Indie Ambassador

It’s like Momma always said: “The best musicians are never home.” She was so right. Musicians should be playing a show, on the road, at their practice space or at some other band’s show. Home is for sleeping and even then that’s what couches are for. So how are bands expected to keep up with everything on the go? Enter the smartphone. iPhones, Androids, Blackberrys, I don’t care! If you don’t have one, get one. If you can’t afford one of your own, make sure at least someone in your band has one or buy a "band phone". Without further ado, here are 5 smartphone apps that should save you time, money and a little bit of your sanity.

Music & Business – Ep 3: 5 Apps to Keep Your Band Running w/ Brittni

1. Creative Notetaking with springpad (Free)

If you’ve ever been inspired while walking down the street only to realize you forgot your notepad at home, then you need springpad. At first glance the app may seem more useful for a working mom juggling appointments, recipes and shopping lists, but if you look deeper this handy app can work wonders for the unorganized and scatter-brained musician. (no offense!) Springpad is currently compatible with the iPhone, iPad and Android phones and conveniently syncs to your Mac or PC. Snap a picture of a band flyer, create events, record melody memos or jot down lyrics anywhere you are and when you get back to your computer it’s all there, neatly organized, all without sacrificing a single post-it note.

2. Web Analytics with Google Analytics (Free to $9.99)

If you have an artist or band web site please feel free to skip on to the next paragraph. If not, read carefully. If you consider yourself a serious artist and you don't have a home on the web than do yourself a favor. Head over to your local domain superstore and register a domain at yourbandname.com. Now hire your friend or neighbor to build a web site for you. If you're worried about the cost of a full featured site than at least put together a basic landing page that directs your fans to your social sites around the web. Don't forget to include a link to your music on iTunes or your music store of choice. Now on to Google Analytics...

The first step to understanding your fanbase is to find out where they live and how they interact with your web site. Google Analytics tracks a mess of data from your site traffic and digests it all into pretty charts and graphs. While many social sites now offer their own analytics, they usually don't stand up to Google’s free service. The best part about Google Analytics is it's customizable interface. You can set it up to be as simple or as complicated as you want. And all of these features are available for viewing on your smartphone of course! Here are the compatible Apps that I suggest:

• For Windows Mobile try Google Analytics Mobile from SynergeTech Solutions ($9.99).
• For Android phones try Mobile GA from Actual Metrics (Free).
• For the iPhone and iPod Touch try the Analytics App from Inblosam LLC ($5.99).

3. Social Media with ShoZu (Free to $4.99)

Whether your band is blog-crazy, trendy with Twitter, accessible on Facebook, or kickin' it old school on Myspace, ShoZu can make updating your social accounts tolerable. Outside of the ability to easily update your status across the board, ShoZu allows you to upload photos, video and text to all of your networks with relative ease. You can even interact with your fans by viewing and replying to your comments. ShoZu features a one-click option to make sending info to your social sites super fast. The biggest upside to ShoZu is that it’s compatible with hundreds of phones (no excuses on this one) though the smartphone versions have much better features. 

4. Fan Management with FanBridge Fan Collector ($4.99)

If your band has enough fans already than feel free to skip to the next app… Gone yet? Didn’t think so. There’s no such thing as too many fans, and for independent bands a loyal fan base can take years to establish. With this next app you can save yourself a ton of time for the price of a whopper at BK. If you're unfamiliar with FanBridge, it's a freemium service that allows you to keep track of email lists, send sms messages and newsletters, interpret analytics, and manage all the crap that most of us just don’t have time to deal with. Bottom line: it helps you build and manage your core fanbase.

FanBridge Fan Collector takes the service to the next level by allowing you to gather fan info wherever you are. Instead of scribbling email addresses on the back of a setlist you can go high-tech and have new fans pop their info into your iPhone. From there it’s all sent online to your FanBridge account for easy syncing.  You can download the app here.

5. Credit Transactions with Square (Free)

While there are a few options for credit card accepting apps, I’m putting my money on Square to be the front-runner in the coming months. If you need a refresher course on Square's app you can read my previous feature here. Square is perfect for selling t-shirts, albums, your old couch, anything at all really and the best feature by far is the incredibly cool and state-of-the-art card reader that plugs right into the headphone jack of your iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad or Android phone. You can even keep track of all your transactions or “receipts” online. Square can give your merch table a major makeover for only a small transaction fee. So throw out that old lock box and start swiping. There you have it! 5 apps that will make your band run like clock-work when you’re away from your computer. Try one or try them all! If you have any additions or alternatives to this list, please share in the comments below!