Now most bands have figured out how to offer their cd online in some way. I say use them all if possible! If one of your potential fans doesn’t feel comfortable with one method, they have several others to choose from. Plus it looks cool to say you have it available in 10 different online locations. PayPal will allow them to buy it direct from you, but with their own credit card. CafePress will let you sell it along with a ton of merch. But what about getting it in the more mainstream online locations? CD Baby does this for you. When you set up your account you can have them handle iTunes, Amazon, and a few others.

Why have CD Baby do this? Well, two main reasons. Frist off some of these places do not want to deal with what is called “micorpayments“. Meaning $25 here, $50 the next month, $100 another month, and maybe $10 another month. iTunes wants to deal with thousands of dollars at a time. So they deal directly with CD Baby and CD Baby deals with you. Same thing with Amazon and the rest of them. It just makes life more simple. The second reason is that you don’t have to deal with setting up a ton of accounts with a ton of places. Cd Baby does it all for you. Plus you don’t get a bunch of tiny checks from all of these separate online sellers. So it could be said that you should go through Cd Baby for one reason. Less hassle for everyone!

So go set your band up with an account at Cd Baby

1. Twitter
Now I do see a few bands that sign up, but then never do anything with the account. Then because nothing happens they give up. SO very sad. I will go more into that in my follow up on Monday Jan 19th. Until then stick this in your Marshall Amp! Imagine being able to text back and forth with your fans while sitting on the tour bus. Imagine you are just a local unsigned band. If all your fans and friends are fully hooked up to your Twitter account you can send reminders out a few hours before a show. This can help your draw. Got a new shirt out, why wait for them to go to your site? Send them a Twitter message. If they have it fully hooked up it can send the message to them on their cell phones, instant messenger, and Twitter profile. So it’s like your website following them around everywhere they go. More detail Monday.

2. Plurk
Now Twitter is great for getting a message out, but what about if you want to talk with your fans? What if you want to get some feedback on a new song, shirt, or show announcement? Plurk is made for conversation. Just like with Twitter, you may end up with new fans just from being part of this very social network. More detail on Tuesday Jan 20th.

3. RSS
What the hell is RSS? Well, I will go into massive detail about what RSS is and how to get the most out of it on Wednesday Jan 21st, but until then here is a brief overview. It is a way for you to get your band news out to more people. It will make your band’s website ten times more powerful. Trust me on this. There are some major label bands that have RSS feeds but are making some horrid mistakes. More info Wednesday on that.

4. FriendFeed
FriendFeed is a service that let’s you combine all your social network profiles into one place and discuss them with people. It’s all about networking and Friend Feed is like networking on a big bag of crack. More info on this one Thursday January 22nd.

5. The Pirate Bay
Now most of my music industry contacts will hate me for even mentioning this site, but screw them and their dying industry I say! Seriously, I think those labels could get some major traction out of TPB if they played it smart. Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails has a profile page on the site for a reason. Imagine if some unknown band out of nowhere put up their great new cd on TPB. Then promoted the hell out of the free download with a $2,000 ad campaign from Fixion Media. Sure you wouldn’t make any money from the cd directly, but imagine how many new fans you would gain? Then you would have a draw in cities you have never been to before. More info on this Jan 23rd.

6. Skype
I interview bands from all over the world all the time. I have interviewed bands from my own hometown and had horrid connections. Then I interviewed a band called Lions Share from Stockholm Sweden and had a crystal clear connection. It sounded like he was in the same room! It is also a shockingly cheap way to call around the world for things like booking tours or just making contacts with people that can help you get your music out there. More info on this Jan 26th.

7. You Tube
Now I am starting to see more bands use this, but I think bands should use it more. Imagine releasing a new video a week. it could be just the band talking to the fans directly, inside band practice, some live footage, or whatever else. In my follow up I will talk about how to get the best quality video, how to edit it dirt cheap, and how to get the most out of it all. More info on this Jan 27th.

8. CD Baby
This is a great service for getting your stuff on iTunes, Amazon, and several other places all at once. Trying to do everything that CD Baby will do for you is just plain retarded. Let them do all the annoying crap. It’s their job. More on this More info on this Jan 28th.

9. Ping.fm
Ping is pretty much the opposite of Friend Feed. Where as Friend Feed is a great place to receive all your social network activity, Ping is a place you can make one post to tons of different sites all at once. For example I use it when I am about to go live with an interview of a band. Gets the message out to thousands all at once instantly! More info on this Jan 29th

10. HeavyAsHell.com
Ok, did you think I was going to let this post go without getting in a plug? Yes, HAH is a site I started awhile ago. Ever since Keith from Darkernemesis.com nuked all my hard work and replaced it with his own CMS things have been growing nicely. We are about to announce our newest contest, so traffic is about to explode there. So promote your band and win something coll at the same time! This is like Digg.com, Mixx.com, Reddit, Propeler, or a few others except we are only for heavy music. More info on this 30th! Hmmm? Could I be picking that date for a reason? Maybe.

Ok, so this has been more about mapping out what I am going to blog about for the rest of this month. My hope is that this is just a good way to kick things off in a direction that might help me become known as the premier Rock N’ Roll tech consultant. Keep your horns facing palm forward or you are a poser. Next two weeks are going to ROCK!