Why Every Musician Should Use Bandsintown: Top Reasons It’s Become an Essential Touring Tool

In today’s competitive touring market, musicians need more than great songs and a van to succeed. They need smart tools that help them reach fans, sell more tickets, and make better touring decisions. Learn why every musician should use Bandsintown and how the leading live-music discovery platform has become an essential free hub for artists at every level.

From routing and marketing to fan engagement and data insights, Bandsintown offers capabilities that no touring musician can afford to overlook.

Here are the top reasons why every musician should use Bandsintown.

1. You Can Reach Millions of Live-Music Fans – For Free

Bandsintown sends more than 1 billion concert discovery notifications every month, and artists can list shows at no cost. Every date you add instantly becomes discoverable across the Bandsintown app, website, email alerts, partner platforms, and venue/artist feeds. The result: more fans know where you’re playing without spending a dollar on ads.

2. Your Shows Get Promoted Automatically

Once you list a show, Bandsintown handles discovery for you – pushing it to fans who follow you, fans of similar artists, and people looking for concerts nearby. This automatic amplification is one of the platform’s biggest advantages and consistently drives real ticket sales – especially for developing artists.

3. It’s the Most Effective Marketing Tools in the Live-Music Business

The platform offers powerful, built-in marketing tools including customizable event links, geo-targeted fan messaging, and SmartLink pages for tours, releases, tickets, and pre-saves.

You can also target fans based on location, listening habits, and past concert engagement.

4. Direct-to-Fan Messaging: You Own Your Fans

Bandsintown’s Direct-to-Fans messages consistently drive some of the highest engagement rates in the industry.

Unlike social media where algorithms hide posts and streaming platforms that don’t allow you to contact your fans, Bandsintown messages land directly in fans’ inboxes or push notifications. This is especially powerful for on-sale announcements, low-ticket alerts, adding support slots, routing last-minute shows, and encouraging fans to buy early instead of waiting for resale.

For most artists, Bandsintown becomes their highest-ROI marketing channel.

5. Sell More Tickets With Geo-Targeted Alerts

The platform identifies fans near each tour stop and notifies them automatically. Musicians regularly report boosts in both pre-sales and overall turnout because Bandsintown reaches fans when and where it matters most.

6. Better Routing and Touring Strategy With Insights

Free Bandsintown For Artists analytics reveal where fans are located, which cities respond best, and what demand looks like across your entire touring market.

These insights help you choose the right markets, book the right sized venues, select smarter opening acts, avoid overplaying a region, and identify new cities to expand into. For small and mid-level touring acts, this data can be game-changing.

7. It Integrates Seamlessly With Your Existing Tools

Bandsintown connects to Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, Shazam, Instagram, Facebook Events, ticketing platforms, artist websites, email providers, and merch stores.

This means your show dates stay synced everywhere your fans are, with no manual updating needed.

8. It Supports Both Emerging and Established Artists

Bandsintown For Artists is built for every stage of an artist’s career from local performers booking their first shows to arena-level artists announcing major tours.

9. It’s a Must-Use Platform for Festivals, Venues, and Agents

When you publish your dates, venues and promoters can easily pull them into their calendars and event pages. For managers and booking agents, Bandsintown becomes a living, shareable hub that keeps all touring activity consistent and updated across the entire ecosystem.

10. Fans Trust Bandsintown as Their #1 Concert Discovery Source

Millions of fans check Bandsintown first when looking for upcoming shows. Because the platform only focuses on live music—not general entertainment—it attracts a highly qualified audience of fans who actively buy tickets.

Final Thoughts

In 2025, touring is more fan-driven and data-driven than ever. On Bandsintown, those fans and that data is yours – all at no cost.

Bandsintown For Artists is easy to use, and built specifically for musicians.

Whether you’re an indie artist booking clubs or a major act announcing an international tour, Bandsintown has become a must-use tool for maximizing ticket sales, reaching new and existing fans, and making each show more successful than the last.

Bruce Houghton is Founder & Editor of Hypebot, Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, a Berklee College Of Music professor and founder of Skyline Artists.