Social media has changed the way businesses do business. It has changed the way that people find out about news, events and various other social happenings. Social media, or social networking sites, such as Myspace's social network, YouTube's video community and network, Facebook's social network and micro blogging site Twitter have even busted open the floodgates as to how musicians can be discovered or popularized by themselves or record labels.
So much so that, it is imperative that you as a indie musician figure the many options of major social networking platforms all into the equation of your success and marketing schemes.
Here are some examples of two of the major indie musician focused niche social networking platforms that many musicians are finding success on in grand numbers and even amounts in terms of profits and earnings.
ReverbNation
The ReverbNation social network for musicians is a newer site as far as the king and queen sites of the indie music world are concerned. It is part content, part widget and application heavy and part music discovery search engine to many musicians out there promoting online today.
ReverbNation boasts that it has Facebook’s number one most used applications for the gigantically popular network of musicians on the site. This, if true, is in fact a strong measure of RevebNation’s potential and definitely their potential staying power.
Such applications are also available on Myspace, which is currently taking a heavy hit in terms of overall unique site traffic, and other popular platforms out there. The genius of ReverbNation in many people’s eyes is the company’s wise choice of providing free hosted widgets.
Users, street team members and fans place these widgets everywhere online without costs by ReverbNation and this has set ReverbNation up to easily become a major player in terms of SEO and traffic rankings.
Whether or not this was a strategic plan of ReverbNation management personnel doesn’t matter. The result has so far been complete and utterly uncontested growth and brand strengthening within their market sector. ReverbNation goes the extra mile for its users by setting up powerful alliances with many power players in the online and offline music world.
Artists can submit songs to SongVest for auctioning off their writer's royalties if they have a strong enough market appeal; they can even attempt to become a partner with major music publishing outlets and earn a potentially grand amount of cash.
Reverb also offers a chance to earn via a revenue sharing program, however, as with many social networking sites that are offering this like PeopleString's social network or the Yuwie social network the pay is far less than the amount of effort you will be putting into it. Not to worry though, ReverbNation also offers a free e-shop to all of its music talent.
This feature was released in beta last fall and is basically a one item printing press like Cafepress for musicians which provides t-shirt creation, CDs and even ringtones. Admittedly, the one item print online business model isn’t worth it for many musicians or aspiring artists and designers, however, it is a start and you need to get yourself and your material out to the public as easily and affordably as possible in your early days if you are like most bands out there. So give it a try, what do you have to lose?
Soundclick
For most non-beat makers the Soundclick music social network might not seem like the right spot to promote online. While it is true that this community has become known as the premiere source for online music instrumentals; one can’t overlook the numerous musicians that quite successfully have managed to build a niche market for themselves on Soundclick.
Soundclick offers opportunities to sell mp3 singles and albums in their market place. They offer a free band profile and many advertising opportunities within the site itself that may be the most creative and innovative monetizing scheme of all the top music social networks.
Add to this the fact that you can upgrade your basic account to a fairly cheap pro account and can then customize your site and get featured placements within Soundclick’s online player and possibly an occasional spot on their homepage.
Overall, if you are a serious musician, especially if you are an instrumental producer, you will want to buckle down and learn, network and promote yourself and your talented music offerings on this very cool hub for musicians and indie music lovers online. Soundclick is a top innovator and longtime relevant place for helping bands everywhere to promote, market and earn cash for their efforts.
Social Media May or May Not Equal Success for Musicians
Success in any industry is very hard to accomplish, but it is that much harder to obtain within the illusive and oftentimes very fickle entertainment industry. You need to stay on the brink of technology at all times and be willing to adapt to what more and more is becoming “outside” interference and dictation for both musicians and music businesses alike.
Taking the time to read this article was a great step toward helping you to become better familiarized to what options are out there in terms of musician social media outlets. There are so many other options out there as many musicians like Akon (Hitlab social network for musicians) and Ludacris have begun to create their own social media experiences designed to help musicians gain more credibility and market share against others in their genres and even the overall pop music scene.
With the use of ReverbNation, Soundclick and some of the even more popular broader focused social sites out right now you and your band should be able to gain, piece by piece, more of a fan base and market share in terms of the online and offline music industry pie.
