If there’s any one obstacle indie band members face in launching their music careers, it’s finding a way to promote their music on a penny-pinching budget. Hey, they’re not called “starving artists” for nothing. Between paying that outrageous bill for a couple of disappointing recording sessions and scraping pennies to afford the cost of producing CD’s and album covers, there’s not much left over to put towards their food, let alone their music promotion. So that raises the question, was all the stress really worth it? If nobody knows about a band’s music, did they just waste all of their time and money on stress and production costs? There must be a better way.

Well, there is. The entire world is an entertainment-hungry beast, and when it comes to music, it loves whatever’s new and hip, even if it sounds like garbage. So up and coming bands can give the entire world exactly what it wants and make a killing by doing so. How? By promoting their music the free way.

Sometimes the answers to our problems are staring us right in the face, poised to bite us on the nose. For an artist on the prowl for cheap promotion, one of those answers is YouTube. The proof is in the views. I challenge you to visit YouTube.com and type “guitar” or “guitar solo” into the search bar. What is the first upload you see? The video featuring a teenage boy hunched over an electric guitar plucking out “Canon in D” in pumped rock opera style. And how many views did this guy earn? Over 18 million! Over 130,000 viewers have chosen his video as a favorite, and, gauging by the comment board, over 51,000 YouTubers have taken note of his playing ability and are begging to see more of his work. This isn’t even a song he wrote! This piece was written over 300 years ago by some dude named Pachelbel. People usually play it at weddings; they didn’t consider it to be entertainment until this kid came around. But they still don’t pop it into their stereos and jam to it in the car. They can’t, because it’s a video on YouTube.

But what if this kid had really been thinking, and decided to make a CD? Suppose the other ten songs he produced for the CD were a total waste; customers would still purchase it for the sole reason that they wanted a portable version of this amazing masterpiece. And what would this guy have paid for his advertising? Absolutely nothing! Assuming that he had at least a one-page website (which most bands do), he could have directed traffic right to the purchase page! Even if only one percent of viewers purchased this CD at, say, $15.00 a pop, this rocker would’ve had enough dough to put himself through college debt-free, if he was even interested, and still have ample leftover to afford an MTV crib and a Ferrari. Most likely though, he’d have gotten signed by some recording outfit like EMI, and made even more cash. All from one little YouTube video that went totally viral.

Everyone’s picked up on guitar boy’s lead and commenced uploading guitar and piano solos of their own, but the difference is that most of them write their own music! These talented (or not-so-talented) musicians are aggressively promoting their own music by linking their YouTube videos to CD’s on their websites! I visited one such site just the other day. It was from an artist named Terra Naomi, and since she began posting videos of her own songs on YouTube last year, she’s built her own fan base and even boasts fans-only videos! I linked some of her videos directly to my blog, which brings me to my next free promotional tip.

YouTube isn’t the only platform for promoting music for free. By utilizing YouTube in congruence with sites like Wordpress and Blogger, bands can feed their videos through to a worldwide audience in as little as one hour! I know, because I’ve done it. Only, I don’t use my own videos. Every week, I comb through YouTube scouting for all the new indie artist songs this Internet monster has to offer. Sometimes the pickin’s are slim, but every once in a while, I’ll type in just the right search words, and presto! I’ve found one week’s worth of blog video content. Wonderful. But how in the world does this market the music?

I wondered this myself until I did a little research. Whilst surfing the web for music blogs and forums, I stumbled upon a link to a Forbes special, an article just so happening to list the top ten music blogs/forums. Nothing could have pleased me more. So what did I do? I checked out those blogs, and decided the best way to promote mine was to become a member of theirs.

No, I don’t spam my way through the forums, plastering links all over peoples’ blogs. Instead, I sift through the latest blog postings and choose one or two that I feel comfortable commenting on. These forums allow me to link my username directly to the site of my choosing, which happens to be my blog, http://homemademusicvideos.blogspot.com/. And since I am now a member on some of these top ten blogs, my content has an immeasurably good chance of catching traffic. And what did I pay for this promotion? Absolutely free! Signup is free. Posting is free. Links are free. All it takes is a little bit of effort and a little bit of ambition.

No doubt about it, the best things in life are free, especially when it comes to the Internet. Almost everyone in the world has access to the Internet, which means that, as a musician, you literally have a worldwide audience at your fingertips. There’s no longer a valid excuse to accept living life as a local, no-name, starving artist. So get going! You’ve got money to make! All it takes is a little music.