Music on the Web
It seems like music nowadays is half making music and half trying to figure out how to get it to people – from copyright considerations to publishing rights to distribution to web presence, musicians find themselves struggling through all sorts of things they never signed up for.
At Blustery Day Design, we understand this struggle firsthand. Numerous friends of ours have gone through the process of recording albums and promoting themselves, and Christina recently released her own full-length cd. We’ve learned a bit along the way.
Web banners! All shapes and sizes!
Many musicians are on numerous web sites: MySpace, Facebook, Bandcamp, imeem, iLike… Most of these sites allow for varying degrees of profile customization. Though sometimes it’s difficult to think of yourself as a brand, it’s important that each of these sites instantly and accurately says YOU. Blustery Day Design can help you navigate the pixels and profiles to promote a consistent version of yourself across the interweb.
Make your album look good
Countless additional web sites will allow you to upload information about your album – last.fm, DigStation, cdBaby… If we create your album art, we’ll make sure you have the proper JPEG files of your album cover to meet these needs.
Keep things up to date
Once we help you make everything pretty, be sure to keep everything up to date! Sites like ArtistData may help you standardize your content across multiple sites. This can ensure that not only the look of your profiles is consistent, but the information is, too.
Support independent music
One of the best ways you can draw online guests to support your music is by setting a great example! Download the last.fm AudioScrobbler, which lets you record iTunes plays in the last.fm database and improve search rankings for whatever musicians you listen to. Review the albums of bands and musicians you know on Amazon and cdBaby, and perhaps they’ll return the favor! Cross-promote by placing promo buttons for other groups on your MySpace page in return for a link on theirs. Every step you take towards building a community of musicians is a good one.
