Promote Your Music Socially

Social Networks You Can Use To Promote Your Music

Posted on November 26, 2007 by Eric Hebert
Filed Under Social Media Marketing |

So hopefully you’ve got your MySpace and Facebook profiles up, and have heard of Pure Volume and Reverb Nation. We figured we’d discuss some other networks and some of the features that make them a little different.

Mog is a really cool social network that’s based more for fans of music then the artists themselves, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t create a profile there. As a matter of fact, as in any music network, it’s also smart to create a personal profile to share your musical interests as well. Nothing will tie you closer to your fans then for them to have access to your favorite music. Mog keeps track similar to Last.fm where a software application listens to your playlist (and offers you widgets to share this info all over the web.) Press the “magic button” and Mog will generate music recommendations based upon your listening habits (similar to Pandora).

Discrevolt is a really neat concept – bands create profiles and upload their music, and then can purchase Discrevolt download cards – they look like credit cards and feature pre-loaded credits which then can be sold to fans (or given away). The cards are then used to redeem your tracks over the website. A good way to get your music out there without having to front the cost of CDs.

Squidoo is a social network that let’s its users become “experts” on any subject they want to be. Users create “lenses” regarding a specific subject and can add all kinds of features to the page using other well known data from other sources on the web (ebay & Amazon, for example). Create a lens for your band and collect things from all over the web that reflect your image and sound.

Trig is another straight up music social network. The usual profile creation will be required here. It must be noted that there are a zillion music related social networks out there that might seem like they all pretty much do the same thing. I like to compare these networks to radio stations – they all might do they same thing, but each has a community of users that is different. It’s wise to make sure you get yourself on as many of these profiles as you possibly can. One cool thing that Trig has is your ability to “trigger”, a Digg-style voting mechanism that you can use to share your favorites within the community.

iSound asks us to “live life loud”. It’s network is similar in fashion to other networks, allowing you to upload music and create profiles, but also has a Snocap-like feature of selling your downloads directly to your fans. iSound also features portable players and the ability to sell your songs as ringtones, something every band needs to utilize in their arsenal.

MusicHawk is a social “hub” for musicians to share information with their fans, including the usual pics, bios, songs, etc. The more friends you acquire on MusicHawk, the higher up “the charts” you’ll go. Manage multiple bands if you run a label or give each band member their own login. At MusicHawk, the power is in the hands of the community, and “has the features of the larger social networks but 100% music”.

These are just a few on the many networks out there – get started with these now, because a new ones pop up every day!

Band Resources

• Alternative Progression – Free websites for bands and musicians. The sites are set up by the user online using a simple interface.
• Altsounds.com – Featuring MP3 streams and downloads, music samples, artist information, download charts, and sponsored record labels.
• A and R Online – Live showcasing, negotiation, representation and marketing resources for the independent artist.
• Artistopia – Provides marketing and productivity tools and advice on approaching the music industry professionally.
• Audiri – Music promotion service featuring audio and video uploads, artist mini-sites, charts, search facility, and photo uploads.
• The Concert Channel – Site to promote musicians, comedians, writers and other artists.
• Coolfire – Provide new artists and bands with an alternative route to being heard.
• Current Music Dynamics – Music promotion and label representation for original artists. Browse artist profiles, concert reviews and listen to audio.
• DeepDig.com – Service helping artists get discovered. Listen to new music, upload and download songs, and browse categories.
• eMusicBlast – Offers its members online music sales and record label artists and repertoire networking and promotion services to aid in obtaining a record deal.
• ExtraPlay.com – Offers services allowing unsigned bands to promote and broadcast their music worldwide.
• Fair Play Music – Fair Play Music is aimed at unsigned bands ad artists in the UK.
• Fronder.com – Offers unsigned bands and solo musicians a place to promote their music. Services include MP3 hosting, CD sales, and a musicians forum.
• Full in Bloom Music – Features interviews with musicians, resources to help facilitate music sale, and a music store.
• Future Music – A free airtime and promotional service for unsigned artists, and a directory for DJ mixes.
• Get Signed – Tips from professionals in the music industry describing promotion methods and “foot in the door” techniques.
• Get Your Band On – Provides promotional services for rock bands in the United Kingdom. Web site design, graphic design and printing services are available.
• GigMasters – Specialises in finding local musicians for events such as weddings, parties etc.
• Gigsmart – Irish unsigned music collective. Involved in the promotion of unsigned music in Ireland practically with releases, distribution, tours and promotion.
• Gigzter.com – Features profiles of independent bands and artists. Fans can listen to streaming audio, browse artist profiles, vote, write reviews, and view the charts.
• GoGirlsMusic.com – A site aimed to promote women in the indie music scene.
• GreatLakesIndie.us – Links to indiependent rock bands in the US.
• HitQuarters – HitQuarters offers an extensive directory of people in the music industry.
• Hollywood Music – Offers a facility to submit your profile, and promote your band with industry professionals.
• Home Grown Mp3 – Free online promotion for independent artists.
• HR Muzic – Offers free promotion for Southern California bands, concerts, and events.
• iFanz.com – Online marketing and fan management system for unsigned bands and artists.
• Increase Your Fanbase – Free e-book about music marketing for musicians, artists and groups.
• India Bands – Servicing upcoming music bands from India. Artists can submit their profile for visitors to view.
• Indie 360 – A music promotion project where independent Bands and Artists can gain exposure on compilation CDs. All music styles welcome.
• Indie911.com – An online directory for independent musicians to submit their music. Includes audio downloads and searchable profile pages.
• The Indiehour – Promotion of indie music: information, pictures, updates, news, links, and lyrics.
• Indiesoundz – Independent music resource hosting artist and band profiles. Includes new artist reviews, articles and streaming audio.
• Kings of A&R – Kings of artists and repertoire (KOAR) offers daily music press releases, new CD reviews, and reviews unsigned artists.
• Lets Talk Music – Create an online profile to promote your music.
• MacIdol – A site for Mac musicians to share their music.
• Music Forte – Provides promotion for unsigned artists through radio podcasts, streaming audio and customized band pages.
• Music.com – Portal for new bands and artists, with links to audio downloads and shopping.
• MusicScape – Promotional service for artists and labels. Musical categories include: Dance, Hip Hop, Rock and World.
• National Gig Guide – Features artist show listings for musicians in the United Kingdom.
• New Bands on the Net – Free resource for bands, musicians, venues and promoters.
• New York Music – Promotional site for indie music and unsigned recording artists. Resources include Internet radio, interviews and show listings.
• Overplay – Promotional service to assist with the development and exposure of unsigned bands and artists. Includes CD sales, artist reviews and audio.
• PowerShot Radio – Internet radio station for unsigned bands and artists.
• Radio-Active-Music.com – Promotional center for up-and-coming glam, goth, industrial, synth, techno rock artists – including artist pages, mp3s, interviews, reviews, news, album and tour dates, and fan interaction.
• RecordDeal.com – A networking site designed to provide a way for unsigned artists to get deals with record labels.
• Rent My Band – Connects free-lance and contract entertainers with people seeking live entertainment for events.
• Reptor Productions – Offering unsigned bands and artists a resource to assist with the promotion of their music to fans over the Internet.
• Second Encore – Portal to assist unsigned and independent musicians. Artist profiles and an interactive voting system to encourage fan participation are available.
• SignHere Online – Resource for unsigned artists to promote their music. Subscription services, message forums and audio downloads available.
• Suite101.com: Music Promotion – Hints and tips on releasing and promoting independent music recordings.
• Talent Duniya – Free showcase for new asian unsigned musicians and bands.
• TheBuzzFactor.com – Music marketing and promotion tips for indie musicians, songwriters, and bands on a budget.
• Thumped – Information on gigging, recording and touring in Ireland.
• uEmcee: Underground Rap Music – Resource for independent rap and hiphop artists. Stream audio, browse artist profiles and post in the online forum.
• United Bands – Band networking site. Providing MP3 uploading, Internet radio and contests.
• Unsigned Band Promotion – Offering resources and services to assist with online promotion for musicians, including tips and articles.
• Unsigned Band Web – Music portal hosting bands of many genres and locations. Features online radio stations.
• UnsignedMusic.Com – Web marketing solutions, band listings and other resources for musicians.
• Vancity Bands – Showcasing unsigned Vancouver indie music
• Virtually Records Popup Interview System – Generates an html based interview on the fly.
• Webcds – Independent music directory offers free submissions.
• White Eagle Music Promotions – Service offering music promotion to artists worldwide. Specializing in artist development.
• Wonghan Productions – Platform for music and artwork by independent artists.

12 Rock On Social Networks

Rock On: 12 of the Best Music Social Networks

June 22, 2007 — 04:40 AM PDT — by Livia Iacolare — Internet radio may be facing uncertain times, but many musical social networks continue to thrive. If you’re in a band, these sites are essential for promoting your music: take note, and sign up for as many as possible to maximize your reach. For fans, meanwhile, we’ve included some great places to just listen to music. We won’t mention the obvious one, of course: MySpace remains the hub for music on the web.

Flotones

Flotones is a monetized social network for artists and their fans. The most interesting feature is the possibility to promote and distribute artist’s content via mobile phones (such as ringtones and mobile wallpapers). After you register and add your content, you’ll be able to promote your mobile content at your shows, on your website and on your MySpace profile. You’ll be asked to sign a contract before getting paid.

Mercora Radio 2.0

Radio 2.0 from Mercora is a social network with an integrated free music listening service (that sustains itself through contextual music-centered ads), as well as a personal-webcasting platform. Mercora Radio 2.0 will search your hard disk for all the music tracks you have legally acquired and then you are ready to broadcast your own music library to the world. Each radio station has multiple channels and each DJ can also create his own playlists.

MOG

MOG is a social network that helps you “discover people through music and discover music through people”. Basically MOG makes it easy for you to find new music to listen to by using custom filters and personalized suggestions. The site also provides users with news, reviews and streaming audio. MOG also features a music TV that continuously broadcasts videos taken from YouTube.

Last.fm

Last.fm, which you’ve no doubt used already, is a service that keeps track of what music you listen to, and then helps you discover new music based on your preferences. You can use Last.fm to listen to music, find out about artists you may like, get in touch with other people with similar music taste, discover gigs in your local area, as well as create charts that you can publish on your personal site. Last.fm also allows artists and labels to upload their own music and videos and promote them for free.

iLike

iLike, another familiar one, is a service to help you organize your music, share your music tastes, and discover new artists through your friends. iLike basically helps you discover new music based on what you’re already listening to. It lets you share music libraries with your friends, browse and sample their most played songs, and compare your compatibility scores. iLike will also send you music recommendations directly in iTunes.

JamNow

JamNow is a social network aimed at musicians that allows them to create audio content online in real-time. JamNow isn’t a site that simply makes you “post and listen” to audio content: its platform enables real-time music collaboration and lets you schedule live jam sessions and listen to musicians that are playing right in that moment.

MusoCity

MusoCity is a music-oriented social network. It provides accounts specifically designed for music fans, artists, musicians, music retailers and music venues. MusoCity is completely free to join and you can start browsing members profiles to make friends, discovering new artists, getting in touch with musicians in your area and finding events and music stores near you.

Haystack

Haystack is a social network centered around people who want to find music through friends and taste makers. You can browse music, pictures, videos and reviews of artists as well as build your own profile and personalize it with images and videos (you can even add them from YouTube). Artists are welcome to sign up directly or through their manager or their label.

Sonific

Sonific is a social network that offers a great way to promote your music, if you are an artist. It lets users put free music widgets with your music on their sites and promote it to their own audiences, for free. In exchange, Sonific users get free music to use and listen to (download is not permitted) and make their site look cooler – while you get free advertising for your music.

Midomi

Midomi is a network that makes it easy to discover new music and people. The cool thing is that you can search for music by singing or humming part of a song. All you need is a microphone and you will be able to connect to your favorite music, and to a community of people that share your musical interests. You can listen to other member’s voices, see pictures, rate singers, send messages and also buy music.

iJigg

iJigg is a online community that lets you comment on music and share songs. You can rate music and influence what becomes popular, as well as upload your own music to share it with the community and make new fans. You will need to decide whether to open a “listener” or “artist” account, which will give you access to different features (e.g. listeners can download free mp3 of their favorite music, while artists can upload their own music).

Sellaband

Sellaband is a music social network that turns the fans and listeners of bands into their producers, asking them to invest in a band or artist they support so that they will be able to get a recording opportunity. Every single investor that supports a successful band will take home a small cut of the profits made by them. Artists not only get financial support but also share 50% of the ad revenue coming from the free downloads of their music.

Last.FM Xing

Last.fm exercises OpenSocial options, launches Ning app

Last.fm is now launching an application within Ning, a network of niche social networking destinations. The Last.fm application allows users to create a display of their favourite artists, and launch customised and interactive radio stations.

That represents a miniature version of the Last.fm service, a favourite among many music fans. In total, the Ning network traverses 122,000 social networks, all of which cater to super-targeted tastes and lifestyles.
Ning is actually platform for creating social networks, and an early adopter of the OpenSocial initiative being spearheaded by Google. The OpenSocial platform is now being rolled across a broad number of social networking destinations, including MySpace.

“Teaming with Ning to embrace the new OpenSocial standard is a first step towards an easy solution for our users to share and build their music tastes virtually wherever they are,” explained Last.fm cofounder Martin Stiksel. Last.fm first announced the platform on Thursday.

Smart Tools For Musicians

Think the music industry is dying, and that it’s time to go independent? Or have you always favored smaller, independent record companies over huge bureaucratic institutions? Don’t worry, even if you don’t have dozens of spin doctors working for you, you can still promote your indie band online. We’ve got 25+ tools to help you do just that.

AmieStreet.com – A social network and music marketplace for indie artists. They give the artists 70% of the sale.

AnyGig.com – A place for musicians to get listed for small gigs, or find venues to play at.

Artistopia.com – An online venue for performers to give themselves an online presence with a profile and display their work.

BandBuzz.com – A social network where artists can set up a profile, upload their music and get reviewed and recommended by users.

BandChemistry.com – A site for musicians to find new members for their group or form a whole new band.

Bandwagon.co.uk – A social network for lovers of indie music where the bands can sell mobile content such as ringtones and wallpapers.

ChampionSound.com – Free mailing list manager for artists, promoters, and venues.

Elisteningpost.com – A way for musicians to upload their music and sell it just about anywhere they want such as MySpace and Facebook.

FireGigs.com – A site with the aim of promoting unsigned bands by arranging to get their music to be played in the background at cafes, coffee shops and more. Also promote you through a Facebook app and MySpace widget.

Fuzz.com – Lets performers upload their music sell it, as well as manage mailing lists and more.

HumbleVoice.com – A place for all types of independent artists, including musicians, to upload their work and promote it.

iJamr.com – Indie musicians upload their music and bloggers can display your songs on their sites for free, and if a sale is made, they blogger gets a cut.

Indistr.com – A company letting independent artists sell their music directly to the public and the musicians receive 75% of the sale.

mTraks.com – An online marketplace and network for indie artists to promote and sell their music.

Mubito.com – Allows you to set up a band website easily and sell MP3s. Two levels of stores with one of them being free.

Musicane.com – Promote and sell your music and ringtones.

MusicNation.com – A community of musician profile pages that engage regularly in competition for various prizes.

Panjea.com – Bring all yourclips from the web together and put them in to one player so they take up less space on your page, so you can promote all your music easily.

PocketFuzz.com – A place for musicians to sell ringtones of their works and notify their fans of news via mobiles.

Popfolio.net – A music widget provider for blogs that lets independent musicians upload their songs for inclusion, and possible sales.

PumpAudio.com – A service for indie artists to get their music licensed for television and film.

Ripple9.com – A site to help bands promote themselves on mobile devices to their fans. New sign-ups are frozen while they are being purchased by Google.

Scriggleit.com – Software you can use on a laptop at your merchandise table so people can sign up for your mailing list.

SessionSound.com – A site for independent musicians to try to stay indie by selling their music online.

Sonicbids.com – Allows you to construct a low cost electronic press kit that can be constantly updated so the recipients always get the latest version.

Unsigned.com – A site for unsigned bands to put up a profile page and host a playlist of MP3s to attract new listeners.