Are you a musician or in a band? Are you trying to get the word out about your shows, grow your fan base or sell music and merchandise? It's easier and yet harder than ever before.
You can replace facebook in the headline with any other social networking site.
There is a flood of social networking sites out there. There are hundreds of online music platforms out there. Where should you start and what should you do? It depends on your goals, level of determination and time to spare. Some sites are a must simply because of the amount of visitors and members they have. Others have tools to offer that will help increase your chances of success.
Let me begin by putting out the disclaimer that I don't have all the answers. There are people out there that are in the music marketing business and they scour the web for marketing opportunities each and every day. I can't and don't want to compete with them in the least. But I might have a few pointers that make you want to try some of the sites and greatly improve your visibility.
Before I get started I would like you to reflect on how you want to present yourself, who you want to reach and how much time you have available to keep up with your efforts.
If time is of the essence since we are all musicians that try to make music first and don't want to invest too much of our valuable time into marketing I would suggest the following sites to establish a presence:
MySpace - I still rank myspace as the number one must have site because of the vast amount of users. Even though I believe that myspace in some cases has missed the bus and got behind others in technological development it is a great all-round site that offers a lot of services. Your page can basically be a digital press kit with in addition a tour schedule, fan communication, music, videos and your biography. The layout is customizable so you can really brand your act.
YouTube - If you have a video of a live show, a music video or just an impression from the rehearsal room having a page on YouTube and offering a couple of videos gives your fans a chance to catch a glimpse of your band. Involving your fans is more important than ever and YouTube provides a great platform. Also, you can embed videos easily on other sites without having to upload them again and again.
Facebook - When you think of facebook you don't think about a music presence in the first place. However, where myspace falls behind facebook is the front runner of the new technology. Their API services allow applications from all kinds of sites to tie into your profile if it's a reverbnation band page or an iLike playlist for example. You can make it all accessible through facebook.
Reverbnation - I really like reverbnation for several reasons. You get a lot of tools that you can use on your sites. Granted, there are by far not that many visitors and fans on reverbnation than there are on facebook or myspace, but you can utilize your tools from reverbnation on both. There is for example a fan collector. It is a simple text box where your fans can provide their email address for your mailing list. What about the tune widget? I haven't seen any other widget as comprehensive as that one. All your songs on your reverbnation profile, biography, schedule, videos and photos are packed into this power tool. All you have to do is deploy the code to all your pages. And you can always use the extra fan or two that stumbles across your profile on reverbnation.
Now that you have your presence established you can look at gaining more exposure. Unfortunately, most online activities require some sort of engagement that will definitely cost you a lot of time. This might not be a big deal since you spend a lot of time online anyway or you like hanging around in chat rooms. It is just not for everybody.
Internet Radio - There are thousands of stations out there that play independent music. Make sure you check out their preferred musical genres. Go to their chat rooms and listen to a show or two. Get acquainted with the dj's and get contact information to send your music to. One site that could help you is airplay direct. On airplay direct you can establish a press kit with music, videos, bio and photos and you can send a link to it to any dj or station. This also applies to regular radio stations. One difficulty is to find the right contact for regular radio stations.
Last.fm, iLike, garageband, imeem and others - All these sites can help you promote your band. A word of advice: it takes a lot of effort to get started and get a following because your ranking in various charts improves when you listen to and review music from others. Just posting a comment or a banner is not enough to make people find your profile. If you want to use these services to their full advantage you need to get out there and listen to others.
There are a lot more social media sites that could help you promote your band. Keep in mind that there is only so much you can do. In order to have your profiles branded and keeping up with fresh content it takes a lot of work and time.
The last service I would like to present here is twitter. Even though you cannot post music or anything else here it is a very important tool. As I mentioned earlier, it is important to engage your fans in your creative activity. By allowing them to look behind the scenes into your life you are doing just that.
As always, feel free to leave your comments. I hope this post gave you a few ideas.
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