This won’t come as a surprise to most people, but MySpace has become a pretty essential tool when it comes to musicians growing their online profiles, connecting with fans, and publishing their music. With 117.6 million unique visitors in June 2008, it’s a fair assumption that if you aren’t already - you really should be tapping to the MySpace marketplace.
What Is MySpace
For anyone who’s been out of the loop of global news for the last 5 years, MySpace is a website that allows its users to create personal profiles, and allows musicians, comedians, and film makers to do the same in order to showcase their work and connect with their audience. This is where you come in, MySpace is a central place to connect with your fans, it’s a way of keeping in touch with everyone who enjoys your music and of letting them know the next dates of your tour, and release dates for you latest material.
MySpace Is A Tool
It isn’t the be all and end all of online music promotion and it certainly isn’t the only place that you should focus all your efforts, as a lot of bands seem to do these days. In addition, MySpace is a tool in the sense that it’s only as effective as the person using it; a really great artist can do really badly on MySpace and visa-versa.
What You Can Do To Build You MySpace Profile
Invest time into it, if necessary assign a member of your band or team to it and make it their full responsibility to constantly work on and update your profile. Here are some things that you should constantly be doing.
- Add friends - constantly seek out friends of musicians who are similar to yourselves, and send them friend requests. This can sometimes be considered spamming, so be careful how much and how often you do this.
- Keep your profile up to date - post every new gig date as and when you get it, update your profile with every review and piece of news that you get.
- Respond to messages - every single one! Even if it’s simply another band doing the same as you and trying to get exposure, talk to them, build up a rapport, who knows - someday you might need to ask them for help and they will remember you for being friendly.
- Treat everyone with respect - it’s very very easy to get into petty internet arguments, particularly on social community websites. Try to steer well clear of confrontations like this and remember that you have a reputation to consider.
- Send bulletins - but not too often! No one likes constant bulletins filled with useless information so only update everyone as and when you need to. For example to promote a new release, tour, or item of big news. Not to remind everyone that you’ll be playing the local pub this Friday.
- Hold Competitions - give away CD’s, merchandise, guest-list places, backstage passes, hell even a dinner invitation is something! You don’t need to be famous to give away great prizes, people who like your music are happy to receive almost any freebies that you offer them.
- Have a GREAT profile designer work on your ’space’ - there are so many band profiles out there, you need to stand out, and look professional. Have a look for a band with a great profile, get in touch with them and ask who designed their page for them, see if you can get that person to do some work for you. It may cost a little cash, but you can guarantee that it’ll be worth it in the long run.
Don’t Forget
MySpace is full of musicians, record label scouts, pr companies, booking agents, and many many other people who can help you. Be nice to everyone and take a little time out of your day to respond to as many people as you possibly can. It may seem like a bit of a chore but it’s well worth it if you get a new contact somewhere along the way.
What Else?
Who have you met on MySpace who has helped you out? What other tips would you give to people looking to succeed on MySpace that haven’t yet been listed here? Leave me some ideas in the comments and I’ll add any good suggestions to the article itself!
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