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The word blog is short for “web log.” A blog is basically an online journal that its author uses to publish “posts,” which are separate entries to the journal. Blogs can be used for any reason and subject matter imaginable. From teenagers and activists to politicians and best-selling authors, anyone can easily and inexpensively publish a blog. In many ways, blogs are just another version of a web site with multiple pages. You can visit and read a blog page in the same way you would any other web file format called RSS. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. In general, it is used to publish and organize frequently updated digital content, such as blogs, news feeds and podcasts. The coolest thing about RSS is that it gives people the ability to subscribe to blogs and podcasts.

In essence, an RSS feed allows you to subscribe to a web site, which just happens to be a blog. You can subscribe to blogs using something called a news reader, feed reader or aggregator. Feed readers work in a similar way. Open it up, and all of the blogs you’ve subscribed to will show up, with the latest content at the top, usually with just the headline and maybe the first few lines of the blog post displaying. It’s a pretty awesome way to have only the information you want delivered to your desktop.

What to Do With Your Blog:

Deliver the facts. The most basic thing you can do with an artist blog is to announce stuff: gigs you’re about to play, new tracks you’ve released, awards you’ve won, media coverage you’ve just landed, etc. Let people know about all of your music-related activities. But there are other things you should do with your blog too.

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Over the next few minutes, I am going to go over some music promotional ideas, offer advice on selecting musician resources and show you how to promote your CD without emptying out your wallet. Independent artists have the upper hand and no longer have to worry about being signed to a major label to make it.

1. As I said before, you don’t need a record deal to “make it” in the music industry. The industry has changed and that is no longer the absolute measure of your success. You can define your own success.

2. As an Indie artist, you won’t have anyone telling you what to play, how to dress, how to promote your CD, which songs to sing or who to socialize with. It is all about you and your creativity!

3. Financial freedom is one of the most wonderful things about being an independent artist. You can come up with all types of music promotional ideas about how you market your music and what you do with your profits.

4. Spend the most amount of time on your first album. Take full advantage of every musician resource out there. First impressions are everything so you want this first one to be great.

5. Spend your money wisely. Don’t go crazy with studio time and rack up tons of bills. Try to work out any problematic areas before you go on the studio clock.

6. Don’t skimp on the manufacturing of your CD. You these people to be reputable and it is ok to splurge in this area. You want to make sure you release a good product no matter what.

7. Schedule your own tour. You want to build an incredible fan base because they are the best musician resource out there. Your fans love you but they will also be honest about your music and shows. If they don’t like something or something is up to their standards, they will let you know.

8. Lastly, never underestimate the power of the Internet when searching for music promotional ideas on how to promote your CD. The Web is your friend and that is where the Independent artists make the most dough. Get a website and get a MySpace page.

These are just the top eight music promotional ideas and tips that I can offer you. Constantly try to redefine your music and come up with innovative marketable ideas. The opportunities are endless so take advantage of every single one of them.

I’ve been using ReverbNation for about 6 months now, and I have to say, the site has really helped me with the promotion and marketing of my music. Like anything else, you get back what you put into it, and as anyone who has done any type of online marketing knows, it is a very time consuming process. Especially if you are attempting to do it alone ( or with very little help).

This is where ReverbNation can help. They provide you with tools, such as promo widgets, a fan mail program,etc. that can help you get your music out there, and get your band seen and heard online. They also provide detailed stats on your page views, plays, listeners, fans, etc. The best part of their site is that most of their services are absolutely free. They actually have a band equity program that pays the musician.

Obviously, you are providing content for their site, and with the email program there is an ad at the bottom of the email sent out. But it is all done with style, and in my opinion, is very professional looking.

The Fanreach email system also offers you info on click thru %, fan location, age, % of mail opened,etc. It also has filters so you can search for fans in certain geographic locations ( to avoid email fatigue ) and automatically removes invalid email addresses or unsubscribed users.

The widgets speak for themselves. If you want to see how they can be put into use, check out examples on the reverbnation site.

I think these widgets blend  nicely into  websites. They aren’t plastered with ads for doritos or bud light. They are customizable as well ( background and font colour ).

ReverbNation helps  artists to better understand how their promotional efforts are working, and provides the means with which to communicate better with their fans. I really believe it is a must for any indie musician. Especially if you are understaffed, underpaid, and underfed.

You don’t have to be a great writer to create a memorable music-related blog on MySpace. All you need are a few good band stories, gig stories, or an observational take on the music industry to start a blog. Once fans and others begin reading it, they will want to know more about your music and where you will be playing next. This is how to drive more traffic to your profile page.

The following tips can help you in writing a blog that is informative, opinionated, and entertaining. While you want to promote your sound, blogs should contain other info fans find funny and interesting. If you can build a relationship with fans, they will automatically visit your profile page and download music, check out band photos, and plan on attending your next gig.

Tip #1: Keep Your Blog Simple and Fun

Blogs are meant to be small glimpses into your life as a musician, your opinions about the industry, and a way to generate interest of fans and hopefully record labels. Bog your blog down with technical info, boring stories, and too many commercial plugs, and you will lose people very quickly.

When creating posts, try to write in a conversational tone (pretend you are talking with band mates or fans at a music event).

Tell funny stories about how you are struggling to make it in the music business, celebrity sightings, advice people have given you, and about current music trends. This will entice readers to come back, especially if you take on a witty, light tone.

Give fans an insight into your musical life. Tell them about your aspirations, what you are doing to reach your goals, and pitfalls along the way.

Tip #2: Update Blog Posts Daily

This is the best way to keep fans wanting more. If you only post once or twice a month, fans will lose interest and you will have fewer chances of getting others to hear your music. If you don’t want to post large blogs once a day, post a few small ones during the day.

Tip#3: Mention the Music, Not Your Profile Page

Fans can access your profile page at any time, they don’t need to be constantly reminded to do so. Blog about your music, what you have recorded recently, and where you are taking your sound. Fans want to be in on the evolution of your career. Blatantly selling yourself through your blog is not interesting to read and not that much fun to write. Use your blog to express yourself and your music.

Tip#4: Don’t Limit Yourself

You don’t have to limit yourself to just music. If you hold a day job, tell people about it! While you don’t have to go into specifics about where you work, you can tell fans what it is like to juggle a job and your music goals, how you manage to do both, and the great stories you have about work and music colliding.

A music blog on MySpace is one of the best ways to connect with fans. As long as you post regularly, update your profile page accordingly, and give fans a glimpse into your world, you will drive traffic to your site and get noticed by other musicians, record labels, and new fans.

I would probably say that I was not the only one, who got bored looking at musical notes during a Music class years ago. Perhaps, it is because children just do not get fascinated with pages of lines and notes, colored black and white. Now, that I am no more a kid, I admit that it’s still dull to look at those stuffs and I still feel the same way.

I have nothing against reading musical notes but I would just rather sing than struggle dealing with such complicated matters. Music teaching tips might help me learn music easier, but I would also need of a very patient teacher to assist me so.

When I was in grade school, I used to be a member of a drum and lyre band. I experienced playing both the lyre and the drums and found the latter easier. However, I ended up playing the lyre. It was fun especially when we won awards in exhibition competitions. We also did caroling during Christmas holidays and played in different events and occasions.

I enjoyed playing those instruments although there were times I got embarrassed when I made mistakes. There came some instances when I escaped attending band practices because I knew I would be called by our bandmaster. I did not like the feeling of receiving special attention. Worst, I got such because I messed up.

We had our band practices a group at a time. Usually, the lyrists practiced first then the drummers, or otherwise. Then, we played in a classroom as a whole – all together. Our bandmaster used different music teaching tips and strategies to help us learn music pieces easily. What was remarkable to me was that of Psychology’s Operant Conditioning.

Does it ring a bell? Or does it sound unique? I somehow have a clue how Music is related to Psychology but the other way around, I am not really sure. But I can say it was effective in my case.

Our bandmaster gave us two options: (1) we had to perform in our exhibition drills as if we were in the actual competition-meaning having minimal mistakes as possible- so we could get home early. We used to have practices a couple of whole consecutive days and those were really exhausting; or (2) he would pull our sideburns for every mistake we would commit. The former condition is a ‘reward’ while the ‘latter’ is a punishment. Of course, we would go for the reward. After all, who would want to be punished?

There are lots of accessible music teaching tips and strategies anywhere. You can look for books at the nearest bookshop from your home or visit a fellow music enthusiast and ask for useful tips. Also, you can surf the Internet for easier access of general or specific information.

(This article was written by a friend named Morgan Hall)

Know more applicable music teaching tips, log on to Music Teachers website.

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.

Hi,
My name is Steve Morgan, and I have been a Music Artist and in the Business since 1967,
have been in verios bands of different genres like, rock, blues, jazz/swing, country…
I have had a small recording studio for the past 12 years, and have been active in it, since about a year ago.

I have been working on this free website, MusicPlaces.com, dedicated to helping independent music artists
promote them selfs, and sell their music on the internet, with a Music
Artist and Listener Community.
The site offers FREE accounts to all Music Artists and Listeners.

Artist
accounts feature a Main Artist Profile Page with a portable flash player that each artist and fans can
use to post music on other sites getting even more exposure than most other sites give, also other site features
like mp3 song hosting, video hosting, guest book, photo gallery, digitel music store,
an artist promo kit in pdf format, Internet radio stations,and so much more!!
There are so many ways to promote your music on the internet for free, and this is one of the
best resources for independent music artists and listeners that love Indie Music!

Now, I would like to help artists get the most out of internet self promotion by giving you some sound
advice about how to get started.

First, there are many free music artist sites that you can get free artist accounts on.

Join as many of these as you can, still being able to moniter each of your accounts at least 2 times a month,
keeping active and puting fresh content up as much as possable.
I would think that 5 or 6 of these would be some work, especialy if you are giging and work a day jab too!

Try to choose sites that have been around for more than 2 or 3 years, as they are probably more established
on the internet and have more traffic and listeners giving free exposure to your page.

Try keeping your user names (artist name) on all of these sites the same, as this will only help with search engine results
when searching for your name or band name in a search engine.

Try being as active on all sites as you have time for, as this will get your name out there, and people on the internet will soon
know who you and your music are!

Choose one of these sites to be your home site, and link to it from all of your other sites.
Usualy when selecting a home site for your music, select the site with the most features for free first!
Making sure that the site you choose is the fastest loading and works the best.

Most of these music sites that you sign up with have forums these days.
Be as active in as many of them that you can, make a link to your home page as your forum signature, if they let you.
Search engine spiders spider forums every day and the more posts you post, the more links you will have in google.
The more links you have, kinking to your home page in google, the higher google will rank your home page.

Sites with portable players that you can put on other sites that play your songs are a great resource for getting exposure
on places in the internet that wont host your mp3 songs.

MusicPlaces.com has a great portable player that will play your songs on sites that let you past code into them
like myspace, tagworld, and other places that let you use html, including forums, blogs, guest books…

If you sell your music, most sites these days have a Digital
Store.
Put your music for sale on as many of these places that you can.
Even if you dont sell anything, your songs and merchandise will be spidered by the search
engines and you will get more exposure!

Have a good email address that works, and check it often, answering any enquiries and fan messages.

It takes some time to get real popular as far as google is concerned
but, time will pay you with good results!

At the very core, the principles of running a business and marketing a band to the point of making actual money are not that different. Just so happens that this business is music.

Remember that old saying that goes something like “build it and they will come”. It’s an old saying because in today’s world it should read “build it, MARKET IT… and they will come”. If you do not believe me then think about how many talented people you have come across that made incredible music in their basement, music that never made it out of their house. It’s like they’re waiting for somebody to ring the doorbell and say “I was just passing through the neighborhood with a briefcase full of money and wanted to see if you have a great song available”. You know it’s not going to happen. However, there are things you can do to get your music/band marketed and we will be discussing this in the following article.

Let us first establish what we’re looking to do. We need to market the band while at the same time making some money or at least not losing much on the marketing costs, all this while making sure that our efforts will be rewarded if things are done right.

Let’s look first at traditional marketing methods. Here we have things like t-shirts, buttons, stickers and any other solid tangible good that represents the band or artist. Obviously CDs enter the picture and so do DVDs. With the arrival of services such as Zazzle and others, you can sell your stuff without ever seeing it or stocking it. You simply create your design online and when somebody orders it they will print the design onto the shirt and ship it out. The quality is really good, but as with anything that helps make your life a bit easier, it will cut into your profits.

These items earn back money while promoting your music/band. After all, some dude dressed with your t-shirt is like having a walking billboard. Try to remember these simple rules as you design your products:

1.    Very easy to read, clear and big logos work. If you’re a fan of warped letters and squiggly lines you should try to stay away from that. Nor should the public have to use a magnifying glass to read the name of your band. It doesn’t mean that your design has to be stale or boring, but stay away from stuff that you need to spend time and effort to make out.  If you’ve ever seen a shirt for a death metal band you’ll know what I’m talking about. You want people to be able to read your name fast and easy. Same goes for logos. McDonalds is famous for it’s yellow arches. Mercedes, Nike and Adidas are well known for their logos. You may notice that their logos are based on simple forms/graphics.
2.    Be sure to put your contact info on just about anything. The more contact details, the better. Your telephone number is good and so is an e-mail address. Some things, like t-shirts for example, do not lend themselves easily to this end, but there’s no reason why the website address can’t be present on everything.
3.    Get people to give you their e-mail address in any way shape or form so that you can start to build your own e-mail list.

Now let’s look at some non-traditional methods. We have here some ideas for non-traditional promotion that will give you the most bang for your buck.

1.    Club cards, more commonly known as postcards are great but before you run out and do these yourself try and see if you can get a sponsorship to pay for the cards. Here’s how it works: Find a business that is somehow tied into the scene you’re trying to reach. If, for example, you’re a rock band, a tattoo parlor or a store that sells punk clothing store might do the trick. Five thousand cards will cost you about 200 bucks. Pitch the idea as five thousand cards distributed as promo at your show for $200, with your band on one side and their business on the other. Don’t say stuff like you’re offering the back of the card, because in all reality the card has NO back. It has two faces. They get 5 thousand cards printed and distributed to people that are in their market and you get your card FREE! Works great for everybody.
2.    If you find other active bands or artists releasing albums then work together and print small footers on each other’s posters.  Your poster will have a small footer with gigs/releases of 5 other bands let’s say… Each of those artists will in turn feature a small note of your release/gig on their own poster. You will reach about five times more people without any extra expense.
3.    Getting sponsorships may be a bit hard at first until you are better known in your market. Most sponsors look for artists with a following. If you have started to build a fan base then you can try to approach companies for a sponsorship. Offer space on all your marketing materials as well as promotion for the sponsor at your gig.

I hope this has given you some new ideas about how to promote your band. Stay positive and keep working at it.