BandCentral, a Basecamp-for-bands, gets official push today
The site provides tools for artists, managers and labels to project manage the business end of being in a band. Things like organising tours, managing fan databases, merchandising and accounting.
BandCentral was conceived by founder and CEO Wil Padley, a “digital creative” and bass player in the UK band The Domino State. Based on his experience of touring – his band has gigged across Europe and even supported Coldplay at the O2 arena – Padley saw the need for better tools to professionalise aspects of the experience and help bands stay organised. That’s rock ‘n’ roll nowadays, I guess.
Padley bootstrapped the early development of BandCentral, founded in June 08, while the London-based startup has since taken an undisclosed amount of Angel funding.
Then there’s the deeper accounting aspect: members can track revenue and expenses, “from CD, merchandise or ticket sales”. Moving this to the cloud obviously makes a lot of sense and enables all stakeholders to stay actively involved, should they wish. The music industry is littered with stories of money going missing, and although BandCentral is targeting bands regardless of whether or not they are signed to a label, any added transparency is probably welcome.
Next up is a sprinkle of social media marketing. BandCentral users can update their band’s status and profiles on Twitter, Myspace and Facebook, via the “BandHub” console, including syncing their tour dates.
The service also neatly ties into SoundCloud, which is already massively popular amongst artists, enabling band members and their management team to share and comment on musical “works-in-progress”.
BandCentral is offering a free (ad-supported) basic version, alongside a more full-featured service costing £5.99 per month. In other words, it’s a classic freemium model, which again has worked out pretty well for existing cloud-based project management services.
Moving forward, BandCentral has an iPhone app in the works (pictured right).