I got a request for advice from fellow musician Dan Russo and asked if I could post the exchange here. Hopefully this will help some of my other musician friends who follow my blog…

…I have always been super-impressed with your musical skills but I’m more impressed with your focus and determination and, I dare say, manipulation of the interwebs to your whim. I was wondering if you had any suggestions, insights, or advice. Does playing more matter? Does reaching out more matter? Which of your many outreaches works the best?

Honestly, nothing has mattered more to me than cultivating a relationship with my fans. I can do what I do primarily because my fans go above and beyond the call of duty.

This means a few practical things:

• Put yourself on sites that your fans will frequent- Facebook, Ping, Rock Climbing Numismatists Monthly Forums, whatever. Be present where your fans and potential fans are.
• Make sure comments from all these sites are emailed to you. You don’t need to visit every site you’re on to maintain a relationship. If your Livejournal-based fans communicate with you via LJ comment rather than emailing you directly, you’ll still get the comment in your email box if you tell LJ to send them to you.
• Aggregate wherever possible. I use a WP-to-LJ plugin and a WP-to-Twitter plugin for my blog, artistdata.com to cross-post my blog and calendar to Myspace and other sites, and a Notes app on Facebook to pull blog posts to my fan page. This way, I make a single blog post on my own website and it shows up almost everywhere (and all over Google, too). There are only a few sites where my fans are concentrated that I can’t cross-post, so I have to copy-paste my updates there whenever I can.

As for advice about playing more… yeah, I don’t know about that. I finally got an agent last week and I’m going to see how much an increased tour calendar helps. Hopefully that answers your question a bit!

I am asked this question quite frequently by new musicians looking to expand their presence on the web. I don’t blame them; the legion of music sites are both numerous and constantly changing. Ten years ago I would have pointed you straight towards the great behemoth that was MP3.com, but we all know how badly that turned out.

If you want a small sample of the sites that feature my music, hit my Contact Page and check out the grid. Do I visit these sites regularly? Hell no… but some people do, and I need my music to be there. With so many options, how do you choose which sites to hit and which sites to ignore?

To be honest, most music sites are a waste of time. Unless it’s iTunes, Facebook, or Amazon, the only people that visit the site are other musicians. Not fans, other musicians. If you’ve ever played an open mic night, you know how this works: You’re onstage baring your heart and soul for a crowd of people who are disinterested and just waiting for their turn to do the same. Posting your music to these sites would be like trying to sell time-share condos at a telemarketing convention.

My advice, for the curious, is simple: Go where your fans are. I say “your” fans, not “the” fans because there are so few “music fans” and so many “songs about robots” fans or “electric bluegrass” fans. If your fans are into manga comics, go post your music on art sites that feature manga comics. Are you an activist? Go post your music where people are supporting the cause. If you don’t know what your fans are interested in, that should be your first step: ask them.

It’s so much easier (and effective) to spread the word in communities you’re already a part of, rather than trying to build a taller billboard than the band next to you.