Music Insider: Why Every Band Needs a Blog

Every musician wants to make money with their music. Word-of-mouth marketing, paper fliers, and seedy managers are so last century. To make it today, every musician needs to become net-savvy and start a blog.

First off, what is a band blog?
Think of a blog as an online journal, where your band can connect with music fans and chat about your latest gig, upcoming albums, last night's recording session, or where the band will be playing next week. Post band pics, free music downloads, and links to your latest albums. The key to blogging is to write new posts regularly (a few times a week) and to get fans to subscribe to your music blog. Subscribers will get alerted every time your band posts something new.

Setting up a music blog is pretty easy. You can use Wordpress, Blogger, or any number of other free blogging sites. I have been using Blogger for a few years now, and I am pretty impressed with its traffic even though the templates are old. Besides being able to blog quickly, Blogger provides you with preset widgets that allow you to add important links, music videos, Google Ads, and other interesting online gadgets.

Be Visual
You will need several good images of the band members in jpg format, as well as a cool banner which will serve as an eye-catching logo for fans. Get free HTML code from sites like Reverbnation or YouTube to add music videos and online radio station of your music. Remember, the internet is all about presentation. Add images of your album, latest recording session, any band merchandise, and maybe even the lyrics of your most popular song.

When you set up a music blog, you may want to have several pages besides your primary music post. For example, the band Home page can have the latest band post, basic images of band members, and an internet radio station playing your music. Other pages can include titles like "Music Merch", "Our Latest Album", "Photos", "Song Lyrics", "Concert Dates", "Fan Page", and "About the Band".

Use the band blog for basic marketing. Add contact information under a phrase like, "Book [Band Name] Today!" Add a calendar of upcoming events and link the calendar and posts to social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, Reverbnation, or Fandalism. Offer a free download to subscribers, or even host "Meet the Band" online contents. Add in music videos (as well as the making of the music video). Let your blog become your face to the global music scene.

Other great online options include hosting live-streaming jam sessions, podcasting, photo galleries, and animations. E-mail fans, hand out business cards, and add the blog URL to every signature, e-mail, and forum post that you write. Imprint it on band merch, and use the features to launch your band's career.

Finally, BE PERSONAL
You don't want the blog to be nothing but info about your merch or where to buy your next album. You want to make sure that you connect to your fans. Offer useful advice, freebies, contests. Reply to individual posts from fans, and ask them for what they want. Post up pics of fans at your latest gig, and ask them to share it on their social media sites. Interact and connect.

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Sabrina Pena Young

Award-winning composer, author, and media artist. Sabrina Pena Young's music and media works have been heard throughout Europe, Asia, the Americas, and Australia. Young has authored over a dozen books covering topics as diverse as music, poverty, and cooking. The New Music Box, SAI Panpipes, Percussive Notes, SEAMUS Music Journal, IAWM Music Journal, and Kapralova Society Journal are only some of the notable publications that have published Young's intriguing articles on music and technology.

Young's latest work Libertaria: The Virtual Opera is a groundbreaking animated opera created entirely through Internet Collaboration.

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