Simple solutions to get yourself known for free...

I read an article in a well known magazine the other day and found that they were advising musicians to spend out hundreds in advertising costs to get themselves known. True.

Is there another way?

Well yes, there is. What we have useful to us all is the Internet. This great medium is so underrated it is unbelieveable.

The key to getting yourself known is to spread yourself all over the internet. Pretend that the Internet is a slice of bread, a bagel....hmm...yum.

Sorry, stay with me, you need to follow this one. If you bought some really nice spread, costing $100 and you only spread one quarter of the bagel (this expensive food doesn't go far). Now you have only one bite, only one and a random one at that, so you randomly bite into the bagel, more than likely you will have much less chance of being found than if you spent less money on a similar spread and used all of it, all over the bagel.

Now this is what happens everytime someone logs onto the Internet. You have one shot, you are being targeted roughly by random and too much money spent in one area is a very bad idea. So what do you do?

Well, the main thing is not to spend any money if possible. If you have music to distribute then do that. Sign up to all the MP3 hosting sites that you can find, there are so many now on the Internet that they are free and offer some cool incentives (like unlimited bandwidth, hardrive space and such like). The more you apply to, the more likely that you are not going to be missed by anyone.

This technique also reduces the possibility of your paid site being shut down, having any failures in the future, or being ranked less in the search engines (with so much competition this is a high possibility).

Phase two, make sure that you have your own website. On each site put a link back to your own site, this then increases your PR rate with the search engines and increases your link status (roughly: more links in the higher you rate). Also you gain free traffic for many years from these sites.

Make your homepage appealing, offering blogs and newsletters, even "guides and DIY articles". Why? Well once someone comes to your site and goes away the likelihood of them returning is very low, and then you have lost them. This is why the newsletters and blogs are so important, they keep the one-time visitor coming back for check-ups to YOUR site, without them trying to find you again (very unlikly).

One thing that I can never understand when I am searching through MP3 hosting sites is "why do people give a range of their work on one page?" All fair and well, and much kudos for doing so, but I think that this is a waste of Internet real-estate. Your site should be targeted, your name should be targeted. I am into Techno etc, so it is rare that I will hunt out jazz songs. But this is what I find when I go onto a techno artists site. My tip would be to call yourself something different for each genre that you do. For example: DJ Harsh for your electronic music, Earthly for your New Age music, The Fields for your Country and Western music...you get the idea.

Having a separate name for each of your styles will then target 2-3 (or however many genres you do) times more visitors- a possible 100-200% increase in visitor downloads. But again, you would link each site to each other just in case. You would even make up separate websites for each genre anyway. Most people in the artist world do this. For example: Les Rythmes Digitales who made "Jacques your body (make me sweat)"- a cool techno song, and Stuart Price are one of the same. Who is Stuart Price? Madonnas new producer under his real name. The KLF, The Doctors in the Tardis, and The Justified Acients of MuMu (no joke) are all one of the same.

Diversify yourself to get yourself known, apply to everywhere that you can and keep on adding great music.

If you want to know more about new unsigned artists, post a review or even suggest an artist, check out the Unsigned Techno artist page. Download free unsigned Mp3s and and an artist you like or rate up-and-coming techno artists. Dominic's site also includes free guides covering sampling, MP3s, loops and much more.