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get-ctrl – A Simple, Yet Powerful Artist Site Platform

image from chinwag.com How do you create a great looking artist website – for free – in 15 minutes? get-ctrl is a website builder and fan management platform that enables artists to manage their online presence in one place and track fan engagement. On the back-end, artists can update the site, oversee their fanbase, and gain insight into the data that is captured. get-ctrl also lets artists create apps (not free) and automatically update them along with their other social networks.

When fans interact with the app, get-ctrl captures all the data and presents it as a simple graph. That way, artists can easily tell which parts fans are using the most. Of course, get-ctrl enables artists to create a Facebook Page tab too.

The main goal that the company has in mind is to provide artists with a powerful, yet centralized platform that enables features to be automated and updateable from a single location, i.e. the website back-end. With this platform, artist can track what time fans log in, how long for, how much they spend and on what, where they are, what device, if they connect with Facebook or Twitter, and many other things. In the future, get-ctrl will focus on offering artists actionable insights into how tailor the platform to best cater to their unique fans, as well as, more features and upgrades to how data is presented while still keeping things simple.

With the exception of the iPhone app (which costs £25 then £10 per month), get-ctrl provides this to artists for free and only takes 12% commission after Pay Pal charges. These days, many artists are looking for alternatives to MySpace and get-ctrl provides them with a simple, yet powerful platform to run their site and manage their fans; it also provides SEO and an HTML e-mail creation tools. 

The company is still in beta and has 600 registered artists.

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23 Comments

  1. From a technophobe manager p.o.v, I can’t laud GET-CTRL.COM enough!
    Website is clean, easy to manage & sync and our new band app is getting great results @ a really affordable price!
    Nick R
    SMG
    Manager of REACHBACK

  2. CTRL, Hostbaby, Bandcamp, Bandzoogle, ReverbNation, etc. Doesn’t this just all end up being annoying for the fan? I’m sure they’re all great, but one sounds really good, so you sign up for a free account, set up the site, the widgets, the mailing list…. when the next great service comes out do I swap all my services and expect my fans not to get lost?
    I feel the need to look for a new service for my music because I have a flash site that doesn’t work on iPads and iPhones. What do I pick?

  3. For the first time that I can remember, someone has got it right. Get-ctrl is jargon free, easy to understand and lets you get on with the creative stuff. Music and artiste management is complicated enough, so to not have to worry about web stuff and talk to humanoids passing off as web designers is ace. No, it is the best product in the IT sector I have ever used.

  4. Get-Ctrl have been lovely to us and unusually helpful. Big high fives to the lot of them.

  5. I manage a new band called Things I Never Told You and cannot praise Get-Ctrl enough for how they have simplified the modern-day, essential demands of fan management work which was becoming quite laborious and distracting from the other work we need to concentrate on. They have made us,… well, better! http://www.thingsinevertoldyou.com

  6. Get-ctrl have been fantastic from the moment we decided to do a website, they have helped us out every time with our questions, we have a great people friendly website and have given us the exposure we needed.
    Top job!
    P.s Also sorted us out a Fancy iphone App which works a treat : )
    http://www.sertari.com

  7. Get-ctrl are brilliant at what they do, and they keep things nice and simple but effective at the same time, I can’t speak highly enough of them, excellent resource for emerging artists, full stop (or period for you american types!!)

  8. Let me say, in the last year I’ve become a big BZ fan. I didn’t use to be. In fact I thought it had a lot of shortcomings. But now I think it’s the best roll your own site builder out there for musicians.
    I mention it in the article about TopSpin that Hypebot picked up. Plus David is a cool guy.
    Nice job, David.

  9. *blushing* Thanks Charles. Your Topspin overview is incredibly thorough and helpful. I don’t want to hijack CTRL’s thread here… but we’re working on making BZ and TS play nicely together, which I think would remove a big barrier to more artists adopting TS (ie. not having to fool around with WordPress, Drupal, etc.). Stay tuned…

  10. I signed up to get-ctrl.com three days ago, site looked great straight off the bat and was very easy to add detail and content. The template is quite flexible and I found it to fulfill my needs so far but I’ve also learnt that they offer a bespoke service for artists looking for something a little more customised.
    The best features in my opinion are:
    – Members feature which can directly capture fan information and allow you to provide ‘members only’ incentives in return for fans details
    – In-built music player that continues to play even when you navigate to a new page
    – The ease of adding content to the site; you can make photo albums, add videos and sell your music directly from the site.
    After using the site for a day, I had some ideas for things they could add so I emailed the company with the suggestions. I receieved a prompt reply the same day saying that all the things I’d suggested were already in motion and would be implemented soon. They are clearly on the ball and I can’t wait to see what else is added when they update the platform next.
    So far very impressed, even more so because all of this functionality is free!
    I am completely unbiased, just a small-time producer trying to get his music heard. I’ve spent the last month and half trying to find the best way to promote my music on the internet, signing up for all manner of different services, but with this one I think I’ve finally found something which will meet all my needs.
    Great work Get-Ctrl.com and good luck for the future : D
    Sam Green (Pattern Break)

  11. I’ve responded privately to most who’ve raised questions rather than stepping in on these pages but I just wanted to say a big thank you for all the great comments on the post and the hundreds of mails I got over the last few days, I think I’ve replied to them all now. It really does make a difference and I do pass them on to everyone at get-ctrl. All suggestions are thought through and if they work for artists then we build them. So keep them coming.
    Thanks again and if anyone is out at SxSW and wants to hook up please shout out.
    Cheers
    Nick

  12. Get-ctrl is great for a starter site, and I wish we had known about it much earlier. I can see this being great for a number of artists that I work with. It has some shortcomings but like all the best IT companies, they’re responsive, quick to help and adapt.
    I personally hope that they can grow the site and become a bit more flexible so they work better with iphones etc through the browser (iphone apps are not the way to go unless you have something truly unique) and using topspin, they’re getting there, but they tick alot more boxes than some other providers

  13. Ultimately, I think there’s room for everybody. I like Santa Cruzs and Taylors. Others like Martins, Gibsons and Fenders.
    I don’t think any one platform is gonna be the one to deliver us to the promised land. Anymore than anyone can make me like the Avett Bros.
    To each their own.

  14. Prompted by your comment we’ve re-built our media player to detect if an artists site is being viewed on a mobile Apple device and automatically switch to HTML5 so music is available to all on any platform.

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