New Music Artist Guide to Marketing Your Demo CD

Do not make the mistake most new artist make, by waiting for your promoter or producer to do all the marketing. This guide will give you some marketing ideas that will not cost you a lot of cash.

The first step you should take if you have not already done it is to make sure your music has been protected. You will need to contact DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), please visit this website for up to date information, http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf .

The second step is to contact these three organizations ASCAP, SESAC, and BMI to apply for membership. You can read about ASCAP and what they can do for you at, http://www.ascap.com/about/ , and according to their about page, they are a membership association of more than 330,000 U.S. composers, songwriters, lyricists, and music publishers of every kind of music. ASCAP protects the rights of its members by licensing and distributing royalties for the non-dramatic public performances of their copyrighted works. You can read about SESAC and what they can do for you here , and according to their what is page, they are a performing rights organization with headquarters in Nashville and offices in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta and London. SESAC is designed to represent songwriters and publishers and their right to be compensated for having their music performed in public. You can read about BMI and what they can do for you at, http://www.bmi.com/about/ , and according to their about page, the are a performing right organization: It collects license fees on behalf of its songwriters, composers and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed.

MusicSubmit.com, http://www.musicsubmit.com , is a great marketing site for new artists to start. MusicSubmit.com will host your tracks on their site and send emails to Internet radio stations and traditional stations based on the campaign package you select. Once the music resources receive the email regarding the new artist they have to option to play your music but not sell it in their play rotation.

Virtual City Radio, http://www.virtualcityradio.com , is another great resource. Virtual City Radio is an Internet radio station that is currently broadcasting thru Live365.com, http://www.live365.com . It does not cost to have your music played on their station. If you decide to use them make sure you make a drop. A drop is a thirty-second recording stating how much you like listening to the station. Drops are sometimes called shout outs.

MySpace, http://www.myspace.com , which is a social networking website, has special profiles just for music artists. MySpace special profiles for music artists are called Band pages. Band pages allow you to setup a music playlist that can me purchased by visitors or they can just listen but not download.

CD Baby, http://www.cdbaby.com , is a site where you can promote your music and sell individual tracks. CD Baby is like an online record store. iSound.com, http://www.isound.com, is similar to CD Baby with the social networking features of MySpace like building your direct connection with other musicians and listeners.

If you think you are ready for some real construction criticism then you should put your music on, SongCritic.com, http://www.songcritic.com. SongCritic.com will allow real listeners to provide real feedback regarding your music, but you should have thick skin because they do not sugar coat their opinion of your music and your style.