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If you have good music, people will listen and buy your music. But they need to find your music. I’ve done all your homework below and give you the 28 Essential Music Sites To Promote Your Music which will increase your income.

The sites below are broken down into categories to help target your music exposure needs.

Artists Bare Essentials

1. GoDaddy.com – Every band or artist needs their own website URL. There is so much you can do with it (I will cover it in a future post) to compliment your marketing efforts that it is well worth the $8.99 a year. GoDaddy is the best company for URLs with great customer service and cheat prices. I have used this company numerous times.
2. BandZoogle.com – This is a website that have band/artist templates for your music. You do not have to know how to build websites. They have it all for you. You can even sell your own music on the site among other services.
3. Bravenet.com – This company offers many free services and premium services that can help you build your marketing efforts. Most importantly, they have many interactive tools you can add to your own site or add to your social networks. It has a FREE email list tool to start collecting your fans emails. This tool is invaluable and I will post about the importance of email lists in the future. I have used this company numerous times.
4. FanBridge.com – This is an artist-specific company that helps build your fan base with email list tools. There is a free service and premium service. Use the coupon code MARKSTONE for a free upgrade.

Getting Your Music On iTunes & Other Sites

1. Tunecore.com – This is the premiere site to get your music on iTunes, Amazon and other valuable sites. Tunecore has just merged services with Amazon and will now print your CDs and open up merch stores for your music. This service will start on July 1st. But for now, get your music on iTunes. Over 70% of people use iTunes for their digital downloads than other sites. I personally know unsigned bands that make over $5,000 a month off iTunes alone. There is an annual fee for each album you download. But you get to keep 100% of your royalties while other sites take a percentage. You can also get 30% OFF your fee’s by using the code beheard30.

Social Networks

1. MySpace.com – This has been the mecca for all bands and artists. MySpace even has its own label called MySpace Records. They sign artists in all genres and they usually sign bands that create a big buzz on their site. Registration is free.
2. Purevolume.com – This site has better streaming features than MySpace (MS streams have ads and randomly don’t work). This site is free to register and includes all genres but mostly caters to rock bands. They actively scout good music on their site to feature on their front page. This site gets over 10,000 visitors a day. There are social networking features available as well.
3. Twitter.com – This is the latest social networking phenomenon. Fans can see what the band and each individual member are doing throughout the day. Direct fan-to-band interaction takes place which is HUGE in building a core fan base. This is free to register and is a must in any musicians marketing plan. I will post about Twitter and your music marketing plan soon.
4. iLike.com – This site helps announce any new songs, new shows, new blogs or new pictures that you post up. Anyone who has iTunes (which is about 70% of the music population) get automatic updates on their iTunes player if they have your music in their iTunes. iLike has a sidebar that you can download attaches to your iTunes. Once you register for iLike, tell your fans about the sidebar so they can stay up-to-date on your bands every move.
5. Lastfm.com – This is another site that intergrates with your iTunes player. When you open a free account and download the Last.fm Scrobbler, everything you play gets registered by Last.fm. They use all that data from everyone’s iTune players to give you top played lists and stats on your songs. This is a good tool to see what songs are most popular on your albums. You might think you know what song is your most popular but Last.fm will tell you what your fans listen to the most.
6. Facebook.com – This is largest social network site in the world (2nd in the U.S. behind MySpace). It is starting to improve its music applications so this is definitely a site that you need to register for.

Artist Press Kits

1. SonicBids.com – This site offers EPKs (electronic press kits) for artists but also helps “book and license your music,” according to their site. I have never used their services but I know it is very reputable in the music industry.
2. PowerPressKits.com – Again, I have never used this company but they offer free press kit building. They even have different templates for you to use.

Websites For Your Music Reviews

1. AbsolutePunk.net – This website caters to anything in the rock genre and will cover hip-hop/rap. The crowd here can be tough on artists but getting any exposure on this site helps. The staff is rather huge so it is easy to get one or more of them to respond to your emails. If you have the stomach, get your music reviewed on this site. Music industry people are on this site multiple times a day.
2. Pitchfork.com – This site is the mecca for indie/singer/songwriter music. The owner was even listed as one of the Top 200 most influential people by Time Magazine. Again, this crowd can be tough.
3. PunkNews.com – This site caters to the true punk crowd and, again, can be a tough crowd. If you’re a punk band and what street cred, get posted/reviewed on this site.
4. Stereogum.com – This site caters to the singer/songwriter/indie band crowd.
5. BrooklynVegan.com – This site caters to the NYC music fan. Covers more than music and even has a Sirius satellite radio show.
6. TheDailyChorus.com – A smaller blog that has a lot of music industry attention. This blog covers music mostly in the rock genre from hardcore, emo, indie, punk and “scene” music.
7. GlobalGrind.com – This caters to the hip-hop culture and is more of a social network for hip-hop artists and fans. There are unsigned hip-hop features.

Sell Your Merchandise Online

1. BigCartel.com – This is a very popular e-commerce site that will sell your music merchandise (T-shirts, etc.) on their site and handle all the payments for you. You simply collect the orders and ship them out. This gives you full control of the shipping process. You can create a store or use one of their templates.
2. DistrictLines.com – This site not only makes custom stores for some artists but they print your merchandise as well. They cater to bands in the rock genre but also have pop-culture icons as clients.

Companies That Make Your Merch (CDs, Tshirts, etc.)

1. Discmakers.com – This company is one of the kings in the CD duplication business. Their rates are very competitive and they also do a lot more than just CDs. You can get your Tshirts, stickers, buttons and a host of other things printed.
2. DistrictLines.com – They will not only make custom merch stores for you but they will also handle your printing needs.

Other Merchandise Companies

1. LoudBytes.com – This site allows you to purchase download cards, stickers or buttons with a code on each. This code can be redeemed on their site for your music. You can sell these items at shows without ordering physical CDs. You sell the cards to your fans and they will download your music off LoudBytes. They even have hangtags for your Tshirts. If you have physical CDs and want to sell a couple of B-sides, this is the most economical way to sell a song or two.
2. Dropcards.com – This is also a download card website that embeds a code into each card.

Music Discovery Blogs

1. Kings Of A&R.com – This site is heavily scouted by music industry people. This site covers all genres of music and if you feel like your music is good enough to be featured on the site, email Dean, the owner of the site.
2. TheDailyChorus.com – Another music discovery site that is scouted by the music industry. This site mainly covers music in the rock genre. The staff of this site is a lot bigger than KOAR so it’s easier to get the staffs attention.

I will explore many of these sites in greater detail to show you how you can improve your music marketing plan to obtain new fans which will increase your revenue.

Did I miss any valuable sites? Leave a comment and let me know or email me at:  markstone424@gmail.com!

Ok, It’s time to see the true people. It’s time to uncover the secret behind “The Successful illegal sites” counting traffic more than the readers of the best selling world book “The Da Vinchi Code”. Just look at what’s happened since the internet changed the music industry! Millions…not milliards of songs from famous artists/bands signed contracts with major labels are still targeting for download… These illegal sites / P2P Networks / are free and almost everyone can upload their favorite songs. Best of all P2P Networks cover a wide variety of music genres. And guess what? Millions of people download songs from illegal sites. Man, man where the true for you talkin’bout? I have a SAY in the matter.That’s the true, When you prohibit someone from doing something, that person will search that “something” more than usual… The question becomes, What’s the best way to eliminate these sites. The major labels call into play the fear with bad news…news like:

” DONT SEARCH FOR ILLEGAL SITES / P2P NETWORKS / THOUSANDS OF VIRUSES WAIT FOR YOU. “

” NOT FULL SONGS ONLY JUST A FEW SECONDS…RUN AWAY”

” HIDDEN WORMS BEHIND THE ILLEGAL SITES”

” ATTENTION!!! A HIJACK ON YOUR DESKTOP, IF YOU VISIT P2P NETWORKS.

“The News” will never succeed, however hard the labels try. …prohibit someone from doing something… and he/she will try to come into one’s own/ if /. This rule is not only for music but plays a leading role in our life. So what’s true? or What’s the final true? Here goes: Illegal music download sites will never be eradicated, and yes I repeat the headline ” Illegal Music Sites-More Visitors than the Readers of “The Da Vinchi Code”.

Description of P2P NETWORK “A peer-to-peer (or P2P) computer network is a network that relies on computing power at the edges (ends) of a connection rather than in the network itself. P2P networks are used for sharing content like audio, video, data or anything in digital format. P2P network can also mean grid computing. Good Luck.

iPod music downloads sites have sprung up over the past year, offering more than one place to download music for your iPod. So you have bought a new iPod or already own one and are thinking if you should be purchasing membership to one of the many iPod music downloads sites? Although iTunes is great and has a huge library and variety of music, it certainly is not the cheapest place to download music for iPod. Each song costs you less than a dollar and by normal standards is considered affordable, but when we are talking about downloading more music, it all adds up. Read on to find out where folks are merrily downloading unlimited iPod music for a one time charge.

What are some of the benefits in using membership sites that offer unlimited iPod music downloads? Well, enough reason for more than 10 million users to be downloading at these sites.

1. Cost of Membership

The one-time membership charge for lifetime access to unlimited iPod music downloads has won them many loyal followers. This beats paying per download or buying a CD at the music store. New music, bands and singers will keep sashaying onto the music scene, and you never have to worry about paying an extra dollar for their songs.

2. Media Files Other than Music

How does it sound to you if you not only have access to unlimited number of iPod music downloads, but millions of movies, music videos and TV shows as well? Surely this sounds like a fantastic deal.

3. Compatible File Formats

These sites would provide you with free bundled software to convert songs and movies to MP3 and H.264 video format that is iPod-friendly. You need not cough out a single cent to purchase expensive video conversion software.

While all seems rosy, there are some pitfalls to watch out for. Some of these iPod music downloads sites are the black sheep of the lot.

1. Legality of Music Downloads

Several of these sites are plain scams that offer you nothing but copyrighted music. Be wary of what you are downloading and the source of the music. If you are not careful, you could be infringing on copyright laws.

2. Ultra-slow Download Speeds

Some sites are notoriously slow where downloading is concerned. This could well be because website owners are skimping on hosting services. If they cannot be bothered with improving their network access speeds to cope with the traffic, you simply do not need to waste time with them. There are better choices.

3. Lousy Customer Support

Good customer and technical support is important to you as a consumer. Several of these sites failed terribly in this aspect. Slow response to customer feedback and request for help are what one should be expecting when you download at these iPod downloads sites.

I hope this article has prepared you to open your eyes wide when choosing a site to download music for your iPod. Speed up your shopping for a download site and read reviews of excellent and trusted membership sites for iPod music downloads at my blog.

The content of this article is provided for the purpose of education and illustration only and is in no way associated with Apple, iTune, or any company or subsidiary of Apple. This article may be freely reprinted or distributed in its entirety in any ezine, newsletter, blog or website. The author’s name, bio and website links must remain intact and be included with every reproduction.

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.

Setting up a page on Facebook, MySpace or any number of other social networking sites can allow your album to be heard and seen by millions. Learn more in this free video series. 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