Build Your Band-Book Gigs- Fill the House with the new app BANDAMIN
- Web developer Bob Miller combines his knowledge of music business and performance with programming skills to develop Bandamin, an app that helps bands manage their day-to-day operations.
- Music business professional, author and former musician and tour manager Tammy Brackett contributes an experienced perspective about the business of music via blogs and advice at Bandamin.
- Bandamin is a tool that helps bands organize rehearsals, plot tour routes, find venues, contact buyers and book shows.
- Bandamin features a blog with information from touring professionals about how the music business works.
- Bandamin helps beginner bands get off on the right foot in the music and tour industry.
“Bandamin was developed because I’m a musician and I needed an all encompassing organizational tool to help me manage my band McKain Miller,” says Bob. “Bandamin was born from a personal need, then I realized other bands, agents, and DIY musicians would find the app useful as well.”
“Bandamin fits with all the other tools available to you. There is social media to get the word out and email list managers to do the same. There are directories of venues and events you might play. There are sites which let you submit to festivals, or get your music heard by famous producers. There are free tools like Google Calendar or Google Drive which you can use to try to keep things organized,” explains Bob.”Bandamin integrates all of this, so your whole band knows where to go for all the information they need, and so that, ultimately, all of your marketing and sales efforts are managed from a single place. Bandamin is meant to be the bones of all your band management activities.”
Web developer Bob Miller launches Bandamin app
Developer Bob Miller knows his stuff. He’s programmed everything from a pedal board controller to a multi-million dollar sales force management system. His company specialized in data driven solutions for sales and marketing. His success came from providing his customers with data and analysis tools that helped them run their businesses better. He’s looking forward to working with musicians to do the same.
“Bandamin was developed because I’m a musician and I needed an all encompassing organizational tool to help me manage my band McKain Miller,” says Bob. “Bandamin was born from a personal need, then I realized other bands, agents, and DIY musicians would find the app useful as well.”
Bob started his music career playing pubs and working as a session guitarist in London in the early Seventies. After returning to the States, he attended the Berklee School of Music to pursue a career in the studios.
“This proved to be poor timing ,” says Bob. “Live studio musicians were quickly being displaced by computers.” Deciding to switch rather than fight, he wound up owning a software company.
How can Bandamin help musicians?
“Bandamin fits with all the other tools available to you. There is social media to get the word out and email list managers to do the same. There are directories of venues and events you might play. There are sites which let you submit to festivals, or get your music heard by famous producers. There are free tools like Google Calendar or Google Drive which you can use to try to keep things organized,” explains Bob.”Bandamin integrates all of this, so your whole band knows where to go for all the information they need, and so that, ultimately, all of your marketing and sales efforts are managed from a single place. Bandamin is meant to be the bones of all your band management activities.”
Bandamin is geared to local groups or those just getting out of the practice room and on stage. “What you need to do is book local venues and events, and this is a basic, ground level sales effort,” says Bob. “You have to identify all the opportunities available in your area, and then you need to routinely reach out to the people responsible for booking those gigs. Bandamin helps you with this effort first of all with a Google Maps based tool to identify venues and quickly add them to your list. In addition to venues and events, you can capture any information you have on the people who book them, linked to what they book. Armed with this, you begin the regular calls and emails that will eventually result in your first gigs.”
“I used to do it myself, spending hours doing Google searches and entering information into spreadsheets. The time this took is what led me to write Bandamin. It reduces the time required to do a good job to a small fraction of what it would otherwise be. Gathering all this information is absolutely essential, but it’s the stuff nobody wants to do,” admits Bob.
Bandamin also has a calendar function and tools for managing repertoire. Coming later this year are stage plots, links to social media, and a mobile version. Eventually, Bob hopes to link Bandamin subscribers together to share venue and other information. “My ultimate goal is to tip the scales on the side of working musicians. By making the process of running a band more efficient, I think we get to more fans, better gigs, more recognition and better pay. Money in the music business has increasingly gone to tech companies and away from musicians. Bandamin is my way to beat them at their own game.”
“The music business is a very tough place right now. I’m hoping I can make it a bit better with Bandamin,” says Bob. “I know it’s a bit dreamy, but I do believe that talent and hard work still pay off. We just want to make the journey from practicing to performing streamlined and effective.”
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