Google for Bands

While trying to promote my band I started noticing all of the different features of Google that help make things easy.  I started compiling all of these into a list and how I am using them.

Artist Hub
This is the easiest way to get your music into Google's Play Store.  You pay a one time fee of $25 and you can then upload an unlimited number of albums and songs.  Probably the best thing that has helped us out is having a free bootleg album that can be spread around.

URL Shortener
This is useful as it creates a QR code that can be scanned by mobile phones and sent to a link.  I use this to make posters for shows or our albums that have links to the digital content.  It's quicker and easier than hoping people remember cards or flyers.

Google Sites
Quick and easy website creation. Built in ability to embed YouTube videos and playlists and calendars.  They are even adding abilities to have a shopping cart for albums and merch.

YouTube
This one is obvious.  Whether you record live shows or you produce full on music videos, YouTube is a great place to have them.  Their musician playlists make it easy for you to share a whole shows worth of videos.

AdSense
Once you've gotten videos uploaded to YouTube, you can use AdSense to start making money from the videos.  With either in-stream video ads or with clickable links, it is easy to setup and start collecting checks.  This can also be added to any website you have setup or to a blog for the band.

AdWords
If you really want to expand the reach of your band and you have a few extra dollars to spend, put out a few ads.  With the AdWords, you can select your demographic and even select your area to help get yourself some new fans, or even drive some new traffic to your videos or website.

Google Docs/Drive
This is becoming one of the more handy tools to work on new music that I have seen.  With it's built in document editor, you can have an easy to access folder of lyrics and chord sheets that can be displayed on any device.  And with the added capability of uploading any filetype, I've begun using this for tracking new songs and sharing them with the band.  If you want to share the whole project you can save it all right in the Drive folder, but mostly we just export to an .mp3 and then upload the .wav when we get to the final mixing stage (saves on space).

Google+
Everybody's scared of this new network but I have found it to be quite useful.  The people that are on it currently are mostly artsy like people and are more than happy to be turned on to new and exciting things.  Be sure to make your band as a Page so it will be recognized as a "brand".
Hangouts
This is probably the neatest thing I've seen on the internet.  We use this to broadcast shows live, and it automatically adds the video to YouTube.  This is a powerful thing and can be used in many ways.  We have been experimenting with using each band members' phone as a camera for themself, as well as a laptop with an HD cam as the overall band camera.  Having somebody that knows the songs running the hangout on the laptop can make for some awesome live videos.
Circles
Circles get shared on G+ a lot.  Getting yourself in a circle and having it shared can bring in hundreds of new fans in a matter of hours.  There are Pages that are completely dedicated to sharing music and band pages, find a few of these and re-share some of their circles and you'll build a new audience in just a few days.
Using Google+ will also help your SEO.  Having your page set up properly and building a presence on the site will help with your ranking in search results for your band's name or for other searches.
Events
With their new "Party Mode", I'm hoping to see more bands start using this.  Dead Girl Sorry will be doing their first show with party mode this Saturday and we will hopefully get as many people as we can taking pictures and adding them to the photo album for the event.  The photo album keeps track of each person taking pictures and adds them to a live slideshow that can be viewed while the event is happening.
Local
This used to be Google Places and is what powers the information in Google Maps.  Making sure that you are linking to the place you are playing at and making a nice review from the band's standpoint will not only help the venue, but also helps show them your gratitude for booking you.  This may help lead to more bookings in the future.

You might ask why all of this matters.  Well, it's because of promotion.  I've been doing as much promotion on both Facebook as I have Google+.  Google just makes it easier.  And here are the results:

 Facebook = 169

Google+ = 395