Monthly Archives: February 2010

bandcentral @ Music4.5 & SXSW Microsoft Accelerator!

Hello All,

We started the week with a couple of really great pieces of news at BandCentral HQ and are very excited to be able to confirm our invitation to showcase at two of spring’s highest profile Music-tech events – Music 4.5 in London on March 4th, and the Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator event at SXSW Interactive 15-16th March, 2010.

Music 4.5 is a one-day event that brings together music tech start-ups, artists, managers and key industry players to share knowledge, discuss strategies for business success, debate market trends and discuss strategies for the future.

BandCentral will showcase BandCentral V2 during the pitch session, hosted by TechCrunch editor, Mike Butcher. This will be streamed live on the web – so for those of you wanting a sneak preview ahead of launch – be sure to tune in. (we’ll post details here & on twitter as and when we receive them).

For anyone who’d like to attend the event, you can register here. (Recent tweets from TechCrunch & the FAC quoted “TCE10″ & “FAC10” for a 20% discount so it might be worth giving them a go)

We can’t wait to take BandCentral to the legendary SXSW in March. We were thrilled to have been selected as one of 8 companies who will battle it out in The Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator program to be crowned “Most Innovative” company in the entertainment sector. See a full list of our rivals…err…the shortlisted companies here :)

In other news, in addition to our Twitter and Facebook pages, we have a brand spanking new MySpace page. Please ‘Follow’, ‘fan’ or friend us – we’d love to hear from you!

BandCentral HQ

BandCentral V2 shines at MIDEM

BandCentral V2 got the music-tech world well and truly hot under the collar at its first public outing last week at MIDEM and we are delighted to be able give you a sneak preview of what’s coming up with the imminent release..

Take a closer look……

BandCentral Version 2: Dashboard

Practically every single feature of the BandCentral application has been made slicker, smarter, and crammed full of extra detail.

The first thing you’ll notice is that the dashboard view and navigation have been completely re-worked to provide a more logical and seamless experience throughout the application. Users with multiple bands such as managers and record labels can now effortlessly tab between their band’s hubs and a smart new alert system will make sure you’re notified of any actions going on within each Hub.  As before, you have an at-a-glance view of all up-coming stuff, band finances, fans but you can now also see who’s online and what their status is so you can strike up an IM-style conversation with them.

One of the cool new features is the detailed Music Manager, which allows you to keep tabs on your Band’s music catalogue. The Music Manager will help you keep track of everything from writing credits, licensing codes, song lyrics, distribution data, music and artwork uploads, to media attachments, and a whole lot more. You can organise your song catalogue into singles, EP and album releases, easily share music files via the Assets File Manager, invite third-parties into your Hub for selected access to your catalogue, and custom build gig set-lists.

Other new features include: a full Merchandise Manager to help you keep track of stock levels and identify best sellers; a detailed Tour Manager; a smarter IM-style Message Board which enables better communication and allows you to invite third parties into band conversations via email; plus clearer tagging of contacts and files to allow for an easy, personalised search and categorisation experience.

More V2 features and details on our upcoming visit to SXSW will be revealed in the coming weeks so make sure you keep an eye on our blog and follow us on twitter – @bandcentral - to keep abreast of developments here at BCHQ!

So, heads down, and back to it. And, as always, thank you to all of our loyal users and supporters in the industry.

We’ll leave you with some of our highlights from our week at MIDEM….

BandCentral HQ