Jason Cole and DiskFaktory Jams offer free MP3 downloads and music lyrics. Get the information you are seeking now by visiting DFJams.com.
Your band is starting to take shape, finally. You've recorded a demo and have had a little airplay on your local college radio station. You're starting to regularly play shows, and although the band's not headlining yet, you feel like your playing is solid. Shopping that demo around isn't doing much for, because none of the labels have ever heard of you. And while you have a close-knit group of people who come out to your shows, most of them are personal friends, or friends of friends. So what's next? How do you start chipping away at gaining exposure? Here are a couple of tips for promoting your band.
1. Use online communities -
Websites like DFJams.com, SectionZ.com, and Myspace.com are great tools that I think all musicians should be taking advantage of. These musician's sites allow bands and artists to sign up and basically receive their own free web space. You can post MP3 files, videos, show dates, and sometimes even post blog entries. This allows you to keep your fans up to date on what's going on with your band, introduce new songs, and basically engage people that you normally wouldn't be able to. If the musician's community you utilize has a message board or forum, definitely get on and participate. One of the greatest things that the internet has to offer musicians is the wealth of knowledge other users have, go ahead and tap it!
2. Maintain a website -
In addition to musician's communities, go ahead and start a website for your band. Start by purchasing a domain name, do a google search for www.yourbandname.com. And if it is not taken, go to itsyourdomain.com and buy it. You can find affordable hosting for your website at networksolutions.com. But if you are not very internet savvy, hire a web designer to do this all for you. You can use your website as a base of operations on the internet. Post sample tracks, music lyrics, photos, and show dates. It's like using a musician's community, except the only limit to what you can do, is what you can imagine.
3. Flyer shows / Pass out business cards -
If your band is serious about gaining ground in the music industry, you'll need to treat it like a business. So, I would definitely recommend having business cards printed up, with your contact info, and your band's website address. When you go to your local record store, drop a stack off. When you go out to clubs to see bands play, leave some there. Pass them out to people on the street. Do whatever it takes! An alternative to a traditional business card is the CD business card. This is a wallet sized CD that has all of your business card info printed on it, and also contains files. You can place song samples, photos, whatever you want. Most places that manufacture audio CDs also offer CD business cards at affordable prices.
Getting your band from the garage to a major label is not easy by any means. It is a combination of hard work, dedication, and pure luck. But that doesn't mean that you should not have a focus and a strategy. Like I said earlier in the article, a successful band is run like a successful business. You know your goal, and to reach this goal you need to use every tool at your dispense. These 3 tips are 3 of the many tools that will help you further your music career.
- Related Videos
- Related Articles
- Ask / Related Q&A




Upcoming Concerts in Minneapolis/St. Paul 2010 Pt. 2
By: Kasan Groupe | 07/01/2010Roll up on Mercedes Benz rims dubs to these hot Minneapolis and St. Paul concerts and shows. See the sights and hear some good tunes for less than $20 at most of these shows.
Justin Timberlake is a Triple Threat
By: Jeff Bachmeier | 07/01/2010A triple threat is someone who is good at three things like singing, dancing, and acting. Justin Timberlake is a triple threat in the entertainment industry. Here are some examples of what he excels at.
Upcoming Concerts in Minneapolis/St. Paul 2010 Pt. 1
By: Kasan Groupe | 07/01/2010Roll up on Mercedes Benz rims dubs to these hot Minneapolis and St. Paul concerts and shows. See the sights and hear some good tunes for less than $20 at most of these shows.
Train horn samples, old soul records and live drums: the best urban music producers pt. 2
By: Kasan Groupe | 07/01/2010A list of the hottest urban music producers in the game. From train horn samples to old soul records to live instrumentation, hip-hop production is some of the most exciting new music today, so take note.
Train horn samples, old soul records and live drums: the best urban music producers pt. 3
By: Kasan Groupe | 07/01/2010A list of the hottest urban music producers in the game. From train horn samples to old soul records to live instrumentation, hip-hop production is some of the most exciting new music today, so take note.
Train horn samples, old soul records and live drums: the best urban music producers pt. 2
By: Alan Boyer | 07/01/2010A list of the hottest urban music producers in the game. From train horn samples to old soul records to live instrumentation, hip-hop production is some of the most exciting new music today, so take note.
Train horn samples, old soul records and live drums: the best urban music producers pt. 3
By: Alan Boyer | 07/01/2010A list of the hottest urban music producers in the game. From train horn samples to old soul records to live instrumentation, hip-hop production is some of the most exciting new music today, so take note.
Train horn samples, old soul records and live drums: the best urban music producers pt. 2
By: Alan Boyer | 07/01/2010A list of the hottest urban music producers in the game. From train horn samples to old soul records to live instrumentation, hip-hop production is some of the most exciting new music today, so take note.
Tracker Software – the Beginning of Software Music Sequencers
By: Bill Arnoldi | 24/01/2007 | SoftwareTrackers! What are they? Tracker is the generic term for a class of software music sequencers which, in their purest form, allow the user to arrange sound samples on a timeline across several mono channels.
File Sharing Ethics
By: Bill Arnoldi | 24/01/2007 | InternetEver since the invention of the internet, people have used it to share files. Be it music, movies, video games, and other copyrighted and non-copyrighted electronic material. This has raised some interesting ethical issues. The debate over whether file sharing is legal and right is one of the most important issues dealing with the internet right now, and has sparked many lawsuits.
Total Hd – “super Disc” an Update on the Battle Between Blu-ray and Hd-dvd
By: Bill Arnoldi | 24/01/2007 | TechnologyAlright, we’ve all been following the heated battle between the new Blu-ray and HD-DVD technologies. If you’d like a little refresher on what’s conspired so far, please refer to my article titled “New CD and DVD Technology – Blu-Ray and HD-DVD”. This will run you through how each disc type functions, why they’re better than normal DVD media, and the differences between the two types. But I digress, this article is about the industry’s newest solution to the problem of having two new, very simila
Audio Effects – Vocoder and Auto-tune
By: Bill Arnoldi | 15/12/2006 | MusicAlright, thanks for coming back for my next installment in this article series concerning audio effects. In the past few weeks we have covered quite a few commonly used effects, such as reverb, delay, flange, and compression. These effects all have wide scopes of usage, and are probably used on a daily basis in most modern recording studios, on a wide range of different musical styles.
Podcasting – What is it and How Can you Benefit From It?
By: Bill Arnoldi | 15/12/2006 | InternetTraditional radio is slowly becoming obsolete as technology in modern times grows in leaps and bounds. We last discussed internet radio, which is basically audio files streamed over the internet to whomever chooses to listen to it. And in this article we’ll be discussing podcasting.
CD Burning – the Differences Between Track-at-once and Disc-at-once
By: Bill Arnoldi | 15/12/2006 | TechnologyAll of us who own a personal computer have burned at least a CD or two in our days. Being able to download music and create your own mix CDs has been one of my favorite features since the beginning. Software such as iTunes and Nero has made this task even easier, pretty much doing all the work for us. All you need to do is insert your CD-R into your CD burner, pop open either one of those programs, drag in your audio files, and hit the burn button. In a couple minutes your CD is ready to go.
Audio Effects - Phase Shifting & Chorus
By: Bill Arnoldi | 06/11/2006 | ElectronicsAudio effects! Is there anything they can't do? We're continuing on with this series, this article being part 4 in the series. I was thinking about the best way to abstractly describe the function and importance of audio effects and knowing your effects well. This is what I came up with. Your studio is basically your tool box, with all your effects and gear being tools in your tool box. Most people know their tools pretty well, but most are not masters.
Setting Up your Own Internet Radio Station
By: Bill Arnoldi | 06/11/2006 | InternetRadio has been lagging for some years now, seeming to be a dinosaur compared to streaming internet radio, podcasting, XM satellite radio, and the plethora of other technologies that have reared their heads in the past 10 years. One of these new technologies is basically the same thing as old-school AM/FM radio, and that is internet radio.