Music Career

Managing your music career these days is not as simple as it was in the “old” days.

Those old days are really not that old, though. But, the Internet has really changed how people produce, manage, promote and distribute music. In today’s world, the music labels are all but gone and those that have survived don’t know how to promote musicians in this new channel called the Internet.

Simply putting up a website or creating a MySpace account is not managing your music career. But, you see tens of thousands of musicians believing that if you put it up “they will come.” The reality is that there are over 300 million websites in the world today. If you multiply that by the number of web pages each site has, you can imagine how difficult it is to be visible by those who really matter.

It’s really important now more than ever that musicians take control of their own marketing … not just any marketing, but Internet marketing. A whole new world exists to get your music promoted. By now, you’ve certainly heard of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. But, do you really know how they work? What are the tricks to generating fans, followers and subscribers and why?

And, your music career also needs to be boosted by the ongoing press, play time, and live events. These are not easy tasks to accomplish on a limited budget and without any knowledge of how to do them. For example, did you know that for as little as $50 you can send out your own online press release which will hit many of the major press contacts? Or, that your website is less important than how many links you have back to your website?

There are a number of self help sites sprouting up on the Internet to help musicians. One new membership site is the Musicians Association for Independence (MAI). It is sponsored by 2008 Grammy winner Patti Austin and can be found through Patti Austin’s How To Sing website.