On the RouteNote tools page you’ll find a magical little thing we built for the People’s String Foundation, called a widget. This is essentially a self contained little webpage that can be stuck into other web pages by putting in a little bit of html code linking back to the site where you made it.
[...]

The front page of a music retail site is usually plastered with recommendations or featured bands. They are being promoted because the site thinks it can make money by selling them. You want to be one of those bands that gets the support of a big retailer, don’t you? Good. So, you need to [...]

Starting with the obvious: Myspace. It’s an ugly, cumbersome brute of a website, very nearly swamped in photos of obnoxious people taken at arms length while they pout or flex, but it’s still the first port of call when people are searching for bands online. Sorry, I wish you could avoid it, but you can’t [...]

In both new and old media channels (online/mobile vs. broadcast/physical) there will be brands specialising in different areas of music. If you’ve been sensible, and figured out who your fans are likely to be, then it makes sense to make those brands that cater to your likely fans a priority. If you’re in a j-pop [...]

When reading the post on how to love, honour and cherish blogs, you may have noticed that there are some crossover brands that have blogs and physical magazines. A good relationship with the NME, CMJ or Rolling Stone blog gives you a massive lead on getting into the physical magazine, with all the legitimacy and [...]

If there’s one set of people that you want on your side whilst promoting yourself online, it’s the music bloggers. They’re out there, trawling the web and the venues for the next cool act, hoping they’ll stumble across a gem they can hold up to their readers, gleaming in its freshness and individuality, reflecting [...]

Really good video recordings from gigs or live sessions are great for getting your fans to do your promotion work for you. Videos get shared around on youtube and other sites, and can spark interest in people, driving them to your website or myspace.

For the wildly creative and highly ambitious there’s always the [...]

If you haven’t got one, why the hell not? You can buy a domain from Active24.co.uk for about £5 a year, a little more if you want some hosting space. And that’s all you’ll need to spend, in any case, this is not money spent. This is money invested. Set up a paypal sales account, [...]

You need to get ears hearing the brilliant music you’ve worked so hard on. you need people to love you, and more importantly, pay your rent. Who are these people? If you can identify them, figure out where they’re going to listen to music, how they buy it, what attracts them to a band, then [...]

Your music’s perfect? There’s nothing more to do? Then it’s time to start planning your explosive entrance onto the world scene. Think about who you are, what image your music projects, how you want to succeed? Do you want to be Bob Dylan or The Chemical Brothers? Both are massive superstar acts, but with totally [...]