BandPage & Ning team up to help musicians create 'fan communities'

SAN FRANCISCO — BandPage and Ning have teamed up to help musicians create and manage their community of fans online.

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The goal is to help bands and solo artists that need a better way to connect with fans — and are ready to go beyond a static Facebook page or website.

In less than 24 hours, for instance, a band called Run River North was able to create a page with a community forum, news, music, and tour dates. Another customer, the Swedish electric house duo Dada Life, took the notion of community one step further. Their überfans, dubbed “citizens,” can climb the member ranks and become “Ambassadors” by completing missions on the Ning site.

The idea is that alternatively to building the site from scratch (an expensive and time-consuming proposition) artists with a BandPage account can automatically shift and sync content. BandPage is a venture-backed startup that helps artists manage their online presence in one central hub; this includes music, tour dates, videos, an About page, a mailing list, and more.

“Our focus has always been and will continue to be to help musicians represent themselves,” BandPage CEO J Sider [pictured above] said in a recent interview with VentureBeat. 

A band can choose to alter the design of their site with a header and background image, and make any adjustments to the font and color. In addition, fans can be administrators and moderate content, and bands can choose to share information with a select group.

Ning, which is now owned by Glam Media, made the announcement at the SFMusicTech conference today. Try the new product out for free here.