VoIP You

New technology and an increased ability to mass communicate over the Internet is quickly changing the way that bands do business. Instead of plugging away in the studio never to be heard, future rock stars of America are skipping the meeting with the A&R guy and taking things into their own hands.

Recently, Business Week Online wrote about the new music industry:

"First, the Digital Revolution gave us inexpensive recording gear and easy-to-use software, helping amateur musicians record professional-sounding works. Now, the Internet has democratized how music is distributed and even sold."

This article goes onto cover new Web and VoIP based marketing projects including how to make and create the perfect podcast. It also leads you to great sites like MySpace, where indie bands can connect with thousands of fans, or CDBaby, for making, distributing and selling your band's CDs.

Regarding MySpace, Wired Magazine calls it the "MTV for the Net generation."  Here's how one band built up an audience:

"Hawthorne Heights is touring the country in a plush bus. The quintet's debut album, The Silence in Black and White, has sold more than 500,000 copies since its release last year, and the group has appeared on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live and been on MTV's TRL. The five young men from Dayton, Ohio, are living the rock-and-roll dream - but they took a highly unconventional path to get there. The band achieved its popularity without any real radio or TV airplay, a feat unheard-of a few years ago. They aren't signed to a major label, and they don't want to be. They don't need industrial-strength marketing campaigns or heavy rotation.

"What they have is MySpace, a community Web site that converts electronic word of mouth into the hottest marketing strategy since the advent of MTV. Massively popular, MySpace is nominally a social networking site like Friendster, but nearly 400,000 of the site's roughly 30 million user pages belong to bands. The rest belong mostly to teens and twentysomethings who attend the groups' shows, download their songs, read their blogs, send them fan mail, and enthusiastically spread the word."

Now if you’re not quite ready to record your first hit single, but you still want to have some fun using the Internet to produce music, my people is ready to help you. We give you the chance to score a track and watch as our merry little band of critters brings it to life.

Once your hit tune is recorded you can quickly send it to your friends and family, so they can catch a glimpse of your genius. Or at least the genius of the singing my people guys. You can also scan the jukebox to hear what other people have to offer. Don’t worry if you’re not a composer or even if you can’t hum, because watching the band do their thing is at least half the fun.