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The Internet is a great tool to spread your music and the idea that you want to make money from it is of course first and foremost in any musician’s mind. But, there has been a recent kick lately from major artists around the world such as Prince and Radiohead to give away their music and it might have you a little nervous about the future of the music industry and the viability of making money online with your music.

Well, there is really nothing to worry about if you think about the effect this actually has. First, the music of some multi-platinum superstar is not necessarily better than yours. You already know that. They just have better publicity and a built in fan base. What you have though is tools that the major studios are just starting to realize exist.

When Radiohead sold their music for whatever the public decided they were willing to pay for it, they did not expect to become rich because people would be so blown away by the music that they would feel they ‘must’ pay full price for it. Rather, they expected to become even more widely known – to look like benevolent saints to their fans and their critics alike – and to break free of the image that a major label created for them. It was a marketing tactic and the same ideas can work for you.

Recently, we posted about the various music social networking sites that are available online for you to join and start spreading your music. The concept behind essentially every one of these sites is that you provide your music for free to your fans so that they become and remain your fans. Having that built in fan base is much more important than selling records. Think about what happens to all the one-hit wonders of the music industry. They create a single that plays on constant rotation on the radio, causing people to go buy their album.

They never create a close bond with those fans though and when that one single fades away, so too does their career. A second album often does little to revive it. But, if you do the opposite and give away your music because you know it is good – using social networks to promote yourself and your image to the millions of potential fans out there – they will come back later when you do sell your first album. It’s a chain reaction.

Good Music Creates Fans.

Fans Create Buzz.

Buzz Creates a Market.

The Market Creates Success.

Success Creates New Music and thus yet more new fans.

This is why social networking is such a successful medium for promoting your band. It doesn’t matter if you make a dime off of the process. What you are really doing is creating those fans that will create that buzz you need to become more popular. And it all starts with the music.