Top 4 Tools For New Media Musicians

New media artists have gone a long way since the coming of the Internet to promote their art. For emerging musicians especially, it is crucial to get your songs out there to the public for them to enjoy and tell their friends. It has been made easier thanks to music-specific media sites that allow artists to host their songs and promote their music for free or at a low cost.

1. Bandcamp

Bandcamp is a one-stop site for both emerging new media artists and established bands and musicians alike. While we’d like to name all the smorgasbord of features that trumps many others of its kind, some of the really cool features for new media artists to promote their work to fans include a name-your-price structure, multiple audio formats, search engine optimization, custom domains and viral marketing. Sounds cool right? The best part? Everything in the site is free; however, the website makes its dollars by taking a 15 percent revenue share on sales, although if you’re lucky to make $5,000 in sales, their cut drops to 10 percent.

2. ReverbNation

Like PureVolume, ReverbNation is also a social-networking site in itself for emerging new media artists promoting their work and listeners looking for new music. Apart from networking, what ReverbNation has that PureVolume doesn’t is the myriad of tools for artists to promote their latest work as well as other tools for record labels, management and fans. For instance, ReverbNation has apps for musicians to connect with their fans through social media sites like Facebook and allows them to track your audience based on region, what social media sites they frequent and what songs are hot. While most of these tools are free, the site has flat fees for selling physical albums and digital downloads on its platform (hey, at least they’re not taking a percentage of your sales).

3. SoundCloud

SoundCloud is not just a site that lets you upload your songs for someone to listen, it’s also a tool to promote and perfect your brand with other artists or to the general public. The interesting thing about SoundCloud is that you can enhance your brand’s talents through its hundreds of apps tied to the site whether it’s recording the beats or making final changes to your Facebook fan page. Although it’s open to everyone who has talent, its apps, storage and marketing tools doesn’t come free, especially if you’re seeking to enhance your new media experience to the masses.

4. PureVolume

The gray lady of social media music networking, PureVolume is the first and one of the most influential sites for emerging bands. For new media artists, the premise of PureVolume is simple: Track trending bands, upload your music for streaming and interact with your fans and followers. What sets this site apart from others is its heavy use by record labels and its years of experience, which would be very useful for bands that are hoping for a leg up in the record industry food chain. Some bands that have risen to fame by discovery on PureVolume include My Chemical Romance, Paramore and Fall Out Boy.