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Twitter For Musicians

twitter_mp3Twitter is a great tool for musicians to market their music, but many musicians are unsure how it can be helpful to them. The typical musician spends much of their time being musically creative, but many musicians who should be using Twitter to market their music aren’t sure where to start or how to use it to its full potential.

Luckily, Twitter is simple and easy. The only work that really needs putting in is a little thought and some time on a regular basis, and I’d like to share a few ways that this popular social network can supercharge your music career:

Find New Fans of Your Music

Many people are on Twitter these days – and many of them are music fans that live in your town, and the cities you visit. With Twitter’s search function, you can find local music lovers who enjoy the style of music that you play. Twitter also allows for two-way communication via replies and direct messages, so you have the opportunity to make true connections.

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YouMicro.com: An Innovative Environment For Bands To Showcase Their Music

youmicroYouMicro.com has been created by a group of people who want to give independent artists the opportunity to expose their art. The Web site is interested in attracting musicians who are looking to put together a group, or already have an established band.

Once you sign up, the Web site provides you the features to upload your songs!

Well there are tons of sites who let my band do this you say? Well there is more…

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Promote Your Music By Recording A Christmas Song

Seasonal Covers are PR Gold for Indies

When I first started playing guitar, 11 years old, determined to be the next Courtney Love (oh youth), an uncle suggested that I write a Halloween song. Besides the Monster Mash, there was a serious lack of Halloween songs out there, so he felt that any contribution to the genre would be sure to make me famous.

I declined, at the time, to engage in anything that was so obviously not grunge, but in recent years, indie musicians have made up for my reluctance. All-indie Halloween music playlists have abounded over the last few years, changing the face of the seasonal song industry. And what’s happening around Halloween is only a pale ghost of the phenomenal enthusiasm surrounding Christmas, er, I mean, mid-winter holiday festival music.

shutterstock_19646554Modern Day Minstrels

Although there is no lack of Christmas music, as there once was for Halloween, there’s also no shortage of interest in new additions to the holiday playlist. In recent years, indie superstars like Jack Johnson, Polyphonic Spree, and The Raveonettes have generated serious buzz by releasing holiday song covers and originals.

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Should Indie Bands Continue to Utilize Myspace?

myspace-logo1The strength of Myspace is in question with its declining traffic, according to Compete.com. With the decline of visitors on Myspace, the outstanding increase in visitors for Facebook really stands out. The social networking site has been losing millions of U.S. visitors in recent months.

Is this a trend indie bands should be worried about?

I would say that bands have nothing to worry about if the numbers were less dramatic. But the site is losing around 4-5 million U.S. visitors per month.

This is detrimental to a band who relies on fans new/old who come to visit their page after checking our their own profiles. Recently, I have seen bands put up links to their online stores and other forms of revenue driven sites. Losing those frequent visitors and new visitors, who check out what is new on those external sites, has the potential to hurt the band’s funding.

Will the band’s effort to create the most innovative Myspace page be a waste of time?

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Move Over Billboard: Here Comes Ariel Hyatt And Friends Indie Maximum Exposure List

BillboardWhen I read “BILLBOARD’S 2009 MAXIMUM EXPOSURE LIST” a few weeks ago, I thought The Onion had taken control of the venerable music trade magazine with a satirical piece.

“Today the ways artists can promote their music have proliferated so rapidly that it can be hard to keep up with what’s new – what’s actually cutting through the clutter,’ the article began. “It’s in this context that Billboard decided to geek out with 25 promotions and publicity experts across genres and mediums to create the ultimate multimedia metric: Our first Maximum Exposure List.”

Sounds fine until you read on and find a list of filled with old school, unachievable and down right “this might actually hurt your career” advice. A small sample:

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