Using the Internet to Promote One's Artistry

The internet has provided musicians with a wealth of opportunities to find fans, share their music, and get their albums sold. The question, then, is to find those websites which are best suited for artists and knowing which content is appropriate to have on the website.

The simplest sites to employ are myspace, reverbnation, twitter, and facebook. And, even simpler is to hire an internet promoter such as StrayCat Promotions, specially trained in creating and maintaining any form of online media used to promote an artist.  However, artists can take one additional step and create their own website enabling them to take an active role in the promotion of their music and interaction with fans. It can also serve as an easily discoverable site if properly created and maintained.

Like many businesses, artists can use a free blog site as their personal website. Using such sites as blogger or wordpress allow for easy customization, a user-friendly interface, a simple means of gathering fans' contact information and immediate input on lyrics, music videos, and songs. Each post can be whatever an artist wants it to be - promoting a song or music video that inspired him to write another song; his own music video or lyrics; an advertisement of an upcoming show; thoughts about a performance; a link to store where an album is sold or can be downloaded; or a link to a review of a performance or album. The traditional blog rules don't necessarily apply anymore.

As an example, local Tacoma artist, Adonis Delirious has created his personal website "Delirious Domain" using blogger.com. He daily posts his favorite youtube videos and links to his downloadable mixtapes. There are many things to take notice of on his website:

1. Adonis utilized one of blogger's own backgrounds, a texture created by Hdoddema.  This is one free feature using blogger.com

2. Adonis designed his own header (the top banner of his page), using a black background and a font he felt best described him. Again, this is a free feature. An artist doesn't have to have his own header, but it does allow for a bit of uniqueness to one's page.Using simplicity as Adonis did does not require any graphic design expertise.  Most likely, Adonis used the standard paint program, available on any computer, or photoshop.

3. To the right of Adonis' blogs, he has provided links to his one of his most recent mixtapes, his additional sites where he has promoted himself (twitter, myspace, youtube, plank, etc.), and links to other relevant hip hop sites. Each of these links are considered "widgets" that any blog site provides. Below those links is the archives. This is standard on any website. Website visitors can go back and look at previous posts based on the month and year they were posted.

4. Under each blog posted on the right-hand side of the page, there is a link for website visitors to post comments. This is where artists can receive input on what they have posted. When one clicks on comments, blogger asks the commenter how he would like to sign his comment. Next to that signature option is a link for visitors to subscribe. A subscription sends visitors an email every time an update is made on the blog.

5. Finally, Adonis Delirious took the additional step to register his own domain. There are many companies that allow one to do so for a small price. Perhaps the most popular is GoDaddy. However, having one's own domain is not a necessity; rather, it can sometimes help to shorten the web address an artist shares with his fans.

Both well known artists and up and coming artists would be wise to consider the advantages the internet can provide them. If after reading this somewhat lengthy how-to article, artists still have questions, it is recommended that they do contact an internet promoter who can assist them to better understand how the internet can best help them to promote themselves.