How To Effectively Promote Your Music Online (Part II)

Written by Vladdy M

Is there anyone who has not heard of Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube? Millions of users, both private persons and companies, countless information, bands, songs, video clips, commercials... There goes the logical question, can all these social networks be used to promote our own music? And if they can, how effective are they?

I have to say, the effect is similar to the web site’s one - do not expect too much. Let me explain the reasons why.

MySpace:

MySpace is a very solid place to present your band on it. You can put in your songs, pictures, biography, news and it all can have a very nice and professional look. No doubt, it would be very useful to you if your presentation were seen by somebody - indeed. Let’s take a closer look at this situation. Presume your band’s name is, for example, „vidyps 79“. What do you think, how much trouble will you put the search engine through with this name of yours? :) No doubt your friends are going to find your presentation, listen to your songs and give you high ratings. And what about others? How are they supposed to find you? Someone to type in „vidyps 79“? Very unlikely. Whatever kind of music you perform, there are still many, many artists of that genre, MySpace’s music database is a huge one. Simply, its search engine isn’t so intuitive and diverse, that you can easily be discovered among so many bands and soloists.

All in all, the purpose of the presentation on MySpace is identical to the purpose of your own web site: to communicate with the already existing fans, not to acquire new ones. Therefore, the effect of the promotion is – just minimal.

YouTube:

There is almost no band or a song that cannot be found on this site. Some clips, i.e. videos are of exceptional quality, some are worse, more or less. A perfect place to come upon some tracks you haven’t heard for a long time, as well as current hits. These facts can help you already draw a conclusion how useful YouTube is when it comes to your music. If you are a well-known artist, you will have thousands of visitors to your video clips. And if you are not – you will have very, very little number of them... :(

Simply put, the YouTube’s search engine is not adapted for the detection of new music that easily. You are meant to become famous elsewhere, have your songs and videos seen and heard and after that you can go and post them on YouTube - it makes sure visitors will find you then. But if you want YouTube to be the primary place for your advertising - the effect will be minimal again...

Facebook:

Things are doing significantly better with Facebook. Neither here the search engine is especially a powerful one, but Facebook gives you a great opportunity to get not only to your friends, but your friends’ friends’ friends... and so on. Thus, in a relatively short amount of time you can have a lot of fans and admirers of your music. But ... You will notice very soon that your circle of friends is increasing and your music’s sale is, to say - practically standing still. So, what is it about? How can it be?

The answer is simple. Few are the ones who will buy music from their friends. Friends are here to exchange links, music, videos, photos and all that, of course, for free. Nobody wants to purchase anything, nor it comes to your Facebook friends’ minds at all. Someone even may be offended if you ask him to buy your song. Why wouldn’t you give him or her those songs for free? It would be nice, but you want to make some money too, not only to give it away.

And - for the third time – it’s a minimal effect.

So, what do we do then? That will be discussed in the third section.

Leave Your Comment

Subject : Message : Name : Email :