Eventually, we all realized that this is a great, workable idea with one fatal flaw. Your website just sat there. Pretty much. So you grabbed an artist page at MP3.Com thinking that, out of the millions of people there every day, you would definitely get searched, get more plays, climb higher in the charts, and really get a chance to expose your music and your band to the world. And your artist page just sat there. So you start signing up for link trades with other band sites, using click trade referral systems, starting up a gajillion radio stations and offering your music to a gazillion more. You get plays and drum up interest, but you're miles away from having fans all around the world begging for you to tour through their town. You even swap plays with other bands and artists out there to help each other climb the charts -- but the competition is so fierce that it's hard to stay there when you do. And still, not the interest you expected or hoped for, right?

The flaw in this (very universal) idea is this: MP3 sites are *not* designed to get you traffic. They're designed to get traffic from you so they can expose new bands to droves of people. You're expected to promote your own artist page, for the most part. Link trades and click trades are great ways to watch your counters roll, but it's very rare to actually have a true fan stumble on your music this way. Search engines are great, but you'd better be a band who knows how to use them. Even still, it takes tons of research (and cold hard cash) to find out what fans are looking for in your genres and really optimize your pages to draw in those keywords. It's really a pain. And simply put, there is no way you're going to really be able to gather up your fans on the Internet without them finding you first. You don't just need traffic to your band's page -- you need interested folks looking for the dreamy soft ambient suzanne vega style pop jazz radiohead acoustics that you do. Several hundred of these people visiting your website each and every month, and you're in business.

These fans are out there.  They're using Google and all sorts of other ways to find music and just aren't getting to you. But they're out there. In fact, they don't think you exist. We created the Band Finder to give them a real way to search for new music and connect them to the bands and artists they've been looking for. As more and more fans are turning to BandFreaks to search for new bands and artists, more and more bands and artists are seeing droves of new listeners flooding their site and getting involved in their music. Because if they're looking for dreamy soft ambient suzanne vega style pop jazz radiohead acoustics and that's you, you just made yourself a fan.

A. For Bands and Artists, the Band Finder works on keywords and credits.  All Band Finder accounts are given a certain amount of credits every month for traffic.  Each time a visitor clicks on your listing, your band finder account is automatically deducted at least one credit.  To get higher up in the listings and gain more traffic, simply increase the amount of credits for those keywords applicable for your band.  Bands higher up in the listings for searches get far more traffic than bands buried somewhere in the back of the list.  When you run out of free credits, or if you want to get serious about bidding on your listings, you can deposit more funds in your account to add to your search credits.  Each credit is worth $0.01 (or one cent). Usually, two or three dollars goes a long way in the Band Finder.

Each month, your account will be replenished with another free $2.00. This is going to keep all of our bands active in the Finder and give everyone enough credits to bid on keywords and get listed higher for their band's best keywords. Plus, you can earn free credits by doing guest MP3 reviews for the BandFreaks main site, advertising our site on your site by putting a search box (or form) up, or referring more bands to the Finder.

Your band account is only debited the amount of your bid each time a unique fan clicks on your band's listing.  Our system only counts one fan click per IP address per day. We also use a tracking cookie to count hits.  You can log in anytime to check your up to the second daily traffic stats, referrals, and remaining credits.  Funds can be added using your credit or debit card, PayPal account, or e-gold account. Deposits into your Finder account are available immediately.

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Q. How much does it cost to get traffic through the Band Finder?

A. The Finder is FREE for bands.  Each band gets everything they need each month for several hundred free visitors.  All accounts are replenished each month with enough free search credits for several hundred fans.  For those bands wanting more traffic, you can deposit more money into your account to instantly add more credits.  Bands use credits to bid on keywords relevant to their listing and to show up higher in the search results.

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Q. What's Different About This Project?

A. It's very common to find places out there that let you search for artists, but none of them really work when it comes to getting traffic to your band's site.  Why?

One of the reasons for this is that they all assume that the fan knows that they're looking for.  For a lot of these places, the "artist or band searches" out there are only a secondary focus to something else.  Usually, a way to help expose some of the artists on their website.  When fans start searching, they usually have very few options (like "Artist's Name", "Sounds Like" and "Search a Genre Category"), and often end up having to page through pages and pages of genres to find the bands.  They need to click on each listing, one by one, and listen to the music to decide if it's what they're looking for or not.   If not, then it's on to the next listing, and the next.  This can be very exhausting for those of us who wanted a new band yesterday.  Many people out there actually sort of 'tucker out' before finally landing on a band that's actually "their thing".

Even bands in the same genre are different.  In fact, even bands and artists that all claim to sound like the same artist are usually vastly different.  Searching for bands this way is like going to a dating site and searching for "girls" and "boys".

We believe that new bands are about fusion in some sense, one way or another.  Each band is its own delicate (or not-so delicate) mix of genres, influences, sounds, vibes, and so on.  Ever ask a band what they sound like?  Ever had to answer that question yourself?

With our Band Finder, you -- the artist -- describe your sound using lots of little bits and pieces, and our proprietary search algorithm uses these 'bits' to accurately match your stuff with fans that are looking for the in-delicate fusiony goodness that is you and your band.  They get specific.  Our site is the only site on the Internet right now that is devoted to this kind of search, which is part of the reason it's becoming so popular. Focusing on the "Finder" helps fans to easily find the music they like, time and time again, and it helps bands traffic their websites with focused listener interest and generate tons of new activity and merchandise sales.

For us, our Band Finder is a project. We're always tweaking the algorithm, adding new keywords, and expanding the Finder itself.  We're constantly striving to make the Band Finder a more useful and effective tool for finding new bands and artists on the Internet.

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Q. How many bands can I add?
A. You can add and manage as many bands or individual artists that you are accountable for, all on the same Finder account.  

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Q. How much fan traffic will I get?
A. Bands and artists can get anywhere from a slow trickle of listeners to a constant daily rush, depending on where you show up in the listings.

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Q. Are there any obligations once I sign up?

A. Absolutely none.  Zero.  Nada.  It's a free service. If you somehow run out of free credits in your account for this period, your search listings will simply disappear from the results until next month. Nobody bugs you and you don't owe anything.  If you decide to add funds for extra credits on top of the the free credits one month, and then not again, and again two months after that that's fine. ALL accounts receive free search credits every month to stay in the listings regardless. There are no monthly charges or obligations whatsoever.


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