Bandposters is an easy, affordable do-it-yourself tool for both the design and printing of concert posters (or posters for other purposes). Customers use a web-based tool to design the poster. Bandpages handles the printing and mailing. The service is integrated with Songkick and Bandsintown to pull venue information and create a poster for every date chosen. Or an artist can input an address manually (a record store, for example). Posters are full color digital, 11″x17″ on #80 cover heavyweight paper.
TARGET CUSTOMER
Labels, label services groups, agents and artists. Bandposters says the sweet spot is small to middle-sized management companies and independent artists.
REVENUE MODEL
The standard fee is $15 for five posters per gig (shipping included). Customers can buy posters in larger quantities at a discount.
ANALYSIS
Two things make Bandposters a compelling startup. First, it’s hard to believe nobody thought of this earlier. There has been an explosion of do-it-yourself services for artists, but none have focused on this particular aspect of promotion in this particular way. Second, Bandposters has a narrow focus. Rather than provide a mix of services, the company wants to create the best solution for a single service. It’s entirely plausible the company will add services or features in time, but for now it’s focusing on getting posters to venues easily and affordably.
There are alternatives to Bandposters. An artist or agent could design and print — at Kinko’s, for example — gig posters on high-quality paper and handle the mailing. (Kinko’s charges around $1.80 per sheet. Shipping is probably going to run $5 to $7.) They could opt for lower-quality paper. They may make one poster for all dates and handwrite the day and time onto each sheet.
But Bandposters has a strong value proposition: when considering time, materials and shipping, it can be more cost-effective than the alternatives.
