• General EPK: Provides a professional online resume.
• EPK for Media: For pitching new music to blogs and other media for interviews and reviews.
• Onesheet for Radio: To promote a single to radio, podcasts, and playlists.
• EPK for Venues: A press kit designed to help book shows.

Musician website and direct-to-fan platform Bandzoogle is celebrating their 17th anniversary by giving back to artists in need. Using their newly launched integration with print-on-demand provider Printful, the company has created exclusive merch for sale, donating all proceeds to the Unison Benevolent Fund, Canada’s leading music industry charity.

T-shirts, hoodies, and more are now available through a Bandzoogle-powered store. Profits from all sales of this 17th anniversary merchandise will go directly to Unison’s Emergency Mental Health for the Music Community campaign, with Bandzoogle matching donations up to $5000 CAD.

“We are so grateful to Bandzoogle for joining our Emergency Mental Health GoFundMe Charity campaign in support of our music workers” says Amanda Power, Executive Director, Unison Benevolent Fund. “We have more members of our music community depending on Unison’s Counselling & Health Solutions program than ever before, and every dollar raised will directly allow us to provide a lifeline to Canadian music-workers and their families.”

Bandzoogle has always prioritized artists’ needs, especially in industry-wide hard times. “There are a lot of musicians on our team. We’re always there to support each other,” says Bandzoogle CEO Stacey Bedford, “so this was a charity that was near and dear to our hearts.”

“Every year we release a limited edition Bandzoogle t-shirt that’s available just for staff,” Bedford explains. “Whenever we post about them, our members ask if they can buy one.” Now, they can easily do just that with knowledge that profits will go back into the musical communities Bandzoogle has served for the last 17 years.

For this exclusive merchandise, Bandzoogle worked with Hamilton-based illustrator Jacqui Oakley to create a custom design.

“In the front of my mind was how in isolation we’re all missing being close to our loved ones. So how better to illustrate that than a fiery pagan dance party?” says Oakley. “Of course it was a chance to draw a skull engulfed in flames, but more importantly a chance to help raise money and awareness of the importance of mental health in this perilous time.”

Bandzoogle has always embraced a spirit of charity, both through in-kind donations and direct contributions to registered organizations. To celebrate their 15th anniversary, Bandzoogle teamed up with MusiCounts by donating $15,000 CAD to help launch a new tier of their Band Aid Program to provide musical instruments and equipment to schools across Canada.

To purchase the limited edition 17th anniversary merch, visit Bandzoogle.com/store by March 31st. All orders will be fulfilled by print-on-demand and drop-shipping service Printful as part of a recently-released integration with Bandzoogle.

About Bandzoogle

With the Bandzoogle platform, musicians build their website and manage direct-to-fan marketing and sales. Musicians can create a professional website without having to code anything or hire expensive designers, and they can quickly build an online store to sell music, merch, and tickets, commission-free. The all-in-one platform also includes features like mailing list management, detailed fan analytics, and integrations with social networks.

About Unison Benevolent Fund

Canada’s leading music industry charity, Unison Benevolent Fund is a non-profit, registered charity that provides counselling and emergency relief services to the Canadian music community. We are here to help professional music makers in times of hardship, illness or economic difficulties. Unison Benevolent Fund is an assistance program – created and administered for the music community, by the music community – designed to provide discreet relief to music industry professionals in times of crisis through financial assistance and counselling and health solutions.

About Jacqueline Oakley

Jacqueline Oakley is a Canadian Illustrator. Her illustration work has included editorial, advertising, and book projects for clients such as The New York Times, Reebok, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, National Geographic, The Financial Times (UK), The Globe and Mail, Penguin Books, USPS, Amazon, Pentagram, Chevrolet, Miller-Coors, Vox, AOL and more. Her paintings have been exhibited in Toronto, L.A., San Francisco, Philadelphia, San Diego and Shanghai and she’s won awards from Applied Arts Magazine, Communication Arts, Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles and American Illustration.

Musician website platform Bandzoogle has launched an integration with print-on-demand drop shipping service Printful to make it easier for musicians to create and sell custom merchandise directly to their fans on their websites, commission-free.

Artists can now seamlessly connect their Bandzoogle website account to Printful, simplifying access to the popular print-on-demand drop shipping service. Bands can choose from over 200 custom merch items available through Printful to display on their website alongside their other music and merch offerings to sell directly to fans.

With this integration, Bandzoogle adds another direct-to-fan option to their commission-free sales tools for musicians. “Our mandate is to help artists generate revenue for their careers by monetizing their websites,” says Bandzoogle CEO Stacey Bedford. “Merch sales have been the biggest group of sales items for our members, and print-on-demand offers another great option for artists to sell merch directly to their fans with no upfront costs, and no inventory to store.”

With no minimum order requirements or monthly fees, musicians only pay for merch items when they make a sale, allowing artists to diversify their revenue options, risk-free. When a fan places an order through the artist’s own website, Printful then fulfills and ships the order.

During a time when artists are getting especially creative with fan engagement, print-on-demand merch also makes it possible to quickly create custom merch for special events such as live streams, single drops, or crowdfunding.

As with many of Bandzoogle’s recent musician-focused updates, including fan subscriptions, live stream ticket sales, and a Tip Jar, the Printful integration allows fans to support artists directly. Artists can set their own prices when they create their merchandise through Printful, and Bandzoogle’s commission-free model (which has netted artists over $70 million in revenues to date) means that all profits go directly to the artists.

As musicians look for ways to engage their fans and earn a living beyond the traditional touring model, musician web services provider Bandzoogle continues to expand their direct-to-fan offerings accordingly. The platform’s most recent development sees an important update to their popular fan subscriptions feature as the company implements a pay-what-you-want option alongside standard pricing tiers.

In addition to offering set premiums per month, artists can offer specific rewards to listeners who make recurring payments at a price they choose, opening up support options to an even broader base.

Since its 2019 launch, the fan subscription feature has been one of Bandzoogle’s most popular commission-free offerings. Some artists have cited it as their main reason for joining the platform. “It’s recurring income for the musician and new, fresh content for superfans,” explains Communications Manager Melanie Kealey. And, as in-person performances remain largely impossible, it has become even more crucial for artists to find creative ways to maintain connections with the audiences who keep them afloat. “Since the pandemic started, a lot of musicians are at home,” Kealey continues. “They’re able to create more content, hosting Q&A sessions or virtual concerts at home.” Many artists also offer merch or special access to their recording catalogs as part of their subscription tiers.

This pay-what-you-want subscription feature is the latest in Bandzoogle’s long history of flexible payment options. “We added pay-what-you-want music sales in 2007, so that’s been a part of our e-commerce platform for a long time,” says CEO Stacey Bedford. More recently, Bandzoogle has rolled out a Tip Jar feature that allows fans to donate directly on Bandzoogle artist websites, an initiative that has been wildly successful and netted over $200,000 for artists across the platform. An average tip of over $42 shows that, given the option to set their own price, fans are often willing to pay more than what artists charge. “The problem with earning viable revenue is not the value to the fans,” Bedford continues. “This model is about allowing your community to support you as an artist directly.”

For Bandzoogle, those direct connections between fans and artists are at the foundation of every move they make. Their constantly-evolving, commission-free toolkit for musicians is one based on the immediate needs of their clients looking to cultivate an ongoing online presence. With the help of Bandzoogle, artists can diversify revenue streams while democratizing fan support options no matter the circumstances.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, musicians have earned over $5 million in commission-free sales of digital music, merch, livestream tickets, fan subscriptions, digital multimedia, and tip donations through their websites powered by Bandzoogle.

Nearly half a million of that revenue came from digital music sales alone, from over 33,000 albums and over over 37,000 singles. Through the recently rolled-out Tip Jar feature, fans have donated almost $200,000 to their favorite artists, leaving an average tip of over $42. The platform’s fan subscription feature has seen high user growth, and some clients have recently joined Bandzoogle for that benefit alone.

Recently-added live streaming and video integration features that merge seamlessly with both the Tip Jar and fan subscription features have been keeping musicians connected to their fans. Live stream ticket sales alone have earned Bandzoogle members nearly another $200,000 since mid-April from over virtual 1,300 events.

One Bandzoogle member, Celtic rock band Enter the Haggis, was on the verge of releasing an album and embarking on tour when the pandemic hit. “We knew we had to pivot, so we got the idea of setting up live stream listening parties for all of our albums, culminating in the official release of our new album online,” says band member Brian Buchanan. “With Bandzoogle's tools, I was able to quickly create a Tip Jar page, and I added other limited-edition merch items and back catalog albums to the page as well. I launched our Throwback Thursday listening party series within a week, and we've worked our way through 10 listening parties, sold tons of back-catalog merch, and generated over $15,000 in tips from our unbelievably generous fans around the world.”

Bandzoogle’s centralized features also lead fans to buy artists’ music and merchandise directly, the latter of which has netted nearly $4 million for artists since the onset of the pandemic. “While much of the industry continues to focus on streaming revenues, in the DIY and direct-to-fan world, it's about engaging with your biggest fans and giving them every opportunity to support your career,” says Bandzoogle’s VP of Business Development Dave Cool. “And we're seeing that with our members. By allowing fans to support their careers directly, whether it's buying music or merch, tickets to a livestream, or simply making a donation, the data shows how generous fans can be if given the option to do more than simply stream your music.” concludes Cool.

For artists in the age of a pandemic, being able to make and maintain these connections is nothing short of crucial, and a moratorium on touring doesn’t need to halt their livelihoods. With this in mind, Bandzoogle is proactively working to build more and better tools to help musicians monetize their careers online.