Best Sites For Posting Music?

[DT Chris]

Baaahhh.

I've joined the flock... only to notice you right next to me grazing away contently. LOL

I had to sign up all over again as an artist account... lol

[brandondrury]

I know, it's like getting bent over in prison.

On a lighter note, you did a great job with the CSS on your myspace page!

Brandon

[DT Chris]

Thanks. I just want to scare everyone thinking there is actually 2 of me.. LOL. I was just fooling around with pictures, don't really have any cool rock looks right now, so now I just look like the Canadian redneck version of Tenacious D or something he he.

[TAlderson]

I would reccomend http://www.garageband.com. You can upload for free, and you have an option to have your song reviewed by other people.

Of course, it's not very customizeable, and the reviews are hit or miss in terms of helpfulness, but you can generally get about ten or fifteen out of twenty good reviews, so you know what to work on.

Here's what my page looks like:

http://www.garageband.com/artist/talderson

If you're willing to spend a little bit of money, the guy who set up my website is pretty inexpensive and does a great job. Put a link in your myspace or purevolume or garageband site, and people can check out more of your songs. Check out my signature to look at that.

-Tyler

[metrio]

I think that there is one very big problem with myspace. That problem is:

It doesn't show up in google!

No matter how popular your myspace page is, it won't be found through google. It is only found through myspace itself!

Which means that most of the website marketing tactics that apply to a regular webpage do not apply to a myspace account. This is quite a drawback, it seems to me.

You can do a lot more with your own site than you can do with myspace. You can have a blog that's orgranized in a better way than myspace. You can optmize it for search engines. You can have extra content other than your music in order to bait your users just to come to your site (they will hear your music as an added bonus!). If you can make that content be easily found by search engines, you are in better shape there than on myspace I think.

[brandondrury]

I think that there is one very big problem with myspace. That problem is:

It doesn't show up in google!

promise to burn - Google Search

Who told you that? I do quite a bit of professional Search Engine Optimization work. I'm up on this. Myspace typically ranks very well.

Which means that most of the website marketing tactics that apply to a regular webpage do not apply to a myspace account.

I know of no band who focuses on Google to sell cds. I'd guess the number of people who type in "rock music", go to an unsigned band's web page, and then buy a cd is very very small.

This is DRASTICALLY different from "diet pills" or "coffee maker".

You can do a lot more with your own site than you can do with myspace. You can have a blog that's orgranized in a better way than myspace. You can optmize it for search engines. You can have extra content other than your music in order to bait your users just to come to your site (they will hear your music as an added bonus!). If you can make that content be easily found by search engines, you are in better shape there than on myspace I think.

Being that I've made my living from recording music and being a webmaste for the past 5 years, I was slow to accept the Myspace thing. The truth is it is WAY easier to get people to visit your myspace page than it is to get them to yourband.com. I know. I've done marketing in this way. Myspace (and Facebook) have built in traffic and extremely powerful networking tools (especially Facebook) that are very tough to pull off with yourband.com.

Yourband.com should be used to entertain fans you already have and maybe for your current fans to show new fans. However, I know of very very few people who used Google to find a band they had never heard of and were convinced to buy a cd from the website. The website is for people who have heard of your band.

Brandon

[metrio]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

promise to burn - Google Search

Who told you that? I do quite a bit of professional Search Engine Optimization work. I'm up on this. Myspace typically ranks very well.

I suppose you are right. I just can't remember ever looking for anything on google and coming up on a myspace profile.

I know of no band who focuses on Google to sell cds. I'd guess the number of people who type in "rock music", go to an unsigned band's web page, and then buy a cd is very very small.

This is DRASTICALLY different from "diet pills" or "coffee maker".

Well, the point is, they wouldn't be looking for your music. But they'd find it anyway. Of course, if you are an unknown artist, nobody will search for your name because nobody knows you. However, they will search for other specific stuff. And if you come up on those searches and give them whatever it is they want, you can give them your music as an added bonus. If you come up on "diet pills" and "coffee maker" and when they click on your page they get their coffee maker information AND they hear your music, and they like it and let it keep playing, you have still provided exposure for yourself.

[brandondrury]

If you come up on "diet pills" and "coffee maker" and when they click on your page they get their coffee maker information AND they hear your music, and they like it and let it keep playing, you have still provided exposure for yourself.

Have you made much money online? I don't mean to insult you or anything. Your views are kind of level 101 or maybe 201 in regard to search engine marketing.

You are right. Any publicity is good publicity. However, A) ranking for diet pills or coffee maker is VERY VERY hard these days and B) the amount of time, money, and resources required to rank for terms that have nothing to do with music would not result in nearly enough sales/exposure to come close even breaking even. It's not a good idea to focus on such varying demographics. These days Google is SOOO good that it's extremely tough to rank for anything you don't have business ranking for. It's hard enough to rank for stuff you DO have business ranking for.

A person could spend their limited time trying to rank for search terms and may end up with some success, but I think they would be better off writing songs, recording songs, or improving their live show. Basically, I would try to drastically increase the number of people actually trying to search for "Band name" in the first place.

Brandon

[metrio]

Have you made much money online? I don't mean to insult you or anything. Your views are kind of level 101 or maybe 201 in regard to search engine marketing.

Let's not get antagonistic. I'd like to learn from you. Maybe you can learn a little bit from me too.

You are right. Any publicity is good publicity. However, A) ranking for diet pills or coffee maker is VERY VERY hard these days and B) the amount of time, money, and resources required to rank for terms that have nothing to do with music would not result in nearly enough sales/exposure to come close even breaking even. It's not a good idea to focus on such varying demographics.

Well, sure. You wouldn't want to try to promote your music on "diet pills" or "coffee maker." Those are the terms you mentioned, and I was just responding to you, in theoretical terms, following up on what you said. Diet pills and coffee maker are way too broad. I would go for something much more specific when trying to promote music to ease the competition.

A person could spend their limited time trying to rank for search terms and may end up with some success, but I think they would be better off writing songs, recording songs, or improving their live show. Basically, I would try to drastically increase the number of people actually trying to search for "Band name" in the first place.

Well, this way, all you come up on is your band name. However, we know that most people look for specific things on the internet (and things they already know something about). If they don't know your band name, they will never find you. That seems to me like a waste of website potential. Your music could have something (or nothing!) to do with certain themes or subjects, for example. Those themes and subjects actually have potential of being found via a keyword search (unlike music). Ranking high on those keywords might, in the end, be cheaper and easier than playing a thousand shows and touring a hundred cities.

[DT Chris]

Originally Posted by metrio

I think that there is one very big problem with myspace. That problem is:

It doesn't show up in google!

Really? I've had the opposite effect. In fact, I had to go to great lengths to curb the links to my real name since I submitted it on MySpace. Some major damage control to get it under wraps. Maybe some people liked the music enough to link to it or rather, and it spread like wildfire. A bit too fast for my liking.... :/

This is a concern to me only because I run a local business and wasn't quite ready to publicize myself before really performing live. Wasn't quite ready for that yet. Next time I might use a stage name instead, to minimize the effect until I'm ready to 'go public'.

Originally Posted by thesilentdrummer

You are not going to get discovered on myspace. But it helps give out information.

You won't get discovered on any online site. The best thing to do is play live, and build your fanbase from there, using a website to display news, your next gig, new music, etc.