ReverbNation: Great Tool For Musicians And The Best Music For Everyone Else

The internet is a great tool for musicians to share their music and gain exposure across the world.  However, harnessing the power of the internet and using it to market your band successfully is easier said than done.  That is exactly the problem the team at ReverbNation set out to address when they formed in 2006.

ReverbNation’s grand aspiration is to provide a virtual center for musicians, record labels, band managers, venues and (most importantly) the fans.  While many mainstream and successful artists use ReverbNation, it is most useful for independent artists who don’t have the resources or the influence to reach large numbers of people.  Thus, the majority of its users consist of independent artists looking to increase their sphere of influence.

The website earns profits through selling advertising spots on their site, and as a result, it is completely free for people to use (whether they are dedicated artists or just casual fans).  ReverbNation even pays its artists portions of these advertising revenues based on their popularity on the website through a system called FairShare.  They calculate this popularity with their feature called Band Equity.  Band Equity basically measures the popularity of a given artists based on reach, influence, access and the recency of the first three factors.  ReverbNation then takes these four metrics and creates charts and artist rankings to put a number on how valuable particular artists are.  FairShare and Band Equity offer great incentives for artists to be more involved with ReverbNation and have been major reasons for the website’s success.

ReverbNation is so much more than just an online forum for artists to share their music.  In order to fully cover this website and do it justice, I will be writing more in-depth articles on how to best utilize ReverbNation in the near future, stay tuned!