.com if you have a suggestion on a future how-to.

When we post information to certain places (e.g. Twitter, Official News Feed) we need to provide a link to the full content. The most direct and efficient way to do this is to send fans to information pages with lots of links to your other web properties.

At the top of these pages there is room to put a customized banner image. Read on to see an example and to find out how to set yours up!

SXSW Wrap Up & Thanks

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:00:00 CDT

What an amazing week in Austin. This was ArtistData's first real foray into more traditional marketing and promotion. Up to now, we've relied and depended on our users spreading the word, but we thought it might be time to at least get the ArtistData name out there and show some people in the physical (as opposed to virtual) world that we do indeed exist.

And that's what we did! ArtistData had a booth at the trade show for 3 days and met hundreds of current and potential users! We also met up with some people from some of our partner sites and were introduced to some new and exciting sites which we hope share data with in the near future. Overall, it was a resounding success, and I wanted to thank some specific people for their help. These ArtistData users hung at the booth for extended time and chatted with visitors about the benefits of AD. I can't thank them enough!

Christopher from Hypersonic Radio
Brendan from The Right Now
Chad from Quality Junk
Jesse from Cavashawn
Alyssa from Lyric Entertainment

Thanks everyone!

Brenden

New Tabs in the Dashboard

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 13:30:00 CDT

Current ArtistData users will see a bit of a change when they log into ArtistData today. In addition to the Shows tab, there are tabs for News and Blogs. We will start adding news and blog sync to our services (today we've added it to Twitter and Facebook Updates and Official News Feed), so start getting familiar with them.

The biggest change is the new "Publish and Promote" tab, which replaces the poorly named "Your Sites" tab. This is the tab to go to if you want to really harnass the power of ArtistData. It's where all our tools reside, so you can easily see what we can help with and what you want to use.

Log in and check it out today!

New Tour Book Generator

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 13:30:00 CDT

We think this is so cool.

Today we're unveiling a feature we've been developing on and off for the past few months: Instant Tour Books and Day Sheets.

What does this mean? Now within ArtistData, you can instantly generate a tour book or day sheet from the information you've already entered into the Dashboard. The page design is as pro and it should keep you more organized than you've ever been on the road.

This feature is an alpha release, so there's still a lot of work to be done, but we thought you'd like to use it since it's in good working order. We really hope it helps you!

Full page image after the break.

ArtistData Now Updates Twitter and Facebook Status!

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 13:30:00 CDT

As of today, ArtistData now helps artists connect with users on Twitter and Facebook by updating your status whenever you enter new information into the ArtistData dashboard. We post headlines for news and blog with a link to the full article. For shows, we group together any shows posted within 3 hours of each other (so your fans don't feel spammed if you add a few shows at a time).

Also, we'll post a day-of-show reminder, where a simple update goes out saying what city you're playing in that night.

Check it out!

ArtistData Launches "Official News Feeds" for Artists!

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 13:30:00 CDT

Today, ArtistData launched the first version of what has been a very requested feature: an Official News Feed for artist. Now, every artist can let fans receive updates about the band through their own RSS NewsReader. ArtistData will post news and blogs soon after the artist enters them. So the fan isn't annoyed by constant updates, ArtistData will only post new shows once every 3 hours, so if you announce a 30 city tour, the fans only gets one consolidated update instead of 30 individual updates.

Give it a try and let us know what you think. We'll be making improvements over the next few months to make it even more effective.

ArtistData.com Refreshed!

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 06:30:00 CDT

It's been needed for a long time, but today ArtistData.com got a face-lift. We are really excited about the new design and hope it tells our story a little better. Tons of thanks goes out to all the people who sent in testimonials over the past few months. We've posted some of our favorites in the new Buzz section.

Hope you like it!

New Partner: Eviesays

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 11:00:00 CST

ArtistData is happy to announce that starting soon we will be sending shows to EvieSays, an event engine that helps newspapers across the country stay up to date with upcoming events in their area by powering their event calendars. What does this mean for ArtistData users? We will now be automatically submitting your shows directly to a new set of local papers!

Read on to see the full list of papers. This partner will be available to ArtistData users very soon.

We finally joined Twitter

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 11:30:00 CST

I know, I know .. We should have joined a long time ago. Just one of those things that never made it to the top of the list. But we're there now, so follow us to get up-to-date info on everything we're doing.

Signups Limited; New Dashboard Coming

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 16:30:00 CST

Well, good news and bad news. The bad news is that a few weeks ago we had to put a limit on new signups. Now artists who want to start using ArtistData will need to sign up on a mailing list to get an invitation when they are available.

So why did we do this? Well, that's the good news. We are in the final stages of quality testing a new version of the Dashboard and we want to focus on that. We plan to roll out new features and interfaces in the next few months. When we do this, we'll start accepting new signups.

So that's the update. The site is growing incredibly fast and we are working on features that will be scalable and consistent as we continue to expand.

Read on to see a sneak peak of some of the features we are working on to roll out over the next few months. Also, we'll be adding some new partners in the next few weeks. Subscribe to the blog to keep up with these announcements.

Thanks everyone for your support!

The ArtistData Team

Venue Database Added; Autofill Enabled

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 10:30:00 CST

This has been one of our most requested features. Now when you are adding a show within ArtistData, as you type in the venue name, you will hopefully be greeted with a long list of potential matches.

We loaded about 10,000 venues in there to start and will be adding more as you input shows at venues we dont have, so dont worry if the venue you're playing isn't in there. If you add the show, we'll get a note to add that venue! Also, it's a work in progress, so I'm sure there will be duplicates and errors, but we're working through it!

New Partner: SonicLiving

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 15:30:00 CST

We're excited to welcome SonicLiving to the ArtistData Network! SonicLiving is a music and events based social network. They tell fans when the artists they want to see are coming to town and who's going to the show. Fans create a show wishlist by adding iTunes, Pandora and Last.fm favorites and other artists they'd like to see live.

Shows will start to be sent to SonicLiving this week!

Previous Shows Widget Added

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 15:30:00 CST

We announced our Calendar Widget a few months ago and users have been adding it to their websites like crazy. One suggestion we've gotten time after time is that it should also display shows that have already been played (currently out widget only displays upcoming shows). Well, this week we have added the past shows widget to our feature set. You can find it through the "Get HTML" link in the Website iFrame section of Your Sites. Enjoy!

ArtistData introduces Newsletter Code Generator!

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:30:00 CST

Musicians spend all this time entering information into ArtistData, but then they have to retype it into your email newsletter. What a waste. ArtistData is how taking the first step to help with that. Starting today, ArtistData allows musicians to auto-generate code for their newsletter!

Through the ArtistData Dashboard, artists can now export all their concert content in three different formats, ready to be posted right into the artist's newsletter. Better yet, ArtistData allows the artist to set a notification schedule and will email them a reminder to connect with their fans, with the code attached on a regular basis.

We really hope the community finds this to be a useful tool!

UserVoice really nailed it

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 14:30:00 CST

When I see a fantastic web product, I need to help spread the word (after all, I'm hoping people to do that with ArtistData)!

I read about a product called UserVoice last night. It's an incredibly simple user feedback system that companies can use to get their users to tell them what they are doing right, what needs to be added, etc... It's easy to set up and I think will prove to be very valuable to a lot of small and large companies.

One of the best parts about this software is its simplicity. They only included what's important and made the interfaces very clean and easy to use.

It took me about 3 seconds to decide that this will be the new user feedback engine for ArtistData. And it took practically the same amount of time to set up and customize our new UserVoice feedback site. Check it out here.

The question is, can bands use this tool to engage with their fans? Let me know what your thoughts are on it ..

Artist Specific Shows XML Released!

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:00:00 CST

We have recently released a full XML file that an artist's web developer can use to import ArtistData shows into an artist's official website! Users can find this new feature in their "Shows" list.

SXSW Shines a Spotlight on ArtistData

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:00:00 CST

More and more people are finding out about ArtistData. Today, SXSW is spotlighting us and posted a short, and goofy, interview with me. Thanks to everyone at SXSW and we're excited about being a part of it this year! I've put the article after the break, but you can find it for the time being on their SXSW Music Page and also for a short time on their homepage. Also, here's a permalink.

ArtistData Debuts Multi-Artist Accounts

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 11:30:00 CST

Today we're making our multi-artist accounts official! After months of testing with almost 200 organizations, record labels and management companies can now open music organization accounts from the ArtistData signup page. The private testing proved that organizations are loving ArtistData:

Rian Rochford, Director of New Media for Universal Motown Republic Group, comments: “ArtistData has provided a priceless tool enabling us to provide accurate and up to date artist info in the most efficient way possible.”

Gabe Johnson of In The Pocket Artists says, “ArtistData has made it much easier to provide concert listing services for our clients. It’s been a pleasure to work with ArtistData and we look forward to utilizing all the new features and services AD will be adding going forward.”

We've posted the full press release after the break.

ArtistData now supports ReverbNation!

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 11:30:00 CST

It's been a long time coming, but we are excited to unveil the first step in working with ReverbNation. Within your ArtistData account, you can now export a specially formatted CSV that you can easily import to your ReverbNation account. It's not the perfect, seamless solution that we all want, but hopefully it will save you time today.

Enjoy!

ArtistData to demo at TECH cocktail 9!

no@spam.com (Brenden Mulligan) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 11:30:00 CDT

For anyone based in Chicago, ArtistData will be demoing at TECH Cocktail 9 on November 6. We've love to meet you if you're in the area.

RSVP from the TECH Cocktail site. Should be a good time!

Also, expect some more news from us soon. We're working on a feature you guys have been begging for since day 1.

As always, thanks for the support!

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