Three Essential Sites for Any Musician

The following is a list of the three pages I use and frequent to help utilize, and promote my music, and my friends, digitally. And no, I'm not talking about MySpace.

1. Reverb Nation

Reverb Nation is an essential online promotion tool that every spawning indipendant musician can use to chart and design their growth. Its fun to use, and so full of tools, that there is no reason for you to not use this site. Your most valuable tool is a great looking music widget that contain songs, pics, videos, show dates, and store. You can see in depth stats covering every angle of your on and offline prescence, and even gives you a score on your potential equity as a group, or individual.

2. SnoCap

SnoCap (recently purchased by the Network Site iMeem) is your first stop for turning your tacks into money. If you have an album, or just some songs, or maybe samples, you can set them all up for available download, at a price you determine. You have to make it at least .39 or else the site wont make any profit. Simple to use, and semi-effective, it's a great start for someone with a product to sell. Hopefully we will se some fun new features now that iMeem has purchased the site.

3. Spreadshirt

So maybe you have a logo for your band, but you want to have more product to have it placed on. Well, spreadshirt enables you to be able to paste your logo, or saying, or whatever on to a ton of different kinds of merchandise. Everything from T-shirts and ladies underwear, to pins, messenger bags, hats, and mouse pads. The only down side is you will have to pay at retail price to recieve your own shirts, but it is still better than no product at all.

A Guide to Cyber PR for Musicicans

Todays musicians need to learn just how important of a role the web will play in their bands promotion. You can do an innumerable amount of things to earn your band exposure, collect fans, send out mass notifications, and earn money. Here is a quick getting started guide to a musicians online PR.

First and foremost, get a Myspace Music Page (Unless you already have one). Myspace sets the standard for online band promotions, and will act as your home base. It isn't necessarily the best, but it has the largest number of users, a great amount of customization, and the ability to sell tracks online(which we will cover later). You get a four track limit, unless you befriend a MySpace affiliate, BoDog.net. Make them your friend, and you get a fifth song for your profile.

Second, go to ReverbNation.com, and set up a profile. Reverb Nation is similar to Myspace, except this entire website is dedicated to musicians. Reverb Nation has a plethora of tools available for the online musician. From music players you can spread accross the web with your music, the ability to get on facebook, and a fan reach widget which lets people add themselves to your email list from your web page. They also have a show schedule widget with map and directions to your shows that is much more functional than the myspace tool. Your music will also be available on the Reverb radio, their website's streaming radio station. You also get a complete statistic section to see how many people are playing your music, from where, and a complete age and gender demographic of who is listening to your music, and submitting to your email list. Pricless.

OK, so you have an online prescence, with promotion, and graphs to understand your bands growth. Now, if you have a digital version of your bands logo, and maybe even a catch phrase, take them to the site, www.spreadshirt.com. Spreadshirt offers you a free printing service of t-shirts, hats, bags, underwear, anything. You pay nothing, and you actually earn about a 30% profit off of every item sold, and you are spreading your seed in the digital and real world. Promote your spreadshirt store from your myspace page, and you can sell from your main hub.

Now you can set your tracks up to be sold. There are two major websites that can enable you to sell your tracks, and both differ greatly in their pro's and con's. I suggest you use both, but you decide what works best for you. The first is SnoCap.com. SnoCap is a free service where you uplaod your tracks, create albums, and then have a digital store, capable to be linked with myspace and reverb nation to sell your tracks online. They take a pretty sizeabe commission from each sale (for every .99 song, you make roughly .59), but its more than your making now. Your SnoCap store can be displayed on your myspace page, just under the songs you are allowing to stream.

The other site is TuneCore.com. TuneCore works similar to SnoCap, but doesn't take a comission, and gives you a barcode for your album so it is retail ready. For a small charge your album can be placed in iTunes Music, Windows Media Player Music Database, and RealPlayer. People can also purchase a physical CD, rather than just a downloadable version.

So there you have it. You now have a great head start to an oline enterprise, and your band can start maximizing your success on, and off, the internet. Enjoy!

Current TV. Your World. Live.

Since August 1, 2005, Current TV has been revolutionizing the way people view their television. Utilizing the aspect that keep people using the internet as their major informational medium, they are displaying special shows to the public through a creative styling, that could change how you absorb information. They use the format that supplies customizable content, and consumer participation, and break the norm of twenty-three minute programs with seven minutes of advertisement filler.

The realm of topics are very encompassing of, and understanding to, the subjects people in the demographic of 18 to 34 are absorbing right now. All shows, dubbed pods, are viewer created, and generally last between 5-10 minutes. Some of the pods are designed by producers for Current, but they remain focused on keeping fresh film makers submitting as often as possible. Granted, some experience in filming, and editing would be a plus, the editors make sure to plug many fresh and new pods full of great content, and full sectrum perspectives. Sudying fashions from all kinds of cities, to secrets of the rainforest, or the thrill of kite surfing.

Taking this idea to the next level, Current TV also has a community based website, located at http://www.current.com/, where you log on, make your profile, and contact other people interested in what current is doing. You can view their television schedule, or watch shows online. leave feedback on everything, with text or video, and find what stories they are looking for people to cover right now. The conversations can go on forever, and may wind up on TV.

The station was pioneered by none other than Al Gore, the Chairman of the Board, has instilled a great role of morals and ethics into the style of programming and direction, so that anyone with a passion will find inspiring, fresh, and interesting. Something for anyone, including the advertisements. Thats right, even some of the ads are designed by viewers as well.

Also on board is Joel Hyatt, Chief Executive Officer and creator of Hyatt Legal Services. A company described as supplying good quality legal services to medium and low income people. With these two individuals helping to steer this company in the right direction, you can only imagine what could come next in their line of ideas to embetter the way people view the world around them.






Carriage:

50 million paying subscriber households in the U.S. and the U.K.. Current is
carried on DIRECTV’s “Total Choice” package on channel 366, Echostar/ Dish
Network’s AT200 package on channel 196. Comcast’s Nationwide Digital Basic
tier on channel 107 and Time Warner Cable’s Nationwide Digital Basic tier.
Current is also available on AT&T’s U-verse Expanded Basic channel 189. In
the U.K., Current is available on Sky Basic on channel 229 and Virgin Media
Basic on channel 155.



By Robert Abby

info from current.com