To set up your website’s subscriptions area, you will add a description, create tiers with pricing, and activate your payment setup.

Once this is complete we will generate a paywall page on your website. This page is where your fans will subscribe. Then you can add content on subscription pages for your subscribers.

This Help article includes:

  • Completing your subscription description and settings
  • Adding pricing tiers to your subscription structure
  • Getting payment set up
  • Previewing your paywall page
  • Creating a subscription page
  • Adding features to subscription pages
  • Editing subscription page settings
  • Adjusting existing pages to create subscription pages
  • Adding subscriber pricing to Music and Store features
  • Managing and deleting pricing tiers
  • Managing your website subscribers
  • Adding video for subscribers

To help decide if subscriptions is the right model for you as a musician, check out the article How to sell fan subscriptions on your music website.

Completing your subscription description and settings

This content will be used to generate a paywall page that will be visible to everyone visiting your website’s subscription pages.

To create your page description:

  1. In your Bandzoogle Control Panel, click ‘Selling Tools’ to open the ‘Selling Tools’ Dashboard.
  2. Listed under ‘Sales Channels,’ click ‘Subscriptions’
  3. Click ‘Description and Settings’ in the list of options at the left
  4. Add a title (example: “Subscribe to my site”). This title will appear at the top of your paywall page.
  5. Add an Intro Video. This video will appear under your title. An intro video is optional, but is a great way to get people to subscribe to your website. You can add, remove, or change this video at any time.
    • Paste a link to your video from Youtube, Vimeo, Crowdcast, or Facebook Video.
  6. Add a description. This description should be a concise paragraph about why people should subscribe to your website. Include information about the rewards you’re offering per tier.

Notes:

  • You will need to complete this step before you can move on to the next step of adding tiers with pricing.
  • The title, description, and video will appear in the main area of your paywall page. The pricing tiers will be stacked on the right side of the page.

Adding a pricing tier to your subscription

Fans will subscribe to your tiers on a monthly basis. You can offer different rewards per tier. You have 3 options for pricing tiers. Set the monthly charge, offer your fans the option to choose the price they pay, or offer a free tier.

To add a pricing tier:

  1. Click ‘Pricing and tiers’
  2. Click ‘Create New Tier’ from the settings listed on the left

  3. In the ‘Price Type’ drop down, select the pricing type from these options

    • Paid - Fixed
      • Set a fixed amount that will be charged monthly
    • Paid - User sets price
      • This option will prompt your subscribers to choose a price they want to pay. You can set the ‘Monthly charge’ to $0 or, set a minimum amount of $1 or more.
    • Free
      • No charge applied for this tier

        Note: Your fans can change their subscription at any time in their account settings.

  4. Fill in the Monthly charge, Tier title, and Tier description

  5. Click ‘Save Tier’
  6. Repeat these steps for the number of tiers you’d like to create

Notes:

  • Adding 1-3 tiers is recommended, but you can add as many tiers as you’d like.
  • Monthly tier charges must be different. Two tiers cannot be the same price.
  • Subscribers will be able to access the rewards offered on any tier below their current level. This means your highest level tier subscribers will be able to access all of the rewards.
  • If a subscriber who chooses the ‘Paid - User sets price’ option and pays equal or more than your ‘Paid - Fixed’ subscription tier, they’ll see the content on those subscription specific pages. For instance, if you create a tier at $5 and another at $10 and your subscriber chooses to pay $20, they’ll see all the content available to the $10 subscriber.

Getting payment set up

Once you have created your tiers, you’ll connect to Stripe and/or PayPal to start collecting money for your subscriptions. To add your payment settings:

  1. In your ‘Selling Tools’ control panel, click on ‘Payment Settings’
  2. Choose your currency
  3. Choose your country
  4. Click 'Connect to PayPal or ‘Connect to Stripe’
  5. Fill out the account information to link to the payment account of your choice

To ensure your payment processors are connected, follow these steps:

  1. In your ‘Sales channels’ area, click on ‘Subscriptions’
  2. Click on ‘Payment settings’
  3. To enable PayPal and/or Stripe for payment processing, click on the ‘Enabled’ toggle

When the payment processor is connected, the ‘Enabled’ toggle will be green.

Notes:

  • If you are already using Stripe or PayPal to power your Store feature, your subscription area will be connected to the same account once the 'Payment settings' are enabled.
  • Once someone subscribes to your website, the funds will immediately appear in your Stripe or PayPal account. -To learn more about connecting PayPal for your subscriptions payments, please read the ‘How to Set Up PayPal for Fan Subscriptions’ Help article.

Notes for PayPal subscriptions:

  • In order to receive payments for PayPal subscriptions, you will need a free PayPal Business account.
  • Ensure all payment cards or bank accounts affiliated with your PayPal business account are up to date and active.
  • To learn more about setting up your PayPal integration, read the ‘How to Set Up PayPal for Fan Subscriptions’ Help article.

Previewing your paywall page

To preview your paywall page:

  1. Click ‘Description and Settings’ from the 'Subscriptions' settings listed on the left
  2. Click the ‘Preview’ text link on the right of that new page

Your paywall page will include:

  • Your title from the ‘Description and Settings’ section
  • Automatically-generated text letting visitors know they need a subscription to access this page
  • Automatically-generated text letting visitors know which tier or tiers can access the page
  • Your text description from the ‘Description and Settings’ section
  • Your intro video, if you added one
  • Boxes on the right, listing your tiers and tier descriptions
  • A way for your subscribers to log in

Notes:

  • This page isn’t directly editable, but can be changed by editing the content in your ‘Description and Settings’ section. You can also edit your tier descriptions.
  • Once your subscribers have paid and verified their email address, they will see the content you’ve added to your pages instead of seeing the paywall page.

Creating a subscription page

Once you have completed the above steps, you’re ready to add a subscription page. Your subscription pages will contain the content you want to offer your subscribers. Here are the steps to add a subscription page:

  1. Click ‘Subscription contents’ in the ‘Subscriptions’ settings list
  2. Choose one of the following options:
    1. ‘Help setup my subscription area’: with this option, you’ll be redirected to a builder for your pages. You can easily add your page name and select the tier you’d like the page to be accessed by
      • Toggle on ‘Publish Pages’ or leave off if you’d like to publish the pages later, once you’ve added content to the page
      • Click ‘Create my subscription area’ - you can then edit the content or settings of your newly created subscription page
    2. ‘I’ll create my Subscription manually’: with this option, you’ll be able to add one page to start
      • Enter your page ‘Title’, choose the ‘Subscription tier from the dropdown, and select the menu settings.
      • Toggle on/off ‘Published’ to make your page visible on your website
      • Click ‘Create page’
  3. To create more subscription pages, click ‘Subscription contents’ and click ‘Add page’ in the top right
  4. Repeat these steps to add more pages by clicking ‘Add Page’

Notes:

  • You must complete the previous three steps to be able to set up a subscription page.
  • You can add as many pages as you’d like. As a good rule of thumb, create one page per tier so that all subscribers can access different content.
  • You can nest subscription pages by clicking ‘Edit Settings’ once your page is created to make it a subpage of your current subscription page.

Adding features to subscription pages

Add content to your pages for your subscribers to access. This is the basis of your rewards.

To add features to your subscription pages:

  1. From the control panel, click ‘Selling Tools’
  2. From the options listed on the left, click ‘Subscriptions to display the ‘Subscriptions’ settings list
  3. Click ‘Subscription contents’
  4. Click ‘Edit content’ beside the page you’d like to adjust
  5. Click ‘Add feature’ to add content

Some features to add include:

  • A blog for exclusive updates
  • A music player with unreleased or new tracks
  • A copy of your current music player, with special subscriber pricing
  • A photo gallery of images from the studio or on the road
  • Video features of unlisted lessons
  • A Store feature to provide sheet music or charts
  • A File Download feature with exclusive files

Notes:

  • Subscriptions are page-based. This means you will add your rewards to different pages, and associate each page with a tier.
  • You can also access your subscription pages in your menu directly to manage the content. To do that, click the ‘Edit Content’ tab > Pages, and click on the page you’d like to edit.

Editing subscription page settings

How to edit your subscription page settings:

  1. From the control panel click ‘Selling Tools’
  2. From the options listed on the left, click ‘Subscriptions’
  3. In the ‘Subscriptions’ settings list, click ‘Subscription contents’
  4. Click ‘Edit Settings’ beside the page you’d like to adjust
  5. On your Subscription page you can edit:
    • ‘Menu’ settings (main page, sub-page, page not in menu)
    • Visibility: make the page visible on your site
    • Show navigation menu: display or hide the menu on your current page
    • Access restrictions: Subscriber level is suggested for your subscription pages

Note: Changing the subscriber level on a page to a lower level will give access to the higher tiers as well as the lower tier(s).

Adjusting existing pages to create subscription pages

To switch a page from a main page to a subscriber-only page, follow these steps:

  1. From the ‘Edit Content’ tab, click on the ‘Pages’ menu in the left of your editor
  2. Click on the pencil icon next to your page name
  3. In your page settings, beside ‘Access restrictions’, choose ‘Subscribers only’ and choose your ‘Subscriber level’
  4. Click ‘Save'

Note: Once these settings are changed, your paywall page will appear to anyone who does not have access to that page. Once they subscribe, they’ll be able to see the content on the page.

Adding subscriber pricing to Music and Store features

You can adjust the Music or Store features to reflect special subscriber pricing.

To add a subscriber sale price to a Music feature:

  1. From the ‘Edit Content’ tab, click on the page you’d like to edit (wherever the existing music feature is located)
  2. On the page, click on click on your music feature
  3. Click on the 'Album' or 'Track' to adjust the details and settings
  4. Choose ‘Subscriber sale options: Yes’
  5. Set the ‘Subscriber purchase type’ (free, fixed price, fans choose price).
  6. Choose the ‘Subscriber tier amount’. Any tier at that level or below will be able to access the subscriber pricing option.

Managing and deleting tiers

To edit a tier:

  1. From the control panel click ‘Selling Tools’
  2. From the options listed on the left, click ‘Subscriptions’
  3. In the ‘Subscriptions’ settings list, click ‘Pricing and tiers’
  4. Click ‘Edit tier’ beside the tier you’d like to adjust
  5. Update the price type, monthly charge, tier title, and tier description
  6. Click ‘Save tier’

Note: You won’t be able to adjust the monthly charge once you have subscribers, including free subscribers, associated with the tier.

To delete a tier:

  1. From the control panel, click ‘Selling Tools’
  2. From the options listed on the left, click ‘Subscriptions’
  3. In the ‘Subscriptions’ settings list, click ‘Pricing and tiers’ from the settings listed on the left
  4. Click ‘Edit tier’ beside the tier you’d like to adjust
  5. In the bottom right, click ‘Delete tier’

Notes:

  • You won’t be able to delete a tier if there are any subscribers associated with it.
  • If you have a page associated with a tier, and delete that tier, the page will become public. You can reassign the page by adjusting its ‘Page Settings.’

Managing your website subscribers

When people subscribe to your website subscriptions through your paywall page, they will be listed in the subscribers tab.

Subscribers

To access a list of your subscribers, click ‘Subscribers’ from the ‘Subscriptions’ settings list. You’ll be able to see:

  • Your total number of subscribers
  • Income from the last 30 days
  • Income paid from your subscribers to date
  • A list of your subscribers
  • A filter option to sort your subscribers
  • A search bar to look up a subscriber by email address

Note: You can filter your subscribers by choosing the filter option. Here you will see active, cancelled, and paid subscribers. You can also filter subscribers according to the tier to which they are subscribed.

How to add a free subscriber

  1. From the control panel, click ‘Selling Tools’
  2. From the options listed on the left, click ‘Subscriptions’
  3. In the ‘Subscriptions’ settings list, click on ‘Subscribers’
  4. Click ‘Add Free subscriber’ at the top right of your subscriptions area
  5. Enter their first name, last name, and email address
  6. Choose a tier for this subscriber to access
  7. Click ‘Add subscriber’

Your free subscriber will receive an email letting them know they have been given a free subscription to your website, as well as a link to set up their subscription with a password.

How to access and edit subscriber information

  1. From the control panel, click ‘Selling Tools’
  2. From the options listed on the left, click ‘Subscriptions’
  3. In the ‘Subscriptions’ settings list, click on ‘Subscribers’
  4. Use the ‘Filter’ or ‘Search’ options to find the subscriber
  5. Click on … icon in the ‘Actions’ area and choose ‘View Subscriber’ from the dropdown
  6. You will be able to see their subscription tier, status, sign up date, end of subscription date (if applicable), and the total amount paid
  7. To edit your subscriber’s first or last name, click ‘Edit info’ on the right side of the Subscriber Info box.

Note: Subscriber email addresses cannot be edited via the control panel. A subscriber can change their email address when they login via your subscription page.

How to change a PayPal member's subscription tier

If a subscriber has chosen PayPal as their payment option, and would like to change tiers, you’ll need to manually change their subscription tier level. Here’s how:

  1. From the control panel, click ‘Selling Tools’
  2. From the options listed on the left, click ‘Subscriptions’
  3. In the ‘Subscriptions’ settings list, click on ‘Subscribers’
  4. Use the ‘Filter’ or ‘Search’ options to find the subscriber
  5. Click on the … icon in the ‘Actions’ area and choose ‘View Subscriber’ from the dropdown
  6. Click ‘Cancel subscription’ in the top right of the subscriber details page
  7. Ask your member to log in to the subscriber area on your website
    • Note: Subscriber login can be found in your website footer
  8. Your member can now re-subscribe to their desired tier level

How to reset a subscriber password

  1. From the control panel, click ‘Selling Tools’
  2. From the options listed on the left, click ‘Subscriptions’
  3. In the ‘Subscriptions’ settings list, click on ‘Subscribers’
  4. Use the ‘Filter’ or ‘Search’ options to find the subscriber
  5. Click on … icon in the ‘Actions’ area and choose ‘View Subscriber’ from the dropdown
  6. Click ‘Reset password’ in the top right area of the screen
  7. Click ‘Reset password’ in the confirmation pop-up box
  8. They will be issued a password reset email to the address provided

How to cancel a subscriber

  1. From the control panel, click ‘Selling Tools’
  2. From the options listed on the left, click ‘Subscriptions’
  3. In the ‘Subscriptions’ settings list, click on ‘Subscribers’
  4. Use the ‘Filter’ or ‘Search’ options to find the subscriber
  5. Click on … icon in the ‘Actions’ row
  6. Click ‘Cancel subscription’
  7. Click ‘Cancel subscription’ in the confirmation pop-up box

To notify your subscribers of new content:

  1. From the control panel, click ‘Selling Tools’
  2. From the options listed on the left, click ‘Subscriptions’
  3. In the ‘Subscriptions’ settings list, click on ‘Subscribers’
  4. Click ‘Message Subscribers’ in the top right area of the screen
  5. Choose to use a template or a blank page
  6. Click ‘Compose Email’
  7. Add your subject and message
  8. Click ‘Preview Email’
  9. Click ‘Choose recipients’
  10. Check the box that reads ‘Send to specific tiers’
  11. Choose all of your tiers, or a certain tier
  12. Click ‘schedule mailout’

Note: For more information on creating a newsletter, see the Email Campaigns and Newsletters Help article.

Adding video for subscribers

There are a few options to set up exclusive videos for your website subscribers.

Video feature:

  • YouTube: Videos can be listed as Public, Unlisted, or Private in YouTube directly. For exclusive videos, use the 'Unlisted' option, then paste the link into a Video feature.

  • Vimeo: To use private Vimeo videos, they have a paid plan you can check out here: Video Privacy feature

  • Twitch: Twitch is a great live streaming option. You can link private live streams or pre-recorded video.

  • Crowdcast: Paste your crowdcast link to have it display here.

File List Feature:

Live streaming:

  • YouTube: Live streams can be Public, Unlisted, or Private. For exclusive videos, use 'Unlisted' option for embedding.

  • Twitch: This is a free live streaming platform. Learn more at Twitch.

  • Crowdcast: This is a paid service with several options: Crowdcast.

  • Vimeo: This is a paid service. For live streaming, try the Premium plan.

Thinking about selling tickets to a livestreaming event? Check out the steps here: How to offer private live streaming shows to your website subscribers