Mar 26
Google your band name
by Lou in Lounge, Marketing & Networking, Music Business Essentials & Tips
11 Comments »

Head over to Google real quick and search for your band name. It should only take about 0.25 seconds so I’ll wait for you to come back…

Alright, is your band the first thing that comes up in the search results? Is it on the first page?

Anyone looking for info about your band, be it a fan or a promoter, will probably start with a Google search (and if you’re lucky, they might even spell your band’s name correctly). If they can’t find you easily in the search results, you’re missing out on new fans and gigs.

If your band isn’t coming up, what can you do?

No Results – If Google can’t find anything on your band, you’re actually not in bad shape. All you need to do is put more stuff online and Google will index it. Start with a website, MySpace page, Last.fm profile, Sonicbids EPK etc. and you should start to see some better results.

Confused with someone or something else – If searching for your band brings up something else with the same name what you’ll need to do is become more popular online and generate more content than the thing you’re competing with. For example, Franz Ferdinand the band has much more content online than the Archduke they named themselves after.

Another band with the same name – This might only be a problem if the other band is more popular online than you. If the other band isn’t active anymore they’ll be easier to surpass on Google, although if they were using the name before you and have it trademarked, it could lead to some legal trouble.   If the other band is still gigging and putting out records, a final solution will require a bit more diplomacy and a trademark attorney. I’m not going to get into trademark law here, but if you’re interested in learning more Donald Passman’s ‘All you need to know about the Music Business‘ has a good chapter on trademarks and band names.

Simpler Solutions
If you’d rather not get involved with trademark disputes at this point, there are two simple ways to deal with having a band name that’s confused with other things.

1) Change your name – Changing your name to avoid confusion is nothing new. 50 years before Google was invented Ray Robinson changed his name to Ray Charles because of boxer Sugar Ray Robinson saying in his autobiography “I figured two Ray Robinsons might be one too many.”

If you’re still a relatively new band or you think that your name is holding you back, simply pick a new name. Just make sure to do some research on Google beforehand so you know that no one else is using it.

2) Don’t worry about it – Truth be told, I was in a Frank Zappa cover band called The Brain Police and there were 2 other bands that went by the same name. A 60’s psychedelic band was using the name before anyone in my band was even born and a “stoner rock band” from Iceland was also going by The Brain Police. Being a cover band, we weren’t trying to sell records so it wasn’t a big deal that someone else came up in iTunes and fellow Zappa fans had no trouble finding our shows since we’d circumvent Google confusion by posting info about our band and our shows on Zappa message boards reaching out to potential fans instead of waiting for them to come to us.

As long as you’re aware of where your band ranks in Google you can take some steps to make it easier for people to find you.  If you’ve got any tips on making your band stand out in search results share them in the comments.

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11 Responses to “Google your band name”
 

Yep, comes up everywhere

William Stenner wrote on March 27th, 2009 at 7:14 pm

 

I have a question regarding a person’s name. I currently perform under my given name (Andy or Andrew Hawk). There is a house music DJ in Germany who also goes by “Andy Hawk”, but his real name is “Hawking”. Is there any way I can get this guy to use a different name? It’s confusing for my fans who go to iTunes and type in “Andy Hawk”. There’s a mix of our stuff on there and I know some people have downloaded his stuff by accident. The genres are different, but at the same time, it’s a bit of a nuisance to always have to say that I’m Andy Hawk, but not the German DJ Andy Hawk. Am I out of luck, or is there something I can do? Thanks.

Andy Hawk wrote on March 30th, 2009 at 12:57 pm

 

or, imagine your band’s name is something SUPER common, like First Person Shooter. needless to say, it’s taken a lot of linking, keywords, shows, press releases and hard work to rank any of our sites.

great article lou.

nikkole stone wrote on March 30th, 2009 at 11:30 pm

 

it should be a given that this is the first thing you do when deciding on a band name. come on people! its the 21st century. if the name you chose already comes up under someone else, then either go break them up or go break their legs. that’s just what i would do.

Dan wrote on March 31st, 2009 at 3:06 pm

 

Great post! I was always wondering about this. When you google “Johnny Lingo” before videos of me playing live come up you’ll see a bunch of other videos about “The Legend of Johnny Lingo” .

but if you type, “Johnny Lingo Band” — then of course I come right up

Now I just need to complete my mission of getting famous and then when you type my name I’ll be first on google! and hence forth, truly be….. A Legend! haha –

Keep On Dreaming!

thanks for the info!
peace,

Johnny

Johnny Lingo wrote on March 31st, 2009 at 9:23 pm

 

A few years ago I had a guy take every other web use of the name Twinfinity because I have the Dot com name.
So this 40 something guy is a big fan of the Olson Twins
& figures he can use the name Twinfinity.
It has not helped me even slightly, strange though name recognition usually would be good publicity.
So I have all of my links forwarded including the original Dot com.

MIke Heilman wrote on April 1st, 2009 at 1:13 am

 

Thanks!

The Rye wrote on April 3rd, 2009 at 1:04 pm

 

Another thing you can do is have your PR or whoever (even you, yourself) write articles or press releases about your band and submit them to places online. That really helps create a buzz about a new album, etc. Major names do it. That’s why they’re major. They know how to work it.

Google “Scream Machine – Nona” and see what I mean. :0)

Hope this helps somebody! No such thing as too much exposure.

SinDelle Morte wrote on April 6th, 2009 at 7:25 am

 

When I did a google on our band, we got 5 pages worth of information. This was cool, except there were things like, “kimberly bon” is a good investment, how much I was worth, etc. Pretty scary, how did they know this stuff???

Kimberly Bon wrote on April 8th, 2009 at 10:59 am

 

This is actually a good tip for bands/artists that are starting too. When my band was formed, I actually googled it first to make sure there won’t be any future conflicts. Results showed that there was a band of a different genre and they’re not even active anymore. So we continued with the name we have chosen. 3 years later, I am happy that the first ten pages are actually of us (at least 90%).

Elsa Faith wrote on April 13th, 2009 at 2:00 pm

 

I like to keep it

Lamour and the Mystik band wrote on April 16th, 2009 at 11:30 pm

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