Promoting your original music and growing your fanbase

[Diodes]

(I wasn't sure what the right forum for this post is.)

I posed this question to my Facebook and thought I'd take it here to see if I could get more responses. The original question was, for those musicians trying to promote your original music, what websites have you found to be the most helpful for promoting your music and growing your fanbase? Also, how do you make the most of your internet presence on these websites, such as Facebook and Twitter?

Then there was a bit of discussion, which raised a couple more questions in my mind. What are your thoughts on putting your original tracks on YouTube when you're trying to sell those tracks? YouTube can give your music increased visibility, but would making the full tracks available there discourage people from purchasing CDs or individual digital tracks? The other issue that was raised was that somebody mentioned the legal issues of covering songs on YouTube without licensing them. I had thought it was fine to cover songs as long as you're not making any money from it, but it would be nice to know the real answer.

I'm interested to hear your thoughts.

[zircon]

IMO, it makes sense to put your own music on YouTube for a few reasons.

1. A TON of people use YouTube to search for music they've heard via word-of-mouth. If someone tells you about a song, where's the very first place you go to check it out? YouTube, of course.

2. People will inevitably upload your music anyway, and there's nothing you can do about it. It's impractical to go after everyone that uploads your stuff, but what you CAN do is beat them to the punch by uploading tracks yourself. Maybe not *every* track but at least a few so that when people search, they not only get the version YOU want them to hear, they get it with your description, annotations, and links... not someone else's. This also draws views to your videos/channel and hopefully helps you get more subscribers later.

3. YouTube is a great social networking tool. The "Like" function, as well as favoriting and featuring videos, helps people share videos they've enjoyed, to say nothing of the Embed and Share functions.

As for cover songs, technically speaking you're not allowed to release your own covers unless you make some kind of arrangement with the publisher(s). That being said, there are tons of cover songs on YouTube which are not authorized. I say go for it, but remember to check and see if the songs you're covering belong to very aggressive publishers. Some labels, for example, seem to crack down on unauthorized content fast. You can try to check this for yourself simply by searching on YouTube for other covers. If there are seemingly none, and the song is popular, it's probably because the unauthorized stuff got taken down.

[EC2151]

Youtube MAY have deterred some people from buying certain cds, but most of the music I've bought is because I listened to the songs on youtube so many times that I decided that I wanted to own the music myself.

Promote yourself on the internet?

Use a variety of sources:

I use last.fm and Newgrounds, and then show off my music among other forums seeing if they'll give a damn. The more ingrained I am in a forum, the more attention I get.

Others use myspace and twitter and youtube, and all I'll say is: the more exposure you get, the more a chance people will find you. I've been meaning to make a channel on youtube for my original music for a while now, but I never get around to it.

However, if you wanna promote yourself in the real world, it really is all about networking, networking, networking.

It's not how good you are, because the best band that never plays in front of any people is worthless. It's who you get to know through contacts etc.

But you knew that already.

Zircon pretty much nailed all the important points in his post, so his advice is pretty solid.

[OverCoat]

thirding the youtube advice. I've gotten my music in a couple gameplay videos featuring remixes of the game I've covered, plus some of my original songs as well.

That plus, like Zirc, I like to post videos of my projects playing in Renoise, it gives people an insight into how i create my music and hopefully that'll sell a couple more copies of Renoise heh heh

p.s. check out my youtube channel lol

[mickomoo]

My experience with youtube, just as an amateur who just started writing music for fun... is a mixed bag. The positives of course are that youtube is a very known sight, and if you promote enough you can get ad revenues.

But lately, there's been an issue with (an) entity/(ies) known as CS or a large number of Collecting Societies, who collect 'royalties on behalf of artists.' Youtube has just been marking videos containing music. Apparently these collecting societies want youtube to identify music that "contains 3rd party content." Obviously if you're posting music of a main stream artist or living artist that would count, but I uploaded 6 samples of the lead guitar sound in one of my original works, it was marked. Many individuals uploading original content complained of the same issue, the system youtube uses to mark this material is very much like a fish net... it's ineffective at addressing the issue directly. (/end rant) >_<

Basically I'm just saying be careful of what what you upload to youtube, not a huge deal but something to be aware of. You can dispute the copyright claim, but it's really annoying. I just decided to not upload my music to youtube. It may or may not be an issue to consider... in any case this, this, and especially this gave me a decent understanding of the nature of CS, the last one is particularly useful.

Personally though, I think seeking out websites that are dedicated to promoting music like tindeck, cd baby and others would be the better route anyways, even if it is a bit more arduous to get attention at first. Building a site and making free promotional helps as well. I googled the question as well and got quite a few results, I even think you can promote you music with amazon, and other online retailers.

[zircon]

Interesting, how do you set up your YT account to collect ad revenue?

[Darklink42]

My dad's band has been using a site called Reverbnation to some effect. I don't really get into their whole marketing strategy, but from what I've heard they're doing pretty good with it. I also have to agree with the general youtube argument, given that it's the most well known video site out there.

[OverCoat]

Interesting, how do you set up your YT account to collect ad revenue?

http://www.youtube.com/partners

[PrototypeRaptor]

I've been trying to get onto more well known places for my genres, namely beatport.

but it's impossible unless you have a label that uses it, and it's pretty difficult to get on a label in the first place.

anybody have any experience with that sort of thing? I know that unsolicited demos = throwaway, unfortunately...

Also, check out soundcloud for hosting stuff - it's becoming a great place to have your music heard.

[zircon]

It's like you said - just get on a label. There are many labels with Beatport distribution, and not all of them are big names. I was able to get on a progressive breaks/trance label very easily with a single submission, so if you just search around I'm sure you'll find a label willing to take your stuff.

[Nabeel Ansari]

It's like you said - just get on a label. There are many labels with Beatport distribution, and not all of them are big names. I was able to get on a progressive breaks/trance label very easily with a single submission, so if you just search around I'm sure you'll find a label willing to take your stuff.

What are the benefits of getting on a label?

[Diodes]

I'm a little belated in saying this, but thanks for all your responses. You have convinced me of the merits of putting original music on YouTube, and Vinnie and I will probably start doing that.

[zircon]

What are the benefits of getting on a label?

Well, in many cases there are none, but Protodome was asking specifically about getting on Beatport. You do need to be on a label for that.

[Onslaught Six]

I like Bandcamp.

[PROTO·DOME]

Protodome was asking specifically about getting on Beatport.

I was? Glad I'm on ur mind.