In this entry will briefly address what is out there for the independent musician to connect with their fans, namely the internet.
As you may know, my book "Online Music Traps" deals with this in great detail. The difference between the book and this blog entry is that I intend to give a brief overview of the means by which the independent musician can utilise the internet. If you wish to delve deeper and get the full story then I highly recommend grabbing "Online Music Traps."
First things first; Blogs. There are many such sites. This is an internet name for a diary. You can even add your own on your web page. They are how you give your fans a piece of your soul. The daily/weekly ramblings of an suffering artist or crazy superstar. In addition, since these are likely to be one of the most regularly places you write, they can get you noticed by Google if you do a little bit of research regarding layout, keywords, their positioning and so forth.
Facebook is an opportunity that simply can't be overlooked. Since mid-2009 until May2010, it's popularity in the global 'sharing' stakes has risen by 10% to 35%.This is an immense shift.At the moment (2010) this is the king of the internet social sites. It has an almost arrogant disregard for musicians and their wishes. It is said that people go here to meet friends and get news. Not to search for new people. It is not to be ignored simply because it is the largest. Have a presence there. Most importantly, have a fan page there. A fan page is where people can join the club without having to wait for your approval. Thus you can just push out info to anyone who wants to listen.
Hubpages is a place for you to place articles about what you think is useful. It is probably more likely that your fans, management, P.R, team (more likely to be your best friend under the cool title of P.R. manager) would write these. They take some writing ability. These should be knowledgeable and mention you in subtle ways. This can get you noticed by the industry and industry followers.
This is the one place you could get people to listen to your music for free without sending them to your webpage. At the time of writing, Myspace is having discussions on what it is going to do with this particular service. Meaning, they have no idea if they can find a way to make money out of it.
Skype, Msn and Yahoo are just messenger platforms. The thing with these is that they have webcam ability. I have a feeling that this webcam phenomenon, though it was one of the earliest developments on the web, is not even close to being really developed.
Squidoo has been nicknamed the great "Lens". I think this is supposed to indicate a thing through which people will view you. It is not dissimilar to Hub pages. You can post many things to this. You can put things from across the various social networks into this as well as post articles. It You can put things from across the various social networks into this as well as post articles. It is an overall look at everything you think your fans should know, see, read and hear.
Twitter takes some getting used to. What is important about this? Well it is such an individual item that there is no real competition. For this reason almost everyone works with it and not against it. You can use it to post across the board. You can connect your other social sites to it. Post once on Twitter and it is instantly beamed magically to all of the other sites. And you can try to gain those all important followers.
Your website is your own personal web real estate. The one place that you can, if you know how, do what you want. It is your calling card, your living room, your own magazine. It is as much part of your image as your clothes. If you can't dress it well, then do not show it. It is also one of the places you can make money. Not the only place but possibly the best for you and easiest to control.
Xing is a business oriented site. Although a friend of mine said he had to leave because of all the others trying to 'chat up.' I find it is great place to interact with the business community. The People with the real money. Your manager should definitely be part of this. It is the internet Golf course.
YouTube is the all Seeing Eye. Here you can post your videos. It is the other place you can get your music heard and even better, get yourself seen. If you want to perform, this is where you can show your possible fans what you look and perform like. But be careful. It may be where they see your downfall. It has a great ability to attract people. It reaches two senses, sight and hearing. So double whammy. Don't forget to post your website address all over this.
This is a small list, dear reader but is nowhere near 'the' list. That list will appear as a fullyy-fledged book....which at present has a name smd s few scribbles here and there.
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