How to freely distribute my music online

March 30, 2009 11:25 AM

So I basically just want to give out some of my music for free online.

What's the best way? Most of my friends are on facebook but it seems like myspace is more suited to this sort of thing. Is there another website I should use? I basically just want to upload mp3s and have people be able to download them. If myspace is the way to go, can anyone recommend some super clean and simple layouts? I really just want a little text and the mp3s for download. Also, is there a limit to how many songs you can put for download on your myspace?

posted by saul wright to computers & internet (11 comments total)

Last.fm has this capability. I use it as a listener, but a friend of mine is a musician and just recently put up a bunch of tracks for download and streaming, and he has gotten a lot of positive feedback already.

Good luck!
posted by dryad at 11:38 AM on March 30

Soundcloud and Bandcamp, both .com.
posted by rhizome at 11:41 AM on March 30

IANAM (I Am Not A Musician) but if it was me.... I'd start seeding a torrent, and also post to Metafilter Music ( http://music.metafilter.com/ ) Additionally, i'd look for some music review blogs that focus on the genre you fall into - and send them the torrent link. Websites like DIGG and Reddit have "music" sub-pages. Post there.
posted by jmnugent at 11:47 AM on March 30

Thesixtyone.com, my friend.
posted by CRM114 at 11:55 AM on March 30 [1 favorite has favorites]

Facebook can definitely do the myspace-esque band thing with the Pages app, complete with music player. The Resources tab on my link has guides to setting up pages, and has a usage scenario for bands.
posted by niles at 12:03 PM on March 30

There are lots of options. Reverbnation is nice and integrates nicely with FaceBook. Seconding Soundcloud as well.
posted by wheat at 12:24 PM on March 30

Thanks to your postings, I just signed up with Soundcloud---wonderful! Thanks!
posted by ragtimepiano at 12:45 PM on March 30

If you're planning on releasing your music under a Creative Commons license of some sort, the Internet Archive will host it, even in lossless format if you want. They have a tool, CcPublisher, that makes it pretty easy.

Alternatively, Virb is pretty cool and is used by by some people I know as a primary band site.
posted by substars at 3:28 PM on March 30

Thanks all. I checked them all out and Virb seems to be the best. I'll also put some stuff on mefi music. Cheers.
posted by saul wright at 6:13 PM on March 30

Last.fm has a huge user base, if you're trying to reach new listeners.
posted by huxley at 6:40 PM on March 30

Yeah, I'm on last.fm so that was my first instinct but I didn't really like the setup, it was being a bit of a pain in the ass and you can only have one album on there. Thesixtyone.com - you can only start off putting 3 songs on there. and this is mostly just for convenience for my friends to dl my stuff as opposed to reaching more listeners. Here's the site I ended up making if anyone is curious- http://virb.com/jbw
posted by saul wright at 8:13 PM on March 30