Myspace continues to streamline their Web site to try and keep up with features on other social networks. The latest update is the “Share” function that now allows you to apply a link and video to your status updates.

Instead of having to choose a “Mood” to update your status, Myspace has updated their design to match the rest of the profile’s home page; while adding the options to apply a photo, link, video and mood to your status.

This is just the latest in updates and moves by Myspace to stay afloat in social media. The site recently updated the “Stream” of your status posts and bulletins in an attempt to organize their many features.

Cowboy Cantor is a podcast run by a Portuguese music teacher. Its the only podcast around the island of S. Miguel, in the Azores islands, Portugal. The show’s aim is to share the greatest free mp3s found on the Internet, in the artist’s own sites, their label sites, or in many other mp3 sites that offer free music. It’s all done with love and in the name of independent music.

Q) What can artists do to make money on the internet?

A) A lot of different things have been happening on the Internet with music. From stores with d.r.m. files, to free music. From the Creative Commons to pay what you want. From file sharing on chats to illegal peer to peer clients. Everyday we meet new ways of promoting music and selling it. It is fact, legal or illegal, Internet is the most effective way of getting an artist to be known. Labels and artists should keep that in mind and work with it. F.M. and A.M. radios, television, newspapers and magazines still have a word to say on this process, but Internet is vital these days for music promotion.

At one point, artists really needed to rely on getting a recording contract or having a top management firm such as Violator Management to work their contacts and make a deal happen for the artist. This is a first hand account of how to build your own career in order to get a deal offered to you similar to Drake’s $2.5 Million deal from Young Money/Cash Money/Universal Records.

If you do NOT have a home studio to produce and at least reference tracks, I would start by doing this first. This will stop you from being at the mercy of any producers when you want to jump in a studio because you are creative. Creativity can hit at any moment to an artist. To be dependent upon a producer to get into their studio will hinder you and stop the creativity because you can’t just jump in and create music at will.

Q: How can contemporary artists make more money on the internet?

A: Models like what Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, and Mark Mosher have given potential buyers a choice of what a particular song or album should be priced at. Their success along with keeping things drm free encourages fans to obtain works from the artists. Perhaps if artists gave fans the chance to rate individual songs or the entire album as a whole, then a higher rating could mean that fans are more likely to purchase the work. An option would be to cap the price at around $15.00 for the CD and $5.00 for the digital download. If the rating goes down, the cap should be lowered along side this.

Q: Where do you see the next trend in social media? What else can be done in terms of having an online conversation? What is the next “What are you doing?” question?

Independent bands are given so many free online marketing and social media outlets to showcase their projects, which are valuable to a band without a budget.

TweetMySong.com is giving bands and artists another way to promote their music for free utilizing one of the strongest marketing tools right now.

You just need to enter your Twitter username and password in order to user their service.

It comes at a great time because practically every artist I have met and spoken in front of over the past few months asks the same question: 

How can I save time while keeping up with all of my Social Media profiles?

The Internet now offers way too many social networking sites to help boost your career in music, it can become overwhelming to handle each and every one.

Ariel’s Down & Dirty Twitter Short Cuts: How I Connect with Thousands of People in 7 Minutes A Day

I use it like an addict uses drugs. Here’s how I simplify my Twitter life:

Rew and Who? is the new indigent radio show hosted by Rew of ‘RewBee – The Jewel of NYC’. It’s pure entertainment that will leave you wanting more, more, more!  With their “Anything Goes” mentality, Rew and Who? is spontaneous and informative giving its audience an inside look on today’s indie music and entertainment scene through the eyes of Rew.

http://www.arizzmaradio.com/rewbeesworld/index.html

1. What has to be done in the technological sense to monetize music to a greater degree on the internet?

It seems every other article I read someone is throwing the term nerd or geek around. The words are no longer taboo and are fast becoming the cool noun or new star adjective when you include the “y”. Now social media is “in”, so are the nerds and geeks, or for those of you who are more politically correct, the gurus and experts.

Nerd – is a term often bearing a derogatory connotation or stereotype, that refers to a person who passionately pursues intellectual activities, esoteric knowledge, or other obscure interests rather than engaging in more social or popular activities. Therefore, a nerd is often excluded from physical activity and considered a loner by peers or will tend to associate with like-minded people.

What’s more popular than social media right now?

You can all but forget about Justin Timberlake bringing sexy back. With the dominance of social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, and cool new technologies being developed by the likes of Apple (iPhone) and Google (Wave), the internet is now abuzz with terms such as, apps, widgets, blog posts and tweets.

According to their popularity, the people associated with these terms are fast becoming new breed of rock stars (geeks) Forbes top 25.

With the emphasis now moving toward social media sites (blogs) internet brands and web personalities, will the next superstar be an internet darling of the geek variety?