Web Presence for Indie Musicians

As we quickly morph into the Information Age, indie musicians have more opportunities for their music to be heard than ever before! Unfortunately, the days of, "if you build it, they will come", or being discovered are long gone. In fact, every day it is getting tougher for independent musicians to keep a competitive edge in an over-saturated, changing market.

Now days, it's a MUST to have some sort of web presence for your music entity, if you haven't already done so. Brick-and-mortar record stores are closing fast, CD sales are declining and some say by 2010 consumers will be almost completely done with CDs; purchasing only downloadable music/MP3s.

Where to Begin?

Your first step should be to register your domain(ie: www.myband.com) name. Even if you decide not to have your own website, this will reserve your space on the web for any possible future use. In my opinion it's always good to have a home base; your own website, on your own domain, under your control. Of course, this is not a necessity, nor is it your only option.

To purchase your domain, I recommend registering an account with, either: GoDaddy or DirectNIC Both of these domain registrars are very user-friendly, reasonably priced and additionally offers full service web hosting with just a few clicks. Very easy, especially for users unfamiliar or new to the Internet. The downside to this process is that the domain name you may want might have already been registered by another and since web surfers are most familiar with .com names (as opposed to: .net, .org, etc.). You may have to be creative with your domain name hunt if your first choice is already taken.

If your savvy enough to design and develop your own website, by all means, get the ball rolling. Be sure to include sections specific to your Biography, Music/Videos, Discography, News, Events, perhaps free sample downloads and so on. Of course, you can always hire a designer or firm to develop your website for you. Luckily, there is no shortage of these services. A search in Google/Yahoo for "web designer" will produce thousands of results. The only design service I know of specifically for musicians is, BandSpaces. They focus on MySpace pages, but I'm sure they won't turn you away for non-MySpace web sites. I know they do good work, however I've never dealt with them before. You will also need web hosting to 'host' your website, so registering your domain with GoDaddy or DirectNIC will help make this process a lot less brutal then setting all this up on your own.

Speaking of Myspace, most musicians have their profile page on the social networking giant. Some even use their Myspace page as their main web presence (with no website of their own). For good reason, too. MySpace is completely free and caters to musicians; allowing them to post their own music, create biographies, discographies, events and just about everything else you would expect to have on your own site. With millions of their own members looking for new music, there's no denying MySpace's huge promotional power. On the flip-side, as I mentioned above, just about every musician on the planet can be found on MySpace. Without constant updates, it's very hard to be noticed upon the millions. However, there are other social music services (which has been dubbed, "Music 2.0") to create a presence and get noticed. There are dozens of these web sites to choose from, depending on your needs. Here are few you should consider to get started. I'm not saying one is better than the other, but all these suggestions will help you create your web presence with ease and best of all for FREE! The more sites where you set-up your web presence/profile for free, the easier it will be for fans and music lovers to find you.

Where to go?

In alphabetical order:

• Last.FM: Quickly becoming a very popular free social music site for musicians of all levels and fans, alike. You may create your own profile, upload your music and videos, make your shows/events public. The fans shar, vote and comment on their favorite music in all genres. A great place for any musicians to be a member, however it's another very large and popular site where it is difficult to stand-out.

• Our Stage: Here, is more of place to get good exposure and network to both industry folk and music fans, than a place to create a solid web presence. You can upload your music or videos and enter them into competitions against other artists in the same genre. The public votes and if you're a winner you can win a lot of cash and prizes. You can also set up a "fan club" for your act and keep your friends and fans up-to-date with your rankings, events and new music.

• PLUGOLA: Ok, so it's a bit of a biased suggestion, but Plugola is very beneficial to you. Recently opened for soft beta, you can easily set up a FREE eye-catching profile with very limited experience. You can also upload and legally distribute your music and/or videos to the public (from ANY website), blog, share events and photos, and music fans have a completely interactive role. This puts the artist and fans in control. Plus, Plugola pays the highest commissions in the industry, taking care of the artist, first.

• Pure Volume: A fairly popular social networking site for musicians and fans. As an artist, you get a free profile page where you can upload your music and videos, share photos, upcoming events; however there are very limited options in creating your band's own image. You get one general design option, if you prefer to keep it simple. Though they cater to all musicians and genres, popular music heavily outweighs other types. Sponsored by advertising and record labels.

• Sell A Band: This is a interesting concept and has been getting quite a bit of news coverage lately. You create your profile, upload a few sample songs and basically fans or 'believers' of your music buy $10 shares until you earn $50k. From there you will be recording with industry professionals to produce a high quality album for your fans. A great opportunity if you have the fan base.

• Sonic Bids: You need to be visible to promoters, too! Here, you can set-up your own EPK (Electronic Press Kit) and present it in a community of promoters looking to book new music acts, just like yours. Again, you can upload sample music, videos, photos, press reviews, bio and anything else you would need for an online press kit.

Like I mentioned above, there are other "Music 2.0" web sites to build both your web presence and a wider fan base, but these are all user-friendly and recommended places to start, if you haven't done so already. Please be sure to read any web sites 'Terms' before you upload any music.

In the next hub, I will give you some tips on how to drive web surfers to your page(s) and promote it to your current fans.