Music Promotion & Marketing

MySpace Band Promotion – Your Music & the Player

Posted on August 3rd, 2009 in Music Promotion & Marketing, MySpace, Online Marketing & Promotion.
Tags: band artwork, band promotion, bitrate, demos, music promotion, MySpace, myspace player

So you’ve got your band MySpace profile, added good quality content and networked with potential fans, venues, promoters and musicians. You’ve most likely already thought about music promotion through the MySpace player and uploaded your music but have you thought about the impression you’re giving off?

Your MySpace profile is essentially promoting your demo. Would you send your demo to a record label if it didn’t’ sound its best? Would you want fans and the public to hear something if it wasn’t worthy of being heard? I’d hope you said no.

When uploading music to your MySpace player you need to ensure your music is at its utmost quality in terms of production and mastering if it’s to gain any attention. There’s little point in band promotion if people aren’t going to enjoy listening to the music on offer.

If your music is raw then basic mastering or limiting may be enough but if you’re after commercial attention then you need to ensure it sounds its best. Getting a professional mastering studio to do the job is a good idea if you don’t know anyone who can do this for you and doesn’t have to be expensive. Having said that, do watch out for those that just run the track through a ‘template’ setup – almost a ‘one size fits alls’ scenario. In music one size doesn’t fit all. Make sure the mastering is done well to compliment the track and its best characteristics.

You can upload your songs easily. You must note that these will be compressed in quality (bit rate) to around 96kbps, which isn’t a great sound at all so your demo does need to be of good quality to survive this downfall. I’ve heard so many tracks sound awful once uploaded to MySpace and I’ve had several producers and DJs refuse to listen to my work on MySpace due to the poor quality MySpace offers. It just doesn’t give an accurate representation of the true sound so if you’re pushing your MySpace profile onto people it may be worth offering alternative way of listening.

If you are a Dance music producer and have uploaded club mixes of your tracks with long, percussive introductions try chopping away the beginning of the track so when someone plays your songs they aren’t waiting for a minute and a half for anything remotely interesting to happen. They most likely won’t make it that far. Grab their interest!

Short samples of your music are good for grabbing interest but don’t make them too short otherwise listeners won’t be able to hear your true sound and get a feel for what you’re trying to deliver.

Include artwork for each track. If the user doesn’t remember the title of the song they are playing and want to recommend it to a friend they’ll likely refer to the image that goes with it so make sure they can differentiate between the songs easily and without having to trawl through them all.

Your MySpace music player is your demo CD. Make sure it gives off the right impression to help promote your band and music.

If you have any other helpful tips, advice or have any comments on the opints rasied above, please do post a comment.