Members Throatsinger Posted May 1, 2006 Members Share Posted May 1, 2006 Back in the day, my band Big Sky was very active on the web. We were one of the most successful indie rock bands at MP3.com in its glory days, AMP3.com, and others. Made some good money, exposure, etc. But then it all seemed to turn to {censored}e, and I lost interest. More trouble than it seemed, except places like CDBaby and some other digital distributors. Now, we're finishing a new CD, and I'm hopeful it'll be even better received than the first. And I'm wondering if it's time to revisit the whole scene again. Is it worth it? What and where is cool and worth the investment in time and energy? I'd sure appreciate any serious thoughtful advice. Thanks, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ryst Posted May 1, 2006 Members Share Posted May 1, 2006 I hate to say it but www.myspace.com is probably the best one. And if it's not yet, it will be soon. A friend of mine just got hired recently to be the head of marketing and some cool things will be changing and happening for the music part of site. The only reason I hate to say it is because the site is like a giant self-indulgent singles orgy where everyone is cyber-scoring (not that there is anything wrong with that). But i find myself checking out bands myspace site much more than their official site because it seems to be much more interactive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 60hurts Posted May 1, 2006 Members Share Posted May 1, 2006 I have no idea which is the best, but I do know that the net is saturated with these sites and each site is saturated with bands!I think the key will continue to be: build yourself up locally, etc.A while back I compiled a list of sites. It is now hopelessly out of date, but this might give you a few leads: tunecore.comversusmedia.comdownload.commyjonesmusic.comvitaminic.co.ukvitaminic.comfostex.com/portalrocketradio.commixposure.compurevolume.comgarageband.comsongramp.commp3unsigned.comartistlaunch.comaudiostreet.netbroadjam.comartistopia.comclearchannelnewmusicnetwork.comjpfolks.comctgmusic.comsoundsauce.netsoundclick.com96decibels.comdmusic.comsonicgarden.comampcast.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members paulskirocks Posted May 1, 2006 Members Share Posted May 1, 2006 big sky... why does that ring a bell? wasn't there a band in the 80s with that name? i can hear one of the tunes in my head... same band? paulski Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Throatsinger Posted May 2, 2006 Author Members Share Posted May 2, 2006 Thanks guys. That bad, huh? I don't know about any 80s Big Sky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted May 2, 2006 Members Share Posted May 2, 2006 Tunecore looks like a pretty straightforward way to get your music on iTunes, Napster, Rhapsody, and a couple others. Their charges are fairly small (less than it costs to get a CD up on CDBaby) and they don't take a percentage, it's all up front. And -- intriguingly -- Fletcher (yeah, the Fletcher ) has joined as a VP there. CDBaby is, of course, very well liked by the musicians on it. Soundclick has a good free tier, although their switch to a Flash-based player for streams has made it far less listener-friendly, since you can't add songs to ad hoc playlists; you either play one song at a time, everything on an artist page -- or look for a "station" that has a blend you like. Both artists and listeners can create stations. And, if you can fight off the Russian hookers and misdirected pedarasts, MySpace certainly has critical mass as a communications hub for many younger Americans. I don't know how likely -- or even possible -- it is that someone will find you there out of the blue, but once they've asked to be your friend (or vice versa) you can spam, er, bulletin your fans. That said, I'm 90% sure that 90% of the time no one reads 99% of the bulletins. The players there are really crap Flash players, very rudimentary, and the audio quality highly degraded. It's also one of the ugliest, buggiest major sites I've ever spent any time at. The adverts (no doubt directed, I'm listed as a 102 year old male, so I get no doubt the worst) tend to run to the disgusting/sleazy or pathetic. In fact, the whole thing smacks of pathetic desperation... which makes its continuing popularity perplexing... My (one man) band has had a presence there since mid-2004. One thing it DID do for me was get me back in touch with some of my old Mp3.com pals. Steve, if you're not there already, you probably ought to sign up. If you go to my (neglected) page, you'll probably see some familiar names in my friends list. Happily, I haven't heard from FxAxTxHxExR TxIxMxE or MxAxRxIxSxSxA MxAxRxCxHxAxNxT... But... ACTUALLY... the lynchpin would probably be Swannee's page, since she seems to have stayed in touch with a fair number of MP3.com folks.) One thing I truly HATE about MySpace is auto-play music on people's pages. You can't even turn it off on your band page. It makes browsing pages therewhile you're listening to music impossible -- and, in general, really irritating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members chipmcdonald Posted May 2, 2006 Members Share Posted May 2, 2006 I predict Myspace will implode, ala MP3.com, once it reaches the Mass Social Criticality Point and goes public. If you call your band "emo" (doesn't matter what it really is) it's maybe a neccessity? Otherwise I think it's the bell-bottom jeans of the Net right now.... The "Disaffected Pretentious Myspace Profile Picture" is also past it's due date as a cliche IMO. ..and the "friend network" thing is teh gey, if you ask me. It's like some weird ego gratification-by-proxy situation. I say it's got about... a year, maybe a little more... before people start seriously making fun of it, while in the meantime it will attract some oblivious buy-out, the Myspace guys will get their 15 minutes of Marc Andreesen time.. ...Then a year after that, something else will supplant it; it will be considered very uncool and dorky to have your band on Myspace. ... a year after that, people will start distancing themselves from having had anything to do with it. Or, it might not even take that long: I'd say the odds are that if a buyout happens, like MP3.com suddenly it's going to start costing to be on Myspace... you'll have the option of being a Premium MySpace user, etc... .... and interest will trickle away. Also assuming Verizon and all the others don't totally fark up the Net after Congress hands it over to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted May 2, 2006 Members Share Posted May 2, 2006 Well, I've been making serious fun of it (MySpace) for a couple years and it hasn't slowed the juggernaut, yet. Also, it already got bought out by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, the nice people who brought you GW Bush... But I agree that it's going to go the route of striped bell-bottoms (then again, those never went all the way away, either). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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