Too often, people tend to think of MySpace as the only marketing tool they need to have in place when they utilize the Internet for their music marketing. They post as many of their songs and their preferences as possible and invite a few hundred new friends to the fold and hope that this will be enough to get them into the upper rankings of bands with Internet presences.

But, it takes more than just a MySpace profile to create a solid online presence. You must have a well built, creatively constructed website at “yourbandname.com”. In today’s online economy, everything that has any prospect of selling must be placed on a website with the product name as the domain name and that includes your music.

There are three very simple reasons why:

1. Exposure - You gain more exposure with a domain name through search engines and directory listings. Anyone searching for your band name would be better off finding a dedicated domain than a MySpace profile because you can even further cater your image to your website and give them something to remember.

2. Marketing - A MySpace profile is easy to market to fellow MySpace members, but wide spread marketing tactics are best served with a domain name that can be submitted to directories, used in blogs and posted on other social networks.

3. Customization - MySpace is highly customizable, sure, but only for a social network. To truly get the creative and artistic freedom you need to target your audience, it must be done with a domain name that can be changed from multiple different angles whenever you want. Add more songs, include more information and if you must, link to your MySpace profile and friends.

A good, solid domain name will take you far in the music marketing business. It will allow you to more solidly approach and share your band’s musical aspirations with your fans without detracting from your MySpace profile. Think of your website as a blue print for your online marketing. MySpace is merely one of the wrenches used to put everything together.

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That’s right. Internet marketing legend/guru/all around pro Mark Joyner has put together a complete course on promoting your music on the internet for only $97.

Granted, that’s more than 3 times the price tag of my Ultimate Guide to Promoting Your Music Online, but come on. It’s freakin’ Mark Joyner! Continue Reading

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The folks over at ELECTROGARDEN.com moved their site into its next phase yesterday when they announced they’ve finished more than a year’s worth of beta testing and design.

Although they’ve been around since 1999, we have yet to see whether this site will be able to attract listeners and fans over and above artists themselves.

Here’s an excerpt from yesterday’s PRWeb release: Continue Reading

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I usually limit myself to a post a day, but I couldn’t wait to point out this post titled “Study: Blogs Trump MySpace for Selling Music” by Mack Collier over at mpdailyfix.com.

He’s talking about this study from NYU’s Stern School of Business that found blogging has a positive impact on the success of a CD release – more than the number of friends you have on your MySpace profile.

This is something I’ve been saying for a while. It’s why I dedicated a section of my eBook, The Ultimate Guide to Promoting Your Music Online, to introducing the concept of blogging for music promotion.

HypeBot has reported on this as well. As they point out:

“According to the study, if 40 or more blog posts were made before an album’s release sales ended up being three to four times times the average for both indie and major releases. If blog posts crossed 250, album sales rose to six times the average regardless of label.”

Of course, major labels still have success using traditional methods, but this goes to show that it’s possible to get serious results by embracing the world of Web 2.0.

If you haven’t jumped on board social marketing to support your music marketing yet, you’re missing out! Download a FREE preview of The Ultimate Guide to Promoting Your Music Online today, surf this blog, and gain an advantage in your music promotion strategy before the others catch on!

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Back from a month’s worth of vacation and what better way to get back into the game with than a post about a (very?) successful viral marketing effort by California based A Cursive Memory.

I stumbled across this campaign in a post titled ‘Music Videos and Viral Marketing‘ from the folks at musicmarketing.com.

Check out the post (and the band) for yourself, but these guys have hit on a great viral concept. It’s unique, funny, interesting, and clever enough that I’ve shared it with all my friends, and you probably will too. That’s the goal when you’re trying to come up with a viral concept. You want to create content that viewers can’t resist sharing with their friends, who share it with their friends, and on and on it goes…

Have you had success promoting your music with viral marketing, viral video or social networking? Enter the maxlowe.net Socially Awesome Band of the Week contest and you could win a FREE downloadable copy of my Ultimate Guide to Promoting Your Music Online eBook! Winners will be announced every Monday morning starting March 3rd, 2008.

If you’ve tried viral marketing, but haven’t quite managed to make it work for you, I’d like to hear about that too! Leave your story in the comments below and you can get valuable feedback (and exposure) for your efforts.

On another note, I’m back in the blogosphere after a much needed break! My apologies to anyone who has been waiting with baited breath for updates over the last couple of weeks. Expect regular updates to resume today!

Thanks for sticking around!

- Max

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Your MySpace profile is more than just a hobby. It is the quintessential tool in your online music marketing campaign. For that reason, you must treat is as such and make sure to remain as active in updating, monitoring, and using that profile as possible. Your profile must straddle a very thin line between a traditional social space and an interesting, interactive location for fans to visit and learn more about your band. Continue Reading

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There are a lot of social networks online and more are created each and every day to compete in niches such as dating, pet owners, and sports fans. Knowing which ones will provide you with the resources and interaction you need to market your music is hard.

To help you get started in that process, here are ten of the best music oriented social networks currently on the Internet (that are not MySpace). If you are in a band, these are absolute must use sites for the promotion process. You should have accounts on as many as possible, at least to explore and test out their features. Continue Reading

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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. Continue Reading

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