Of course, everybody is on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter (although I'm not yet on the last one) but here is my personal list on sites when you should definitely be if you want to cut through as a musician:
CD BABY - if anybody tells you that CD is dead and burried, just turn around. CD Baby is a proof that CD is indeed still alive and that you definitely do not want to miss out on a sale because you have gone all digital (hang on, CD is digital !). What more to say: the original and still the best ?
YOULICENSE - licensing your songs for use in commercials, TV series, films ... is for any musician a good opportunity to generate additional revenue streams and this should not be overlooked. I have registered with PUMPAUDIO a long time ago but YOULICENSE is much easier and quicker to set up.
TUNECORE - from what I've seen, this is simply the best aggregator around and a must if you want one single destination to get your music on iTunes, Amazon and co. Sure, there are plenty of sites who boast they can get your music anywhere and everywhere for free. But Tunecore is well worth the money; hope to be up and running soon once I have fixed some technical problem with them (uploading 40MB wav files from my old laptop being one).
REVERBNATION - I'm still pretty new to it but ReverbNation blows away any other site when it comes to providing all the widgets you need to promote your music online.
INDABA - there are quite a few collaboration sites on the net (KOMPOZ for instance), but Indaba is clearly my favourite with a very active community, many opportunities to work on different projects and regular remix contests.
AMIE STREET - even if AS does not offer much possibilities in terms of band page, the idea of setting up the price of each song according to its popularity is absolutely brilliant. Agreed, it might take some time untill FOLLOW THE EYE reaches a decent selling price (so far priced at 1.43$) but it got a decent level of exposure with close to 4,000 listens untill now.
SELLABAND - a great idea and although I'm more focused on getting my music heard by as many people as possible than locking up myself in a recording studio, there will be a time to make use of Sellaband. If you already have a motivated fan base ready to help you out , this one might be for you.
GARAGEBAND - an old favourite of mine, GB is not only a good site to get exposure but very useful to collect some feedback on your music. And there is nothing like a few good quotes to liven up a PR kit. Here is what some people had to say about BARON ZERO:
"The bass and horns are awesome. That bass player is a f... bad ass. The song is executed perfectly: very funky for sure". gatorlipsmurphy @ GarageBand on NO EASY WAY
"This song is great!!! I'm going to be singing this song all day long. It sonds like all the band members know what they are doing. This song is just overall excellent. Good job guys!!! Rock on!!!" anonymoustipster1988 @ GarageBand on POSITIVE
WE7 - is there still a need to present the company co-founded by Peter Gabriel ? Even if the registration process is way to complicated, I love the concept.
LAST.FM - last but not least ! Clearly I still have to properly leverage the potential of last.fm (11 listeners and counting) but I love the idea of finding people based on your music affinity.
technorati tags: online presence 10 indispensable sites independent musicians Baron Zero
keotag tags: online presence 10 indispensable sites independent musicians Baron Zero
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