When your music is online, you want to collect as many email addresses from your fans. I had some tracks that I wanted to use to give away as a free promo. If you don’t have a mailing list setup then this will give you an idea of some free options. I needed a way to collect emails from fans in exchange for some free music. Once they sign up I could inform them with some newsletters with new releases and free music. I chose two different options:

1. WordPress Double Opt-In Manager Widget
2. Bandcamp

Wordpress Double Opt-In Manager Widget

The WordPress Double Opt-In Manager Widget allows you to add a widget to your blog and collect emails. Here is a list of some of the great features:

1. Subscribe to your mailing list from your blog
2. Send a welcome email to each new subscriber
3. Saves the subscriber details to your Wordpress database
4. Customize sign up form
5. Schedule your emails to be sent weekly, monthly or whenever you update your blog
6. Users can update their subscription and unsubscribe easy
7. Can automatically delete users who don’t confirm their subscription within 7 days

Our free music strategy we worked on the other day now comes into effect. Stimulate some sign ups and create some website exclusive music that can be downloaded if they sign up. Great way to provide a unique piece of work exclusive to those who sign up. Download the plugin and upload it to your plugins folder. Activate it and customize your message.

Bandcamp

If you don’t use Wordpress but want another way to give away some free music and gather emails then I would suggest using Bandcamp. Upload some of your free albums, ep, or singles and Bandcamp takes care of the rest. They provide you with free promo codes for you to share your music on various social networks. In exchange for downloading music, your fans have to give their emails to be sent the link. Quick solution to building a free mailing list. Bandcamp even allows you to export that email list to whatever future email software you plan to use.

Here is an example of a free ep we uploaded. We are currently testing its online results.

Free marketing options don’t have to look cheap and spammy. You control the messages, and appearance with these great tools. There is no reason why any band that wants to sell music online can’t begin their mailing list campaign. These new sign ups express interest in your music and are a valuable asset to your music operation. Reward fans and give yourself a better chance of selling your music.

Need a free concert and tour listings plugin for Wordpress? GigPress is a great Wordpress plugin for all those performing musicians out there with blogs. Manage your upcoming shows and past performances through your Wordpress dashboard.

This plugin is nice because of the many features it includes such as: listing chronologically upcoming and past shows, auto linking Google maps to venue locations, and it can create an upcoming shows RSS feed. The website does a great job describing more in detail the plugin’s features and provides great screenshots.

GigPress is highly customizable and the output is clean in displaying your message of where you’ve been and where your are going to be. Book more shows, Let the fans know! Free Wordpress plugins for musicians aren’t hard to find and are very effective.

Using Wordpress has made life easier for me as a musician and blogger. Free Wordpress plugins can add so many different dimensions to your music operation.

I created a list of plugins that I have found useful in my music marketing efforts. Discover your options: Build subscribers, create mailing lists, stream your music, or create a music store.

• G-Lock Double Opt-In Plugin: allows your visitors to subscribe to your mailing list, once they sign up they receive your message. Place it in your sidebar and manage subscribers through your Wordpress Admin Menu
• Audio Player: Flash mp3 player for your blog. Give the fans some new music in appreciation for visiting your site.
• Wp e-Commerce: add a shopping cart to your blog with this plugin. Great for when thinking of selling band t-shirts, ringtones, and videos. Great compliment for your digital distribution. Different avenues for musicians to make money.
• Bookmark Me: adds social bookmarking buttons to your blog posts. This is a great tool to increase your traffic and let your visitors choose their bookmarking service of choice. I use Digg and StumbleUpon while others prefer delicious and yahoo buzz. Cover your ground.
• What Would Seth Godin Do: Increase your RSS subscribers with this plug-in. It creates a message at the beginning of your post welcoming new visitors with a default message, “If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!”. Increase your fan base and customize your message accordingly.
• Myspace Crossposter: Bridge the gap between your blog and Myspace account. This plugin publishes all your Wordpress blog entries to your Myspace blog. You can either publish a notification of it or the whole story. I have a nice friends list that could turn into potential RSS subscribers. Keep marketing.

I will keep you posted in the future of more marketing techniques and cool plugins to increase your unique visitors and sell your albums.

Setting up a band blog or artist website can be very easy with the large amount of free Wordpress themes out there. I compiled a list of 3 of my favorite sites to check for free new themes and plugins.

• Smashing Magazine
• Weblog Tools Collection
• Wordpress.org

Try and make a little list of things to look for in a theme that will maximize your artist exposure. For your music blog, decide how many columns you want and how you want to present your music and merchandise.

Some people prefer a simple theme over a magazine style theme because they want to display their message, instead of clutter. I enjoy just searching through the different styles and generating ideas of how to integrate my album cover, news articles, and music downloads. Be creative on your presentation.

Some themes are easier to customize if you prefer widgets. Adsense ready templates are also available for each artist to make some side ad revenue from Google.

To make life easier, I visit the author site of the Wordpress theme and see how valuable the instructions are. Many authors are kind enough to provide step by step instruction on how to easily customize it. Enjoy your search and make your band stand out.

When I began marketing in this crazy social networking environment, I became overwhelmed as to where to start. I worked for an Internet Content Company that provided content to web site owners and their message was clear for promoting yourself, content is key. The more you can write about yourself, the better chances you can have your fans find you. The message was simple, but putting the marketing campaign together was the question.

The first step is getting your blog setup. I signed up with Wordpress and chose to just experiment with how Wordpress works. With the free blog, you get to choose from 67 templates to choose from. I went through their admin section and it is very easy to work with. My previous experience was just customizing my Myspace pages.

The first thing I did was just choose a template that I could customize and see what setup I wanted, whether one, two or three columns. I choose a template called “Black Letterhead” and began to write. Before you find yourself criticizing a theme for its limitations, you must remember its all about your message. I went to the admin section and began to write my first post.

I used the sidebar as a place to add all my profile pages. This was an important move because you want to get as many hits to your music, for potential sale. I added my Myspace, Facebook, Digg, Delicious, and BlogLog links. Once I saw the amount of people visiting my page, I wanted to purchase my own blog name, hence, Hip Hop Distribution.

I purchased a domain name for this blog because once I became familiar with all the features of a Wordpress blog, customizing came easy. There are several tutorials online that can help you make your blog with your personal flavor. Whether free or a purchased domain name, your content is what brings in the traffic.

Check out these sites for beginning your Wordpress template hunt, and customization articles.

1. Wordpress Templates
2. 625 helpful links for webdesigners
3. Free Wordpress Themes
4. Photoshop Tutorials: Customize Your Site

Feel free to check out our Record Label’s blog Fried Roots