Music Web Hosting
& Musician Communities
Reviews of independent music sites that host band/artist pages or
sponsor musician communities. Many of these also offer CD collaboration options.
Don't miss our featured book,
How
To Promote Your Music on the Internet!
Back to The Musician's Directory
To Sell Your Music Online,
the Music Biz Academy Recommends....
CD Baby No
Monthly Fees, No Runaround.
Just Way Cool.
and now FREE
DIGITAL MUSIC DISTRIBUTION
CDBaby
was started in 1997 by Derek
Sivers, a musician just like
yourself who just wanted an
efficient way to sell his music
on the web. Today, just a few
years later, CDBaby is the 2nd
largest seller of independent
CDs on the Internet, 2nd only
to Amazon.com! Boasting nearly
250,000 artists,
CD Baby is the best organized,
most talked about hosting
solution for musicians who want
to sell their music on the Internet.
According to the latest posted
stats (as of this writing),
CDBaby has sold over 4.5
million
CDs online to customers and
paid out over $80 million
dollars
to independent musicians! That
alone should be motivation enough
for you to sign
up. There is a one-time,
$35 setup fee (per CD) to join
the service, however, from that
fee CDBaby creates an elegant
web page for you that has everything
you need. You don’t even have
to upload your MP3 files to
make your music available for
streaming. CDBaby will do it all for you
- just send them your CDs, and
they'll take care of everything
else. Once you start selling
CDs, CDBaby takes just $4 from
each CD sold via their web site.
You keep the rest. CDBaby also
keeps your CDs in its warehouse,
so they handle all the shipping
details, and when your stock
gets low, CDBaby contacts you
to request more. In
additional to all this, CDBaby
is your connection to digital
music distribution. If you
spend any time on the Internet
at all, you can’t help but be
familiar with the iTunes
Music Store as well as Listen.com’s
Rhapsody service. Once you’re a
member of CDBaby you can elect
to make your music available
to these services, as well as
eMusic, AOL's MusicNet, MusicMatch,
the new Napster and
more. CDBaby will take
your CD, digitally encodes it,
and submit it to these services for inclusion
for FREE.
I really have to congratulate
Derek Sivers and the whole CDBaby
staff. They've done a simply
wonderful job, and are representing
independent musicians so very
well. This is one baby you don’t
want to throw out with the bath
water. Updated 08/04/2008.
Sign
up for CD Baby now.
Additional Web Hosting/Communities for Musicians
Listed alphabetically starting with the letter 'R'....
(starting letters rotate periodically to give all sites equal exposure)
Latest Review
added here 04/03/2008. Don't miss this weeks featured listing on our home page.
Rock
Band Sites . com
If
you want a great looking web
site that's super easy to update
but you don't know a thing about
creating one, check out RockBandSites.com. They'll design a terrific
looking site for you that you
can update easily through an
admin tool without having to
touch the code. They'll also
host the site for you. The price
varies from $14.95-$19.95/month
depending on the package you
want. Updated 03/06/2007.
Rock
Web Hosting
Rock
web hosting, which targets itself
to musicians and bands, offers
some incredible prices for hosting
- as low as $3.95/month for
more than enough hosting features
to satisfy most people. If you're
wiling to pay $9.95/month, your
account comes with a product
called Site Builder which makes
it very easy to design your
own web site. Includes 24/7
support. Added 06/06/2007.
Sonic Garden
Sonic Garden
not
only offers
you a free web page (with your music, bio, pics and more), but a ton of other useful promotion tools - all free.
Sonic Garden, created in part by Bryan Jones, former VP of MP3.com, is a very attractive alternative for musicians
and features some incredibly easy setup tools to get your personal web site up and running very quickly. Community
programs include participation in CD compilations, soundtracks, retail and radio programs. Sonic Garden has a HUGE
artist roster, and we can see why. There's a lot here to like. Added 07/28/2005.
SoundClick
SoundClick
has been around for ages and
has finally made my top ten
by default. While many of its
competitors (such as MP3.com
and CDStreet.com) have come
and gone, SoundClick remains
strong, continuing to offer
its services to both signed
and unsigned bands. SoundClick
provides free web space for
artists (for streaming MP3s),
as well as private message boards,
a gig calendar, mailing list
and other features. If you become
a VIP member for $9.95 a month
you can add a flash page, background
radio, and higher quality MP3s
to your account. And for $4.95,
you can plug their e-commerce
system, from which they take
zero commission, into your web
site. SoundClick isn’t really
a place to sell your music as
much as to showcase it and drive
traffic to your official web
site, but all in all, SoundClick
is a very friendly place catering
to over 5 million unique visitors
per month. Updated 07/28/2005.
TotalBand.com
TotalBand.com
is one of the more impressive
web hosting companies designed
for musicians where virtually
all you have to do is point
and click to create your own
band site. Packages include
your own domain name, a web
player and CD store to showcase
your songs, a DIY SiteBuilder
plus GigBook, and auto e-mail flyers to keep your fanbase informed!
Plus, you get a custom designed flash intro welcome page and personal
SiteBuilder template to match your band's identity!
Prices are remarkable, starting just under $7 a month for basic hosting. A really
nice, inexpensive solutions
for musician's looking for a
quick start online. Added 2/14/2006.
Weed
Weed
is an innovative digital
music distribution system that
not only gives you, as an artist, a
means by which to distribute
your digital music, it also
pays people to distribute your
music for you. Once you "Weedify"
your song files, you can promote them
however and wherever you like.
People who download your files
can listen three times for free,
and after that, they're prompted
to purchase the song. You keep 50%
of your song price, 15% goes
to Weed, and the remaining 35%
is distributed to people who
share your music with others.
This is the really cool thing
about Weed. Your fans will actually
make money distributing your
music for you. Weed is a great
idea who's time has come. It
rewards people who both share
files AND respects artist’s
rights to be paid for their
music. Best of all, it costs
you, the artist, nothing to
participate. Added 1/29/2004.
Amazon.com Advantage
Amazon.com
is by far the Internet’s biggest
and most popular all-around
store. In addition to selling
books, electronics, toys and
even cheese (yes, you can buy
cheese at Amazon.com), they
provide a wonderful CD sales
and distribution outlet for
independent musicians. Amazon.com
offers what it calls the “Advantage”
program, allowing independent
artists to sell and distribute
their own CDs through the Amazon.com
catalog. The benefits of the
Amazon.com Advantage program
are obvious: you get to sell
your CD on an extremely high-traffic
web site. Also, since virtually
everyone who shops online knows
and trusts the Amazon.com name,
you benefit from that. The disadvantage
is that participation in the
Advantage program will cost
you $29.95 annually. On top
of this, Amazon.com takes a
whopping 55% of your retail
CD price. So if you sell one
of your CDs retail for $12.99,
your cut is a meager $5.85.
All that being said, if you're
music can't be found on Amazon.com,
you're probably losing sales.
Updated 07/28/2005.
Ampcast
Ampcast is one of the Internet's better-known hosting sites for
independent musicians looking for ways to promote and distribute their music online. At Ampcast, you get unlimited
storage space for your MP3 files and graphics, detailed album pages to promote each or your CDs, the ability to
customize the HTML of your 'artist page', and you can sell both digital singles and CDs from your Ampcast page.
Ampcast has a reputation for taking a vested interest in supporting it's members. Updated 03/07/2003.
Artistopia
Artistopia
strives to be a one-stop resource
for independent musicians, and
from what I've seen, it's one
of the best on the web. Not
only do they host
your music, they provide you
with a huge number of marketing,
productivity and community tools
including a fan list and contact manager,
a press kit builder, newsletter
builder, gig calendar and so
much more. The basic service,
which includes a whole lot of
stuff, is free, and a professional
service with more advanced tools
is available for a one time
fee of $99.95. Here's a plan
comparision. Highly recommended.
Updated 02/27/2006.
Bands 411
This attractive music hosting service will provide you with a
place to host your band site on the Internet for free. Their web site control panel lets you add your content to
their pre-existing page templates, so you don't need to know HTML. This makes for easy updates and uploading of
your news, tour dates, MP3 files (both high and low streaming), calender, contact information and pictures. Bands
411 also provides you with a complete email management system, from which fans can subscribe and you can deliver
information directly to them. Updated 06/06/2003.
Bandzoogle
Need
a web site fast? Bandzoogle
will let you build a snazzy
web site in minutes (no design
skills needed), complete with
news, photos, videos, messageboard
forum, a music player, mailing
list, guestbook - the
works. You can even sell your
digital music, CDs, and band
merchandise with no fees attached.
Plans start at $14.95 per month
and you can try it for 30 days
free. Don't miss their sample
websites page. Added 08/30/2006.
CD
Unsigned
For those of you in the UK in need of an online solution for selling
and distributing your CDs locally, check out CD Unsigned. It's the
leading online retailer for independent music in the UK and it's just
bursting with UK music energy! Registration costs £ 19.99, and that's
a one-time fee, no matter how many CDs you want to put in the store.
After that, they take just £ 2.00 from each CD sale and they ship out
your CDs to your customer for you when a sale comes in. You are paid
immediately when a CD is sold.
Updated 08/19/2005.
GarageBand.com
If
you’re a member of great band,
and I mean a great band, GarageBand
might be able to get you some
fantastic exposure. GarageBand
invites musicians to upload
their music to the site where
it will be reviewed and rated
by listeners, loyal users, and
other musicians. The review
process, which involves a “comparative
ranking algorithm,” is designed
to eliminate bias. Songs that
receive the highest ratings
by listeners climb the GarageBand
charts. It’s as simple as that.
If your song does well, you
can expect it to be added to
GarageBand’s large network of
radio stations, which currently
includes over two hundred radio
stations as well as Yahoo's
LAUNCHcast.
GarageBand has received some
major media attention, too.
Since 1999, twenty one bands
discovered by GarageBand.com
have been signed by major record
labels, and one has already
gone double-platinum! Many more
have scored publishing, production,
or licensing deals, in some
cases directly because of exposure
on GarageBand.com. In addition
to the exposure opportunities
inherent in the system, you
receive constant feedback on
your songs from objective reviewers,
your own GarageBand.com artist
page, free gig promotion to
fans, and you can sell your
CDs (the GarageBand shopping
cart is provided by CD Baby)
directly from the site. GarageBand
has the backing and support
most independent web sites only
dream of. A definite must for
serious musicians seeking the
opportunity to be heard. Updated 07/28/2005.
Guitar Nine Records
Guitar
9 Records is a hosting service/online
store/monthly ezine for independent
artists/bands that feature the
guitar as their dominant instrument.
If you're not already familiar
with Guitar 9, we urge you (particularly
if you're a guitarist with a
CD to market) to take alook
at Guitar 9's fine site. Guitar
9 Records has been around for
years, and they have consistently
stayed true to their purpose
- promoting independent guitar
music on the Internet (now over
1000 guitar artists). Some of
the finest undiscovered guitar
players in the world can be
found here, and you'll find
lots of articles on the music
business from a guitarist's perspective. Updated 02/27/2006.
IndieKazoo
IndieKazoo is a very clever, easy-to-use "web store" add-on tool for your web site. Create your own personal music store, sell your own music (CDs and/or downloads) directly to your fans and receive 100% of your sales revenue. Sales go directly and instantly to your PayPal account. It's an easy setup, and you are only charged a flat-rate of $20/month. Pay-as-you-go, no contract, cancel at any time. You can sign up for a free 30 day trial to try it out. The store integrates seemlessly between your own web site and PayPal. Added 04/03/2008.
Just Plain Folks Songwriting/Musician
Community
JPF is a community of over 40,000 Songwriters, Recording Artists, Music Publishers, Record Labels, Performing Arts
Societies, Engineers, Producers, Journalists, Retailers and about every other type of member of the Music Industry.
The idea, essentially, is that thousands of 'just plain folks' share ideas on touring, manufacturing,
promotion favorite
web sites, and organizations friendly to musicians. The entire community is centered on the idea of working
together for the benefit of all. The
forums, which are very active, are
fantastic. Members include Grammy and Emmy winners, staff from BMI and ASCAP, TAXI, AFM, right along side plain old street
musicians trying to find a break. Membership is free. Updated
02/27/2006.
The Muse's Muse - Songwriters
Community
The Muse's Muse has, over its many years, become one of the mose enduring and useful independent songwriter communities
on the Internet. Songwriters will find a lot to peruse here, but we especially recommend checking out the 'Interactivities',
where you'll find chat rooms, as well as an active message board. We also highly recommend the writings of their
columnists. Be sure to subscribe to the free
monthly newsletter. Updated 07/28/2005.
Music
Forte
Here's
another place to put your music
on the web. One unique feature
of Music Forte, however, is
its promotion to Japanese audiences.
They translate your page from
English to Japanse, provide
distribution in Japan, as well
as Japanese radio promotion
and tour booking. Japan
is the world's second largest
economy, so this is a good idea.
Other features of Music
Forte include Inclusion of your digital media at Froogle (Google's storefront) and Music Mart.
You keep 100% of the sales. Plus, all your forums and blogs are instantly syndicated
through newsfeeds to Yahoo,
Google MSN and more. Added 06/28/2006.
Music
Gorilla
Music
Gorilla has put together a very
interesting talent
screening concept. While
it offers the same features
as many of the other music hosting
services listed here, what sets
them apart is their relationship
with music supervisors for film/tv
and representatives from record
companies, including Geffen, Jive, RCA, Lava, Reunion/Essential,
DreamWorks, Miramax, Sony and many others. Each record company representative
is given their own custom
page from which they can review
talent within the genres of
music they are looking for.
Anyway, the point is that if
it is your desire to "be
heard" by a music industry
professional, this is, perhaps,
one way to do so. Music
Gorilla charges $24.95 a month
for their service and they "guarantee"
your music to be heard or your
money back. Added 04/07/2005.
Music
Thoughts
This very active discussion group was created by CD Baby founder Derek Sivers
as “A popular, open place for musicians to talk to other musicians.” Derek
posts often, and while I don’t often post, I’m always lurking. It’s a great
place to hang out and get a vibe for what other musicians are thinking and
talking about. If you need a place to get advice, receive feedback on your
music, or find out whether or not a company is reputable, this is the place to
ask. Added 02/27/2006.
Musicians Available
MusiciansAvailable.com is massive database of singers, songwriters, music professionals, instrumentalists... you
name it. If you're looking for musicians or singers for your band, or you're looking to join a band, MusiciansAvailable.com
is a great place to start looking or add your own information. The database itself is searchable by a multitude
of options, including skill, location, and music genre. Updated 06/06/2003.
MySongStore.com
Ever wanted to sell your digital downloads directly from
your web site? MySongStore.com provides a checkout
counter mechanism which will allow you to sell any digital media
seamlessly from your web site. You can sell unreleased singles, released
singles, and concert recordings, and you earn 71% of all download revenues. There's
a $9.95 setup fee and then for less than $4
per month, you can rent 100megs of storage space on our server. Need
more space? Rent only as much as you need.
Your checkout counter page now looks and feels exactly like your web
site. Have a MySpace account? Use one of their pre-built templates to
instantly build a checkout counter page.
The long and the short of it is, if you want to sell downloads from your own
web site, and figure you can
sell at least a few a month,
you'll come out ahead on this
deal. Added 07/26/2006.
Nimbit Web Services
Nimbit provides "self-managed web sites for musicians," which are essentially plug n' play web sites for the non-technical. Nimbit offers some very cool template sites, from which you can update your text content, images, sound files, calendar, mailing list manager, and news without knowing any HTML. It's all very slick, and you can get it for just $19.95 per month, including hosting (or $12.95/month without hosting). If all you want is web design, Nimbit can provide you with that too. See our list of design services also. Added 03/11/2004.
Online Rock
Online Rock offers a variety of hosting services for musicians, from free hosting for smaller web sites (under
10 MB), all the way up to the 'All Access' service, which includes 500 MB of storage for $14.99/month. Online Rock
members also enjoy promotion via 'Online Rock Radio.' Finally, you'll find a library of music related articles
written by experienced musicians and guest columnists, as well as links to equipment, software and books. Updated
03/06/2006.
Rock and Roll Design and Hosting
Get hosting for your band page with a terrific premade or custom web site design templates for as little as $10/month. You can look great online without a lot of the hassle. Their fully integrated content management system supports blogs, music pages, album sales, lyrics, digital sales, merch sales, an event calendar, guestbook, video, forums, flash media players, mailing lists, email and more. Everything under one roof, with one standard interface. Added 03/06/2007.
|
