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Traditional radio airplay, standard brick and mortar distribution and being signed by a major record label are no longer the only means of getting your music noticed.

Thanks to digital distribution and the massive appeal and easy access to the Internet, unknown musical talent now has a chance at real success. Additionally the indie musician is not stuck with the costs of making an entire CD. They can make a single and post it on the Internet, gaining huge success from one song.

With a little know how and marketing sensibility any upstart musician or experienced musical act can now achieve success, great success in fact on their own. Recently, while a guest on the Sirius Satellite Radio Show The Good Life, I spoke with the host who told me that his two teenage boys get most of their music off the Internet and never listen to regular radio anymore.

Why? Because they can obtain music from acts they wouldn’t be allowed to listen to on traditional radio. They’re tired of the same old bands and singers being played over and over again. “Most don’t have any talent, they’re just showpieces.” This isn’t the first or the last time I’ve heard that statement from teenagers and adults alike.

For the indie artist who wants to reach a broader market (and you must have a good product) and receive more exposure for their product on the Internet, the first thing you need to do is market, guerrilla market and then market some more. How do you do that? There are many ways that I mention in my book, The Indie Guide to Music, Marketing and Money but here are a few simple suggestions:

• Join music boards and start in on the discussion. At the end of each of your posts make sure to put who you are and your website. Add something to the conversation, don’t spam. Write helpful hints and post them on the boards, etc. If the boards don’t allow tags but they do allow you to post your email address, make sure it’s something with your website at the end. Have a real email address but DON’T use your main email because it will be spammed.

• Start networking at local musician meetings and songwriter / artists forums in your region. You can find them on the Internet. These meetings host artists such as yourself who get together on a regular basis to discuss the music scene and present their latest creations. It’s also a wonderful place to get the pulse on gigs you can join in on and new marketing ideas.

• You know all that annoying spam snail mail you receive with pre-paid postage envelopes inside? Why not save the envelopes and put a little note inside that states since they were kind enough to share their information with you, you’re returning the favor. Also, with any bill or any correspondence you send out that’s official, include a one sheet or little card that has a blurb about you and your music (watch the weight; you don’t want to add more postage). Make sure to put your website on whatever material you have.

• Start your own podcast and post it on all the podcast sites.

• Why not send your music to different podcasts. Ask permission first. Send them to your site where they can hear a sample or two and if they are receptive to playing your music on their podcast, send it along. If they use your music in their podcast you may have gained new fans and sold more CDs.

The most important thing you can do is to play live. Go to Wal-Mart, Starbucks and other local shops and ask if you can put on a free concert there. Anywhere and any place that will let you play, do! Make sure to have a sign up sheet where people can sign up for your newsletter. Then create a newsletter and send it out once a month at the most. This is a form of “Buzz Marketing” also known as “Viral Marketing.” At the end of the letter make sure you include your webpage of course. Tell your fan base they can pass it along to whoever they want.

This is a very very tiny list of things you can do. The time for the indie musician is now. Take advantage of it! Many blessings to come your way.

Seattle Tacoma Music artist and band promotion on the internet.

Promoting your music, band or songs in the Seattle Tacoma area is hard these days but, there is help!

Today’s internet is a great place to promote your music and song writing from, with great results if done right.
Washington State produces some great artists and it is getting better every day with new studios and places to play popping up every day.
The Seattle area has many music artists that started there and are still residing there today.
Although it is hard to find FREE places to promote from in the Seattle Tacoma area, there are still ways to do so.
There are local websites that cater to just that in the Washington state area but, some are kind of hard to find if
you are not to good at searching the internet, reading local publications and other things.

I am an old independent music artist that knows a few things about music and music artist promotion on the Internet.
I have been doing music for over 40 years and have had a few music artist and band web sites that were very popular.

I want to tell you about a site that I put up to help music artists, bands, and songwriters promote themselves
at http://www.w3music.com .
This site is a Washington state based site and caters to local music artists, bands, and songwriters, helping them promote
their music, gigs and other internet sites they may have by giving them the tools to do so all in one web site.
The site is totally FREE and requires no membership!
I do this for a hobby, and have always done it for free.
I have just started promoting the site, and am going to be working hard at it from now on.
Google, Yahoo, MSN and others are already spidering the site , and it is getting listings like crazy!
You will only help yourself and the site by visiting frequently!

About the site:
The site offers free ad posting like this site, has tools like banner creators that you can use to make
banners, buttons and logos for sites like, my space, twitter, your own personal site, and what ever else you can think of.
We have a Top list, where you can post a banner and get free traffic to the site of your choice.
The site is always being updated with new features, to help in your promotions.
There is a forum to be used for whatever you want to talk about.
You can advertise your latest gigs, post pictures…
So, like I said, it is FREE and you have nothing to loose, so maybe you should check it out?
Go Here:   http://www.w3music.com
Hope this helps everyone that is traveling the Internet jungle looking for help in promotions.

When it comes to music, there is no better place to keep up “with it” than in a big city. Due to the Internet completely influencing, shaking up and diversifying the music industry, more and more bands come out on a day-to-day basis. And unless you live in the thick of it, as in within an urban, metropolitan area, it is pretty much impossible to keep up with all of the current trends and new tunes. That is, however, until satellite Internet came out, providing high-speed connections to the masses living in the rural and mountainous areas of the country.

Look, it is easy to attribute the rising popularity of indie music to the Internet. Since the Napster era, the entire music industry has pretty much been torn apart. CD stores and chains have closed down or gone bankrupt and big name stars are selling less and less albums, all while small, independent, unsigned bands are utilizing social networking and media to slowly grow in popularity and break into the mainstream. And although keeping up with all of the gossip and rising stars is quite easy with a cable or DSL connection, people living outside of their infrastructures were without luck for quite some time. Dial-up and 56K connections did not suffice.

Now, however, satellite broadband has provided these “out of the loop” music lovers with the fast connection they need to keep up with the current pace of the new music industry. And no sites are better to keep up with all things indie than Pitchfork.com, Metacritic.com and Legalsounds.com.

Pitchfork.com – Although Rollingstone Magazine has traditionally been the bread and butter with regards to music related news, Pitchfork.com has slowly chipped away at the indie audience of its rival publication. Focusing on all things indie, the online music news Web site provides all necessary information for satellite Internet broadband users, including current news, album reviews, upcoming CD releases and concert listings. In fact, they even have exclusive recordings and videos from the “rising stars” of the genre, such as England’s The XX or Beach House.

Metacritic.com – Granted, when it comes to reading up on music reviews and monitoring their sales for the last week, Billboard pretty much has the competition beat. They’ve been doing it for more than half a century. But when it comes to overall reviews, Metacritic.com is the best place to check out. Acting as the Rottentomatoes.com for music, the Web site compiles the reviews of multiple publications and esteemed critics while interweaving user opinions as well. For satellite broadband subscribers, this means that no matter where you live you can keep up with the current opinions on specific music and even contribute your own thoughts to the overall ranking of a group’s new release.

Legalsounds.com – Downloading music has always been a questionable practice ever since the United States Government shut down Napster and other related music sites. Bit torrent Web sites exist, but they exist in the same illegal category as Limewire and Kazaa. Granted, iTunes is by far the largest online music download site, but a full CD can cost around $10, which in today’s economy is more than people want to spend. Well, thanks to the Internet and a grey line within international online law, Legalsounds.com provides all the music you crave at a cheap price – only 9 cents a song. The sound quality is actually better than the iTunes store and since the site is located in Russia, where copyright laws do not exist, there has yet to be any legal issues pertaining to United States users who utilize it – besides, the site has the word legal in it. With a high-speed satellite Internet connection, users are “legally” and quickly growing their music libraries and keeping up with the up-and-coming bands of this new, online indie generation.

Have you ever seen a local, unsigned band and thought to yourself, why aren’t these guys huge? Conversely have you ever heard a band on the radio and thought, these guys are terrible, I hear better than this at my local. All too often great musical talent goes unnoticed, and it isn’t down to a lack of good songs or live performances. The main thing holding back independent bands is a lack of good self promotion.

With the huge wealth of outlets for promoting your music online there really is no excuse for poor self promotion these days. The Internet has completely opened up underground music and made it much easier for bands to reach their audiences and build up a relationship with their fans. Through this article I will give you some useful tips for starting out when marketing your band online. I am in the process of starting up a new band myself, and this is what I’ll be doing once we get moving along.

The first thing you must do is without doubt the most difficult. Define your sound and write some killer songs and work on an amazing live show. Sounds hard right? Well it is. This is the stage that my band is at right now, we’re just writing a load of songs and trying to find the style that fits us best. Once we’ve written ninety minutes worth of material we’ll start work on our live show and then start gigging.

What you must do when writing your music is work out who you want your target audience to be. You may like all kinds of genres of music but generally when people turn to your band they will expect your sound and you’ve got to deliver it to them. There’s nothing wrong with being able to put your band into a category that people will look for. If you class yourself as heavy rock then that’s good as people that like heavy rock music will be more likely to find you.

As you start to finish up writing your songs and start working on your live set I believe it is a great time to start working on your band website. I would absolutely recommend purchasing the dot co dot uk or dot com domain of your band’s name. I would even go as far as to name the band specifically so you can get the web address you want. If someone tries to find your band online they’re bound to type in yourbandname dot com and so ideally you want them to find you.

Once you’ve bought your domain there are a few different ways to get a good band website together. One is to hand build it yourself. It can be quite difficult to do, but gives you complete creative control over the look and content of the site. If none of you can build your site then ask around your friends, maybe one is a budding web designer and wants to add to their portfolio.

Failing this you can choose one of the free blog software sites such as Wordpress or Blogger and build your band website as a blog. The advantage of this is that you can post news as new blog posts and you can have the band all contribute here and there. It requires no real knowledge of web design and there are a bunch of great templates for you to use. You can integrate band pictures and add extra pages to your blog site to make it into a great website. Your fans can comment on news posts and you can build a great rapport with them this way. I would actually recommend starting a site like this for your band, if only for the community aspect of it.

If you choose to use blogging software then make sure you write regular updates for your site. You can even write articles about music that is similar to your own. By doing this you will gain a reader base quite quickly, and they’re much more likely to try your music if they like your articles. By writing regularly you’re helping your page ranking in Google. It is quite important for you to rank highly for your band name in Google, as that is the first place people will go when trying to find you. You can litter your posts with keywords so that when people search for you, they get you and not anyone else.

For tips on writing for Google then try searching the web for search engine optimisation (SEO) tips. It is quite a complex topic and you probably won’t need to fully understand it, but certainly a grip on keywords and page ranking will help you when promoting your band online.

So you’ve got your band website up, you’ve got some articles written, maybe about favourite bands or gigs and you’ve started to attract some visitors. Hopefully you’re highly ranked in Google for your band name as well. You’ll want to put up some of your music so people can actually hear you. You can upload mp3s of your songs to your own site as well as many others. When uploading I would honestly recommend giving away your music for free. With the huge wealth of quality music available online if you charge for your music then people just won’t give it a try. At this stage you’re trying to create a following and a fanbase so free music really is the key.

Once you’ve uploaded your mp3s to your own site then it’s best to get moving onto social networking to really help push your band. Social networking has taken the net by storm and now almost everyone is a member of at least one social networking site. They’re fantastic tools to promote your music and can really help you reach people you never would have otherwise. The first stop you should make is MySpace. Set up your profile there and upload some songs for people to listen to. There are fantastic tools there to help push new music so make sure you make the most of them.

Facebook is the most widely used social networking site and there are actually some really neat things you can do with it to help your band out. There is a great application available on Facebook called Facebook Flyers. What this does is enable you to place and ad for your band at the side of people’s profiles. The key here is that you can tailor the ad to your sound so it will only appear on people whose taste matches your band. It is a great tool for your band. You should also set up a Facebook group for your band and add everyone you know to it. This way people can discuss your band and will get notification of when you’re playing and access to all kinds of pictures and information.

Your band should also take the time to record a video and upload it to YouTube. It is just another place you can go to promote your music online. There are a couple of ways to go about making a classic YouTube video. One is to do a fairly serious music video like you would see on MTV. Another is to try to create a video that will generate it’s own buzz and get loads and loads of views purely based on the content of the video. Aussie rock band Sick Puppies used this method of viral marketing to great effect with their ‘Free Hugs’ video. They filmed a guy going round town giving out free hugs with their song playing in the background. The video has been viewed over 19 million times and the band are now signed and on tour with Evanescence.

This just goes to show the power that great Internet marketing can have for your band, and the great thing is that you can do it all yourself easily. The web really has opened up marketing opportunities for emerging musicians but always remember that you’ll only get out of it what you put in. No-one is interested in you to start with, you have to make them interested. Good luck, and above all remember to write great songs. Without great songs all the marketing in the world can’t help you!

Learn how to market your album on the internet in this free video series that will show you how to be a successful independent music writer. Expert: Frederick Burchell Bio: Frederick “Ricky B.” Burchell is a rapper/producer. He has had a number one for seven weeks on the Christian Rap Charts and toured the world. Filmmaker: ricky burchell

If you are a “Music Artist” desiring to have “Major Exposure” for your Band and Songs, but you only have little Promotions and Marketing funds as a budget to promote yourself and your music, Internet (the super highway) Promotion is the way to go.

There was a time India Bands had to have Major Money from Major Sources to get Major Exposure for your music… not anymore! Independent Artists can now promote and market your own music through many Internet Outlets such as; Radio, Social Sites, Blogs, Communities, Web Directories, Digital Distribution and more. But if you as a band don’t have the time to promote yourself, or perhaps you just don’t know how to, then consult with a reputable company that can help you achieve your “Major Marketing Goals” at affordable India prices.

It’s a big help in promoting “Music Online” when you can find Internet & College Radio Stations that will play your songs on the Radio. For the “Independent Musicians and Singers”, Internet Radio is definitely a savior!  Your “Original Songs” can now be heard throughout the Whole Wide World.  But remember, radio is only one portion of many other outlets for the Music Artists to use, especially if their plans are to have a successful Promotions Campaign that gets Major results.

Placing yourself and your music on every site possible may sound like a tab bit too much, and for many it is. But if you really want to see Major results with only having low budget money, then you need to write articles, upload your music to social sites, to communities, submit to web directories, blogs…find digital distribution that will place your music in Major Online Retail Stores etc… There is no excuse! The Internet has made Major Resources a lot more accessible for Music Indie Artists to grasp, and the playing field has become more of a common ground for both the Indie and the Major labels alike.  The internet is the stepping stone used now to reach Millions of possible fans, friends and music industry contacts!

For example, Independent Record Label “Bell Time Records” released Rnb Artist “Tamalaneh”, and took her new Cd “I Know You’re Gonna Like This” and promoted it on just about every music related website, blog, social site, community site web directory on the internet. Anybody can do it if you’re willing to do the time consuming work it takes to get the job done. Here are a couple of free music outlets you can submit your articles and songs to for starters:  Current.com has now The Indie Music Show, another outlet!! Thank you current. L.L Cool J. has BoomDizzle etc… these music sites are free!

Please subscribe, comment and also rate! www.tmottgogo.com The Business of Music and Your Role In It – Episode 1 Creating Your Internet Presence If you only have space through the social sites, then what you are on is borrowed space. You have no control of the direction in which that sites goes. Therefore, it is not your home. It is where you are socializing. it is where you go to connect with old friends, make new friends, keep up with what’s going on in the industry, and network. ———————————————————– The Music Business is just that – A Business. The more that you keep abreast in the knowledge of it, the more successful you will be able to stay on top of the game. The following are excellent material to help keep you there: * Build A Solid Website for your Band tinyurl.com * This Business of Music, 10th Edition tinyurl.com * This Business of Global Music Marketing: Global Strategies for Maximizing Your Music’s Popularity and Profits tinyurl.com * Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook: 201 Self-Promotion Ideas for Songwriters, Musicians and Bands on a Budget tinyurl.com * Web Marketing for the Music Business tinyurl.com * The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly tinyurl.com * I Don’t Need a Record Deal!: Your Survival Guide for the Indie Music Revolution tinyurl.com * Plug Your Business! Marketing on MySpace, YouTube, blogs and podcasts and …

So you are thinking of getting yourself a broadband connection or already have one and now want to find some cool free music videos and internet radio stations which are available at broadband quality for you to get the most out of your fat broadband pipe.

Well a great place to start looking for quality music videos is Lycos Free Music Videos which is at http://entertainment.lycos.com/music/videos.php where you can choose and watch a big selection of the latest music videos all for free as well as the not so easy to find, lesser known music videos. Lycos also have interesting band biographies and lots of picture galleries of your favorite artists for you to look at or download. They also have a music news section, a music download section and the latest music charts for you to catch up on.

Another great website for watching free music videos is Yahoo Free Music Videos which you can find at http://music.yahoo.com/musicvideos/default.asp where you can watch videos at 300k broadband download speed or 100k if you prefer. If you watch them at 300k download speed, you can watch the video in full screen mode which is a nice touch. The Yahoo music video catalog covers thousand of music videos and many music styles including pop, rock, top 100, dance, rap, R&B and country. They also have album reviews, singles reviews, album charts, singles charts, live reviews, downloads and latest music news for you to enjoy for free. Yahoo also give you access to hundreds of free internet radio channels through their Launchcast radio service covering all possible music tastes.

Talking of free internet radio stations, a really cool site where you can listen to thousands of different radio stations is Shoutcast Broadband Internet Radio which is at http://www.shoutcast.com.They have a huge choice of music styles for you to enjoy including: Alternative College, Industrial, Punk, Ska, Blues, Folk, Cajun, Contemporary Classical, Opera, Symphonic, New Country, Electronic Ambient, Drum And Bass, Trance, Techno, Downtempo. House, Breakbeat, Acid Jazz, Hip Hop, Rap, Latin Jazz, Swing Jazz, Big Band Jazz, Classic Jazz, Smooth Jazz, Classic Pop & Rock, Pop & Rock Oldies, 80’s, Metal, Pop, Rock, R & B, Soul and World Music

If you are looking for international radio stations which broadcast in different languages, then you can find them at Broadband-Television.com’s Broadband Internet Radio Webpage at http://broadband-television.com/music/index.html From this site you can find and listen to international radio stations from Mexico,France, Finland, Japan, Canada, United States and Switzerland. They also have a good selection of English speaking radio stations covering Rock, Classical, Golden Oldies, Top 40, Country Music or Contemporary music styles.

When you are a music enthusiast, you are permanently striving to take your passion for music to the next level by regularly updating your music collection and looking for information on your favorite artists and bands. Considering the fact that most offline music resources charge considerable fees for music purchases (CDs, cassettes and old records), lots of young music enthusiasts are turning to the Internet for satisfying their insatiable passion for music.

Websites that offer members and / or visitors the opportunity to download free music online and to keep the pace with the latest musical trends and rumors have become increasingly popular in the last few years, drawing thousands of visitors to their online pages every day. By allowing people to access the latest information regarding their favorite bands, solo artists, future concerts and various other music events, as well as enabling them to find and download music from an extensive, well-structured database free of charge, free music download-offering websites are much appreciated by all categories of age, especially the young!

With so many free music download-offering websites out there, the task of finding and downloading your favorite songs is quick and simple. Among the myriad music websites accessible online it is virtually impossible not to find your favorite music in free downloadable format. However, it is important to note that music downloads generally become free only after a certain amount of time, and only if the artists / bands allow it. Thus, due to perfectly understandable reasons, to find freshly released songs from your favorite music artists in free downloadable format and fully compliant with copyright regulations is very difficult. Ignoring this minor disadvantage, free music download-offering websites completely deserve the great popularity and the excellent feed-back they have been receiving these days.

Although the Internet is filled with free music download-offering websites, it is important to separate the good websites from the rest in order to obtain the best results. When you are looking for high-quality music downloads (the best music downloads are usually compressed in 128 kb/s or higher mp3 or WAV format), an extensive, well-organized and regularly updated free music download library and the latest news regarding your favorite music artists and bands, you should only stick with the serious, reliable and dedicated websites. Once you have found the website that can efficiently service your needs and requirements, you can enjoy music downloads and stay in touch with the latest music news free of charge and with minimal effort.

While some free music download-offering websites are only addressed to music fans, others also enable existing and aspiring bands and artists to promote their music online and achieve better exposure. For the unsigned artist, such websites are the perfect place to start building a successful, long-lasting and rewarding musical career. With the help of the previously mentioned websites, unsigned artists and bands can post demo songs, shows, photos, as well as communicate with fans and meet other artists to collaborate with in the future. Nevertheless, this innovative feature greatly improves the prospects of unsigned artists to get noticed by industry professionals and thus accelerate their way to fame and success. Unlike regular free music download-offering websites, the ones that account for both the needs of aspiring artists and music listeners deserve extra attention and appreciation from music enthusiasts.

So, if you want to find more about free music downloads or even about unsigned artist, please go ahead and click on these links.

Have you ever had the classic experience with a close friend who tells you about a great song and is very confident that you will love it just as much as he or she does? Upon listening to it, you begin to question the trust you have in them, and no longer have faith in their musical opinions. I’ve had this experience one too many times and I say let modern technology succeed where friends have failed!

Finding Music Online

There are several online resources available which are much more intuitive than a friend, and can “learn” your music preferences and make suggestions for new music suited to your tastes. These suggestions are tailored to your musical preference history and are pulled from some of the world’s largest online collections of tagged music. Radio stations almost always have to play corporate-backed bands with label restriction which makes them a bad avenue to find more obscure music.

Online sources are you best bet for finding the best music available. Pulling from a huge compilation of online music, you have access to tons of new music in the genres you want and based on your listening history rather than getting a random suggestion from some weird friend who has an obsession with a local Rush tribute band who couldn’t hit the right notes even if they were sober.

The music-bots are smarter than your friends, and have a slightly different learning capacity. Looking for indie music? Up and coming local and underground musicians get suggested and listed every day and with good ratings from other users, you can use these tools to be introduced to bands and musicians through a new avenue.

What Are My Options?

Pandora is a free online radio project that generates music suggestions based on a profile you create, where you list your favorite artists and genres. Pandora uses a comprehensive database known as the Music Genome Project, to find and match user music preferences with related music. Just go to www.pandora.com, create a profile, and start listening.

Last.fm also has a unique way of gathering preferences to suggest new music to a listener. Users download a plug-in application that will make suggestions based on your listening history. It keeps track of the music you listen to (your current favorite artists) in a process called “scrobbling” and creates your individual music profile based off of that information.

The profile is then compared with the music listening history of millions of other Last.fm users to find listeners with similar tastes, and suggestions for new artists and bands are given based off of that comparison. Last.fm already has over 15 million+ active users to base suggestions from. Visit www.last.fm and let them expose you to the best new music.

Yahoo!’s LAUNCHcast has a similar structure to Last.fm, but lacks a comprehensive music profile list because it has a smaller network of users. LAUNCHcast also seems to offer a more limited library, with more mainstream music than Last.fm does. This seems quite similar to the way that corporate-owned radio stations provide music.

Another resource features unsigned or independent artists that would not be able to reach their potential fan base unless they ended up getting a major record deal and/or corporate sponsorship. Try www.purevolume.com to get into the online indie scene and of course, MySpace always works too.

Most of these sites also make it very easy to purchase your recently discovered music once you decide you like it, so you can add it to your ever-growing collection of music and turn it up!