How to Make the Most of Your Manitoba Music Profile Page

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How to Make the Most of Your Manitoba Music Profile Page

Every Manitoba Music member gets a profile page and it can be a great tool for promoting your music business and events if you keep it updated with content. Our site has traffic from over 12,000 users every month and whether it’s live music listings, news stories, new releases, online artist and industry directories, Song of the Week, everything drives those users to profile pages. Are you using your Manitoba Music profile to its full potential? Here are a few ways to make your profile work better for you:

1. Give people a way to contact you

There are two types of contact info on our site: The “Public Profile” contact info is available to anyone who visits your profile. The “Voting Members” contact info is private and accessible only by you and Manitoba Music, and it’s what we use to get in touch with you.

Sometimes promoters and media use our online directories as a resource for researching and reaching out to our members, so it's good to include a way for others to contact you on your public profile. We generally discourage members from including their addresses, but it can be good to have an email address and, if you’re comfortable, a phone number in case promoters or media are looking to connect.

If you move or change your email address, be sure to update the “Voting Members” section so you don’t miss out on anything.

If you have a manager or other representative who you wish to be your primary contact, you can also list them in “Additional Contacts”.

2. Keep your images and bio current

Make sure your main image is current. Not only is this the first thing users see when they visit your page, but this image also gets added automatically to any live music events or news stories you’re attached to on the site. You can also add more photos to the photo gallery. If you’re having trouble getting your image up there, check the file size. Anything larger than 2MB is not going to upload. There are some great free image editors out there. 

Make sure you have a current bio or description that can give visitors a sense of who you are and what you do. You can also include quotes from media or any additional info that you want out there.

Whenever you update your site and socials, don’t forget to update your Manitoba Music profile.

3. Link to all your social media profiles

If you want to keep those connections going, link all your active social media profiles. You can also include links to where people can listen/buy your music online.

4. Check your genres

People search the online directory and live music listings based on genre all the time… are you showing up where you want to be? Keep it to three genres, because having too many genres can make things more confusing than helpful for those perusing the directory. Set one primary genre, and two others that are relevant, to help us find you better. Use your bio to describe your sound more. 

5. Enter your live music events

A lot of our web traffic is for live music listings, so if you have an upcoming live music event, don’t forget to add it. Any event you enter that’s happening in Manitoba is automatically added to the online listings portal and our free MB Live concert-finding app, which are accessed by thousands of people every month. You can include venue details, date, poster art, ticket links, advance and door ticket prices, and any other artists and promoters involved.

6. Add new releases to your discography

Have a new album or single? Add it to your discography, including cover art, links to buy online, info about who worked on it, and when it was released. Releases get added to the main New Music Releases page regularly, which is sorted by release date.

7. Upload some tunes

Streaming current music on your profile can make a great impact with fans and potential buyers, and you can feature up to three mp3s. Got a new track? Upload it. Any live music events and new music releases in our system automatically pull over one of your tracks, too. Tip: Be sure to enter your release info to your discography first and connect the album to the tune so your cover art displays rather than the default image.

8. Add your music videos

Videos are one of the most important ways to build a following and make an impression. You can upload links to your YouTube or Vimeo videos. If you want them to be added to the main video gallery, you need to follow up with info@manitobamusic.com.

9. Update your news section

Going into the studio? Releasing an album? Going on tour? Post it in your News section for all to see. It’s also automatically added to the Member News page. 

10. Make your downloadable files available

Sometimes media and promoters are looking for high resolution promo photos, stage plots, EPK, or other files and not everyone has that capability on their website. So you can store all of that on your profile page. Remember this is still public so only post things you wouldn’t mind anyone having access to.

11. Keep your business profile updated

The business profile is sometimes required by Manitoba Music for the application process for some of our export-related programs, but keeping it updated can also be a useful tool to keep Manitoba Music in the loop on your career activity. The info is private and accessible only to you and to Manitoba Music staff.

12. Check out some of the other things you can do while you’re logged into the site

Change your username or password anytime when you’re logged in. If you forget it, there’s a password reset on the login page

Is your profile not displaying? It might be set not to. As long as your membership is up-to-date, you have control over whether or not it displays from your dashboard under Membership Settings.

Stay informed! In addition to the weekly enews, we keep a list of professional opportunities and deadlines.

Did you know you can renew online with a credit card? Yup! Simple, secure, and easy.

Looking to build your database of contacts? You can download the Manitoba Media Guide spreadsheet. If you’re putting out a media release to promote your show, this can be pretty helpful. It’s updated frequently.

Hoping to catch up on some of the MusicWorks workshops you might’ve missed? Many of them have been streamed via Facebook Live and YouTube where they're also archived on the site for your learning pleasure.

Read more about how to use your Manitoba Music membership to promote your release

If you have questions about your profile, don’t hesitate to reach out to members@manitobamusic.com

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