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Fans are friends and followers on Facebook, Myspace and Twitter. The number of fans you have on Headliner is determined by combining the number of friends and followers you have on all the social networks that you linked to Headliner. We do not sell automatic "Likes" or "Followers." We provide introductions to new audiences through artist recommendations. It is suggested that you follow up and connect directly with everyone that shared and saw your post.
A promotion is a simple message and a link that other bands can accept and send out to their fans. When bands accept promotions they go out in the form of status updates on the social networks they have linked to Headliner. These status updates are going directly from the bands to their fans, so you can be sure the fans will listen.
Your message should be something short, clever and to the point. Other bands are sending this message out to their fans on your behalf. Be sure to mention your name and a link to your site, iTunes store, or social network page. Headliner allows you to track the number of people who have clicked on the link in your promotion, so make sure to include one!
As soon as it is approved, it will be scheduled based on available slots in other artists' schedules. There are three slots: morning, noon and evening. Your promotion will run in the earliest available slot based on how many other promotions the other bands have already accepted.
You can select how long you want your promotion to run. You can create a campaign that is as short as 3 days, or as long as 30 days. During that time, we will submit your requests to all the artists selected. You can stop a promotion at any time by clicking on the Withdraw This Promotion link. You can find this link under the info for each promotion on your "My Promotions" tab.
Regular users can create one promotion per day. Subscribers can create an unlimited number of promotions per day. At present, we limit the number of promotions that any one band can accept to three per day.
"Promotion Requests" are Headliner's notifications to alert you that another artist would like you to promote them. We never post anything without permission, so we have to contact everyone every time there is a request pending. We can contact you via email, or you can check the tab "Get Band Bucks" to see who has submitted a promotion request to you. To protect your privacy and avoid spam, every recommendation must be approved before it can be shared.
Accepted offers will be sent out in the form of a status update to the social networks you have connected to Headliner. You will earn Band Bucks by recommending other bands to your fans. Once you accept an offer you receive Band Bucks based on the number of fans you have.
Each regular promotion is sent out once in one of three time slots: morning, afternoon and night. You can only send out one message to your fans per time slot, so choose carefully. Each band can accept 3 requests per day. Once the available slots are booked, you will not be able to accept any more recommendations until the next day. Headliner’s recommendations are not spam. These restrictions are in place to prevent bands from over-messaging users, which diminishes the value of each recommendation.
To stop a regular promotion you can click on the link, "Withdraw This Promotion" at any time. This link is visible under each promotion in the tab marked "My Promotions." When you stop a promotion, any messages that have not been approved will not post. Promotions that were already accepted will run as scheduled.
In the Headliner dashboard, look for the tab labeled "Create a Promotion."
In the big box, add your message. You can use one of our "Suggested Promos," but it's highly recommended that you write your own message about your music. The more unique and organic your message is, the better.
When you write your promotion message, remember that this is going to post on someone else's networks, so do not use the first person (I, We, etc.); be sure to include the name of your act or band so that it's clear to readers who's being promoted.
There are thousands of bands on Headliner. Bands receive multiple requests for promotions. Your message has to stand out to be selected. We limit the number of promotions a band can accept per day to avoid spam, so people tend to be selective. If you can say something interesting or funny or unique about your song, video, album or performance, to persuade users to choose your promos, please do.
In the small box, the URL shortener, add the link to your music, video website, social network. Use the URL shortener to save space and allow us to track the performance of the link. This link is what we use to track the performance of your promotions.
Select the artists that you would like to promote you. You can use the list we suggest based on your genre, or choose your own. We will send your request to these Headliner members as you wrote it.
This is a recommendation from another music professional, not a publicist or groupies. You should be enthusiastic but messages that are overly hyped don't perform as well as messages that are more sincere.
Once you've got it all setup, proofread your promotion, and then click the "Start" button. Since Headliner is about artists helping artists, you will also receive requests to approve other bands' promotions. Remember, once you approve a promotion, it will be sent to all of your fans on Twitter, Myspace and Facebook depending on the networks you have connected and they have requested.
Headliner is integrated with SoundCloud so that people can preview your music when they receive your promotion request. The more easily another Headliner user can listen to your music, the sooner they can decide to accept your promotion.
Look under Account Settings in the upper right corner of the dashboard. You will see a tab for SoundCloud. Connect your SoundCloud and choose your default track. Your tracks need to be "Public" for us to see them; we cannot share "Private" tracks. The Default song is what other musicians will preview when they receive your promotion request.
Headliner is easy to use. In a few quick steps, you can set up an account that will make it fast and easy to exchange custom recommendations with fellow musicians on each others' social networks. Simply connect your social networks to Headliner, so we can connect you to each other. Once you are connected, you can create promotions that will be submitted to our community. When someone accepts your promotion request, that means your message will post to their social networks as a recommendation from them, telling their fans about your music. You can use this introduction to follow up and convert new audiences to fans of your own.
Set up your social network accounts by clicking on the Social Networking tab on the far right of your Headliner dashboard.
Click on the buttons to add your Facebook, Myspace and Twitter accounts. Connect as many or as few of them as you like. We will ask for permission to update your accounts, email you notifications and access your networks and images. We don't host images or music so we need to link to your accounts. And we never post anything without permission, so your friends will never see anything you don't approve.
On Facebook, we can only access public Fan Pages, we cannot use private profiles and we can't work with Facebook Groups. Make sure that you are the administrator and have permission to manage the page. Also, make sure that you have at least one fan on the page or we can't see it. If it's a new page and you need a fan, let us know and we will Like your page to get you started!
To reject a promotion you can hover over the Recommend button. You will see a gray X. When you click on that X, you will get a window asking you to explain why you are declining. You will have the option of declining the specific request, blocking all future requests from that person, or just passing on it. You can also report any troublesome users to us by choosing that option. This will help us optimize the requests we show you.
Every promotion that you request must be manually approved by other bands before it is sent out in their status update. There are several reasons a band may choose not to accept your promotion. These reasons are not always related to you and your music.
Common reasons for lack of approvals:
Objectionable, offensive, misleading or problematic language will result in fewer bands approving and posting your message. This could include the use of profanity as well as language that is too hyperbolic or superlative, meaning exaggerated or "hyped up." Remember, you are asking other bands who don't know you to recommend you, so it's unlikely that they will say you are "the Greatest ever!"
Another factor in approvals is affinity, meaning similarities between you and another band. When you join Headliner you are asked to describe your style or genre. This is so that we can match your request with acts that are most like you and therefore more likely to accept your request. If you are a Death Metal band or a Gangster Rap act and you reach out to a Christian Rock or Christian Rap act, chances are slim they will approve your request because your audiences are not compatible. If you are not getting results in your current genre, try selecting another, similar genre.
First person versus third person. Because another band is recommending you on their social networks, you cannot use the first person, i.e. "I/We" or it will look like the other bands are talking about themselves. Be sure that you use the third person, "He/She/They" and include your band name so that the recommendation makes sense to everyone reading the message.
Bad links can also be a problem. We highly recommend that you include a link with your message. Be sure that the link is clear and working properly and directs the viewer to a page that makes sense. If you use a link, we encourage you to use the URL shortener we provide. This is so that we can track the link and report its performance back to you. It also saves space and gives you more room to be creative and create a compelling message.
Spam control. In order to prevent users from abusing the system and over-messaging users, we limit the number of promotions you can accept in a given day to 3. Additionally, there are 3 slots per day that you can fill, morning/noon/night. When a band reviews their requests, they are likely to choose the best messages that will be a good fit for their fans. If your messages are not compelling, they will likely be passed over in favor of better messages. There are thousands of bands on Headliner, so your message needs to stand out to be chosen and approved for posting.
Users "pay" for promotions using Headliner's virtual currency called "Band Bucks."
Earning Band Bucks:
- When you join Headliner, we give you starter Band Bucks.
- Every time you connect a social network, you earn more Band Bucks. You earn for each network and you also earn additional Band Bucks for each fan you have on those networks.
- When you accept a promotion you will earn Bands Bucks.
- When you invite new users, you also get Band Bucks.
- When you subscribe, every month you renew you get bonus Band Bucks.
- If you still need or want more Band Bucks, you can always buy them.
Using Band Bucks: The cost of running a promotion is based on the number of fans you are trying to reach. Running a promotion with a large band that has a lot of fans will cost more Band Bucks than running a promotion with a smaller band that has fewer fans.
The exact cost of your promotion is equal to how many fans your selected bands have in Band Bucks. One fan equals one Band Buck. There is also a promotion fee of 15,000 if you are not subscribed.
Example: Running a promotion with a band with 40,000 fans will cost unsubscribed users 55,000 Band Bucks. If you are subscribed, we will waive the promotion fee and it will cost you 40,000 Band Bucks.
The Set & Forget feature was so popular we decided to let all Headliner members use it. The difference is that Subscribers can choose all genres, choose a location, and run more than one promotion simultaneously.
The current limit to buying Band Bucks via Paypal is $4,000.00 (USD). If you are regularly buying more than $4,000.00 (USD) in Band Bucks, please contact us to apply for monthly invoicing. If this is only a single time buy of $4,000 (USD) Band Bucks, you can get around this by going through the Band Bucks buying process multiple times.
The 14-day trial is offered to first time subscribers only. You still have to go through the regular subscription process and complete the Paypal payment but you will not be charged for 14 days. At the end of the 14 days, you will have the option of keeping your subscription or canceling. If you cancel, there will be no charge. If you keep your subscription, your billing date will be every month on that date.
When you sign up for a 14-day trial, Headliner will give you 50,000 complimentary Band Bucks to get you started. You will not get your monthly subscription bonus until your first payment clears. Once your first payment clears, you will get your monthly bonus every time you renew.
If you are a returning subscriber, meaning you had a paid membership previously, you do not qualify for this introductory offer. You will be charged as soon as you complete the Paypal registration process. You will also receive your monthly allotment of Band Bucks right way.
In either case, if you do not receive the appropriate number of Band Bucks, let us know.
When you run a promotion on Headliner, we deduct Band Bucks from your account to pay for that social transaction. If someone accepts and posts your promotion but then decides to delete it, we will deduct that cost from the other band's account and it will be returned to you. Headliner is about sharing recommendations. If those recommendations are not visible, it defeats the purpose and we do not believe you should "pay" for them.
Posting to all your networks simultaneously by linking them is convenient. Doing so, however, can result in double posts when you share Headliner promotions across more than one network. If your networks are linked, your message is more than once, first by us and then by the networks.
Deleting a Headliner post from your social networks will result in deductions of Band Bucks, which are the currency for your Headliner promotions. We understand the need to maintain your profiles. But we also believe in recommendations, and deleting Headliner promotions from your networks defeats our core purpose: helping musicians promote each other.
The best way to avoid Band Bucks deductions is to make sure that when you see a double post, you don’t delete the Headliner post.
If you notice double posts on your Twitter account for example, simply click on the message to expand it and along the bottom of the detail view, next to the date you will notice a source identifier with a URL. Our identifier/link reads: “Via Headlinerfm.” As long as you do not delete this post, there will be no deduction of band bucks from your account.
On Facebook, under each status update you will notice the same thing: our icon with a source identifier: “Via Headlinerfm.” These ID tags are common practice for third party apps. Just think of applications like Hootsuite, Tweetdeck and others that integrate messaging across platforms.
If you're signed into Facebook with an account that is not an Admin of your Facebook Page you will have to sign out. You must have Admin rights to the page you are trying to add. When you connect through Headliner you will be asked to log in.
- On the "Social Networking" tab click the orange "Authorize" button next to the Facebook logo.
- On the "Facebook Connection" page click "Connect", if you are not already logged in, you will have to login here.
- You will be prompted to "Allow Headliner.fm to publish posts or comments without prompting me." > Click "Allow Publishing".
- Facebook will direct you back to headliner.fm and you will be prompted with a drop down menu where you can select any page that is linked to your account.
- Select the page you want to link and click "Select."
Your Facebook page is now linked. We are asking for permission to post to your network when you approve messages and access your images for your profile. We will never post anything without your approval.
So you tried to connect Facebook, but it did not work. You are not alone, connecting Facebook causes more issues for users than virtually anything else on Headliner.
The most common issue is that Headliner can only connect to Fan Pages, and not personal profiles. If you are trying to connect a personal profile it quite simply will not work. Profiles are private and Pages are public. We also cannot connect to Groups, because any member of the group can post, not just the admin or owner. All Headliner posts require permission from the Page administrator, every time.
If you do not have a Fan Page but wish to make one, go here"
http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php
If you are connecting a Fan Page but are still having difficulties try signing out of Facebook before attempting to authorize. Be sure to click on the "Deauthorize This Network" link to make sure we break the connection. As always, clear your cache, cookies and refresh your browser to make sure we set a fresh connection. As long as you are the administrator of the Page an have at least one fan on the Page, we should be able to see it.
Some users have several pages. If you are the admin for more than one Page, be sure to choose and connect the right one. If you have many pages, we may have trouble finding the correct one because Facebook doesn't always display all of them. This is rare, but it happens.
We can only connect each Page once, to one account. If you have more than one Headliner account, you cannot connect the same Page to more than one. You must choose one. Every account on Headliner must have its own, unique set of networks.
Headliner does not host images or music, so you can upload them to our servers.
Images: We pull images from your social networks, so make sure that your images are uploaded. If you recently changed your image on your social networks, it might take a few hours for us to detect the change and offer it as an option.
Music: For music, we suggest that you use SoundCloud. Upload your music to SoundCloud, connect SoundCloud to Headliner and choose a default track. The default track is what users will see and hear in your request. Your chances for approval are better if the other bands in our community can listen to your music and determine if it's a good fit for their fans. Be sure that the track is not marked PRIVATE or we can not pull it from SoundCloud.
You also get extra Band Bucks for connecting your SoundCloud, which will help you run more promotions. It also makes your band more appealing to users because you look like you are really dedicated to engaging your fans through social media.
The SoundCloud player preview is only shown to other acts that receive your request. You will not be able to see it in your own profile. If you have successfully connected SoundCloud and chosen your default track, the player will appear in your profile with your request.
A label account is useful if you have more than one act signed up with Headliner. It allows you to login and manage multiple band accounts with a single login. You can create messages and manage promotions for each of the bands in your label, but the label does not get Band Bucks and cannot connect social networks to its label. The Band Bucks go to each band separately and they cannot be combined, shared or transferred. Each band in your label must have its own social networks linked; multiple bands cannot share the same social network pages. If you do not have more than one band registered with Headliner, you are advised to use a normal band account.
In order to recover your password, please try the following steps:
- Go to headliner.fm/exchange
- Enter the email address that you registered with. (Note: Do not enter anything in the password field)
- Click on "Forgot Your Password?"
- You will receive an email to the email account you specified in Step 2.
- Click the link in the email.
- You will be brought to a page where you can reset your password.
- Enter your new password.
- Click "Set new password & login"
At this point, your password is now changed and you will be redirected to your Headliner.fm account.
If you are still having trouble, you can contact Headliner customer support and we will change it for you as a last step. You can reach us via email support@headliner.fm.
Browsers will temporarily stores images, scripts, and other parts of websites while you are browsing. We are constantly adding new features and bug fixes to allow you to have the best experience you can possibly have on headliner.fm, and sometimes browser cache will load in old versions of our pages. In order to prevent this you need to clear your browser cache. Each browser does it differently, please find your browser below for instructions on how to clear your browser cache.
Google Chrome:
http://www.wikihow.com/Clear-Your-Browser's-Cache#Google_Chrome
Apple Safari:
http://www.wikihow.com/Clear-Your-Browser's-Cache#Safari
Firefox:
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/How+to+clear+the+cache
Internet Explorer 8:
http://www.wikihow.com/Clear-Your-Browser's-Cache#Internet_Explorer_8
Firefox 3.5 and up:
http://www.wikihow.com/Clear-Your-Browser's-Cache#Firefox_3.5_and_up
Opera: