Unsigned Bands Need to Know About This New Site
Platforms that promise success to up-and-coming bands come and go. Remember when MySpace was touted as the next great thing? To be fair, for a minute there it certainly was, but the era of eye-searing MySpace layouts and fretting over your Top 8 is long gone. What ever became of ReverbNation? Ning? Sonicbids? The list goes on.
There’s a new player in town that’s making a bid to become the next big networking tool for bands, and it’s already off to a great start. Viberate is a music network set to bring clarity into the chaotic world of live music where information and contacts are scattered all over the internet. The platform connects more than a million profiles of artist, venues, events and festivals in one place, offering data and tools that can help you make better decisions when it comes to business. All the big names in the metal scene including Babymetal, Opeth, The Eagles of Death Metal and The Black Dahlia Murder are already listed on the site.
Like many platforms that have come before, each artist on Viberate gets their own profile. But the difference is that artist profiles are automatically updated with everything that matters: gig dates, new music, videos, social media links and the latest content from the artist’s official website. Once the artist “claims” their profile, they get full control over it, enabling them to replace outdated one-pagers, disparate social media accounts and even official websites. The platform empowers musicians by offering them a place where they can showcase their music, attract the attention of industry professionals and find new booking opportunities (the venue section currently has 130,000 listings worldwide). No one likes booking shows, and those band members who are responsible for that most thankless of tasks will be very happy to find a tool that can help.
Viberate’s goals are incredibly ambitious: They seek to list 99% of artists by 2025. That might seem like a herculean task, but the fact that the platform is fueled by the massive community of music fans around the globe instead of algorithms makes that goal much more achievable.
Viberate’s crowdsourced approach encourages everyone to take part in listing and mapping the global live music scene. Anyone can log in and add missing musicians, venues, or events right here. As of today, more than 20,000 contributors from all over the world have already signed up, adding up to 2,000 new profiles each day. There’s extra incentive to participate, too, beyond just the desire of do-gooders to spread their love of music: users earn badges for their work and are rewarded each month with merch, festival tickets and other goodies. The most prolific contributors will get a chance to join Viberate’s PRO contributor program which turns a hobby into a full-time job.
With a database of half a million artists, which includes more than 46,000 metal bands, you’ll have a hard time finding a band that isn’t already profiled. But if you do, kudos to you, you’re the right kind of person for the job.
