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The rewards of creating music range from the deep satisfaction of writing a new song to the glowing pride of a successful performance. While these feelings bolster our confidence, they do little to compensate for the financial investment often tied to making music. While selling your music via CDs and downloads is a good start, you should also consider investing in band merchandise to promote your band and cover the cost of instruments, rehearsal spaces, recording equipment and more.

In a Rolling Stone article (7/04), Dashboard Confessional’s Chris Carrabba spoke about the importance of merchandise: “Merch sales are what kept us going. Even now, we’re still not making our living from playing the shows. Merch is where we make our profit.” In that same story, John Mayer commented on merchandise sales and the current state of the recording industry: “You’re not making that much money off records anymore, so until people can figure out how to make a re-writable Hanes Beefy-T, merch is one of the last bastions of individuality, commerce and style that an artist has left.”

Echoing those sentiments, Amanda Palmer of The Dresden Dolls told NPR (1/17/07): “We make almost no money off our recordings themselves.” To earn a steady income, NPR interviewer Chris Arnold noted that “The Dresden Dolls can take in more than $1,000 a night selling merchandise, which makes the ‘merch table’ a major source of income why they’re on the road.”

While generating money is the most obvious benefit of band merchandise, the valuable impressions made from exposure to potential fans is just as important. Arming your current fan base with a fashionable marketing tool will only help to promote your band and raise your profile. To this end, musicians should take great care in creating logos and images that accurately reflects their sound and image while appealing to consumers. For inspiration, turn to Threadless.com for a wide range of arresting designs. If you don’t have the skills to create the design, try cutting costs by recruiting a graphic arts student to handle the project for you.

Once the perfect design is approved, identify the medium that will give you the greatest return. A quick Google search found a wealth of companies dedicated to meeting the merchandise needs of independent artists. Here are just a few of the deals out there:

100 printed t shirts: $405 at WeNeedMerch.com

500 1″ buttons: $100 at BusyBeaver.net

250 5.5″ x 1.42″ stickers: $25 at StickerGuy.com

100 posters: $175 at BandWear.com

Selling your band merchandise can be done at live shows or online via your web site. Create links at social music sites like Echoboost.com to draw more traffic and use secure payment services, such as PayPal, to handle the monetary transactions. Email fan club members when new products become available and try offering special packages, bundling your CDs or downloads with t shirts, buttons and/or stickers to drive sales and spread the word about your music.

You shouldn’t let expenses drain your passion for music. Put your music to work for you with your own merchandise and keep making the music you love.

Promoting your CD to radio takes a lot of organization and time management skills. Let me help organize your process. First you need to find radio stations that are willing to accept submissions from independent artists (Contact names, addresses, phone and email for radio stations across the globe are listed in “The Indie Guide To Music, Marketing and Money” ISBN 978-0-9746229-4-1 and The Indie Contact Guide – it’s companion book.).

You have to decide whether you are going to local and regional stations (which are a good recommendation if you don’t have a lot of money to work with and you aren’t worried about charting.), or if you are going after national stations, which is only a good idea if you are already established locally and are seeking national exposure and a chance to chart.

As with all submissions, always get permission ahead of time before you submit your music. There are two easy ways to find radio station information. The first is to log onto the internet and search the radio station databases available. This method is free, but will take some time. The best resources I have found are “MIT Radio Stations on the Web” and “BRS Radio.

Most sites list the stations by genre (style of music), state, etc. You should bookmark these sites in your Internet browser. You will find yourself going back to these sites often.

The major advantage the internet offers is the ability to download information into a spreadsheet or word processing document to make labels and save data for your follow-up files.

However, if you decide looking for information on the internet takes too much time, an alternative is to purchase books that already have all the information for radio stations listed in them.

When finding radio stations to submit to, it’s best to start with college radio first, especially if you are a new act without a track record. It will be easier for you to get added on college stations, which are usually “free format” and are more likely to air something new and exciting.

If you decide on the college route, make sure you have verified they have a format for your music. Most college stations have a variety of music styles and Music Directors.

Rock, Jazz, and Alternative Music tend to be the main stay for college stations. Country acts will have a more difficult time on college stations and there are many that have Folk Music programs. For Country acts you’ll have a better opportunity at stations that play Country Music specifically and/or those that play Americana.

Once you conquer the college charts, you will have a solid base and track record to promote yourself to the larger stations. It’s like a snowball that rolls down the mountain. The more it rolls, the larger it gets. Make sure when approaching larger stations that you ask specifically if they play independent artists.

If they tell you they occasionally give an independent artist an opportunity, and you have the extra resources, go ahead and submit your CD to them. You never know, they may play it.

But if you hear: ‘No. We only play major-label releases, or artists that are in the top 50 of the Billboard charts, but why don’t you go ahead and send it along anyway.’ Think long and hard about it before sending your CD. You’re better off to be patient, record the comment on your spreadsheet and wait until you chart before contacting that station again.

If the goal for your music is charting you will need to make sure that all of the radio stations you submit to, report to the same charts. This will help ensure that all of your “spins” count. (Spins are the amount of times a song is played.)

If the radio stations don’t report to any charts, or the charts they do report to are not consistent with those you already have, you may want to think about passing on them until you have more resources. It would be like sending an unsolicited press kit to a management firm that doesn’t accept them. It’s a waste of time, energy and press kits.

If you are only looking for exposure, then by all means send it to every radio station you get permission from as long as your budget allows. However, try to stay in one local/regional area so it’s saturated with your music. It will give you a much better chance at lining up a distributor as well as selling more CD’s.

It is easier to get added to a play list on stations that don’t report, than do. The competition is not as fierce. Remember: air time is an important commodity to a radio station. Each station only has so many hours and slots they can play songs. If you can get your song charted, you will have a better chance of getting into one of those precious slots. You have to decide which route you want to take.

Once you have found the radio stations you plan to submit to, and you have entered that information into a database, you are ready to send the press kit out (assuming your CD is ready).

At this time, make sure to call the radio stations again and verify that all the information you’ve gathered is still the same. The industry is very volatile. Stations get bought and sold very quickly, and there is an extremely high turnover rate for personnel. You don’t want to send your Heavy Metal CD to a station that is now a Smooth Jazz station. And you don’t want to send something out with the words “Material Requested” on it, to someone who no longer works there.

You’ll need a cover letter for your press kit, make sure to suggest the tracks you think radio personnel will like, and the ones you think are more commercial. Give them an opportunity to listen to several tracks, but don’t ask them to listen to the entire CD. It’s not professional. Radio promoters push one track at a time.

Pushing only one track will show them you know what you are doing and are respectful of their time. To push a track means to tell the radio personnel which track you are suggesting at this time for airplay. Tell them it’s the first release off your new CD.

In order to chart you must have a substantial amount of “spins”. Here’s another major reason to push only one spin: If you have a lot of tracks that are being played, but no stations are playing similar tracks, your chances of charting for a particular song are very slim. While you really don’t have a choice of what is played, you can help it along by constantly suggesting the same track.

Most Program Directors (PD’s) and Music Directors (MD’s) have specific call times, on specific days, every week. You can only call them on these days or they will not take your calls. Once you have sent your press kit out, wait approximately two weeks, then call and confirm that your CD has arrived safely.

If the CD has not arrived, wait one more week and call again. If at that point the CD has still not arrived, tell the PD or MD that you will send another package and then send it. Wait another week and then follow up again.

The life of one song is anywhere from 4 – 6 weeks. You can’t just assume that at the end of 6 weeks the radio station is going to automatically play another track from your CD. It’s up to you to suggest it.

At the end of your first 4 weeks of air time, continue to push the first track but also start suggesting the next track you plan to release. Start building a rapport with the PD’s and MD’s. Find out their likes, dislikes, and interests. You will get much farther if you are truly interested in who they are and what they do, than if you are only interested in what they can do for you.

Because Program and Music Directors have different call times and days, time management is essential. To help make your job a little easier, create a database to hold all your contact information and keep track of calls and call times. If you have succeeded in getting a station to add your music, here are some questions you should ask:

• If they are playing your CD, ask them how your CD is doing at their station.
• Ask them if they are playing the track you specified in your promotional package, and if they have had any listener response.
• Ask if there is anything additional that you can do to assist them.

More often than not, you will only be able to leave a message when you call. If you are able to contact them directly, always ask them if it is a convenient time for them to talk to you. If it is, keep your conversations short, as they are extremely busy people. If it is not a good time for them to talk, ask them when you can call them back and then do.

Keep them informed of any newsworthy items. Every time you succeed in getting another station to add your music, go a little further on the chart, or score a major gig, send out a press release by faxes or emails, and definitely hype it on the phone during your conversations with them.

Build excitement so you keep yourself in the forefront of their minds. Keep them interested in your music. Offer to do interviews and liners. Liners are a small commercial you record for the station. For example: ‘Hi! This is Joe Smoegh and you are listening to today’s hottest mix on such and such a radio station.’ I will say it again, be persistent and pleasant.

If you have not been added, or you are not receiving airplay yet, continue promoting yourself to these stations via email, fax, or doing your follow up phone calls. Ask them if they do test spins. If they do, ask them if they would try your CD during one of their next test spin slots. Additionally, stop by radio stations in your area and make live appearances.

Bring something special, perhaps pizza or donuts and soda. You will bring a smile to their faces and create a personal association. Try to come up with unique ideas to “sell” your CD to them. Additionally, when you release your CD to radio will affect how much airplay you receive.

If everything fails, try to remain upbeat and positive with them. Radio is very political. Remember there is only so much air time and only so many time slots available. Most will not pick Joe Smoegh over Britney Spears. After repeated efforts have failed and you’re still not getting any air time, it may be time to call it quits on that particular station and stop contacting them with your weekly phone calls. You should still continue to keep them informed of your comings and goings via email.

The internet has revolutionised the music industry and how music is sold and distributed online. We are all aware of the issues facing illegal music downloads and the heavy impact it has on bands to generate payment for their music. But we are talking about the best ways for you to sell your music and generate publicity for your band.

With the increase in internet usage throughout the world and the easy availability of internet based tools and software, you can now record a professional sounding record in a home based studio or promote yourself through Sites such as MySpace, MyBandMate, YouTube and similar sites. There are a number of key avenues to pursue for bands and musicians when it comes to selling music online and these sites are providing free resources and tools to showcase your music.

If you are a budding musician or band and are looking for ways to sell your music online then below are some proven tips to get you started. They are free and will generate a lot of exposure in promoting your music.

Forums are a great way to promote your music and ultimately drive potential fans to your site and music. You need to find forums that are not only specific to music but also to your genre of music. For example, if you are a Christian rock band, there is no use trying to promote your music in a reggae forum. Promote your music to your target audience. You never know who is reading your forum posts and the whole game is about getting your name and music out there in a number of forums.

Free music networks such as MySpace and YouTube allow you to upload and share your music. MyBandMate is an example of a site that allows you to target your specific audience by promoting your music in various ways via online forums, chat, article postings, music and video uploads, classifieds and much more. Remember, it is a numbers game so the more sites you get onto the more exposure your music will get. Take advantage of these free music networks and you may just get discovered in a big way!

Chat rooms can be useful in spreading the word around about your music. Once again you need to choose the right chat rooms otherwise you will just be wasting your time. These chat forums can be a great way to network.

Blogs have been all the rage of the last few years and they have a powerful presence in ranking highly in the search engines. A well written blog that provides the reader with valuable and informative content can keep that reader returning on a regular basis. In your blog you can have links for fans to buy your music or CDs online.

Classifieds are often under utilised by musicians. Most people think that classifieds are only there to post jobs, sell instruments or look for new band members. However, you can generate a lot of traffic and eventually sales by posting your music for sale in the appropriate category.

Have you heard of Squidoo? If not then this is a great marketing tool that’s free and allows you to create a page about your music or band. You can then use their powerful marketing tools to achieve a high ranking in the search engines.

Having your own website is not essential but it’s definitely worthwhile. A simple one or two page site can cost you less than $100 a year so the cost is not too high. Many webhosts such as GoDaddy allow you to register a domain name, sign up for a years hosting and use their easy to use software to create your own website without any technical or previous website knowledge. If you don’t have your own site then MySpace and MybandMate are definitely two free music networks that allow you to create your own profiles and mini sites with all the required features to promote your music. If you are a musician and are not using these free music networks then you better ask yourself why not! You can’t sell your music if you aren’t willing to put in some time promoting your music.

Many bands are using Google Adwords to promote their music. This has proven to be successful for many bands but it can also be quite costly. These small ads are not only displayed in the Google search results but also on sites with related content for your topic. Remember to carefully select your keywords to bid on and learn more about how much you should be paying per click.

Another great way to generate free publicity is to type up a brief news release and submit it to be launched all across the internet for free in one of the many free press release sites. Often these news releases will achieve high rankings on the search pages. Be sure to use the keywords in your title, summary and content.

Other key points to note are that you need to build a relationship with your fans. This can be done via these music networks or your own newsletter. By building your list you can promote and sell your music to people who you know are interested in your style of music. You can also send out samples of new songs.

Musicians need to be aware that the majority of their income will come from the money they make from their gigs and selling merchandise at these gigs. This is why you will want to have a box of CDs with you to sell at the end of your gig. You need to target potential customers while they are pumped about your music. This is when you want to sell your CDs.

Ultimately, to sell your music you need to firstly promote your music via the various avenues as outlined above. You could have the next best hit single or a top selling CD but if no one knows about you or your band then you will never sell your music. It is such a competitive market and you should use all of the free tools out there on the internet to showcase your music to the world. Everyone who has a computer is a potential customer and therefore you have a global market!

Music Promotion – Promote Your Music Easily

Are you a budding musician who is dreaming of big times and big gigs? Are you in a garage band and do you desire to become famous and let the world know about your talents? Have you met a lot of agents and been disappointed with what they had to say about your music and why they can’t market your band? If you are at any one of the above stated questions then it is time that you found out how easy it is to promote your band in three easy steps.

When promoting your band, you require a well thought up promotion plan. To ensure that you find the best promotion plan, you would need to go online and search for proper sales and marketing techniques for bands and musicians. It is imperative to realize that such promotion strategies should consider a lot of aspects that would not only showcase your music or your band but also create a need for listeners who want more.

While going ahead with a proper music promotion you will need:

A proper online music promotion

To create a website for your own band

A proper offline music promotion and

To choose the right channel to distribute your music.

With the advancement in technology, internet and internet services have become the buzz words for marketing, sales or promotion of any product. This is very true in the case of music as well. If you want to promote your band easily then it is a must that you choose the right types of online music promotion. Social networking sites and other partnering websites could become your gateway to tap new fans and let your music or you band be known out there.

It is also important that you get a website for your band. In recent times, the concept of creating and hosting a website is not so monumental. The rates have dropped and as an artist, you yourself can create a website that can be publicized in a lot of ways possible.

Next you would have to look at offline promos as well. Just because you’ve done your online music promotion doesn’t mean that your work stops there. You would have to remember that there are many People that still do not know about or use the internet. In such cases you should have a good plan to reach out to them. To promote your band right, you should look at proper music demos, your performance on stage and publicity through conventional means.

As for your last music promotion tip, you should look at the best possible channels to sell your music. By the end of the day you would have to make a living and to make your music or band earn for you, you would need to have a fail-proof distribution system. You would have to be willing to have your music released on CDs. You should also look for ways to publicize the same through the internet. There are a lot of online music shops and stores that you can tap into and distribute your music.

Now with these simple tips, you would surely be able to promote your music successfully. Now, you don’t need to worry about getting a publicist or an agent. Now it’s your band, your music and your own music promotion.

If you are ready to take your band to the next level then you should check out Promote Your Band.net It has a great ebook full of tips and resources to get you on the right track when it comes to promoting and playing live with your band.

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!

Are you one of those lucky ones who have their own music bands, like to play music and have your music videos but looking for ways to get your bands name out there? Or are you one among those millions of music artists who are looking for ways to establish your identity or promote your name and music videos in the global music world? In case, your answer is yes then you are not alone. Today if we talk in terms of the current scenario then it is a tough task to mark your presence in the competitive world of music.

Although there are numerous talent hunt shows and private music companies that are working constantly to promote young music talents but there is no substitute for an online promotion. The world has become a global wireless township and today through an online promotion you can actually seize the concentration of millions of viewers from every corner of the world at most competitive price.

These days, you have the ample of options such as video submission sites, video promotional sites and video sharing sites, which are frequently becoming major elements and ways to promote music videos and in turn getting huge web traffic.

Video Submission Websites

Promoting your music video through video submission sites is one of the easiest methods of promotion. Today many people flock to these websites everyday to see and learn more about music. And, thus you may never know that your band might get noticed by the big recording companies as well. Everyday, these websites are get visited by thousands of visitors and submitting your music video to video submission sites can certainly help massive attention.   

Video Informer Websites

The other way can be the video informer site such as Info.Clipta.com and many other that can be yet another option to promote your video. These websites helps you in easily upload the music videos you like.  Adding to this, the value of music video content is generally determined by their algorithm, which further help in positioning to the most popular and highest quality video content submitted. Consequently, this actually gives you a chance to be on top page, which in turn play a vital role in making your video more popular. The key feature that makes these websites the more preferred option is it is one of the best cost competitive tools that can easily drive traffic by using your embedded video. Your music videos get highly promoted through such sites since when any user perform search operation on this online platform after they find a description of your video in different categories that actually pull their attention and drag them directly to your website. It is one of the cheapest and simplest means to reach a huge online audience.

Video Sharing Websites

On other hand, you also have option of different video sharing sites like YouTube, Metacafe, Twitter and MySpace. Looking at the present scenario, these days video sharing sites are most popular among all. Music lovers from every age group spend their time browsing different music videos on these sites. In fact, it has emerged as a major hotspot for different music listeners who like to listen different sort of song composition. Today adding music videos to these sites is very easy. All you need is to create your profile and add music videos to your profile. The process is very simple and do not consume much time.

You need to understand and realize that today there are millions of music bands and videos over the Internet. Many of these either get lost under the burdens of search engines or never get noticed, but what makes them the best from the rest is the way of promoting these music videos online effectively through means as mentioned above.

Band Promotion for every musican is the key to success. To sell your music online, promote your band, promote your music or just showcase your band to the world you need to be able to promote your music with success.

As you well know, blogs have been all the rage for the last few years and rightly so. Blogs provide the reader with current news and content rather than some of the out of date and stale content that may appear on a lot of websites. If you are a musician or have your own band then starting a blog could help promote your music. Band Promotion is difficult enough and this is just one way to help in promoting your band.

Blogs also rank highly in the search engines for a number of reasons, most notably for their current and relevant content. There are, however, several key elements to creating a successful blog about your band or music as outlined below. You are competing with thousands of other bloggers within your subject area of music so you need to be different and follow each of the key steps as outlined.

Do your research! You must know what is already out there in terms of competition. You can do this by typing in your blog subject matter into the search engines and seeing what appears in terms of blogs. Also, search the many blog directories to see who is already writing about your topic of interest. Use the Google keyword search tool to see what people are searching for each month in relation to your topic. For example, you would be best suited to focus on a topic that people are searching for and attracts more than 50,000 searches a month. When it comes to music, you could write about band promotion which has over 70,000 searches for these keywords each month. Or maybe write about how to sell your music online or a related topic that people want information about.

Find Your Niche! As already mentioned there are thousands of blogs out there on the internet about music, bands etc. They key is writing about a niche topic and then you will be more likely to attract a targeted audience. To try and compete with an already established blog that has high page rankings, a strong viewer base, and lots of existing content is going to just get you frustrated. Focus on one key area of music or playing in a band and you will create your own loyal fan base who will crave informative articles.

Think about your blog title, domain name, description and content. Take your time in thinking about a catchy but relative domain name. It is very difficult to find the domain name you want as most one, two and three word top level domain names have already been registered. You can buy one of these top level domain names from the owner but often the requested purchase price is unrealistic and just too costly. Also, try to get a popular domain name extension. Try to get the keywords in your domain name and blog title. This will help in the search engine rankings.

If you already have your own website then create a blog using your own domain name. Why? If you create a blog from your own band or music website then you will provide readers with the opportunity to explore and navigate to other pages on your website. This will also help in branding, brand exposure and providing one link for fans to find you.

If you don’t your own website and are not keen to start your own blog then try starting a blog on one of the top music network sites such as MyBandMate or MySpace. Both provide tools for musicians to promote their music in many ways for free and one is in the form of a blog. This way you will already have an established audience to read your blog. I would recommend doing this even if you do go ahead with your own independent blog. The more exposure for your band then the more band promotion you will achieve.

With your own independent blog it is important to develop keyword rich content with the keywords appearing in the title, description, first paragraph without going overboard. You will be penalised if you just “overload” your pages and articles with too many of the targeted keywords. You just don’t need to do it and Google is aware of all the tricks webmasters try to use when it comes to achieving high page rankings.

It’s all about the content! Readers will return to your blog if you provide them with informative and valuable content about the subject you are promoting. You are reading this article most likely because you want to start your own blog or are looking for ways to promote your music. As a result, if you gain some valuable information from this article then there is a good chance that you would return again to my blog to read other articles.

The content needs to be informative and relative. You will lose your reader just as quickly as you got them if you have nothing to offer. There is just too much competition out there so you must add top quality content. If you are not sure what to write about then read other blogs, not to copy their articles but to get ideas. There is nothing wrong with seeking out ideas and then writing your own article with a different twist or adding new material. If your readers like your blog they are likely to refer it to their friends which will increase your subscriber base.

Provide some incentive to get your reader to join your blog newsletter or RSS feed. One of the trends in recent times is to give away eBooks when someone signs up. You can create a 5 or 10 page eBook about your niche topic. It has to be catchy enough to get the reader to give up their name and email for it.

Promote your site via bookmarking. Some of the most popular sites include Digg, Technorati, Reddit, Jumptags, stumbleupon and many more but these are the top ones. You will be accused of spamming if you constantly promote and add your own content or site so get some of your friends to help you out with this. These sites will track your IP address and can permanently shut down your account so you will need to respect their terms of use. You can find that these “bookmarks” will give you some promotion on the first few pages of the search engines for your keywords.

Use RSS feeds. RSS feeds provide the reader with an option to receive updates when you add new content to your blog. Once again you will need to submit regular articles or news to your site and it needs to be worth reading to keep the reader subscribing to your blog. I have subscribed to blogs, newsletters and sites before only to be bombarded with emails selling products. I quickly went to the “Unsubscribe” button at the bottom of the email.

Encourage readers to submit comments about the various blog entries to submit. Your readers are there because they have an interest in your topic so try to create a bond with them in making them feel a part of your blog. If they leave a comment be sure to respond otherwise you will find that they are less likely to write a comment again.

You will need to market your blog. This can be done by submitting your blog to the various blog directories or by writing articles and submitting them to article directories with an active link back to your blog. Submit a free press release about your blog, get into related forums and include an active link. Be sure not to spam or just sell your blog as you will be expelled from the forum, be discrete in promoting your blog in these forums.

Form joint ventures with fellow bloggers or websites. Invite other bloggers to submit content to your site and in return you can submit content to their blogs and therefore cross promote. Most bloggers will follow up on a lead that will increase their exposure. As long as you are not in direct competition and only complement another blog then this can be a valuable option. You will also gain more content for your blog.

Make your blog stand out! Add other forms of media to the site. Add MP3s, videos, photos or even an audio interview. There are plenty of cheap ways to add this rich media content to your site. Make sure that they provide relative content that your readers are craving.

Fresh Content! I can’t state enough how much your blog needs to contain fresh, informative and related content. It will take some work to maintain a dynamic and successful blog so devote at least an hour a week to working on your blog. Improve the appearance, promote it, add new content or pursue partnerships.

You can make money from your blog by adding Google Adsense, affiliate links or generating income from advertising on your blog. You will only gain interest from advertisers if you generate a significant number of hits each day. If your goal is to promote your music or band then don’t lose focus of this by distracting your readers. Good luck in promoting your music or band.

Having a consistent and deliberate music promotional and marketing campaign is probably the most important thing you can do to increase the odds of your band or artist being recognized and successful.

Myspace music promotion and online music marketing is the key to any band and artists success. If your looking to promote your band or artist and get your Myspace music player to have a higher song play count and major label type music promotion you have many more opportunities available today than could of been imagined just a few years ago.

Increase your myspace song plays and views using a do it yourself Myspace Plays increaser software to have total control of your music promotion for your band or artist.

If you’re an artist or band, music promotion is a area of you must focus on.

Creating great music is crucial, but the music business is just that… a “business”. The competion for potential fans is greater today than ever before. Promotion is the key to the success of any aspiring artist or band.

Talent will get you noticed, but promotion is what sells CD’s, digital downloads, gets you loyal fans and gets people to your shows.

Hiring a professional promoter can help jump-start your career. There are also services like TuneBoom Pro that will handle certain key areas such as Myspace Promotion. This is perfect as you might find taking care of your own promotion does not leave you enough time to actually be the artist. And for those that do have the time they even offer software to help you do it yourself.

Whether you use a myspace plays and views increaser software or a service to do it for you make sure that they have many “promotion packages” for aspiring indie artists and also experience working with many major artist’s, labels and managers.

if you’ve already recorded your music and offer your music as a digital download or CD, and if you’re ready to perform live on a regular basis it is crucial that you take a proactive role in your music promotion. Use them to increase and get more myspace music and video plays and promote your page so new fans will find you.

How do you get exposure to the largest audience on a reasonable budget? Myspace music promotion is the most effective tool a band can use to get a viral buzz started. By building up your Fans/Friends and having a active Myspace music player you will have a greater chance of getting noticed and standing out from the crowd.

It is important that potential fans and important music executives and venue booking agents do not come to your page and see a low myspace music player play count or they will get the impression that you do not have many fans and that you are not marketable.

Also make sure to keep all your fans informed of your performance schedule and other band info by using the “bulletin” feature and the section to post your upcoming shows.

This is a exciting time for the indie artist and band. You now have the exact same tools available to you that the todays top artist and major labels use..In fact by using TuneBoom Pro you are using the same service and company they use and they also offer new affordable promotional packages.

Get your artist and band noticed now by using these exciting proven promotional strategies and packages.

Things to look for in any myspace music plays and views increaser software or music promotional service include get myspace plays, get more plays, myspace music player, Increase myspace music plays, increase myspace plays, myspace friend adder, increase myspace plays, Band Promotion, Myspace Promotion, Promote my band, myspace mp3 increase, mp3 plays, Boost Myspace music plays, Get more Play.

If you focus on achieving all the above you will have a strong opportunity to get more fans to notice you as well and venues to book you and important music executives and insiders. If your looking to get attention and get noticed and signed by a record label these strategies are your tools to getting you to stand out.