Best Sites For Posting Music?

[brandondrury]

ell, 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.

Okay. So what terms would you go for? "country songwriter"? "Speed metal band in Alabama"? I hope I don't come across sounding like a dick (it just naturally happens). Again, I'm not convinced that that Search Engine Optimization is an effective way of really pushing a band.

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.

You are right. People are looking for specific things. The people I know who are looking for new music, definitely do not use Google. They go to labels websites to hear the up and coming bands. This is similar to me looking up a director of a movie that I really liked to see other work that director had done. While the billboard concept is worth something for top level, major label bands it is drastically less effective than the die hard fans really doing the looking.

This is a good example: soda - Google Search No Coca-Cola. No Pepsi. No Mountain Dew. Pepsi could rank #1 for soda in 3 days if they felt like it. Instead, they buy super bowl commercials. It's a different kind of marketing. It's more important for them to rank #1 for "Pepsi" than it is for "soda".

I'm all for snagging people to a website secretly. However, if the aim is cd sales, it's not entirely different than sending out junk email. The only real difference is the promotion of a music instead of the promotion of a bigger penis. You are casting out a huge net to a huge audience and expecting to convert an extremely low number of those. It's still working for junk mail so maybe it could work otherwise.

If they don't know your band name, they will never find you.

This is correct and it brings up an interesting question. How do you convert fans? How do you make sure potential fans find you? This leads to zillions of possibilities. If you know some high traffic terms that no one has snagged just yet, let me know,I'll take the traffic. Of course, this comes at another price. It's tough to rank for a term that doesn't appear on your site somewhere. I'm sure I could rank fairly well for "Jessica Alba Myspace Layout" even here at recordingreview.com. However, what are my members going to think when they see I have a bullshit blog post? It won't happen. So this whole Search Engine Optimization thing needs to be looked at very carefully so that when the person does come to the website with the wallet out, you can actually convert them. That's an art to itself and completely independent from the search engine requirements.

I do respect your enthusiasm for websites. I'm with on 90% of the topics out there. However, I think music plays by a different set of rules. The biggest problem is quality control. People are accustomed to the labels weeding out the shitty bands so they don't have to. When a person is seriously ready to buy or look for new music to buy, Amazon or Itunes are as good as any. (I've never used Itunes, but I've got a feeling that X band I recorded isn't right there with Breaking Benjamin or Seether in the rock section.)

I think it's more important for bands to focus on R&D and make a killer product (album). From there, playing the shows and using the web as a branding tool and as a way to keep people informed has brought the most success. I think the web is EXTREMELY important, but it's not going to make or break you.

Brandon

[jdaug]

What if you arent in a band, dont plan on being in a band, dont plan on ever playing live, dont have a band name to market (and would rather stay anonymous as an individual) but still want to market your music for some other purpose such as video games, commercials, soundtracks, etc. I know there is basically no market for one-man-band metal or rock (since that market is mostly fan-based, and its hard to have fans if you dont really exist as a band and play live), but I record that stuff just for fun and to improve my recording skills. I do other more commercial stuff that I wouldnt mind trying to make a buck off of, but dont know where to start. I do the garageband.com thing and some others, but those sites seem more like a way to get your band some name recognition. Im not a band and dont care about name recog unless its going to lead somewhere. Ive had positive reviews on GB and other sites with my metal/rock music but havent made a cent from MP3 sales.

What if you just want to market directly to end users of commercial music like ad agencies, movie studios, video game developers, etc? Anyone had any luck in this area?

[richiebee]

Originally Posted by jdaug

What if you just want to market directly to end users of commercial music like ad agencies, movie studios, video game developers, etc? Anyone had any luck in this area?

You need to watch the trade web sites and apply for jobs. No one's going to come looking for you - there's enough competition out there to ensure that. Go out and find the jobs. Sites like TAXI can help you, although they're expensive, and very watered down. Hollywood Reporter and Variety are two trade sites that you can find what's coming up. Watching for a new series to come out is better than watching for a composer ad.

Have a good demo reel and send it off. Have a good web site too.

Ultimately, many people start in the business by composing for student films. No money, but lots of experience. If you want to write for games (much more complex!), get in touch with a company that's doing something low budget to get experience. I wouldn't suggest going for a high paying job if you don't know what you're doing.

R.

[jdaug]

thanks for the info richie. when you say apply for job, are you talking about as an employee? What if you just want to sell the rights to your music? Does the industry not work this way?

[richiebee]

The jobs are contracts. TV production companies don't have composer employees. Mandy is apparently a good way to get a company to pick up music you don't compose specifically for picture (shows like Grey's Anatomy play people's tracks all the time). Mandy's Film and TV Production Directory - television - video - broadcast - they generally scout out for local bands and stuff to license the use of a track. I'm not quite sure how it all works. I'm not there yet!