Hi,

Im going to be getting back into putting music out again next year after a few years hiatus so im a bit out of touch.

Could anyone tell me if Myspace is still relevant ? It doesnt seem to work as it used to with regards to playing the music on there.

What is the most popular way of getting a link up to my music for contacts and a place for fans to listen ? Am i right in thinking it is Soundcloud or is you tube more popular ?

Are there other options/ how do people get their music out there now ?

Cheers

Edited by Helmut Crab (16/12/12 01:55 PM)

Quote Helmut Crab:

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What is the most popular way of getting a link up to my music for contacts and a place for fans to listen ? Am i right in thinking it is Soundcloud

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Yep. You might also check out Bandcamp. MySpace has declined considerably with most of the action moving to Facebook and Twitter.

One interesting option is to set up different pages for your need, for example, Youtube if you have some videos, Bandcamp or Soundcloud to upload quality audio, a Facebook page for news, event and contact (that's the place now apparently) and a blog if you feel the need to upload some specific contents.
Then you link all of this into one portal, that would act as your official web site, and for this there's an interesting service called Flavor Me that allow you to refer all of your pages in a nice way.
http://flavors.me

Some people will say : avoid to spread yourself all over. While it's true, I don't think it's bad to have different pages as far as they act for different purposes.

Otherwise, you will find that Facebook will be the place where your followers are getting the most in touch with you and where the action is. The possibilities of the interaction are big. So while Flavor Me can do a nice portal and business card, Facebook is on another level for receiving feedback, getting people to your gig by creating events and to some extent, selling out your music.

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http://soundcloud.com/orgasmo-sonore Revisiting Obscure Film Music

But I feel the need to add a big warning about facebook. I don't think this is a place to be trust and you always have to keep an eye on their politics. They also change their settings quite often, for example, the "pages" are now restricted when you post a news, only a certain amount of your fans has it on his wall.
So while it's true that is currently a very dynamic place, I don't trust them for the long term. They have a kind of approach like "people will not make money out of us" and that's true for music and bands as well.

So in term of purely uploading music, I would suggest Soundcloud, Bandcamp or Reverbnation. Sadly, none of them have the power to reach and interact with fans as Facebook.

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http://soundcloud.com/orgasmo-sonore Revisiting Obscure Film Music

defo check out reverbnation its got some great features

Here's my contribution.

I set up my own label in 2010. I don’t gig, so I need a way to get my music heard as much as possible by as many people as possible. This is how I go about it.

I use Myspace as my main page. I’ve built myself a nice little page with all of my information on and I tend to this every day, posting news, developments and building up my “friends”. On my Myspace page, I have links to other pages – notably Twitter and HeadlinerFM, also lesser-known sites, such as Mixposure, Ourstage and IMRadio.

My music is on iTunes, HMVdigital, Amazon and lots of other music sites where I can publish a page for my music, plus links to sites where my music is available to purchase and download. I also have a page on LinkedIn and do searches for people wanting music - be it DJ’s, record labels, music libraries, etc. Sure, it’s hard work to maintain all of these. Sometimes I can spend 16 hours a day on these just making people aware I’m here. I’ve built up a base of over 4000 “friends” on Myspace, not a lot, but when it’s just me doing the promotion work, it’s a fantastic achievement.

Some of my tracks are also on a music library over in Australia, so my tracks get played all over Australia and I get a bit of money from that. Last year, I had some music licensed to a label over in Connecticut.

Every month I to go to a network meeting and a social media café session and each time I attend, I take a bunch of business cards and hand them all out. I’ve met lots of interesting people.

So hard work pays off. I feel like I’ve achieved something. OK, I don’t get that much money out of it, I wish I did. I do this because I love it – it’s a passion. That is the way you should look at it.

I am currently working on pages that I have on Reverbnation, Indiechart.com and Tribe of Noise. Also, don't be quick to dismiss Myspace - it's how you use it that matters.

Hope that helps.

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Duncan J. White

If you are running a business, you MUST have your own website as a dot-com. You can add a dot-co-dot-uk if you want, but a dot-com is vital.

As a musical act, videos on You Tube is VERY important. When I am researching an act, I do a Google search and a search of You Tube and that's pretty much it. Hiding away on one of these 'social networking' sites does not get the message out much further than a few bored housewives, the unemployed and the bedroom glitterati.

Quote KuRu:

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defo check out reverbnation its got some great features

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Who cares about features? NOBODY is going to check out a page on reverbnation apart from a few other desperate, unemployed demo musicians.

Facebook page + Soundcloud, youtube backed up with twitter is the way to go in 2012. Myspace no longer has any purpose. Reverbnation never had.

Quote johnny h:

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Quote KuRu:

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defo check out reverbnation its got some great features

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Who cares about features? NOBODY is going to check out a page on reverbnation apart from a few other desperate, unemployed demo musicians.

Facebook page + Soundcloud, youtube backed up with twitter is the way to go in 2012. Myspace no longer has any purpose. Reverbnation never had.

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So, have a little bit of your music everywhere.

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Duncan J. White

Quote DJW:

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Quote johnny h:

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Quote KuRu:

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defo check out reverbnation its got some great features

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Who cares about features? NOBODY is going to check out a page on reverbnation apart from a few other desperate, unemployed demo musicians.

Facebook page + Soundcloud, youtube backed up with twitter is the way to go in 2012. Myspace no longer has any purpose. Reverbnation never had.

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So, have a little bit of your music everywhere.

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No point being associated with the likes of reverbnation. Devalues your music if anything.

I'm slowly becoming a fan of Aurovine. Easy uploading with automatic conversion to Flac and MP3, easy sales management, small commission, no up front cost, better 'buy' system than Bandcamp, in house online radio show (had a few spots already), a bit of licencing and promo support etc etc. Not sure how many people go there though, and there's a lot of poor product. I think it's on the up. Anyone else using it who wants to report?

I like Aurovine and the Aurovine guys.

But none of these sites are ideal as a band site, and they come and go, which is why we have our own site as our main place. Obviously it takes some setting up, though, and some web knowledge.

It's true that Reverbnation is quite an awful place.

But all of them, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Reverbnation, they lack the power of social networking of Facebook. They mostly are good networking for musicians, populated by musicians. Many followers you get are of the type "I follow you, please follow me back". A LOT, are just hookers who follow people in batch, just to catch some followers back, and then they delete you from their list. If you receive a comment of the type "Nice song, good work", this is probably the same comment for hundreds of other people, just to get some comments back. Soundcloud is infested by this kind of behaviour. While on Facebook, every damn Likes you will have on your page/post, so few they may be, will mean something. That's where you must build your fan base and try to make them aware of a dot com official web site you have + get them to register to a mailing list with their mail, so if facebook is going down, you are not screwed.

Now if Soundcloud is trying to makeover and be a social nerworking website, they haven't understood where and what they actually are in the big scheme of the web (see other topic).

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http://soundcloud.com/orgasmo-sonore Revisiting Obscure Film Music

Hi to you all and thanks so much for all of your time and suggestions - they are much appreciated.

Helmut

Edited by Helmut Crab (17/12/12 04:46 PM)

Quote johnny h:

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Quote KuRu:

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defo check out reverbnation its got some great features

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Who cares about features? NOBODY is going to check out a page on reverbnation apart from a few other desperate, unemployed demo musicians.

Facebook page + Soundcloud, youtube backed up with twitter is the way to go in 2012. Myspace no longer has any purpose. Reverbnation never had.

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oh dear, so like the way you can promote through reverbnation onto twitter,myspace,facebook all at the click of one button, the way you can submit your music to all the major and a few unusual places as well, there are also handy html widgets for use on myspace and other pages that allow html for collecting fans, also as a snapshot of all your online content, you can also export rpk's off there site and make a .com in a quick simple and professional looking way, your obviously spending to much time being unnecessarily hostile to have looked at what is actually on offer on there site its a highly respected site and the street team section has helped us pull in several hundred fans which have converted into people at gigs and download sales

Quote johnny h:

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Quote DJW:

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Quote johnny h:

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Quote KuRu:

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defo check out reverbnation its got some great features

---

Who cares about features? NOBODY is going to check out a page on reverbnation apart from a few other desperate, unemployed demo musicians.

Facebook page + Soundcloud, youtube backed up with twitter is the way to go in 2012. Myspace no longer has any purpose. Reverbnation never had.

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So, have a little bit of your music everywhere.

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No point being associated with the likes of reverbnation. Devalues your music if anything.

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so where do you promote your music online? facebook and reverbnation integrate seamlessly and going over the past 4 or 5 gigs we have done all the promoters have asked for reverbnation links. i think also that just because you don't necessarily rate a site doesn't make it wrong your talking in absolutes like you are some major league player who determines what is industry standard lol

Well said, I'll agree with that.

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Duncan J. White

I think it probably depends on your goals more then anything and therefore there really isn't a right or wrong, but a combination of things is probably the best....

That being said having your own website no matter what you are doing is absolutely imperative, cause tieing yourself solely to a platform you don't control and which could change or charge at any giving moment just isn't smart...

It's always nice to be able to show and share your flare and your style instead of a rigid one size fits all kind of thing...

I'm in the process of creating a brand new site using Bandzoogle, after i discovered that a succesful independent artist I know uses it.

It's mightily impressive and so easy to use, it has everything you need as an independent musician in one place. Check it out. I wish I'd started years ago with it instead of messing with HTML code myself.

That said, it's vital to have a Facebook AND Youtube presence. These can been incorporated into the Bandzoogle site.

'Wix' is also easy to use, but not geared specifically at musicians.

Myspace? They finally got their site sorted... but way too late...will the last person to leave turn out the light.

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Hi GlynB and thanks - i will check that out

I think to connect with your target audience, you have to socialise where they socialise.

Soundcloud and Bandcamp are great resources, but the people who linger on these sites are likely to be other musicians. If that's your target audience, great! However if it's not, you need to shift your focus elsewhere.

Use all the available resources on-line - youtube for video, soundcloud for music hosting, twitter for engaging in dialogue with fans etc. but build all of that around a hub-site that promotes you and allows you to send the messages that you want to send. Your objective with all of the other resources around the edge is to steer visitors to your hub site through links...

Facebook and Myspace can act as that central hub, but have limitations as described in this thread. Clearly a custom site allows you most flexibility in terms of branding/content, but there's an overhead in managing it.

Cheers Redwood,

I can see how its done now thanks - i really dont like going on Facebook and twitter but my wife loves it !

GlynB,

I checked out Bandzoogleand it looks great but it is only free for 30 days - after which there seems to be expensive (for me) monthly payments.
Do you know if you get to keep the website you create and is it workable for a third party programmer (HTML) or is it blocked outside of the monthly contracts if you decide to opt out after the trial period ?

Thanks everyone and a merry christmas to all,

All the best

Quote Helmut Crab:

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Cheers Redwood,

I can see how its done now thanks - i really dont like going on Facebook and twitter but my wife loves it !

GlynB,

I checked out Bandzoogleand it looks great but it is only free for 30 days - after which there seems to be expensive (for me) monthly payments.
Do you know if you get to keep the website you create and is it workable for a third party programmer (HTML) or is it blocked outside of the monthly contracts if you decide to opt out after the trial period ?

Thanks everyone and a merry christmas to all,

All the best

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Well the basic service is $99 a year. You think that's too expensive to have a decent looking customised website to host your music? Guitar strings, rehearsals, equipment, etc all cost more per annum for most musicians who are serious about their music. The website is your shop window, it's how you present your music to the world.

Wix.comn is a free provider, and also easy to build a website. But they are not geared specifically for the musician, they don't have the same tools available (ie music player, etc).

Could you take the site away if you leave? Hmmmm, I know you can see the code behind it, so it might be possible to copy it, but i suspect the templates are copyright to bandzoogle.

They way i look at it i was paying a little less for webhosting alone previously, so i cancelled the webhosting and put the money into the Bandzoogle site instead.

Thanks for the detailed reply GlynB,

I must confess, i am pretty much ignorant to all things internet. In my last band all my website was developed by a friend who was a professional web designer but i wouldnt want to impose again.

I think i may be able to get a university student to make a site for me but the maintenance would then be a problem so I'm starting to understand where your coming from. However, the main problem i see is the basic package only allows you 100 fan list members @ $9.95/month and even the standard package only allows 1000 fan list members but is $14.95/month (with fully customisable design) . The pro package is $19.95/month and allows 10,000 fan list members which is ok but is a considerable outlay every year @ £147 per annum.

I suppose it allows you to build up to the pro package via income to some extent, but the basic package is still £73/year with a very small fan mailing list.

I remember paying £10 or so every year to my friend for the web domain (.com) but is this the same as the web hosting you mention paying for ?

Cheers

GlynB,

Is there a reason you need a dedicated music player for a website ? Would Soundcloud or other links not suffice ?
(is it to keep them there and look more professional ? -instead of redirecting them ?)

Thanks

There are pleanty of cheap and good all-in-one packages that allow even the most bone-headed beginner to get your own dot-com or co-uk and use simple templates to give you all kinds of options. The usual price is about $5 a month and they usually have tools for embedding music and video.

Here is one - Lycos US and I am sure others here will suggest better ones.

Almost all of them allow you to start off with a free site with embedded advertising and pop-ups, just to get a feel for the on-line template editors and then upgrade to an ad-free and pop-up-free premium site for a modest fee.

Quote Helmut Crab:

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GlynB,

Is there a reason you need a dedicated music player for a website ? Would Soundcloud or other links not suffice ?
(is it to keep them there and look more professional ? -instead of redirecting them ?)

Thanks

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I've seen soundcloud player used on Bandzoogle sites, looks ok. There are other possibilities too.

Regarding the limited fan list, you can always use an alternative dedicated mailing list provider such as Mailchimp.

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