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How
To Get Your Music on the Net
by
Phillip Walker
Today's
technology offers tremendous opportunities for songwriters
and composers. Using the Internet, songwriters can promote
their songs and music around the world without spending a
lot of money.
This
article offers tips on how songwriters and composers can use
the Internet as an effective marketing tool.
STARTING
WITH THE BASICS
There
are several basic ways to establish a presence on the Internet
so others can find out about your songs and music.
First,
create your own website. Go to your library and find a good
book on how to build a website. Or Google the phrase "building
a website" and you'll find countless how-to guides that
can be very helpful.
Today
there are many excellent web tools to help create web pages.
Do some research to find which ones are well rated and which
ones can help you do what you want to do.
PUBLISH
SONGS / PUBLISH MUSIC
When
you're ready to put your website on the World Wide Web, you
must subscribe to an Internet provider. Do some research to
find which ones have the best service and options you want.
Then
publish your website! Include pictures, text and music.
{Note:
Some providers have programs that allow you to create your
webpages with little effort. The downside is they often do
not allow much flexibility or expanded programming.}
GET
YOUR MUSIC HEARD
The
most common way of getting your music heard is to make your
music downloadable to another person's computer from your
web site.
From
there they just play it back via from their Internet browser
on their PC to speakers or save it as a file and play it later.
A
second method is to use a service provider who allows audio
streaming. Often there is an additional charge for this service.
With
streaming, you do not actually download the music, but it
is played in real time directly to your computer. This allows
you to almost immediately listen to various parts of a song
without having to wait for it to all download. This is a faster
method.
Other
techniques are available.
Placing
information about yourself on someone else's website is another
method. There are numerous music websites that would be interested
in having you as part of their site. Some charge and others
do not.
With
this option you can email them your information and attached
pictures, then they add it all to their website.
News
groups offer another method. With news groups you do not need
a web site, only need a connection to the Internet and an
email account. You find out what new groups you are interesting
in, become a member and go to work! You are allowed to post
questions, read archives and interact with others. You then
are able to find others with similar interested and broaden
your music networking arena.
MAKE
IT EASY TO FIND YOUR MUSIC
Whatever
methods you choose, it is important to remain focused on exactly
what you do and why you want someone to know about you. Surfers
looking for music don't want to spend a lot of time reading
details about an artist they do not know. They are looking
for music or pictures that they can quickly find and download.
Some
people use spamming (mass e-mailing) to let others know about
their music. This is a BAD idea. It usually does more harm
than good, and leaves a negative impression.
It's
also a good idea to register your music website with search
engines. This means you submit your web site URL (www.myprovider.com/~myaccount)
to a search engine, i.e., Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.
These
search engines come to your site and index the information
contained within it. This indexing helps people find your
website when they use search engines.
Most
people use search engines to find what they are looking for.
The person who is looking for information about someone like
you has to be fairly focused on what they are looking for.
If
they are looking for a violinist who writes instrumental music,
they would search for violinist AND instrumental. They would
then be provided with a list of results found in that search
engines database. If they searched for violin, then they would
get violin makers, violinists, stories about violins etc.
Web
pages with common interests provide another means via hyper
text links (clickable text or pictures that transport you
to a new location). Someone with another site may add your
URL (home page) as a hyper link on their site. So, when someone
visits their site, they see your link and can then directly
be connected to your site to view or download information
about you.
You
can do also try direct advertising. This is similar to a magazine
ad, with or without links directly to your site. Often it
costs money, but sometimes you can advertise for free, especially
if you're good at networking.
Good
luck!
©
Phillip Walker
Mr.
Walker is a composer and recording artist from Oregon.
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