Guitarzzz

Back when the Internet was thought to be the dwelling of hackers, perverts and godless hedonists (wait a minute…), getting your music to the public was more often than not an epic journey of tapes, road trips and memories. Thanks to social networking sites, we can kiss that all goodbye.

In the past, avid fans used to create tapes by recording their favourite tracks, and then these tapes were traded with other fans. This became a rather nifty way to exchange music. This even lead to the infamous “Home Taping Is Killing Music” advert we’ve all seen parodied. Now, we have file-sharing applications and social networking sites.

The key factor in getting listeners (and potential fans) is to record your tracks in decent quality. The days of background fuzz and noise are gone, that’s unless you’re in a black metal band. Spend some extra cash on getting your track to sound at the very least, semi-professional. You won’t regret it. Personally, if I hear a track that sounds like it was recorded with my little brother’s story tape player, I skip right ahead.

Now, pick a semi-decent name (look at The Red Hot Chili Peppers, that name sucks but the band rules). Create an account with either MySpace or Facebook, both if you have some sense in you. Upload your tracks, preferably picking the ones you think people would most enjoy on first listen.

If at all possible, get some really awesome artwork designed to go with your profile. Also, professional promo photos of yourself or the band goes a long way by making you look as if you mean business and aren’t just some kids goofing around in your dad’s garage on the weekend.

Now, get adding. You want as many “friends” as possible to expose your band to as many people as possible. Add someone, ask them to add another person and so on and so forth. Soon you could have thousands of listeners. Something to remember, do not spam these people. No one likes getting spammed. Add them once, if they say no, move on! There are plenty of fish in the ocean of the Internet

A neat trick is to have a blog running. If you update your blog regularly, you have the likely chance that people are going to be coming back to your profile to read of any updates. Let fans know of an update via a mass message, again. Do not spam. This really can’t be stressed enough.

MySpace has even launched MySpace Records, in charge of finding new and cool artists to promote. If you start the buzz, you’ll get picked up.

Bands such as the Artic Monkeys and One Republic are just two examples of lesser-known groups that hit the jackpot through MySpace and online marketing.

So remember guys, even though the adventure of the 80′s is long gone, you can still have some sort of epic exploit in front of your computer. One upside is, you won’t even have to leave your house!