Bandzoogle is a website creation and management platform with a difference; it is entirely aimed at musicians. It describes itself as “the ultimate toolkit to build, manage and promote your music website”.
Being such an interesting concept, I was keen to discover more about Bandzoogle and what exactly it has to offer. Dave Cool, a representative of the company, was kind enough to pass on my questions to the CEO Stacey Bedford.
A Bandzoogle Beginning
Bandzoogle was created with the purpose of providing musicians with a dedicated platform where they could easily build a website to showcase their talents. Stacey explained what the founder, Chris Vinson had in mind:
“Bandzoogle really started out of necessity. Back in 2003, our founder was working at a record label, updating all of the band websites manually. As the label grew, and websites became more integral for bands, it became unwieldy to constantly update the tour dates, photo galleries, blog posts and music on each site.
Bandzoogle was first created as a simple control panel that bands could use to update their sites from any location, with no coding or design skills. It had to be really easy and produce cool, high functioning results. This caught on like wildfire, and today we power over 50,000 band websites”.
A Comprehensive Service
Bandzoogle offers its impressive 50,000 website owners a completely comprehensive service. It allows for the integration of features such as PayPal, social media buttons, subscriptions, and the selling of music, merchandise and tickets. Customers also have access to promotional tools to grow their email lists, increase their SEO, and boost social media strategies by connecting with fans.
Stacey considers the all-inclusiveness of Bandzoogle to be one of its greatest strengths. Here’s what she had to say:
“I would say that it’s our all in one offering. You won’t find any other service that provides such comprehensive musician tools. Best of all, everything is commission-free. You can sell anything from audio files (in many formats) to products and services, and Bandzoogle will not take a cut of any of your sales”.
How’s Bandzoogle’s Customer Care?
We’ve already learned that Bandzoogle doesn’t take any commission from sales, which is fantastic news for customers. But what else does it actively do to ensure its customers are satisfied and supported?
An important thing to note is that Bandzoogle is run by musicians. This is a really positive plus point for the company because it means the team has a thorough understanding of the industry they serve. It gives them the knowledge and skills to not only relate to their customers, but also to help them grow and develop as musicians.
On Banzoogle’s website, you will find loads of in-depth articles on a huge range of subjects such as design, content, and mailing list tools. It even gives helpful advice on selling your music and increasing your rank in search engines.
Stacey explained more about the company’s customer service:
“Our customer service is second to none. Bandzoogle has managed to scale up without compromising the quality of our service, or hosting. This is pretty unique! We have always had a mandate to reply to all email inquiries, during regular business hours within an hour. We also provide real time support via live chat.
Best of all, most of our staff are musicians themselves, so you are talking to a real person who can relate to what you need. Our training program is intensive, and we have a strong company culture. This really comes across when you communicate with our team; we want you to succeed and our team is very knowledgeable”.
Speaking of company culture, Stacey gave another interesting insight into an aspect the Bandzoogle team are all incredibly proud of:
“Our ethics and culture. Everyone at this company truly believes in putting the needs of artists above anything else. The music industry is changing constantly, and Bandzoogle has always been ahead of the curve in developing tools to help artists succeed today”.
Plans And Pricing
Bandzoogle has three feature-packed plans to choose from; Lite, Standard and Pro. All plans come with a number of “basics”, selling tools and promotional features as standard. These include, but are in no way limited to:
- Fan data
- SSL security
- Themes
- Custom design tools
- Crowdfunding
- Subscriptions
- Mailing list
- Tour calendar
Prices begin at $8.29 per month when billed annually or $9.95 per month when billed monthly. This plan allows for 10 web pages, 10 tracks and 100 photos. It’s ideal for budding bands who are just starting out on their journey.
A step up from this is the “Standard” plan which costs $12.46 per month when billed annually, or $14.95 per month when billed monthly. For this price, you can build a site with up to 20 pages, 50 tracks and 500 photos.
The Pro plan, however, is Bandzoogle’s best-seller. Stacey told me more about it:
“In the last few years, our Pro plan overtook all other plans by a great margin. I think this is because our Pro plan is completely unlimited, and our members quickly find out that we have a massive tool set they want to take advantage of. The price is also very reasonable, at $20/m with a custom domain and hosting included”.
With the “Pro” plan, pages, tracks and photos are unlimited too!
All three plans come with a handy no-obligation, risk-free 30-day trial so you can try before you buy to see if it’s for you.
Supporting Artists During Covid-19 And Beyond
Bandzoogle has been a wonderful asset to artists during the Covid pandemic. They have worked hard to ensure their customers can still monetize their music. Even though there have been many physical restrictions in place, artists have been able to thrive through taking advantage of available technology.
Here’s what Stacey had to say on the subject:
“This year we launched a slew of new tools to help artists pivot during Covid. In the coming months you’ll see a lot of flexibility in how artists can monetize their music direct-to-fan in an increasingly digital world. The pandemic has really pushed the reliance on technology forward, leap years ahead and you can expect Bandzoogle to be there for artists, as your web tech. As always, you’ll see more flexibility in design and modern theme offerings”.
I think the approach from the Bandzoogle team is commendable and many musicians will greatly benefit from the additional support and flexibility.
After speaking with Stacey and Dave, and analysing Bandzoogle’s services, I think the company is fantastic. Not only is the concept of a musician-only platform a unique one, but also its customer care, company culture and feature-packed plans all play a positive role in its customers’ musical journeys. Bandzoogle provides an essential service for musicians to get their names out there and promote their music and talents online.
Thank you very much to Stacey Bedford and Dave Cool for their cooperation. I have no doubt that Bandzoogle will continue to thrive.
