Blogs and Podcasting are the current cutting edge of online music marketing. Whilst still relatively a niche of the marketing spectrum, millions of music fans have now stepped away from traditional media and begun to get their music news and new music from their favourite blog or podcast. In the same way that social networking allows you to get new music recommendations from your friends (many of whom you would never have met before but that you know have the same taste as you), a good blogger is a cultural maven who serves up regular features on music they love. Ranging from comment pieces where bloggers either enthuse about or abuse the latest news and releases to MP3 based blogs that offer up new tracks (either legally or illegally) for download each day, they are an avidly followed part of the music media and need to be engaged with.

The top blogs are a joy to read and a great source of superb indie music that you would otherwise never get a hold of. There is no one set way to get your music to them because each site will do it differently. It’s a matter of surfing round and finding the blogs that fit with your genre and then contacting them to see if they’d be interested in hearing your stuff. One thing is certain though, there is a lot of cross pollination between the blogs as writers read each other’s entries. Getting as many people as possible blogging about your release is key to creating the internet ‘buzz’ that can lead to a successful indie release or attracting a good indie label. Giving them a couple of tracks to give away on the blogs as well is a strewd promotional tool because, like a radio station, it’ll give a whole new audience a chance to hear your tracks. Check out the blog roll on our blog for a list of our favoriate sites here and in the US.

Keeping a Blog yourself is also an excellent way of engaging with your fans and supporters. The most important thing is to keep it updated with interesting content otherwise people just won’t bother checking back!

Podcasts

Podcasts are a mixture of internet radio and a blog. A quick surf around the web and around the iTunes store will bring up thousands of podcasts ranging from instructions for fixing a computer to media shows. In a similar way to blogs, music podcasts are usually put together like a radio show by enthusiasts who just have a passion for music and want to share it. Unlike internet radio which is streamed (meaning you have to be online to listen) you can download podcasts to your MP3 player and once a link is set up in iTunes or another similar program all new episodes are automatically downloaded.

In a similar way to bloging the audience usually shares the tastes and passions of the podcaster – no matter now niche! Just like radio it is well worth building relationships with podcasters who actually have audiences who might be into your music. At least initially the more places and opportunities you can give the public to hear your songs – the better.

Check out the blog roll of our blog for a list of the blogs we love, many of these we are building relationships with, if you want us to consider sending out your releases to them then register with us.

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