Getting,Your,Break,The,Interne marketing Getting Your Break On The Internet: The Top 7 Websites All M

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If you play in a band today, having a strong onlinepresence is of the utmost importance. More and more people are looking to the Internet as their primary sourceof discovering new music.  Thanksto the Internet, the playing field between signed and unsigned bands has becomelevel and you don’t need a million dollar marketing budget anymore to influencelarge numbers of people around the world. With good marketing skills, some Photoshop savvy, and good old-fashionedhard work, your band can reach millions of potential fans by harnessing thepower of the Internet. The key lies in promoting your band in the right places,and it’s not always easy with the seemingly endless pile of websites out therethat offer MP3 hosting, free promotional services, promise to get your band allof the exposure in the world. Sorting through this mess and trying to figure out which ones areworthwhile and which ones are not can be quite time consuming.  While signing up for as many sites aspossible will benefit your band, I’ve sorted through the garbage and picked thetop 7 websites that your band absolutely must take part in if nothing else. MySpace(www.myspace.com) – With over 250 million users and growing daily, MySpace isthe largest social networking site in the world.  It is almost a requirement for your band to have a MySpacepage.  So much in fact, manypopular bands are promoting their MySpace pages more than their officialwebsites.  Plus, fans are now morelikely to visit a band’s MySpace page instead of their official website tofetch news updates, photos, music, and more.   Facebook(www.facebook.com) – A close second to MySpace in terms of having an incrediblylarge volume of users.  Although alittle less geared towards music than MySpace, there’s no reason why your bandshouldn’t be part of a website boasting around 150 million users.  Facebook provides many services forartists that let them update their fans with ease and simplicity.  Many independent bands overlook thebenefits of being on Facebook, don’t be one of them. ReverbNation(www.reverbnation.com) – This highly underrated website has a large array offeatures that range from mailing lists to distribution services.  Although Reverb Nation is not aspopular as some of the other music sites, it ranks as one of the most importantones to be on because of its growth capability.  You’d be hard pressed to find another website out there thatis willing to share half of it’s advertising revenue with their artists.  Mark my words; THIS is the format ofthe future record labels with the downfall of CDs and the rise of musicsharing.  Get onboard with theseguys right now! Imeem (www.imeem.com) – Another great socialnetworking site which allows users to upload their favorite music, videos,blogs, photos, and more.  With 25million visitors per month and 65,000 new registrations per day, it’s importantfor your band to become a part of this growing community.  They have also reached agreements withmajor record labels to share advertising revenue with them, which opens up thepossibilities for future advertising revenue sharing with independent artists. Last.fm(www.last.fm)– With over 21 million users and hot on the heels of Imeem,Last.fm is one of the largest communities of music fans on the Internet.  With Last.fm you can set up your ownradio station and add your music to other stations on the website.  The site even helps indie musicians byrecommending their music to people based on their current taste in nationalacts.  This is a great way toleverage the national acts in order to gain new listeners! iLike (www.ilike.com) – iLike is a highlyinterconnected website that links to many other social websites such asMySpace, Facebook, Bebo, and more. iLike is used in conjunction with many other companies and applicationssuch as Apple’s iTunes.  Once youpublish your music on iLike, you can manage your presence on Facebook, Ask.com,Orkut, Bebo, Hi5, and much more. More than 200,000 of the leading artists today use iLike to manage theirpresence on the web, so join up and see what they can do for your band. PureVolume(www.purevolume.com) – PureVolume has been one of the leaders in music hosting since2003.  The site carries mostly rockbands, but all genres are welcome. They offer a paid Pro service that in my opinion isn’t worth it, but thefree version should be taken advantage of. While this list only includes the top 7, yoursearch for free promotion on the Internet should never stop.  My band took part in MySpace in thewebsite’s early development days. I could have never seen the growth of MySpace to astronomicalproportions all those years ago, so I’m glad I took part in the beginning!  Invest your time researchingpromotional sites and sign up for as many as possible.  You never know which one is going to bethe next MySpace, and getting your band’s name on as many websites as possiblewill improve your credibility, search rankings, and popularity.  Get busy!