Bandzoogle X HostBaby

In 2019, an artist's web presence radically defines their career and besides branding themselves on social media and creating a persona around their music, a big part of this online appearance is websites, which seems pretty obvious at first but most up and coming musicians are not ready to invest the time, energy and money to get a good website that would host their music, guide people to their social media profiles and showcase important information. This could be simply because they want to focus on making music like most artists do but these fundamental things could potentially make or break an artist's career. Although Website builder platforms like Wix, WordPress, and Square Space have made great strides in promoting the idea of having personal websites and made the process of creating a website really user-friendly, most artists would still prefer a more musician-focussed solution for their needs provided in a fashion that's already familiar to them. Well, CdBaby, one of the biggest distribution companies seemed to agree with this ideology which led them to create 'HostBaby' years ago which sadly is winding down now but only to hand over the baton to 'Bandzoogle', a music-oriented website provider as the two companies join forces. The integration of these two platforms will allow existing HostBaby users to explore more template options along with giving them access to more features. Already existing websites using HostBaby will now be hosted on Bandzoogle and during the transition, HostBaby will continue to accept new sign-ups. In a blog post, talking about the merger, CD Baby says "We have some exciting news to share with you. After many months of consideration, we’ve decided to join forces with our friends at Bandzoogle to usher in the next era of HostBaby. When it comes to web hosting for musicians, Bandzoogle shares HostBaby’s values and commitment to customer service every step of the way. They’re a team of musicians building great products for musicians, just like we do." Answering all the questions regarding why this is happening, the blog post reads, "The big-picture answer: We want to put all our energy into what we do best, namely distributing music, creating tools for independent artists, and helping them collect their royalties worldwide.CD Baby is thriving, as are many of the artists we work with. We’re continuing on our determinedly independent way helping independent musicians by providing the best tools possible. We think Bandzoogle is a great fit for CD Baby artists’ hosting needs. They have an amazing set of tools and features we think you’ll love. To name a few:

• Bandzoogle offers better, more modern technology and themes;
• They have more programmers and staff to help you. They have 7 day/week support and their policy is to respond to all support requests within one hour during business hours;
• They have subscription and crowdfunding services (commission free);
• They have a music player that lets you sell individual tracks and full albums (commission free);
• They have an events feature to list your gigs and sell tickets to upcoming shows;
• They offer an easy-to-use mailing list feature so you can stay in touch with your fans and provide free downloads;
• And last but not least, they are a company of musicians much like we are. They get it, which is why we’re working with them."

Kevin Breuner, VP of Marketing at CD Baby says “We aim to make this move so effortless and easy for users, they barely notice. Our goal is to create or provide the strongest, most effective tools for artists to make the most of their creative lives and music careers. This partnership will allow us to move forward in a focused way, putting energy into new offerings while keeping our high standards of support and service.” The two companies definitely seem delighted to be working together as the merger comes with a celebratory 30 Day trial and 15 % off the first year. Plus, for the annual subscription buyers, they are offering 2 free CD Baby standard submissions.