TL;DR Quick Summary
Music industry veteran Ariel Hyatt walks artists through bandsintown, from claiming a profile and keeping tour dates current to embedding a live date widget on a website and messaging the fans who track you.
Table of Contents
How does Bandsintown help indie artists plan tour dates?
The basic concept of Bandsintown is pretty simple; let your fans know when and where you are playing. It allows you to promote individual dates, entire tours, festival appearances or album releases directly to fans. Plus you can target any location.
Create, Claim, or Update Your Bandsintown Profile
The first step is to create, claim or update your profile.
To Create:
To Claim:
To Update:
Here is what a great and updated profile should look like. This is Cyber PR Artist Pls Pls Me
You can see by looking at their profile they have updated their most recent tour dates, they have their links to their official website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SoundCloud and “other” in their case this links to their Vimeo account. and bio filled out and they have posted to their 952 trackers recently.
Make sure you add your most recent photo bio and sync to your Website and Facebook Page.
Make sure to continuously update as shows/tours get announced. Be sure to add the Bandsintown Manager app to your mobile phone as well for easy and quick updates on the go.
Once the events are created, you have the ability to promote each individual show through Facebook (and whatever social network you have Facebook connected to). Taking this a step further, these posts are built with tags geared towards touring artists, so the artist can stipulate whether the show is pre-sale, on sale, sold out, etc.
But Bandsintown has gone even deeper, and that’s what makes this app killin’. Bandsintown gives you Javascript Embed Code so you can post your tour dates on your website or blog. And then it updates in real time! Even the notes you add about each show are ported over. Pretty sweet Bandsintown.
This app will also sync with Twitter, Facebook and WordPress (via a wordpress plugin). On top of all this syncing brilliance, for an extra fee, Bandsintown has a deal with MobBase to help you get your own iPhone/Android App preconfigured with your tour dates, tickets, and Facebook events from Bandsintown.
Two tools to be aware of (our favorites) on the Bandsintown platform:
Bandsintown Promoters – A paid newsletter service that much like Facebook or Instagram ads targets fans of specific bands. For a fee, you can promote shows to subscribers who are more inclined to be live music fans.
Post to Your Trackers – From Bandsintown: This free tool lives in the Home section once you’re logged into Bandsintown Manager and lives in the top left quadrant. Here you can post anything you want (copy, photo, URL) to your artists’ active Trackers who are opted in to receive push and email (both will be sent instantly to prompt message opens and views).
Bandsintown Manager is completely free! You can create a manager or fan account, an artist or venue page, and add events for no cost at all! If you want to try to increase exposure and ticket sales past the free features Bandsintown has to offer you can create and run paid email campaigns with Bandsintown Promoter.
If you want help putting this into a real release plan, that is what we do at Cyber PR. And if you would rather work through it yourself, my books are at https://cyberprmusic.com/music-marketing-and-pr-books/
Frequently Asked Questions
How does Bandsintown help indie artists plan tour dates?
Bandsintown shows you where your fans actually live. Your artist dashboard maps the cities with the highest concentration of trackers and listeners, so you can route a tour through markets where an audience already exists instead of guessing. Claim your profile on Bandsintown for Artists, sync your dates, and message those fans directly when you book their city.
Is Bandsintown free for musicians to use?
Yes, Bandsintown for Artists is free. You can claim your profile, list tour dates, embed an event widget on your website, message your followers, and see fan analytics without paying anything. Bandsintown also sells paid promotional tools for artists who want extra reach, but nothing in the core artist toolkit sits behind a paywall.
Why are there two Bandsintown pages for my band?
Duplicate pages get created when your past shows are imported from official ticket providers before you ever claim a profile. Your trackers end up split across both, which means neither page shows your real audience size or accurate city data. Search every spelling of your name, claim what is yours, and email [email protected] to sort out the rest.
How do I get my tour dates to show up on Spotify?
Spotify pulls concert listings from Bandsintown, but it is not automatic. Open the Integrations section of your Bandsintown for Artists profile, click Connect, and paste your Spotify artist URL. Every date you publish then appears on your Spotify profile. The same step connects Apple Music, YouTube, and Amazon Music.
What should I put on my Bandsintown artist page?
Keep your profile photo identical to the one on Spotify and YouTube so fans recognize you across platforms. Add your website and social links. Write a short bio that mentions your current release and matches your Spotify and YouTube bios word for word. Then keep upcoming shows and livestreams current, since an empty calendar tells fans nothing is happening.
Can I message my fans directly on Bandsintown?
Yes. Bandsintown for Artists includes a posting tool that reaches everyone who tracks you, in their feed and by email and push notification. You choose the audience, write the message, add a photo or a link, and either post it or schedule it. You can send the same message to Facebook and X at once. No algorithm decides who sees it.
How do I turn Bandsintown concertgoers into permanent fans?
Bandsintown tells you who tracks you, but the platform owns that relationship. Use the posting tool and your stage announcements to move those people onto your own email or text list. Cyber PR calls that owned space a Fan Sanctuary, and it is the difference between fans a platform lets you reach and fans you can always reach.
Who is Ariel Hyatt?
Ariel Hyatt is the founder of Cyber PR, a music PR and marketing agency for independent artists, and the author of seven books on music marketing and publicity, including The Ultimate Guide to Music Publicity and From Buzz to Bond: How to Stop Chasing Hype and Build a Lasting Music Career. She teaches artists to build a Fan Sanctuary, an owned audience, rather than chase followers. Her books are at https://cyberprmusic.com/music-marketing-and-pr-books/
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