Alternatives to MySpace Music

June 13, 2010 12:17 PM

What are the best alternatives to myspace music for hosting mp3s and networking with other bands, fans?

My and my friends' bands have been doing underground / progressive / garage rock pretty successfully in the USA for over 15 years. But, in the past 5 years, those of us who have run MySpace accounts have seen ridiculously better success as touring acts than those who have not. Not better than folks on bigger labels but better than equally sized fish who have stand-alone websites only.

Unfortunately, I find myspace an unpleasant place to live.

At this time, I'm wondering if there are other sites with similar/better functionality.

posted by metajc to computers & internet (7 answers total)

I am just a music consumer and not a musician, but I absolutely love seeing bandcamp links.
posted by milarepa at 12:24 PM on June 13, 2010

electronic people seem to like soundcloud.com
posted by 3mendo at 12:26 PM on June 13, 2010

Last.fm is a pretty great place. I don't know if you can setup/manage your own page but it's worth a look.
posted by msbutah at 1:09 PM on June 13, 2010

Ditto everything milarepa said.
posted by carbide at 1:14 PM on June 13, 2010

thesixtyone.com is like reddit/digg for music. my old band found a lot of fans there.

staying on myspace is like losing your soul. really, earlier this year a dj friend from australia came through nyc, you could readily see that myspace had eaten his soul. facebook had just started to eat his mind, i've pretty much written him off....

(best facebook/twitter cartoon ever)
posted by kimyo at 1:52 PM on June 13, 2010

RootMusic is a Facebook app that gives you a full band page with music and photos and all that jazz. It might serve your needs.
posted by wemayfreeze at 4:19 PM on June 13, 2010

Last Fm is worth checking out.... it's a bit of a pain in the arse at first, but once you get it set up and cranking, you'll be happy at the plays your music gets. You can choose to let listeners download a song for free, or buy it... or neither, just stream it. It's also good to have your songs available on Amazon and/or iTunes, as these are the most accessible sites to sell/host songs on.

FWIW I have four different music MySpace sites, and while they are a chore to check constantly, they have been worth the time and effort. And now a lot of the "older" scene seems to have been moved over to Facebook, so there's another avenue.

Basically, it's PR. It's a chore, a job, keeping up with promoting via the internets, just like when we used to go and "flier" a city for a show, putting up fliers on phone polls and in the record stores. It's social networking. While Myspace may not appeal to you, don't discount the fact that there are a lot of people on it, and just because YOU don't like it, thousands of potential fans are on there that may not have otherwise ever heard of your music.

More of a "musician" related site is bandmix, but I think they started charging money. And most cities have a local music forum which can be invaluable, if there isn't one for your scene, start one. There are several free message board websites out there that are painless.
posted by peewinkle at 9:10 PM on June 13, 2010