If I Were In a Band: How I Would Promote Online
Please see the first post: Why I Wouldn’t Bother With Myspace if I Were In A Band
That post had some great comments! Through the noise of social networking sites, it is easy to forget that they can and do provide genuine networking opportunities when used right. With businesses I have been involved in, it can be hard to say they didn’t have a postive effect! Thanks for all of your comments.
So, I suppose I wouldn’t completely ignore myspace. I think the broader point is that I would use it only as a small part of online promotion. Someone mentioned that the 18-30 year old crowd isn’t checking the newspaper to see what is going on this weekend. True true - Im 25 and read everything online. How do *I* know what is going on ? Word of mouth 99.9% actually. I somehow just hear about what is happening - so I’m not a very good datapoint for this.
What would I do? I’ve been thinking about this for a couple of days…
- Have a .com domain name as my primary online outlet: This is a no-brainer. I can put this on business cards, flyers, and yes even my myspace page. You can buy a domain name for less than $10 these days, and hosting as little as $5 a month. (1and1, and yahoo come to mind, of course there are others!)
- I would have all my music available for streaming: on my own website. There are services for this, and yes they cost some money (think $10-$40 a month) but I think it is worth it. Think about this - why is myspace popular for music? purevolume? mp3.com in its day? Simplicity. I would steal this idea and make sure my website is SIMPLE but well designed and had my music up front and center, since people are probably there to figure out what I sound like. Unlike those other sites though, I can put up a ton of songs, which is something fans would probably like.
- I would have a downloadable press kit: This would take a little work to do right. I could scan press clippings, include a couple of pictures and whatever else (with full song MP3s of my best couple and maybe even a video of my band playing live). I would keep this seperate from my main website - other than just an easy link I could send to people as I contact them online. (www.myband.com/presskit would be a nice signature on emails I think)
After this, Im not so sure what else I would do? I would maintain myspace and purevolume pages - like the commenters on my last post noted - if you use them right, they are gold (those of you that use them wrong are sooo annoying though grrr). I think what I would like to see is people remembering to maintain something online besides myspace. I would also use it as something to BACK UP my offline efforts … not the other way around.
What else should I do online if I were in a band?? Any ideas? I’m no expert - so toss your stories/ideas up!
February 6th, 2008 at 11:25am
[...] Edit: See the second post here: If I were in a band: How I Would Promote Online [...]
February 6th, 2008 at 2:13pm
I have been playing music for over 20 years, I have been in several bands and have worked on many studio projects, and I basically agree with everything that you stated about promoting a band.
Thanks for your time, effort, and research on this topic!!
Dan Kaisk - Vocalist/Axemaster
February 6th, 2008 at 3:29pm
anything and everything on line is a bonus…the more places people can find you, the merrier. hollywoodmusictv.com….thats another place…and yes…they also have a myspace.
i only found these articles because of myspace btw…
word of mouth is powerful…i tell everyone that will listen to me speak…if you like your guitars n stuff…you gotta check out SEIVE.
February 7th, 2008 at 2:29pm
One reason myspace is good is this. I play heavy metal kids’ music, Rockosaurus Rex. With myspace I can find people that are parents and like metal. There isn’t any other place where I can find those specific people so easily. The problem with most bands is they just add friends willy nilly and gain very few fans instead of really trying to find people that will genuinely like their music.
February 7th, 2008 at 4:23pm
And here you have brought this conversation around full circle. These are practices that any and every band should be in the habit of doing, regardless of myspace. You’ve got to use EVERY resource there is, no matter how effective or unpopular. Thanx for this awesome conversation, it’s brought out alot of good points from everyone here!!
Now, think of how many bands and musicians who didn’t know any of this learned from this post.
Thanxs Mrs Barnes!!
February 8th, 2008 at 6:24am
If there was no myspace, I would never know about tons of good underground bands. And I don’t have enough of time diging each band site for information about their gigs, new songs, videos or released CDs… So I don’t think that bands spending some time in myspace loose smth. Opposite!
(Sorry for mistakes, English is not my mother tongue)
February 9th, 2008 at 1:56am
All great suggestions from everyone! Bands must remember that it also takes Much hard work, dedication, determination, education-(music industry), a positive attitude, and most of all PATIENCE. I have seen and worked with way too many (musically) amazing bands who lose it and fall apart because they either didnt want to pound the streets or internet and promote themselves or were too impatient and wanted everything to be handed to them yesterday. Alot of bands can’t wait to “get signed”..and make that their one and only goal. “We need to get signed…We gotta get signed!” and think they have it made if or when that day comes. Educating themselves on the music industry will show that though “getting signed” to a record label is an important milestone to appreciate and be proud of, that is when the hard work Really begins. Anything is possible though…if you want it bad enough, go and work hard to make it happen! Good luck to all of the bands out there who truly have music in their mind body and soul and are working hard every day to achieve their goals..Not doing it for the money and/or fame, but doing it for the love of the music…the gift of talent they were given…and the drive and ambition to share it with the world!
Be Safe and Rock On!
-Phantom
http://www.PhantomRadioNetwork.com
February 9th, 2008 at 9:52am
Myspace is a Great Tool. Before Myspace everthing Was Pop Radio Music. Since the radio is only Limited to Top Hit Band’s. And Most Music Store’s Will only Sell Major Band’s. Myspace gives the independent Artist A Chance to Survive, in The Music industry. Yeah So it Hurt’s the Major industry. BooHoo. A Normal Web cite Would only Be Good if. People already New of Your Band, and Your Cite’s Url. Also No More Request that don’t get Playd on the Air. You can Have a Listen, anytime to any Band on Myspace. No More wanting to Know were to purchase Your Local Band’s. Or Were to Find out How is Playing where. Yes, Word of Mouth. Band’s interacting with Fan’s. One on One, word of Mouth. It’s like Mailing All Your Friend’s and Fans a Flyer and a Demo of Your Band. Then Be Like Come Check us out and have some Fun. Also I have meet More Musician’s on Myspace in the Last couple Years. Than in My Hole Life Before. And My Friend Can hear My Latest Song. So Were all Brought out into the light. Discovering the Undiscovered. And Can Feed are Fans With New Music and info about Our Band. So More People Need to use it, and Stop Abusing it. The Future of Music Depends on it.
February 10th, 2008 at 9:46am
I completely disagree. My Original Womyn’s music has been heard by thousands of womyn unreachable by radio. Hetrosexual music is so dominant in the public airwaves that they only allow the top sellers to be heard. And for Lesbians that is only two or three acts. Imagine if only two metal bands ever got play on the radio. How would metal guys feel. Imagine that every song you hear lyrically speaks down to your gender. On my space I can target my audience. I get ALOT of gigs directly from my space. Perhaps this article is bitter because my space does not work for them. For me IT WORKS GREAT. YEA!!! MY SPACE. virginia of VIRGINIAINC
February 12th, 2008 at 10:00pm
MySpace makes it much easier to reach out to fans. We only target friend requests from people we think would be interested in our music. The more friends we have, the more people will know about our shows, and thus the more fans come to the shows to watch us perform. I see no problem at all with MySpace! I think it helped our fanbase to grow much faster than anything else we could do.
I don’t understand where you are coming from. Everything you have suggested you would do to promote your band online can be done easily on MySpace. Everything. You can add external links if you prefer to sell your music with a service other than MySpace SnoCap Music Store. you can embed a player other than MySpace player if desired.
I do agree that bands shouldn’t blindly request friends. It should be a targeted effort. We started out friend requesting people who were already friends with the Guitar Player and the Drummer’s old band. We put on our profile pic “With former member of…”! It worked. People were excited to check us out.
Now we add people who are friends of the clubs that we are going to play. We always have a reason for asking for an add.
I couldn’t be any happier with MySpace right now. It really gets the word out when we are playing a show. We don’t exclusively use MySpace though. I still make paper fliers and keep them in my pocket! We still hang fliers on real Bulletin Boards. I will admit that we don’t do the legwork as much, but now we really don’t have to, now that our fliers are posted right in someones living room or bedroom now.
Everyone check out our music, by the way…HAHAHA!
http://www.myspace.com/lostkauseband
February 14th, 2008 at 9:17pm
Nice job.
Thx for taking the time to post.
Respect,
~jR
February 15th, 2008 at 8:18pm
The bottom line is exposure!!! This includes “MASTERING” the effective use of Websites, MySpace and a host of other sites along with LIVE play.
If you have high quality music and recordings, you need to start considering global exposure. In other words “RADIO AIR-PLAY”. How do you get heard rather than just stumbled into on a website?
The Internet leader in RADIO technology now is SongPlanet Radio. This is a 24/7 Global INDIE Radio station with LIVE DJ’s as well as Auto DJ-Bots in the absence of live DJ’s. (Not just a 365 station wannabe in their garage.
All you have to have is high quality INDIE recordings in Mp3 format (192 Kbps). Upload them and if the DJ’s like them they WILL play them. Once they get LIVE airplay by a DJ, the Auto DJ-Bot automatically picks them up and you have 24/7 radio airplay.
Rumor has it, that SongPlanet Radio just launched an INDIE label as well, SongPlanet Records.
http://www.songplanet.com
Check it out!
Luckee
TBR
February 16th, 2008 at 1:48pm
Yeah myspace does kinda blow, its so easy to get lost in the sea of crap and old defunct band pages, without actually hearing anything new and different and good. I actually just found a new site that will revolutionize the online music experience, its called ourstage. It’s the only 100% democratic music and video website, it’s free and offers monthly prizes to the highest rated artists. The best thing about it is the ranking system involved. Take a few minutes to check it out and sign your band up.
My personal link is ourstage.com/go/ryanb
February 28th, 2008 at 1:07pm
I agree with a lot of what Phantom mentioned.
I am a Social Media Coordinator and student of the internet. By that I mean that the internet is so vast, I cannot claim to be an expert. I am learning and discovering new things daily.
Bands need to understand the importance of not just existing. Just getting signed is not the final hurdle for a band. Community is your brand as a band. Your brand name is your band name and bands these days need to establish trust, hold a captive audience, create a sense of community, provide a level of exclusivity, stay interactive and keep content fresh. Find ways to arm yourself or the band you are consulting with a social media toolbox that covers large areas of turf on the internet.
What do I mean by this?
My favorite marketing tools of the now for a band:
First and foremost all of these sites provide some really insightful metrics that come along with their technology. It could be demographic, geographic, technographic, interaction rates, placements, impressions, uniques, clicks. Study the metrics and learn.
Google Metrics - Not for myspace but having google metrics installed on your web or landing page will provide valuable metrics that will help you determine ROI on your social media marketing campaigns. Get an account. Start reading.
http://www.flock.com - social media browser - Cover more ground. Connect your email, myspace, facebook, live journal, twitter, photobucket, flickr, and most other social sites in one browser. This has too many utilities to list.
http://www.xobni.com - make your email box ’social’. If you get an invite to this let me know I am still waiting for mine. Must watch video at their site. You will want xobni for your inbox.
Take advantage of microblogging sites like http://www.twitter.com - you can develop a level of exclusivity with your fans by texting what you are up to minute by minute if you wanted to 40404. Your twitter followers will get your random thoughts and happenings on their phones and feel really connected. You have less than 150 characters to do this. Anyone who wants to follow me on twitter my handle is agershenbaum. Get an account, register your phone, text or use twitter and text follow agershenbaum to 40404.
http://www.artistdata.com - Sync your myspace tour dates! This tool will cross post your tour dates to myspace, virb, eventful, pollstar, showclix, purevolume, jambase. Once you list your tour dates, it even does press listings for you! after each entry it has a tab that says notify local press. You always can find at least 4 publications for a city and get you’re date listed in their events calendar. More than a few times the band has landed an interview or feature with the publication due to the event listing.
http://www.gruvr.com - this interactive map allows your fans to put their email into into the map and it knows where they live. When you update your tour dates, so does the map. Then it emails your fans reminders on it’s own. No work required! Find more tools that sync tour and create a domino effect for your tour dates.
http://www.fanbridge.com - Your myspace is a pool and you need to go fishing. Capture as much information about your fans as possible. Create a free embeddable sign up form for your street team, fan club and more. Don’t sit around checking emails and creating spreadsheets. Let a site like fanbridge do it for you. Email marketing is key. Don’t abandon that just because you have social networks. Your database comes with you wherever you go. Make it a goal to create a large one. Best of all it is opt in. So you can rest knowing you are not violating spam laws using fanbridge to create mass email campaigns.
Make your content portable i.e. video blogs, epk’s, tour dates, blog, ongoing webisodes:
http://www.sproutbuilder.com - The ultimate mash up tool so far for me. It combines flash editor elements with photoshop and WISYWIG elements to easily drag and drop digital content together to create one portable widget. You don’t need to be a graphic designer, flash artist, or be an expert at java or actionscript to use this. It even has a toolbox to mash up to existing widgets like meebo chat and yahoo maps. You can create video gallerys, calendars, countdowns, RSS feeds, music players.
http://www.clearspring.com - This is great for transforming any piece of content into a portable sticky widget.
http://www.gigya.com - if you are a good flash dveloper gigya will give you a wildfire cross posting mechanism to work into you’re project. It will then be able to travel to at least 40 social sites and bookmark sites. Most of the widget dev platforms already work gigya into their service though.
http://www.gydget.com - this is the ultimate portable microsite for dummies. Fav feature - it tells you the top 50 placements. That means you know what pages are developing the most exposure for you. Those people are your core. Hell all the features rock.
http://www.eventful.com - You all know eventful. If you haven’t noticed, they REALLY beefed up thier metric reporting. For example based on the people who demand you, they create a map for you that shows where you are touring and where you have actual clusters of demands. Between this and the GRUVR tour map you shouldhave no problem defining where you’re base(s) are. It also tells you the demographcis and age clusters of your demands.
http://www.thesixtyone.com - DIGG for music. The more people ‘BUMP’ your tracks the higher you move up in their ranks. Eventually the fans determine who makes it to the front page of the site.
http://www.broadjam.com - get into sync licensing! You can make money licensing your music for TV, Movies, Video Games, Commercials.
http://www.imeem.com - digital sales and social network
http://www.ilike.com - Very good indicator for rank and popularity with those who have the ilike sidebar installed on itunes and WMP. Also reports to billboard.
These are just a few pieces of web2.0 technology that is in the social media marketing toolbox of the bands I work with. Hope some of you find some utility in this list!
Adam
March 1st, 2008 at 10:09pm
I’m hearing alot of fellow musician’s mention internet radio. The problem with that is they are still in the infant stages. I could ask a number of friends to name more than 3 and they couldn’t. Even more of a problem with the radio in general (and we all know this) is unless your management is shelling out acouple grand you’ll never be heard on the radio 10 times a day like all the sell outs. So you go through any outlet you can. I’m all for internet radio … infact, I suggest you try and use any and everyone possible. Its unreal how you can take an entire day to promote your band and see how much it pays off. Just one whole day!
.com, myspace,youtube,internet radio and messageboards.
And enough of the text bio’s. Nobody reads them. We’re currently working on a video formatted one which has brief but important interviews along with some live footage and our music playing in the background. Get them (whoever) to know you and see you. One on one works better in a visionary sense than abunch of words which scare people.
March 7th, 2008 at 5:29pm
Is all these above sights good for HIP HOP & R & B
& If they are not do u have any sights I can post to?
March 16th, 2008 at 8:56am
you knocked it on the head. 99% is word of mouth and for many on myspace, 99% is word of mouth due to being there and conversing with others that can alert you to great bands and shows advertised.
March 29th, 2008 at 5:58pm
Myspace is a good tool to have for people to hear your music, as far as promoting shows, we have had little to no success on turn out from myspace. For show promotion… nothing beats getting out to bars, street corners etc. with a bunch of fliers and self promoting. .coms and other websites are good also for people to get to know you and your music, but people have to know you exist first.
I do have one plus for myspace… my band, Dies Mali has a song coming out in a movie because it was heard on myspace and they felt it would be a good fit.
The bottom line…… any and all avenues available should be used to get people to hear your music.
April 3rd, 2008 at 9:59am
I agree with the support for myspace. But to me Myspace is just 1/10 of a serious marketing/promotions plan. How about all the members in the band meeting once a week, like they do for practice, and hit the streets with a 2 song demo(free) and flyers with a GOOD band Photo with links to their .com and myspace pages. Until fans hear you in their cars/home stereo’s know one knows who you or your songs. Writing great songs in any genre will help a band more than anything. I find it interestig when i meet a band that has written and recorded 6 songs in two years, and then they try to shove all of them at a show down my throat. Where is the Discipline out there to LEARN covers and crush them, proving you are musicians? Anyway, i agree you should use any and every resource available, but you still have to leave the house.
May 8th, 2008 at 1:40pm
World Rock Radio is always looking for new ROCK talent to showcase on our internet station. We do use MySpace for scouting and auditioning talent. It is a good tool for us because a lot of the bands are located in one area. Another place we check out frequently is http://www.musicsubmit.com One suggestion I would make to bands is to try to find a contact with a radio station, such as myself, that they can email when they have new songs/albums coming out. Radio stations of course have their own criteria for playing music. World Rock Radio’s only criteria are (1) YOU MUST ROCK! We are very picky with the music we play. If you rock, we will play you tho. (2) You MUST exchange banners with us. We support bands that support us and ask for the same in return. But the best part is, it’s always free to get your music played on the #5 station on the net. And that is worth something!
May 14th, 2008 at 5:57am
These are all great ideas and the comments are amazing. I think bands have to be flexible and willing to try new concepts. While Myspace is overloaded with bands that seem to spam people (I never understood RANDOM bands requesting you), if you use the search capabilities (and bands that are in your genre), you can do a LOT with Myspace. Should it be your only avenue of promo, of course not, but it does give you access to over 100 MILLION potential fans! THAT is why bands gravitate to it.
Also, you are right in most respects about standing out. There is sooo much music out there, and the ‘cheese’ goes to those that do something creative to get attention. I am in a band “Low of the Low”, and we are putting out our CD. Check out this video we are starting to get exposure all over the net:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ShHDrr9WLE
Our CD is called “Land of Lincoln”, so we went with an idea.
Cheers,
Mark
June 4th, 2008 at 3:06pm
Ok sure, myspace has its ups and its downs, but you can’t think of how MYSPACE is going to get you successful, you have to think of how you are going to get successful.
When you are young and when you have a band, you are hardly well known at all. You have to find people that would help you, find people to buy your stuff and would actually listen to your music.
You can find underground labels and promotions and photographers, anything!
I deal with this too. Anyone listen to black metal? Not a “few” bands, but truly listen to it?
It is one of the most underground genres, anything to get exposure helps, because chances are, you WON’T get noticed.
I promote BM, and I buy CD’s, tapes, shirts, whatever, and then I also help by spreading the word, helping them with whatever they need, whether it be a label, getting shows, supporting them, etc.
There are many bands out there that struggle because they are very underground, and sometimes its hard to get much exposure when you don’t use online help.
Believe it or not, not everybody gets major labels or gets rich and famous!!
July 11th, 2008 at 9:18pm
I currently play in two bands here in Chicago. Khaos Theory and The Root Cause. Let me just say this. My Space has helped us create a strong local fan base. What I have noticed is that if your band is playing a show near someones house or if you are playing a quality venue like Metro, Double Door, Penny Road or House of Blues if your fans love you they will come out and see you at these places because this is where it is at to see great live music. Please do not take this the wrong way either but it is very true what I am about to say. Your band needs to have talent and keep your fans wanting more. You need a good front man or woman who keeps the crowd involved and you must have good songs that people will remember. Before I was in either of these bands I played in a band called Sisiter Child and althought I thought the band was good…sparingly only a few people agreed with me and I really tried to promote the hell out of this band. BE smart, surround yourself with amazing musicians and be involved in your music scene in all aspects.
Love and respect,
Maximus
7/11/08
July 27th, 2008 at 11:06am
Dunno, maybe like everything else (someday) myspace might bite the big one and become that of something like aol or another relic.
As long as you have a website you can point to all your other accounts … myspace, purevolume etc.
Also you get to do abit more things when you have hosting/web space. Add vids, images, various pages and sections. Mainly not worry about if an image violates rules or Gawd forbid a lyric!
Although myspace does show in search engines a domain oriented site is the one that really gets the hits. It signifies you’ve gone the extra step and is far more legit than a myspace.
Even still I think myspace is a very good thing not only for music itself but for all those nasty corporate companies. Although even they now have a hand in myspace and cram it up with banners, logos and horrible 40 MB commercials that slow your myspace network down. Atleast myspace can present a nobody band with 2000 friends, 400 hits a day and a fanbase noone lives near:)
Do your band a favor and get a .com along with your space.
August 20th, 2008 at 2:26am
I’m in a band in St. Louis and I have to say that I’ve had a website and myspace acount both at the same time along with a youtube account…the problem with having a website is that it’s a waste of money or at least in my experience nearly 100% of our feedback back came from myspace even though every flyer we posted stated our website and not our myspace…also there are many venues with a myspace which makes it easier to book shows…even though, we still don’t use myspace as our main outlet…i work at wal-mart so I’m around people all day which makes it a perfect place to try and get people to our shows and so far has worked…if there are people I haven’t seen before the show or local people I don’t know then I tell them about shows online.