Have you made some music in your home studio? I hope you have. Why not share it with the world? It's amazing these days: Free distribution worldwide is just a click away on the internet. Here are my top 5 picks for sharing your music online for free:
#1: Myspace.com Still the top website for distributing music for free online is Myspace.com . Sure, we all like Facebook for keeping up with our friends, but every musician should have a presence on Myspace. If you signup, make sure you click here and signup for a Band account so you can upload your music. The interface is easy and myspace is a great place to connect with other bands as well. Click here for a free article by Ty Cohen on 5 Ways to promote yourself on Myspace as well as a link for a special ebook full of myspace music secrets.
#2: Garageband.com This has no connection to the music software by the same name, but it is a great place to put your music into circulation and get feedback on your tunes. Enter the contest and work your way up the charts to fame and fortune! Well...at least fame.
#3: iSound.com A clean, music-only site makes this a nice stop for a hosting your mp3's. It's highly searchable by google. It's a good idea to get a place holder at a number of these sites even if you don't use them primarily for your music. You can see my own personal isound site here for an example: Jason Paul Johnston on iSound
#4: iLike.com You can give away your music or include a link for purchase. Listeners can use iLike to dedicate your song to people on facebook for some viral marketing of your music. Forget being big in Japan - how would you like to be big in Facebook?
#5: C|Net's Download.com It's not just for shareware and demo software anymore. Download.com features over 111,000 (legally) free mp3s for downloading from independant artists. And, with music being uploaded at 192Kbps, it offers a higher quality than most of the other sites.
So, don't let lack of opportunity keep you from sharing your music with the world. The internet is waiting for you! If you would like to learn more about Music Distribution in a Digital world, please attend my workshop at Revolution Audio on January 31st, 2009. Click here for more information or to signup. This is part of an entire month of classes we call Operation Indie Music :: Click here for info on all our Indie Music Month Classes
