Credit: Photo By Gary Miller

Working the Web: Resources for Musicians

Austin Convention Center, Wednesday, March 14

Even with the myriad resources available for bands to share their music on today’s Interweb, the bottom line remains the same – if you want to take your band somewhere, you have to promote it like hell. Wednesday’s panel on Web resources, hosted by the Future of Music Coalition’s Brian Zisk, featured several industry upstart startups: TuneCore guru Jeff Price; founder of freshly launched Fuzz, Chris Skarakis; Eventful, Inc.’s Jordan Glazier; and Ben Kihnel of CD Baby. Although unanimous props were given to sites like Sonicbids.com and Snocap.com, the key themes of the day were data-mining and targeted marketing – use features like Google Analytics to know who’s listening and reach out to their demographic. The DIY possibilities, however liberating, put more responsibility on bands to promote themselves, so, like high school, befriend a geek. And though you should work blogs for all they’re worth, make it personal by taking MySpace to “MeatSpace.”

This article appears in March 16 • 2007.

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Doug Freeman has been writing for the Austin Chronicle since 2007, covering the arts and music scene in the city. He is originally from Virginia and earned his Masters Degree from the University of Texas. He is also co-editor of The Austin Chronicle Music Anthology, published by UT Press.