SoundSpar – Compete With Other Bands And Win New Fans

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

Name: SoundSpar
URL: http://www.soundspar.com

There is something which is obvious, but which is not any less true because of that. Listeners are the only people who can truly determine how good your own band is. Forget about critics, forget about these radios that actually play your songs or shun them. Any band worth its salt knows the one answer that actually has any real meaning is the one they can elicit from the public. All the rest comes later.

And which better way to measure how popular a band is in the world’s eyes than a site where bands from everywhere can challenge each other out, and have punters vote on which is better? Well, that’s exactly what this site is all about. SoundSpar is a battleground for bands to fight for supremacy. The word “battleground” might be too much, come to think of it. Bands fight each other in what is comparable to a kind of forum where people can vote and opine as freely as they wish.

Each featured band has a record of its own, highlighting how many confrontations they have won, how many they have lost, and how many have ended in a draw. And these bands that step into the ring more often are all highlighted on the main page, for you to know who the champs you should aspire to challenge one day are.

A wealth of different styles are supported on this site – rock, pop, country, rap, electronic/techno… and something that definitely has to be mentioned is that the site is also usable by comedians. The will be able to battle for supremacy much in the same ways that bands are allowed to.

We Love Your Songs – A New Social Network For Bands And Fans

Posted on May 23, 2011 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

Name: We Love Your Songs
URL: http://www.weloveyoursongs.com

We Love Your Songs is one of these community sites for new musicians that I have reviewed before, and that I will keep on reviewing until the end. I mean, such resources are terrific – young performers get a chance to nurture their talent, and fans get a chance to become familiarized with the ones who might as well become tomorrow’s stars today, when they were mostly unknown numbers. Plus, those who support a band locally get a chance to show their allegiance online more than easily

As in any other social site, users (IE bands and punters) have to sign up for their own accounts to interact among themselves. Once accounts have been created, it is very easy to upload media, and interact one-to-one both by commenting on what’s being shared.

And in order to elicit the best from bands (and to encourage fans to become even more involved) lots of different competitions are held on the site. Continue reading →

1Band1Brand – New Bands & Fashion Brands

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

Name: 1Band1Brand
URL: http://www.1band1brand.com

This is one for the music lovers among you who are also style-minded. 1Band1Brand is quite a unique site in which both emerging bands and fashion brands get a chance to become more widespread.

In essence, this site introduces people to one band and one fashion brand per week. The band sells a sampler (whose price is actually determined by each buyer), and the fashion brand offers a bargain.

And the means are provided for promoting anything that is bought through the site all over the Social Web – Facebook and Twitter are extensively supported, so that band (and brand) advocacy is radically simplified. Which is the aim of the site, really – making early adopters set the scene for a much larger audience.

Billboard Launches A Promotion Service For Unsigned Bands

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

Billboard pro

Never one to lose relevance, legendary music service Billboard has announced the launch of a paid service for young bands that want to track their sales and fan activity.

This service goes by the name of Billboard Pro, and it has been in beta since January.

Bands that sign up for Billboard Pro are provided with a heat score that determines their ranking on a chart of its very own named “Uncharted”.

And bands get the chance to be mentioned in the Billboard Bulletin, as well as having their songs rotated on the weekly playlist found on Billboard’s website.

This service can be tried for free for a full month. Once this trial period comes to an end, a membership will cost you $ 99/year.

Bandhack – Local Bands On Facebook

Posted on January 27, 2011 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

Name: Bandhack
URL: http://www.bandhack.com

Bandhack is a directory of local bands and shows on Facebook. Through this site, you will be able to know all about these bands that are coming together right where you live, and about the activity of the ones that are already well-established. You’ll get to know about their upcoming gigs, and you’ll also get your hands on their latest media (including videos and audio recordings)

To me, what gives Bandhack its edge is that the content is pulled directly from the pages of the bands in question. This means that the content is always up-to-date – if there’s any kind of change in schedules, for example, that will be reflected immediately on Bandhack.

And using the site is a piece of cake. You just log in with your Facebook account, and all the relevant local activity becomes accessible in a snap.

Crowdbands – A Record Label Run By The People

Posted on January 20, 2011 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

Name: Crowdbands
URL: http://www.crowdbands.com

Record labels as we have always known them are on their way to extinction. Well, that is what the team behind this startup seems to be screaming at the top of its voice.

Crowdbands is a collaborative platform that to all intents and purposes resembles a record label whose decisions are taken by the public. Which songs will be recorded by which band, when will any of the bands on the roster go on tour, what the artwork of albums and singles will look like, which late shows they should play… These are the kind of decisions that users of Crowdbands are allowed to take. We are talking about one of the clearest examples of crowdsourcing yet applied to the music industry.

The one and only drawback something like this has, now, is that it effectively puts an end to songs like the Sex Pistols’ “EMI” or XTC’s “I Bought Myself A Liarbird”. As Johnny Rotten himself once commented, lousy record companies make (and have always made) for terrific compositions since the dawn of time. Well, I guess composers now will have to do without one of the most devilish sources of inspiration ever. We’ll see if the tradeoff (IE, the sense of communion) will suffice. And say what you wish, but I think we are losing a certain dose of malice that has always kept the scene entertaining to begin with.

What Was The Clip Andy Partridge Was Watching When He Settled On The Name “XTC”?

Posted on October 4, 2010 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

xtc
Andy picked the name XTC while watching a skit in which Jimmy Durante was looking for “the lost chord” (have you heard, Pete Townshend??). At one point, the American performer exclaimed “Dat’s, it, I’m in eks-tee-see!”. Andy failed to understand the phrase the first time around, and he only got what Durante was saying when he transcribed it phonetically. It was then he also realized what a cool name XTC would be for a band – a name that is all in capitals lends itself to cooler posters and puns. Thus, “XTC” replaced the band’s old moniker (the gimmicky “The Helium Kidz”) right away.

Just for the record, the name XTC had nothing to do with the drug ecstasy. The drug was introduced a good couple of years down the line. The Swindon band amply preceded it.

G2 – Simplifying The Way Bands Are Booked

Posted on May 18, 2010 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

Name: G2
URL: http://www.g2.fm

This site was created by a group of musicians who felt frustrated with the process in which bands are traditionally booked. If anything, G2 makes everything clear from the word go – the artists and the managers of venues know what they are getting at all times.

That is possible because the site lets everybody have a profile in which everything is clearly set down. If you are a performer, you let everybody know which kind of music you can play, and you do that in the most representative fashion you could imagine – you upload a video of your band in action. In that way, managers of venues get to listen and see you as you rock out.

On the other hand, if you have a club you can not only browse through the pages of artists but actually create a calendar showcasing which slots you have to fill. Interested bands can approach you in a bid to get the gig. Continue reading →

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