Tag: free downloads

Give Your Music Away for Free?

Here’s an interesting post at the Music Think Tank about giving away all of your music for free. While on the surface this seems like an insult to artists everywhere, the point is that most artists (me included), stress out over selling a few dollars worth of CDs, and that the reward of actually making a few bucks here and there isn’t worth the mental energy.

Some bands will hit the magical ride to popularity, but for the rest of us, most music just won’t be bought. This is my experience. With my first EP, I ended up just giving them away because I had no use for boxes of them in the basement.

Here’s the lovely conclusion: “…you’re almost more likely to get a blowjob after a gig than sell an MP3.” Which is clearly evident from one of ZRock’s recent episodes. Give it a read and check out the massive discussion in the comments.

You just might find yourself liberated…

Your Online Music Marketing Strategy – Evolvor Media

For some great tips on marketing your music online, we recently turned to Eric Hebert, CEO of Evolvor Media. His company works with bands and labels to roll out successful web marketing campaigns. Here are his thoughts…

In your opinion, what are the essential social networking sites that bands MUST be on these days?

There are a ton of networks out there, and with new ones coming out every day it seems, the task of setting up all these profiles can be time consuming. Obviously MySpace and Facebook are no-brainers, they’re going to be the ones you use the most. If you’re in the rock genre, Purevolume and GarageBand are must haves. Virb is becoming very popular because of its clean but customizable options. You’ll have to get on YouTube for videos and Flickr for photos, they’re part of the plan as well. You’ll also need to make traction on the big three streaming networks – Last.fm, iLike, and Imeem. Saving the best for last, Reverbnation offers the best tools out of any of these networks to help promote their music and nurture their fanbase.

How can an independent artist use MySpace effectively to develop a fan community? Is that even possible anymore?

MySpace is just a tool in your toolbox. It has to be part of a bigger plan. You’ll use it to gain fans and communicate with them, but ultimately you’ll want to have your own website, your own blog, your own contact list. Use MySpace and the other networks to interact and bring them to your website. Do you own the contact list you have through MySpace? You want to build your communnity and own the asset.

What are some of the most exciting music marketing tools you’ve seen lately?

I mentioned Reverbnation, they are offering fantastic tools, mostly for free. They have the best streaming music widgets out there, the sound quality is far superior to MySpace’s player. The have a full list management system that also coordinates your street team. I used to pay money for a similar system that was harder to use! Full analytics for everything as well, all in very nice charts and graphs. Their Gig Finder helps you book shows with contact information available right there. Soon they’re going to be rolling out some awesome new options, you really need to check them out.

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