MySpace and Self Promotion

[TimR]

I have a MySpace account. No pictures and no sounds - Yet.

I'm looking to use it only for myself to get dep gigs and interface with other musicians. I play with a band at the moment but they have no demo and I don't think they are likely to get one. I have some (cover) demos from my previous band, but I would have to check if they are OK with me using them. I'm not sure 100% what the rule is posting covers either - anyone ever been caught?

One of my options is to get a few musician mates into a studio and record a bunch of different style songs direct to a mixer. I can get hold of a very good drummer and a guitarist and get a good mix from the board into a Zoom H4 and post process it. I don't think I need a singer, I only want a minute or two to show the standard I play at. Writing good specific tunes might be a hassle though (see comment re covers above).

I could trawl through loads of sig lines to see who has MySpace accounts and see what they do but that would take me ages.

So. Show us a link of your individual MySpace pages. What do you do? Why did you do it.

Thanks,
Tim

[urbanx]

Hi Tim,
IMO Myspace is a fantastic tool for musicians, I don't know how life worked without it!
However it's no substitute for word of mouth. Once you're 'out there' you should have plenty of gigs - We normally play with 2-3 other bands on the bill, so generally get introduced to 100+ bands per year, hence we're never short on offers for gigs!

Anyway, my advice is just get the best recording you can afford, this will also involve the begging, borrowing and stealing of what ever musicians you need!

Definitely get some decent photos up, a lot of people that look at your profile will either be at work: with no sound card, or need it set to mute, or on a phone that doesn't support Myspace player. They will just have your pic and your description to go on...

Also, keep it simple. If your page takes ages to load people will just click 'Back'. And never, never put pink writing on a lilac background!

Look forward to 'Befriending' you!

P.S please feel free to check mine out below (NoPlanB.info) although as always it's in need of updating!

Edited November 15, 2009 by urbanx

[TimR]

Thanks, I have customised my page and know lots of musicians in lots of bands. I'm not about to add anyone until I have the page ready to lauch so to speak. I am intending to use this as just another tool.

The question is more "What musical content should I use" than anything else.

[Craigmartini]

[quote name='TimR' post='655306' date='Nov 15 2009, 05:51 PM']Thanks, I have customised my page and know lots of musicians in lots of bands. I'm not about to add anyone until I have the page ready to lauch so to speak. I am intending to use this as just another tool.

The question is more "What musical content should I use" than anything else.[/quote]

Hello TimR,

I am no expert in myspace and such but........
My suggestion for what kind of music to put on your player and youtube videos is of you playing varying styles to show that you are a competent bass player. It is "MY"space after all so you should include info about yourself as well. Record yourself playing something you wrote or playing something that best represents your strengths as a musician. You are using this as an online resume so make it easy to make sense of.

I have gone to myspace pages that are so horribly laid out that you can't read anything due to the wallpaper background being to busy a pattern. Also once you do get it up and running, monitor your comments left by others because sometimes people put huge pictures in a comment. This will make your page load impossibly slow and people will never even get to check you out because they will get tired of waiting for it to open fully.

If you want to see my page here it is: myspace.com/craigmartinibass

I try to keep the page layout as simple as possible. Like I said I am not an expert at this but so far my page has been helpful as far as a place to direct people if they want to hear and see me play before they hire me.


I hope this helps! Let us know when it is ready, I'd like to see what you come up with!
Good Luck!!
Craig

[Musky]

Personally I think that a youtube channel might be a better bet for your needs, as you can highlight your playing far more than you can by putting up songs in a band setting. Maybe just you playing bass along to a drum track. The problem with putting band demos up is that unless it's a very bass driven song, people's opinions are bound to be coloured by the material. You could still set up a myspace page, but point people in the direction of youtube rather than embedding the vids - myspace can take long enough to load as it is.

[51m0n]

Take a long hard look and listen to Craig's site, I think its spot on. He covers a huge amount of stylistic ground on it and doesnt over egg the pudding as it were.

I have taken a slightly different route I think (see link in sig below), I've got a couple 'working on' tracks, the first being one that I know should interest the people interested in the (sub)genre I'm most interested in (wow, thats a tongue teaser!). I've followed that up with a potted history of (as often as not) live recordings over the past 20 years showing different things I can do and have enjoyed doing, which shows diversity in a band situation (I hope ).

I think you have to look at it like this, it is highly unliekly that you will get more than 30 seconds of anyone's time. So the track that is ready to go better be the one to capture most people's ears who you want to capture. So dont have a 1 minute long synth intro. I wanted to get straight to the point so my first and second track s are all bass and drums. Didnt use any other musicians, all recorded DI into a lappie with a Tascam interface.

Anything that might put someone off will, so keep it easy on the eye too.

Edited November 16, 2009 by 51m0n

[Craigmartini]

[quote name='51m0n' post='655946' date='Nov 16 2009, 01:42 PM']Take a long hard look and listen to Craig's site, I think its spot on. He covers a huge amount of stylistic ground on it and doesnt over egg the pudding as it were.

I have taken a slightly different route I think (see link in sig below), I've got a couple 'working on' tracks, the first being one that I know should interest the people interested in the (sub)genre I'm most interested in (wow, thats a tongue teaser!). I've followed that up with a potted history of (as often as not) live recordings over the past 20 years showing different things I can do and have enjoyed doing, which shows diversity in a band situation (I hope ).

I think you have to look at it like this, it is highly unliekly that you will get more than 30 seconds of anyone's time. So the track that is ready to go better be the one to capture most people's ears who you want to capture. So dont have a 1 minute long synth intro. I wanted to get straight to the point so my first and second track s are all bass and drums. Didnt use any other musicians, all recorded DI into a lappie with a Tascam interface.

Anything that might put someone off will, so keep it easy on the eye too.[/quote]

Thank you!
I went and checked out your page too. Your page is set up very well, and I like the bass and drum grooves you have put up. Nice playing man!
I couldn't agree more on not having a 1 minute long synth intro! I laughed when I read that because I have seen it done before. Most of the songs on my player were done at home by myself as well. I did put a couple "band" tunes up too if someone looks/listens long enough to get to them. My videos are just random finds from youtube.

I have but one complaint on your page though, I can not locate your "Add to friends" link. When I visited your page, I wanted to add you to my friends list but I couldn't find it. If it is there somewhere, it is to hard to find in my opinion.
Otherwise I think you have a spot on representation of you and your playing. Nice simple layout, easy to look at, loads quickly and sounds good! Great job.

Again, thank you for the kind words!
Craig

[Linus27]

Does a Myspace page or Youtube page really work in terms of getting dep work? Considering every tom dick and harry has one these days, I am wondering if the effect has been diluted so much that as a tool for getting work, it really is weak now.

Just wondering what others think.

[TimR]

Thanks for your replies, some good comments from all.

The MySapce pages I've seen seem to have every Tom, Dick and Harry as friends. I'm hoping to keep my friends list low to people I'm realistically going to network with in real life or have played with.

For instance, I know a lot of musicians and would like to link to their pages so that if they are approached and asked if they know a bass player (or need one themselves), they don't need to remember any of my contact details, they just say "Oh yes hes a freind of mine on myspace." and give out their address. Simple. Hopefully?

Edited November 16, 2009 by TimR

[51m0n]

[quote name='Craigmartini' post='656156' date='Nov 16 2009, 05:36 PM']Thank you!
I went and checked out your page too. Your page is set up very well, and I like the bass and drum grooves you have put up. Nice playing man!
I couldn't agree more on not having a 1 minute long synth intro! I laughed when I read that because I have seen it done before. Most of the songs on my player were done at home by myself as well. I did put a couple "band" tunes up too if someone looks/listens long enough to get to them. My videos are just random finds from youtube.

I have but one complaint on your page though, I can not locate your "Add to friends" link. When I visited your page, I wanted to add you to my friends list but I couldn't find it. If it is there somewhere, it is to hard to find in my opinion.
Otherwise I think you have a spot on representation of you and your playing. Nice simple layout, easy to look at, loads quickly and sounds good! Great job.

Again, thank you for the kind words!
Craig[/quote]

Cheers for the compliments Craig , that's made my day

I'll look into the Friend Button thing, thanks for pointing that out!

[51m0n]

[quote name='TimR' post='656413' date='Nov 16 2009, 09:01 PM']Thanks for your replies, some good comments from all.

The MySapce pages I've seen seem to have every Tom, Dick and Harry as friends. I'm hoping to keep my friends list low to people I'm realistically going to network with in real life or have played with.

For instance, I know a lot of musicians and would like to link to their pages so that if they are approached and asked if they know a bass player (or need one themselves), they don't need to remember any of my contact details, they just say "Oh yes hes a freind of mine on myspace." and give out their address. Simple. Hopefully?[/quote]

I tried this to begin with, and whilst it seems like a great idea, the fact is that a lot of the 'friends' are nothing more than an indication to others of what you're about (more even than any examples you might put up). Of course, in my case thats not true at all, and I hang out with Bootsy and Aaron Neville most weekends (errr, nope). Be careful to go and friend up the sort of people you want to be associated with for sure, but if you restrict that list, then you seriously limit who will look for your page at all, and the likelihood of someone stumbling over it. Also you need to be seen on as many other pages as possible if you really want this to work as a networking tool. So go looking for people to friend up, about once every two months I go for a myspace trawl looking for people doing music that sounds interesting. They neednt be local, just stuff that appeals, the fact is that you'll see why this is a good plan as soon as you start, its the friends of friends of friends that are the resource you need to appeal to. Its quite a strange thing. Then you start watching the listens on your playlist going up and that can get pretty entertaining in itself.

As for does this work? In short it can get you more interest, once I got some sounds on mine I got a regular little flow of interest, nothing much has really come of any of the leads, but they were leads I wouldnt have had if it werent for myspace, and I've met some nice people too, so all in all it does what I expect. And who knows if one of those leads might not turn into something really really good at some point.

And you cannot underestimate the power of being able to say 'my myspace addy is <blah> check it out and contact me if its what you want from a bassist'. It sends out a message that you are prepared, you have organised to a certain extent at least, a little showcase of the kind of thing you like doing.

Its all good.

Edited November 16, 2009 by 51m0n

[hubrad]

I think the basic rule re tracks is that you either own them (original) or have permission to use them (depping/covers)
Seems like a good promo tool, although I don't think I've had one gig yet from having a Myspace page. It's more of a diversion most of the time. (not as good as basschat though!)
Probably the best bit of technology for me getting gigs is the fact that I've kept the same mobile no. since I got my first mobile about 10 years ago... it pays for itself just by getting one gig per year from someone I've not seen in ages!
That and shameless handing out of said number if somebody passes me a compliment after a set!

[TimR]

[quote name='51m0n' post='656571' date='Nov 16 2009, 11:37 PM']... They neednt be local, just stuff that appeals, the fact is that you'll see why this is a good plan as soon as you start, its the friends of friends of friends that are the resource you need to appeal to. Its quite a strange thing....[/quote]

That's an extremely good point, thanks. I hadn't thought about that. I could friend someone in Manchester who could be seen by someone in London. The web is so much more powerful than it first seems.

On Facebook it is frightening how may mutual freinds I have with people. Most I never even knew each other. It makes for some interesting conversations when I meet up with them in real life.