MI7®

We've been trawling the Internet for useful services to assist us in our marketing missions over the past few months now. Anyone who is in this business and going it alone will know that there are an awful lot of sites out there trying to woo us for our hard earned pennies.
We've been approached by countless "mixtape" and compilation outfits, who ask us for a mere $300 - $400 for the heady privilege of having one of our tracks on a promo CD. Whilst we're sure that some of these compilations are genuine and go to the "industry bigwigs" they promise to, we've given a wholehearted thumbs-down to this option. The majority of approaches we've had have been a form letter sent to every music profile on Myspace via an illegal bulk mailer. There is no-one "carefully selecting" the "Best music on Myspace", and no way of knowing who, if anyone, the compilation is actually being sent to.
It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the more you pay, the better your chances are of getting heard by that elusive A&R guy who has just been waiting for your music to bust you into the charts. Beware of "Pay to Play" scams. If you're planning to spend money on advertising or marketing services, you need results.
A reasonably good site which many of you will have come across is Sonic Bids. These guys have something of a monopoly on submitting your music to radio stations, reviewers, film makers, labels and venues. And they do pretty well out of it which is fair enough, but we're talking borderline exploitation. You pay for a 6 or 12 month subscription to the site, and there is a fee for each submission. It all adds up, and there is an unmistakable lottery element to the opportunities. Of course there's a lottery element to the music business whichever way you look at it - right place, right time, "who you know not what you can do" and all that jazz. Because we accept the uncertainty of being an independent artist, we are more likely to be targeted to gamble with our money in search of "making it".
Now for the good ones. If you're looking for a free networking site that is completely geared towards music and has a very fast growing and lively community, look no further than Reverbnation. We've sung the praises of this site before and we'll continue to do so. Reverbnation makes use of the latest Internet technology, with a host of marketing tools that can be used by you and your fans anywhere on the net. The site looks great and runs pretty smoothly. Resources include a "Fan collector" widget making it easy for you to grow a mailing list, keep track of how many of your mailouts are being read and see whether spam filters are flushing your hard work away. Integrated into this neat system is the option for fans to become street team members - a potentially vital resource for musicians without management to spread the word for them. You can set tasks for your street team, and they can use any of the wonderful widgets to help you market your music and grow your fan base. The site also provides detailed statistics on play count, visitor activity, listener demographics and much more. Reverbnation lets you add a buy link for your music if it's available for sale, and US users can set up a Snocap shop. Finally, Reverbnation gives a little back. If your profile is generating a lot of activity and attracting new registrations to the site, they give you a small percentage of their advertising revenue. Not much, but hey - they're not obliged to part with any of their profits. You won't be giving up the day job just yet, but you're certainly getting a free pint or two per month - just for being a popular muso. Can't say fairer than that!

Next on our list of good guys is a site called musicSUBMIT.com. This is a service that takes all the pain and time waste out of getting your music to radio stations, reviewers and labels. It is reasonably priced with a variety of flexible options available. All you have to do is create your profile, specify who you want your music submitted to and they do the rest. You then hear back from those who are interested and follow up as necessary. This normally includes sending a CD to the interested party, but at least you know that you're not sending it to somebody's overflowing dustbin. This one is not suitable for musicians without a professionally recorded and well polished product, and ideally you should have an album to plug.

Last but by no means least, the BBC offers widespread opportunities for new and unsigned music to get on the airwaves. Visit BBC Introducing and browse the numerous shows that offer airplay to unsigned artists. Not all of them will be right for you, but we guarantee you'll find at least three or four worth sending your material to. Particularly exciting amongst these is the brand new show hosted by Tom Robinson on BBC 6music, which bypasses CDs, pluggers and record companies and plays new tunes by unknown artists as heard on their own web pages. You can recommend yourself or get your fans to - every recommendation gets listened to.

To conclude, think twice about paying an unfeasible amount of money to get your music onto an “Industry Promo Compilation” – even if it is genuine, it isn’t the best way to get your music noticed. Sonic Bids is worth checking for the sheer volume of interesting opportunities, but be selective or you’ll find your bank balance falling somewhat more rapidly than is good for you. To get your music up on a networking site that looks great and offers some brilliant (and free) marketing tools, Reverbnation is definitely the way to go. To save time, money and going mad, MusicSubmit.com will plug your music to a well-targeted group of radio stations, labels and reviewers. And finally, get your tracks sent off to the various new music shows on BBC radio for some quality airtime. Good luck!