Use Foursquare to promote your music....how?

There seems to be a deathly silence amongst artists in finding ways to use Foursquare to promote their music.

This post on Hypebot has 5 ways to use it as an artist.

I'm almost as intrigued though by the comments at the bottom - that Facebook and Twitter do the same thing better, and by the discovery of a site called Aka Music. I'd never heard of it and it seems to be doing well as a place that fans can fund artist's projects and the comment by the band, Dallas, about how they used it and Foursquare may inspire you.

Foursquare describes its goal as "getting users out of the house," and one way in which they do this is by offering local businesses a Merchant Platform to attract and retain customers.

Through this platform, a user checks in at a specific venue and is presented with a special offer – usually a mobile coupon, small prize or discount – to entice them to keep coming back. In addition, brands (either with physical locations or without) can create their own profiles to further interact with customers. 

Just this past year, brands such as MTV, Vh1, Bravo, Huffington Post, and Zagat, among many others, have all signed on to integrate Foursquare into their social networking activity.

But I can't help but wonder: where are the bands, artists, and labels? 

I see Foursquare as a great potential here – especially for those looking to build a loyal fanbase.

Read the piece on Hypebot - and don't ignore the comments!

Foursquare and interacting with your fans

Bob Lefsetz ran this piece last week about Foursquare and argued that it is a relevant social network for the music industry.

I am a fan - I'm on there - and I can see that it does have a very strong appeal for any business with a bricks and mortar presence since the owner can offer incentives and convert casual vistors into returning customers.

It is however harder to see how an artist can effectively integrate Foursquare into their social media efforts.

Some ideas would be to use it on tour to invite fans to meet-ups, to soundchecks etc, or for a more established artist, how about a tour of their route to the top where fans check-in at places that were important steps on their joureny to earn badges. I'm sure that over time people will come up with some great ideas.

Have a look at it and see how you could use it.

Don’t worry so much about getting paid!  Like Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare, focus on building a sticky platform/attraction first.  The money will come after!  It may not even come in ways you can foresee!  Stop talking about getting paid and start building your tribe!  Fans of acts will give them ALL their money.

Read Bob's piece here.