getting your band name right
TRANSCRIPT
GETTING YOUR BAND NAME RIGHT
Why Your Band’s Name Is More Important Than Ever
Guest Contribu=on by Chuck Jones [email protected] hCp://F.bandpage.com/NVO
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduc=on Pg. 3 Defining Your Band Pg. 4 Brand Awareness Pg. 5 Band Names In 2012 Pg. 6 Be Consistent Online Pg. 7 Facebook Vanity URL Pg. 8 Facebook ‘100 Likes’ Rule Pg. 9 Automated Show Updates Pg. 10 Name Logis=cs: Consider This Pg. 11
2
Naming Your Band
INTRODUCTION
3
Right now, you might be thinking, “This is it!” You’re playing music, jamming with your friends, and you sound good. You’re onto something! This group has poten=al. You’re crea=ng something new and exci=ng, and you’re ready to share it with the world. It’s a rare and wonderful feeling to be in a new music group that has poten=al. And inevitably, once that ini=al euphoria wears off, you’re faced with a very important ques=on: What should we call this band?
DEFINING YOUR BAND
4
Coming Up With a Name § Coming up with a good band name has never been easy. You want
a name that is catchy but not annoying-‐-‐ a name that both matches your sound, and that fans can remember. As Principal Skinner once said about his barbershop quartet, “We need a name that's wiCy at first, but that seems less funny each =me you hear it.”
Long Term Implica=ons § Choose your band name wisely. You could be married to it for a
long =me. Think about it… what will this name say about you? About your music? About your style? About your world view? If you have a day job, can you tell your boss the band name without blushing? What about your parents? What will music journalists think? Bloggers? Poten=al fans?
BRAND AWARENESS
§ Disco Biscuits bassist Marc Brownstein once commented on the origin of their band: “When the band started out we were all students at Penn, and we had this idea that we'd change our name constantly. We'd be called one thing one night, then another thing the next night. Somehow the idea caught on. Everyone on campus knew who we were. Then liBle by liBle we were like, 'Wait, if we want to actually have a career, changing our name all the Dme is not smart at all!' So we were kinda stuck.”*
§ This comment touches on brand awareness, a marke=ng concept that refers to a measurement of how many consumers know of a brand’s existence. For example, Coca-‐Cola has incredibly high brand awareness: it is recognized the world over.
§ Your band is a brand. Your goal is high brand awareness: you want as many people to know about your band as possible. Changing band names removes your brand from the collec=ve consciousness, killing your brand awareness.
5
*Source: hCp://www.spin.com/ar=cles/how-‐they-‐became-‐disco-‐biscuits
BAND NAMES IN 2012
6
Beyond ar=s=c elements, there are prac=cal considera=ons for marke=ng your band that you might have overlooked. In 2012, a band’s name carries more weight than ever before because of the way the music business has changed. Compared to just 10 years ago, the number of DIY tools for bands has exploded. As we will outline in the following slides, most of these tools are rooted in your band name. These days, star=ng a band is essen=ally equivalent to star=ng a business. To make it in music in 2012, you need to market your band like a business.
BE CONSISTENT ONLINE
7
Successful bands in 2012 are all over the web. There are many online touch points for a band, and your group should be maintain a presence on as many as possible. A good band name can extend to each loca=on online consistently, making it easier for fans to find your work. All of your online touch points should have a similar name. A sample of the numerous online touch points for bands:
FACEBOOK VANITY URL
§ Facebook will let you set a vanity URL only ONCE. You may not make any changes aLer that, EVER.
8
Customized “Vanity” URL
FACEBOOK’S ‘100 LIKES’ RULE
§ Facebook will not let you change your user name aher your page has received 100 or more likes.
§ Consider that changing your name aLer you have 100 likes means that your Facebook markeOng efforts are reset to zero!
9
AUTOMATED SHOW UPDATES
§ BandPage integrates with Songkick, Bandsintown, and Sonic Living to create an automated feed of your upcoming shows. Changing your name requires any fan following you via these services to add you again.
10
NAME LOGISTICS: CONSIDER THIS
11
Consider for a moment: § A band name that is a made up word, difficult to spell, or hard to
pronounce can act as a barrier between a poten=al fan and your music.
§ Fans might abbreviate an overly long band name
§ An overly long band name translates into an overly long twiCer handle, reducing your available characters for tweets and retweets.
§ Band names that use symbols like $ @ * % / etc... may confuse web
browsers, as these symbols might have a feature in html, php, or some other web language that you may not be familiar with, leading to unexpected consequences. § If your band name has profanity in the =tle, outside par=es may
subs=tute these special symbols in without asking you, risking confusion to browsers and show feeds