Why Every Musician Should Have Business Cards

Business Cards – do you have them? Do you use them? Think they’re boring and outdated? Give me to the end of this article to try to change your mind! Also, there is a ghost in my house and I might have video evidence (this is related, I promise).

I was doing an interview a while back and they asked me what are the most important things musicians should have for marketing. When I mentioned business cards, they scoffed like I was crazy. “People still use business cards??” Recently, I got an email from an industry expert who mentioned business cards as being a total waste of time. I totally disagree. Here are four great reasons musicians or any creative professionals should have and use business cards:

1. They are (relatively) inexpensive

Many musicians and creatives don’t make a ton of money with their craft, so I totally understand that these might be out of your budget. However, VistaPrint sometimes has cards as low as 5.99! This is not an affiliate, I’m just showing you that you can probably afford more than you think. The cheaper options don’t allow for a lot of customization, but honestly, any cards are better than none. You can also get music-themed cards here.

Here’s what mine look like. I change them up every so often.

2. You have hundreds of tiny billboards

You don’t see as many places to leave cards as you used to, but they still have them at coffee shops and local community boards. Those are great places to leave a mini billboard to advertise your services. Plus, when you have a ton of cards, you’ll tend to hand them out more to get rid of them all. It kind of forces you to be more bold with your marketing.

Maybe not this bold, though.

3. You can fully customize them

This is if you spend more money, obviously, but you can make them say whatever you want. Do you have a new single to promote? Do you need people to follow your Twitter? Create 250 cards for that purpose. Every card won’t lead to what you want, but you’ll have 250 chances! Even if 10% buy your single, that’s 25 potential fans who might buy from you again or tell their friends about you. I put mine just for session singing, but when I release my next album I’ll make new cards just for that. They don’t have to look like your dad’s boring professional business cards. You can make them as original and creative as you are. 

You can even buy blank ones and decorate them! Maybe not 500 at a time because that could get annoying.

4. They serve as a visual reminder to potential fans or colleagues

I talk about this more in my video but in case you can’t watch it, I’ll break it down here: Visual reminders are so important! If you meet someone at your gig, but they don’t have cash to buy your merch, they might be really interested in buying it from your website. If you give them a card, they have a professional, classy image of you to refer back to and remember how much they liked you. Sure, they might forget about it for a week, but it’s there in their wallet, waiting to remind them to look you up. 

There is a ghost in my house.

I made this video to show you my cards and explain these bullet points in more detail. Watch the left side of the screen at 0:08 seconds. It’s a fast, falling white thing that looks like it might be a piece of string or a fuzz, except it falls too fast to be fuzz, and when I looked at the floor after watching the video, there was no string on the floor. In fact, I couldn’t find anything there at all.

I’ve never felt any “bad” or “negative” energies, and I had no idea anything was there until I watched the video. It might be nothing, I don’t know. I just find it weird that I couldn’t find whatever it was that supposedly fell from my ceiling.

Edit: In the video, I mentioned that I didn’t like the print settings on the back of the card. I have since contacted VistaPrint and they sent me a whole new box! I also got to keep the slightly off-printed ones, so this was a total win. I just wanted to mention that they do take care of customer issues quickly!

Back to business (cards)

So anyway, the main point I want to make is that I know a lot of people will tell you not to get them and that you don’t need them, but I do find value in them and I think you might too. They may not be for everyone so if you don’t need them, cool, but at least try them if you have the cash and see if they do anything for you! 

If you decide to order business cards today, please let me know!

Do you use business cards? Do you think they’re dumb and think I’m dumb for using them? Let me know in the comments below or, if you want to comment on my ghost, please let me know what you think it is! I’m truly curious and would love input.