BandCentral: Basecamp for Bands
This post is part of Mashable's Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.
Name: BandCentral
Quick Pitch: BandCentral is an online band manager that is revloutionising the way unsigned bands communicate, get organised and promote themselves online.
Genius Idea: It’s likely that if you’ve got a band, you’re doing everything in your power to create music, secure gigs, promote your band online, and find a way to make it big time. All of which you’re probably trying to do while working a day job, meaning you’re overwhelmed by disorderly email threads, lost files, and gig dates. That’s where BandCentral can help.
BandCentral is like Basecamp for bands, but with features just for music professionals and their cohorts designed to help you manage your band’s administrative needs. So, your band management hub allows for adding gig information that you can post directly to social sites, syncing with your published MySpace gigs, communicating via a group message board, file hosting and sharing, calendar and contact management, a fan base manager, financial management tool, email and SMS notifications, and permissions levels.
While BandCentral certainly has a Basecamp-like look and feel, your band could really benefit from the platform by taking advantage of the band-appropriate features. The gig sync with MySpace makes it easy to keep performance information current and accurate, and being able to add your gigs to your calendar while automatically promoting them on Facebook and Twitter certainly has its value. You can even use the site to send SMS updates (there’s a fee per message) to your fans, enter and track incoming and outgoing financials, and leverage the setlist and guest list managers.
A free account includes the message board, calendar, industry directory, and SMS notifications for up to 5 members. Access to rest of the goodies will cost your band $7.99/mo.
This video features a brief demo:
Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark
BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.
Entrepreneurs can take advantage of the Azure Services platform for their website hosting and storage needs. Microsoft recently announced the “new CloudApp()” contest – use the Azure Services Platform for hosting your .NET or PHP app, and you could be the lucky winner of a USD 5000* (please see website for official rules and guidelines)."
Reviews: Basecamp, Facebook, MySpace, PHP, Twitter
Tags: bandcentral, bands, music, project management, social media
FunStuff / Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:07:55 GMT
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