For new artists, the online revolution has provided them with a way of getting their music heard without having be on a large record label. Social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and video sharing sites such as YouTube have helped unknown artists gain a fanbase.
All artists nowadays use the internet to promote their music whether they be unknown or established, they just use it in different ways. Unknown artists use social networking sites and viral marketing to their advantage when trying to get noticed. A great example of viral marketing success are a band called Nizlopi. They used viral marketing to promote their song "JCB" by sending the video they had got a small production company to make for them to 10 people in an email. These 10 people then sent it to their friends and so on, soon making it a viral hit. Its success grew larger and larger, and the song ended up being Christmas number 2 in the charts.
Another unknown band who used the internet to gain success were the Arctic Monkeys, who put a few demos of their songs on the social networking site MySpace. Their popularity started to grow and soon local news and the BBC started to write stories about their music, they were then signed to small record label Domino Records and gained a huge fan base.
Other, more well known artists also use social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook to promote their music. Artists put previews of songs from their new album on MySpace so fans can listen to clips of the songs and decide whether they want to buy the album or not. They also use these sites to interact with fans, they can reply to their fans messages of use sites such as 'Say Now' to record sound messages from themselves giving their fans updates on what they're doing. A lot of artists also use YouTube to upload their latest music videos and also just funny videos they've made on tour and so on. Another new aspect of the online revolution that artists have embraced are Web Chats. Sites like www.cambio.com and www.justin.tv stream live web chats from artist that their fans can watch and ask them questions on. This is good because it allows artists to really interact with their fans and have that much more of a personal relationship with them.
The online revolution has also made it possible for internet users to download music legally with sites such as 'Spotify', 'We7' , 'eMusic', 'Amazon' and music downloading programmes such as 'iTunes'. This is good for internet users, music institutions and artists because it means that the music is being downloaded legally, and it is a quick and easy way to download music. These sites are also good for downloading music on the go as most of them seem to have 'Apps' for the iPhone.
However, the online revolution does not come without it's down sides. Since the dawning of being able to download music from MySpace music players, torrent sites, file sharing programs such as Limewire and more, there has been a huge issue with illegal downloading. Although getting free music at the click of a button may seem good for audiences, but for music institutions this holds a huge threat to the industry and record labels lose out on millions of pounds every year because of it. With the granting of the Digital Economy Bill, artists and institutions are positive that illegal downloading can be controlled, however this has yet to be seen as internet providers and internet users are very against it and seem certain that their will be a way around it.
One band who has used the internet to promote their music is Radiohead. For their album 'In Rainbows' they asked fans to 'name their price' for the CD. This meant that fans could pay the amount they thought the album was worth and then digitally download it for however much they wanted. This was a good marketing tool as it got great coverage in the press for being such an innovate and potentially risky idea. More and more people then wanted to try it out, making the album a success for Radiohead and helped them sell more albums in the future.
An artist who has gone down the more traditional route of promotion is Katy Perry. When she was first signed by Capitol Records their attention was focused on creating an image for her. She released her first video for "Ur So Gay" which was aimed at introducing her to the music market. A digital release of her EP which included the song "Ur So Gay" was then released digitally to create an internet buzz about her. This was successful as she was then noticed by Madonna who mentioned her in a radio interview which led to her gaining a wider fanbase. She then went on to do a 2 month tour of radio stations and then released her follow up single "I Kissed A Girl". The song became a huge commercial success and Katie Perry then embarked on the annual 'Warped Tour' music festival, which her management used to "establish her as a credible performer and make sure she wasn't seen as just a one-hit wonder".
Both of these artists were successful in their promotion which shows that their is no right or wrong way to promote and artist. It does however show that the time when an artist gets their big break is mostly due to luck or being a bit different when it comes to promotion.
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