Internet Music Promotion explained

The music business today is going through a change comparable to the introduction of vinyl singles or FM radio, the means of distributing and promoting music faces new challenges and, for those with the right skills and motivation, new opportunities to get their music heard. The old means of distribution, first vinyl then cd, is on the way out to be replaced with digital downloads and electronic media, and the music press is still with us, just about, but has been rapidly overtaken by the social networking sites like Myspace.The 'target demographic' of most record labels, that is young adults, readily uses the internet to find out about new music and what established acts are up to - and to share this information with each other. So, any aspiring musician has to take this into account when looking to promote themselves. Of course, there are the tried and tested traditional techniques - live shows and the faithful fan-base that still have an important role to play, but to maximize success we have to investigate the new potential of the internet.

So, starting from the begriming, you should aim to have all the raw artistic materials fully presentable and ready to go. You need:
1 ) A catalog of good songs - basically an album's worth of about 50 minutes. This should all be recorded and mixed to a good standard by a competent engineer and you should also get a mastering engineer to give the mixes a final polish to sound comparable to other music of your genre. You will need the final product on a cd-rom (as wav files) for use on a computer.
2 ) A decent photo album is essential, so get a professional photographer to do some shots at the shows, studio or out and about. Think about the all important image you project to your audience, as many will judge you firstly by your photo even before they have heard you.You don't have to look super cool or fashionable, but something your fans can relate to or aspire to .A graphic designer could also be employed to create stylish artwork and promotional material.
3 ) Lots of inspired promotional text, a biography. This is essentially a CV for your band, but obviously written in a more artistic style. Fans, would-be fans, journalists, publishers and agents will all have an insatiable thirst for fresh information about the band, so it may be worth employing somebody with journalistic experience to write an ongoing resume of your musical exploits. They need to know who you are, what you do, what you like, what your plans are and anything else that helps to fill out your public profile. It is worth warning however that you should never give out any personal info like home address or 'phone numbers as this visible to the whole world on the internet. Also, sometimes it is best to leave a little mystery about yourself, so don't tell them everything but instead embellish your image with a little artistic licence - create a few myths.
4 ) Videos are a really important promotional tool today with the advent of You Tube and it's brethren. You will quickly find your movies shared all over the internet by interested fans as there is a great appetite for videos with most of your audience. This is not my area of expertise, so you will have to ask around for aspiring video producers and animators to collaborate with.

Now that you have assembled your palette of materials you can set about putting it to use. The first thing you need is your own website with a domain name along the lines of 'myband.com' or whatever. There are may low cost domain registries to register your name with and also website service providers (it makes sense to go with a service offering at least 500mb storage if you can afford this, it may come in handy for transferring studio files). You may also need the assistance of somebody who is techno-literate to set up a basic website.( Some people bypass this step and just use a Myspace page for all their needs, which will work well but is inferior to a properly designed band website.) Your homepage needs to be simple and to-the-point without a confusion of links and graphics - it needs to look fresh, appealing and inviting with a good band photo or video clip and links to the main pages as follows:
1 ) Contact - probably the most important, containing your public email address and maybe a 'phone number. It is best not to use your private email address as this may become overwhelmed with spam.
2 ) About us - using some of the biog listed above. Give a good but concise description of your band with your influences and inspirations. The text of interviews can also be put here.
3 ) A page for each album project containing album art ,a tracklisting and some glowing reviews. Provide short mp3 clips of songs and 'buy now' buttons, see below.
4 ) Pages for upcoming live shows and whatever else may be of interest.
5 ) A comprehensive photo gallery for the use of press and promotion
Use your photo and video clips liberally throughout the site to add colour to blocks of text. Include discrete links to all other pages promoting your band, especially Myspace, and don't forget to include lots of descriptive text and tags (e.g.: your band name, your genre, location, inflences, downloads, mp3, video and anything relevant) in all your webpages,as this is helps those using search engines to find your music and info. Put links to your all your wepages on all other pages - that is blogs, forums, music sites or any other free sites that you can write on. All the items above need to be regularly updated with fresh info, there is no use in a website that stays static for years, and don't forget to get some constructive feedback from plenty of non-technical friends.
You need to draw people in with lots of exciting material, and keep them coming back !

The next essential link in the chain is the digital downloads. You need to take your cd-rom of mastered mixes and convert them to mp3 files, making them smaller and easier to download - this can be done with a program like Wavelab. The mp3's need to be in the correct format: 44.1khz Stereo and the bit-rate 192 or higher. Once you have converted and auditioned the mp3s pack them into zip file along with a artwork in a jpeg format, a tracklist and a copyright notice with contact details. Alternatively you may wish to sell individual mp3 files, but this is a marketing decision.
You will now need to set up a Paypal merchant account.and a Payloadz download account - for this you will need a bank account and credit card for identification and handling funds.The Payloadz account must be linked to your Paypal account using the 'PDT' feature that allows funds to be collected - the Payloadz homepage has a useful tutorial pdf on the whole process.You can now upload your album zip file to the Payloadz server and create buy now buttons to paste into your album page above and then thoroughly test the electronic buying process with a friends Paypal account or Credit Card. Another option is to use Paypal to sell your cd and vinyl hard copies and other merchandise (a great money-spinner, the topic of merchandising is worth another whole tutorial).
If successful you now have a solid product to offer backed up with good promotional material on the internet. Now, and here's the hard part, all you have to do is let people know about it

Myspace is the number one promotional tool on the internet - it is a social networking site of around 50 million members, and of special interest to us is the ability to add our own music and graphics to our band's profile. Firstly, use the artist sign up page to register your band and enter some basic biographical info into the various forms on the website. Upload a selection of songs for others to listen to, and maybe download - you could edit the songs to just half length, though it's worth giving away a few freebies. You can also add photos and videos, so make full use of all these features to enhance your page on a regular basis - and don't forget to include a link to your website and buy buttons. One of the drawbacks of Myspace is the limited design features available compared to a custom website - all profile pages are set to the same basic template and the opportunities for re-design are a bit limited. However, there is now a truly massive cottage industry of websites providing free custom Myspace designs - see Google. Anyway, fancy designs aside, the important thing is that you have a presence on Myspace advertising your band and you merchandise.
Now you have arrived in cyberspace you must go about networking and making 'friends' - Myspace terminology for linking your profile to the countless others out there. A good start is to contact any of your known fans who have a Myspace profile, then go to their page and add all their friends - you can use Google to search the entire Myspace site for text in pages that mention your music - for example 'trip-hop'. Also try searching for bands that have a similar fan-base to yours and adding some of their friends - this should keep you busy for a few weeks.
When making 'friends' it makes sense to check from their profile that they are a likely target audience, and to contact them personally, showing a polite interest in their page and respectfully asking them if they would like check out your website. You should also try to add a comment to their page promoting your band - don't forget to include a photo and a link to your website (always 'think link' every time!). If you are lucky they may take an interest in your band and tell others about you - this is the phenomenon of networking that we are trying to harness.But, don't forget you will be one of many thousands of outfits busy plugging their stuff on Myspace, so the competition is stiff and standards are high. The good news is that there are so many people who now rely on sites like Myspace to find and buy new music and if you can establish communication with them you are in with a chance.

There are a few other free music websites that are worth considering, and many of the allow you to upload music, videos, photos and biogs, though few offer the facilities of Myspace and their web designs are more limiting. In order of usefulness:Podomatic,(I'm liking this!), Last FM , I-Jigg , Orkut , YouTube , Garageband , Mp3Com , Soundclick and also Bebo , Flork , Buzznet and Facebook (more to come soon) .Take the time to set up a basic profile on all of these and include the all important link to your website and buy buttons.

Another new angle I have been experimenting with is Podcasting - like a 20 minute mini radio show, previewing your music, and downloadable as an mp3 file, including a link to your homepage .Using Wavelab I have segued together DJ style, playing just one minute of each song and adding effects, shout-outs and unreleased rarities.You can then send out an RSS feed (tutorial) to all your fans and to various podcast directories & your blog, and easily update the feed to include new promotions. This is an effective way to communicate with people who don't have time to go looking through the internet and just want to listen to a few minutes of new music without the hassle
And one last thought - . Also contribute to internet forums on whatever subject is your specialty and share your knowledge- build up an internet presence, build up contacts, and connect with the community.

a few more thoughts / more ideas: home