There are a plethora of sites which allow you to upload band profiles, photos and mp3s. Most of these accounts are free, with the option to upgrade to premium features if you consider it worthwhile. I spent a fair whack of time putting our material on the free accounts and then monitoring progress. Below is a sample of the sites I used and responses gained over the initial 10 day period. I will provide updates of progress on these through this blog over time.
UNSIGNEDBANDWEB.COM
The most successful at this early stage with 47 streams and 27 downloads over the first few days. Comments left as well. 8/10
ISOUND.COM
286 visits and 13 plays – that’s a huge number of visitors without a great percentage streaming the songs. However, 13 plays can’t be sniffed at. – 7/10
RECORDSCOUT.COM
36 visits and 11 plays – not bad. 7/10
REVERBNATION.COM
19 visits, 4 fans, 1 play – now 4 fans and 1 play just doesn’t add up. How can you be a fan when you haven’t listened? Looks like it uses the Myspace definition of friendship. OK though. 6/10.
MP3UNSIGNED.COM
104 visits and 0 downloads. That’s a skelping lot of page hits without a single download. There is of course the possibility that some visitors have followed the link to our Bandcamp site and downloaded tracks from there. 4.5/10
BROADJAM.COM
1 play and 1 ‘connection’. – “Mom, I thought I told you to stay in the car” 2/10
INDIE911.COM (aka HOOOKA)
0 plays – Elvis has left the building. 0/10
Friday 18 September 2009
Band Forums: A Starting Point
Our album contains no less than 7 cover versions so this seemed like a perfect place to start. The big hitters that we covered - R.E.M, Son Volt, Tragically Hip, and The The – all have their own online message boards and it can’t be spamming if you post a thread on your cover of their song. Of course, these threads usually have a short lifespan before plummeting to obscurity, even on a busy forum. The exception is where your interpretation really takes a trick (we live in hope) and the thread keeps getting bumped. So in order to prevent a quick slide I added more information and answered all replies. In the end, this was a moderate success and we gained a few comments, website hits and downloads.. Of course such success is dependent on the popularity of the forum (one of them was deserted) and the moderators’ willingness to allow you to advertise your music (one didn’t like our post).
Most band forums have at least one thread enquiring about users’ favourite songs, so I scanned these posts and sent out private messages to each user who listed our cover song as their favourite. We received a few replies this way but not directly, just through the forum thread. Better than nothing.
Conclusion:
Online band message boards: 5/10
Private Messages to users 3.5/10
Most band forums have at least one thread enquiring about users’ favourite songs, so I scanned these posts and sent out private messages to each user who listed our cover song as their favourite. We received a few replies this way but not directly, just through the forum thread. Better than nothing.
Conclusion:
Online band message boards: 5/10
Private Messages to users 3.5/10
Promoting new music online - what works for us!
Looking to promote your band online? So am I!!
This blog provides ongoing updates on the successes and failures my band Fake Gods has experienced while promoting our music online. I hope it can help other artists in the same boat. Hey, if blog provides further promotion for us, everyone’s a winner! Understand of course that one man’s coffin is another man’s cup of tea. But it ought to be of help, if only to weed out the complete timewasters.
I am Alex, singer/songwriter with the acoustic folk-rock band Fake Gods from central Scotland. In early 2009 we completed a series of demos entitled ‘Wine To Water’ which we decided to give away free via http://fakegods.bandcamp.com All we have been asking in return is that the downloader joins our mailing list, with the option to unsubscribe at any point and the solemn promise of no spam. Feel free to pop over there right now if you fancy checking it out. If you like your music acoustic with a dash of folk-rock/ Americana, it may well be for you.
We have our official website, www.fakegods.com thanks to the web design skills of Alan, the other Fake God. However having an attractive website and offering free music online is no guarantee of attracting listeners so we had to look at ways of using the internet to our advantage. We set up accounts on some of the so-called ‘essential tools for promotion’: Myspace, Twitter, Last.FM, Facebook, and Posterous. Certainly Myspace in spite of its archaic design and dubious friendships has had a positive impact as we have been contacted about gigs through the site. The rest remain unproven so far but I will keep you fully posted.
This blog provides ongoing updates on the successes and failures my band Fake Gods has experienced while promoting our music online. I hope it can help other artists in the same boat. Hey, if blog provides further promotion for us, everyone’s a winner! Understand of course that one man’s coffin is another man’s cup of tea. But it ought to be of help, if only to weed out the complete timewasters.
I am Alex, singer/songwriter with the acoustic folk-rock band Fake Gods from central Scotland. In early 2009 we completed a series of demos entitled ‘Wine To Water’ which we decided to give away free via http://fakegods.bandcamp.com All we have been asking in return is that the downloader joins our mailing list, with the option to unsubscribe at any point and the solemn promise of no spam. Feel free to pop over there right now if you fancy checking it out. If you like your music acoustic with a dash of folk-rock/ Americana, it may well be for you.
We have our official website, www.fakegods.com thanks to the web design skills of Alan, the other Fake God. However having an attractive website and offering free music online is no guarantee of attracting listeners so we had to look at ways of using the internet to our advantage. We set up accounts on some of the so-called ‘essential tools for promotion’: Myspace, Twitter, Last.FM, Facebook, and Posterous. Certainly Myspace in spite of its archaic design and dubious friendships has had a positive impact as we have been contacted about gigs through the site. The rest remain unproven so far but I will keep you fully posted.
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